Class Description:

Every artist needs a command of core skills to execute their artistic vision. Build upon those skills and create your best work yet.

Develop a strategy for observational drawing that will elevate your skills as an artist. Through a series of graphite drawings, you will learn to identify concepts relating to line, form, perspective, composition, and color temperature, as well as engage in discussions of creative inspiration. You will gain confidence and a strong understanding of materials. Each week focus on building a foundational skill set that can be applied to both the still life and the figure. If you’re just starting out or looking to get back into your practice, this class will help you develop and hone the building blocks of your practice.

Fall I Semester Dates:

Scheduled occurrences for the next semester of this class are as follows:

Week
Date
Time
Week 1:
9/17/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 2:
9/24/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 3:
10/01/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 4:
10/08/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 5:
10/15/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 6:
10/22/2024
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET


  1. Before Class - Welcome & How to Prepare for Class

  2. Week 1 - Exploring Basic Forms Through Drawing

  3. Week 2 - The Subtractive Method

  4. Week 3 - Hatch Marks

  5. Week 4- Beginning to Draw the Long Still Life

  6. Week 5 - Editing Lines and Establishing Value

  • $330.00
  • In-Person
  • 6 Weeks
  • Beginner to Intermediate

Meet Your Instructor

Melanie Berardicelli

Instructor

Melanie Berardicelli is a SURP and CE Painting Professor at the New York Academy of Art. She has been an educator of the fine arts since 2014, teaching painting and drawing, life drawing, sculpture, and art history classes at Ivy League School in Smithtown and USDAN Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. Melanie received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the New York Academy of Art in May 2021 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at SUNY New Paltz in 2017. Melanie’s artwork explores the spark felt when entering the sacred space of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the history of the Roman Martyr Catacomb Saints; her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New York State, including The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Sotheby’s, Cryptic Gallery, Greenpoint Gallery, Upstream Gallery, The Huntington Arts Council, and The New York Academy of Art. Currently, Melanie assists artist Audrey Flack in her New York and East Hampton studio locations, creating the underpaintings and sculptures for Flack’s current Post-Pop Baroque series. Melanie is also children’s book illustrator. Her work for Augie Goes to the Library- a 48-page commemoration to the New Paltz community and the titular Border Collie- was published in 2016.

Achieve your artistic potential

Join us to discover traditional skills and contemporary practice