ACADEMY

OUR MISSION

L’ACADÉMIE des BEAUX-ARTS de QUÉBEC. Portrait primaire

 The Académie des beaux-arts de Québec is a private educational institution unique in Québec City.  Our academic training is directly inspired by the teachings given at the European art academies during the 19th Century.

 Since the closure of the Fine Arts schools of Quebec and Montreal in 1969, no teaching of classical techniques of drawing and painting has been taught in public institutions.

 Our mission is to preserve, promote and disseminate this ancestral knowledge which is the foundation of realistic figurative art. The Academy's teachers are integral figurative artists who are keen to share their knowledge and experience with you.

 Build with us a modern figurative art populated with high-quality works carried out according to the rules of art.

 The Academy focuses its teachings on the acquisition of classical techniques applied to fine arts. The mediums we use include: graphite, charcoal, pastel and oil paint. Some peripheral courses are offered to allow you to improve your global knowledge of visual arts: perspective course, the study of artistic anatomy, photography and Photoshop, model drawing ateliers, etc.

 All subjects are integrated (still-life, landscape, etc.) However, the Academy specializes in portraiture.

 

TOWARDS WHOM OUR TRAINING IS DIRECTED.

FOR ADULTS

Our courses for adults are ideal for both beginner painters, who want to start their practice on the right foot, as well as for advanced painters who are looking for a finer training. Professional painters will surely acquire new knowledge and improve certain aspects of their work. 

L’ACADÉMIE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE QUÉBEC.Classe adulte

FOR KIDS

We offer a complete training for children aged between 8 and 16. They are usually fast learners when rightly motivated. We want to encourage our young artists to realize their ideas fueled by their passion for fine arts with teachings adapted to their learning process. We want to keep their learning fun and efficient so parents can witness the artistic growth of their young ones.

L’ACADÉMIE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE QUÉBEC.Cours POUR ENFANTS

 

HOMEWORK AND EXERCISES - NECESSARY TIME TO DEDICATE BETWEEN LESSONS:

The material and knowledge transmitted to you during the lessons must be assimilated by exercises to be done at home. Before committing you must make sure you have the time and the determination to draw or paint between two classes. The seriousness of your implication will determine the speed and effectiveness of your learning in the fine arts.

 

COURSE FREQUENCY

Courses FOR ADULTS are given in 3 hours per weeks or 6 hours per 2 weeks blocks. For YOUNG PEOPLE, a course usually lasts 2 hours. The school year is divided into two semesters: fall and winter-spring.

 

FREE INTERVIEW

 We usually schedule a first meeting with every new student to orient him or her in our curriculum. This also allows new students to get acquainted with the environment in which they will grow as artists and gives them the opportunity to talk about their personal objectives.

 

ENROLLMENT ALWAYS OPEN

 Our teaching is very adapted to the individual, students can enroll whenever they feel they are ready and integrate in a group during a session. The price is re-evaluated according to the number of classes taken.

 

DIPLOMAS AND CERTIFICATES

Certificat ABAQ

 The student is eligible for a diploma after completing the totality of our training.

 The student is eligible for a certificate of studies for successfully completing all the exercises of a given course.

 

 SUMMARY OF OUR TEACHING

 Two complementary disciplines are taught at the Academy: drawing and painting.

 The learning of those disciplines is proposed to you through progressive degrees of difficulty. The learning of drawing precedes painting since an impeccable painting rests on a solid base of drawing.

 The three mediums taught in order: graphite-charcoal, dry pastel and oil painting allow a gradual integration of skills to master; starting with drawing and progressing to painting. In a drawing made with graphite, charcoal or dry pastel, the paper support is always present while painting involves completely covering the support. Pastel allows to draw and paint. It thus offers a valuable intermediary between drawing and oil painting. First used in gray or monochrome values, it allows the student to be initiated to the color and the manipulation of the material directly on the support.

 

OUR EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR ADULTS

LEVEL 1, 2 AND 3 : OBSERVATION DRAWING - GRAPHITE PENCIL AND CHARCOAL

LEVEL 1: INTRODUCTION TO OBSERVATION DRAWING WITH: GRAPHITE, CHARCOAL OR PASTEL.

