The Florence Academy of Art

[Beavotron]

I'm considering applying to the Florence Academy of Art for their year long drawing certificate program, and possibly staying for the following painting year.

http://www.florenceacademyofart.com/index.php

does anyone know about this school or has anyone attended?
I'm also open to suggestions for similar programs, or maybe if you feel there's something else I'd benefit from more that maybe I haven't heard of or something. I'm canadian, and most US schools cost waaaay too much money for me.
I'm looking for a really intensive focus on figure and drawing from life
I'm self taught to this point, and feel I'm kind of missing on some of the core skills that I'll need to be successful as a concept artist

my sketchbook has some recent samples (and some really old ones too haha)
and my website has stuff too: http://www.beavotron.com

thank you for any and all advice

[burning_chrome]

Sorry, no first-hand experience with the Florence Academy of Art personally, but I do know that quite a few of the sessions and some full-time instructors at my school (well, future school actually, I'm set to start this upcoming July), Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, attended and/or graduated from there.

Among LAAFA sessions instructors who have previously attended Florence Academy of Art include Matthew Riggs, Stephen Schirle, Tim McGuire and Igor Babailov. Try contacting some of the instructors who have personal websites with your questions about the Florence Academy - worst that could happen is that he doesn't respond to your inquiry.

There are more Florence alumni listed on the LAAFA site - just Google "Florence Academy of Art" and limit the search to the LAAFA site only.

I'm looking for a really intensive focus on figure and drawing from life

Other than LAAFA, I believe that Ashland Academy of Art in Oregon would also satisfy your desire for an old-world, traditional artistic learning approach focused on figure/life drawing and painting. If you're looking to focus on classical realism as the means towards increasing your understanding and talents as a concept artist, there's always ConceptArt.org Atelier; the listed course descriptions for the traditional studies portion of the school (link) seem to fit your current objectives as as a professional.

I'm canadian, and most US schools cost waaaay too much money for me.

Is it really cheaper to study in Europe than in the U.S. right now? I haven't done any research into the current exchange rate situation seeing how the U.S. dollar has tanked out against just about every other currency and has only regained some strength as of late.

BTW, I looked at your deviantArt page and personal webpage - love your style!

Hope this helps.

[Beavotron]

Sorry, no first-hand experience with the Florence Academy of Art personally, but I do know that quite a few of the sessions and some full-time instructors at my school (well, future school actually, I'm set to start this upcoming July), Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, attended and/or graduated from there.

Among LAAFA sessions instructors who have previously attended Florence Academy of Art include Matthew Riggs, Stephen Schirle, Tim McGuire and Igor Babailov. Try contacting some of the instructors who have personal websites with your questions about the Florence Academy - worst that could happen is that he doesn't respond to your inquiry.

There are more Florence alumni listed on the LAAFA site - just Google "Florence Academy of Art" and limit the search to the LAAFA site only.



Other than LAAFA, I believe that Ashland Academy of Art in Oregon would also satisfy your desire for an old-world, traditional artistic learning approach focused on figure/life drawing and painting. However, if you're looking to focus on classical realism as the means to increase your understanding and talents as a concept artist, there's always ConceptArt.org Atelier; the listed course descriptions for the traditional studies portion of the school (link) seem to fit your current objectives.




Is it really cheaper to study in Europe than in the U.S. right now? I haven't done any research into the current exchange rate situation seeing how the U.S. dollar has tanked out against just about every other currency and has only regained some strength as of late.

BTW, I looked at your deviantArt page and personal webpage - love your style!

Hope this helps.

thank you so much for your response!
i'm checking out your suggestion and i'll try contacting the people you've listed, I've heard there's an instructor at SCAD that studied there as well.

To answer your question about pricing, one year at Florence is 13k US, which is not too bad considering a year at sheridan is about 10k. Much cheaper than most of the bigger US schools... though really I've not looked into any of the smaller ones because... well, i've never heard of them haha.

Thank you again for the info!

[burning_chrome]

No problem Glad to be of assistance.

Of the three that I've mentioned, Ashland is the cheapest ($5500/year listed on the school website at this time), but the Oregon location probably makes it difficult to establish career networking, freelance jobs, and internships compared to the Los Angeles or San Francisco art scene.

IMO, you don't need to go to a large university type art school for what you want to gain out of the classical Renaissance drawing and painting tradition. Your digital and conceptual skills are well-developed to be employed full-time and from what I've seen of your figure drawing sketch works, nothing strikes me as proportionally or anatomically off key.