Class Description:

This course combines painting and sculpture to explore skull anatomy from 2-D and 3-D perspectives.

Working alongside the instructor students will sculpt a 5/8th scale ecorche skull and decorate a life-size sample skull that will be used as part of their still life painting. Closely studying and taking inspiration from the history of the Roman Martyr Catacomb Skeletons, students will develop their skull still-life's using the warm/cool palette and the dead palette to practice tonal structure and color theory. Emphasis in this course is on analytical seeing and interpreting of form.

Spring Semester Dates:

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

Week
Date
Time
Week 1:
1/30/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 2:
2/06/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 3:
2/13/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 4:
2/20/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 5:
2/27/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 6:
3/06/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 7:
3/13/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 8:
3/20/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 9:
3/27/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 10:
4/10/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 11:
4/17/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET
Week 12:
4/24/2023
6:30 - 9:30 pm ET


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

  2. Week 1 - Building Your Armature and Blocking Basic Forms

  3. Week 2 - Mapping out Proportion

  4. Week 3 - Sculpting the Anterior and Lateral Views

  5. Week 4- Sculpting the Posterior and Lateral Views

  6. Week 5 - Sculpting the Mandible and Maxilla

  • $595.00
  • In-Person
  • 12 Weeks
  • Intermediate to Advanced

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