  • Introduction to the draughtsman's tools.
  • Learning to see; Analysis of the subject, composition, relations between forms, right proportions, initiation to the geometrization of shapes (block-in) and linear drawing.
  • Live exercises with clean-cut objects that can be easily broken down into simple geometric shapes. Homework based on Great Masters’ drawings.
  • Perspective # 1: Notions of perspective at a vanishing point.

LEVEL 2: FROM THE LINEAR DRAWING, TO MASS DRAWING

  • Perception of negative spaces vs positive spaces.
  • Appropriate lighting to get volumes that look convincing.
  • Control of the mediums, safety, flexibility, pressure control, weaving.
  • Perspective # 2: The 2-Vanishing-Point Perspective.
  • Artistic Anatomy # 1: The musculoskeletal structures composing the body.

LEVEL 3: FROM SKETCH TO RENDERING

  • Incorporate all notions specific to different types of drawings.
  • From fast drawing, executed with energy to the most refined rendering.
  • Artistic anatomy # 2: the human body in motion.

 

LEVEL 4, 5 AND 6 : DRY PASTEL – BLACK AND WHITE TO COLOR

LEVEL 4: PAINT WITH PASTEL IN GRAY VALUES

  • Using a scale of pastels ranging from black to white through intermediate values, cover the surface of the support to accurately describe all the subject's values, from black to white;
  • Photo and Photoshop # 1: Photography: Shooting: Composing a high-quality artistic image, use your camera well. Photoshop: Introduction to the software and its main functions.

LEVEL 5: SWITCH FROM GRAY VALUES TO COLOR

  • Using a simple color range, learn to use its colors to describe the values ​​from dark to light without soiling the colors. Master the hard, soft and lost passages.
  • Photoshop # 2: advanced features and complex compositions. Realization of a portfolio: graphic design and layout.

LEVEL 6: PAINT WITH PASTEL IN FULL COLORS

  • Learn how to compose color scales according to the light’s temperature. Distinguish the range of colors that describes the play of shadows and lights versus the description of local or intrinsic colors.

 

LEVEL 7, 8, 9 AND 10 : OIL PANTING – DEMI-PÂTE FRANÇAISE

LEVEL 7:  THE SECRETS OF OIL PAINTING # 1 AND #2

  • Secret of oil painting #1: The material. Knowledge of the quality of the colors and their chemical properties, different supports, suitable brushes, paint mediums and their dosage to paint always fat on lean, understand and experiment the process of desiccation of oils.

  Note:  this training is an essential prerequisite for oil painting classes. It takes place during a full day but without a fixed date. When four people have expressed their interest on the site, a date is fixed for the course and we proceed to the registration.

  • The secrets of oil painting # 2: Pasting. Since the cotton canvas alone is too unstable for oil painting, learn to make museum-quality materials. Paste on wood with linen, cotton, silk or paper; Use of rabbit skin glue.

  Note:  This training is given over 2 full days but without a fixed date. When four people have expressed their interest on the site, a date is fixed for the course and we proceed to the registration.

LEVEL 8: THE DEMI-PÂTE FRANÇAISE # 1 - THE PRACTICE OF THE CRAFT: THE GRISAILLE

  • Paint the undersides in monochrome while becoming familiar with the gradual taking of the paint characteristic of demi-pâte technique.
  • Simple exercises within a 6-hour course followed by more elaborate exercises on two or more courses.
  • Frequency of courses: 1 course of 6 hours every 4 weeks

LEVEL 9: THE DEMI-PÂTE FRANÇAISE # 2 - THE PRACTICE OF CRAFT: COLOR RENDERING

  • Paint in the fresh while being attentive to the possibilities granted by the gradual taking of the resinous paste in the course of execution. Avoid “sink-ins” by respecting drying times between reworks.
  • Initiation to glacis in fresh and dry. Use of the retouch varnish.

LEVEL 10: FINAL WORK.

  • Design and realize a complex original composition including all the difficult aspects to be mastered by then.