Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Online Courses FAQs
Our online courses are “asynchronous”, meaning they don’t have a set start-date or end-date. Rather, you can begin an online course at any time, and proceed at your own pace.
As long as you wish. Once you’ve purchased any of our online courses, your access will never expire. Login to review the material as many times as you wish, for as long as you want.
The video content of online courses is not downloadable. Instead, the videos “stream” from our server to logged-in students. This means that students must have an active internet connection to watch the videos.
While you can easily login and watch the video content on an iPad – or any device with an internet connection – the video files themselves can’t be “transferred” for offline viewing. As mentioned above, the videos are not downloadable.
There are three reasons. First, the videos are just one part of the course content. The great advantage of online courses is that they are multimedia based and interactive. Since the accompanying text, images and Q&A threads are also part of the course, we want students to be engaged with that content, too. Making the videos available on DVD would separate them from the rest of the course and make for a less effective learning experience.
Second, the video content for the portrait drawing course is over 10 hours long, and simply wouldn’t fit on a single DVD, or even two. We’d have to offer more of a boxed set of DVDs that would present production, packaging, storage and shipping challenges that we’re simply not equipped to handle.
Lastly, digital delivery of video content is the future. Support for legacy formats, including DVD, is waning fast and it won’t be long before DVDs have gone the way of VHS tapes. We want our online platform to be forward-looking and demand for DVDs will only diminish with time.
Each “lesson” includes a Question & Answer area at the bottom of the page where questions are addressed. In-depth, individual feedback – including video critiques – is available to students who purchase a “Critique Extension” as an optional add-on to any course.
Our in-studio classes offer some advantages over online study, including one-on-one, at-easel instruction for every student included in the price. We offer the same degree of individual attention to our online students, but only with the purchase of a “Critique Extension” as an optional $100 add-on. Including the cost of the extension brings the price of our online courses closer inline with their in-studio counterparts.
Also, in-studio classes cost us more to offer as they require us to maintain a physical studio, and absorb the related costs – rent, utilities, insurance, etc. We also hire models for in-studio classes who are paid by the hour. All these factors contribute to the price difference between in-studio and online study.
Have a question not listed here? Let us know!
Send us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!
Have a question not listed here? Let us know!
Send us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!
Chicago Workshop FAQs
Yes. All our classes are open to students of all levels of ability and experience.
No. Since some students already have their own materials, charging a default materials fee can get complicated. It's just simpler if everyone does their own shopping. We do sell "Materials Kits" for some of our workshops, which can be purchased at check-out when you enroll through the website. We offer this as a convenience to our students to save them a trip to the art supply store. Alternatively, a list of recommended materials will be emailed to you when you enroll if you'd prefer to shop elsewhere.
No. The model fee is built into the sticker price of each workshop.
No. All our workshop sessions are for enrolled students only.
Sorry, but no. We'd love to have you in the studio, but we ask that everyone commit to the whole workshop.
Not really. Oil paint is the preferred medium in all our painting workshops, although ocassional accommodations are made for students wishing to use other media.
Some workshops may feature similar methods and are able to be “piggybacked” in the studio at the same time. For example, we may have Figure Drawing and Grisaille Painting students working at once, since the focus of each is primarily on drawing the figure. An instructor can easily accommodate both, and the cross-pollination of information can make for a richer experience for the students. Bargue Drawing and Cast Drawing is another good example.
Unfortunately, no. Our workshops are scheduled within specific windows or time — usually 5 consecutive days. Once a workshop is over, it’s over.
We offer refunds for workshops to students who withdraw from class less the $50 registration deposit, provided they do so before the start of the second class session. Once the second session has begun, however, no refunds will be granted.
Because of the digital nature of our online courses, however, no refunds will be granted. All sales of online courses are final.