In this sampling of video tutorials, Sessions Online School of Fine Arts Faculty members share their secrets to drawing, oil painting, and analyzing historical artwork. In each video, a Faculty member will guide you through a technique that will improve your skills as a fine artist. These video tutorials are highlights from core classes in the Sessions School of Fine Arts.

Watercolor With Annika Connor:

CHoosing and mixing colors:
Understanding the watercolor palette is essential for layering colors effectively. Explore their physical properties and various options an artist has in selecting colors.

artist interview:
Being able to talk about your work is an important skill for any artist. In this interview Annika discusses influences, philosophies, and inspirations that contribute to her personal watercolor style.

History of Art With Carolina Caycedo:

Nature in Renaissance Painting:
Nature plays an integral role in paintings throughout history.  Learn how Giorgione used nature themes in The Tempest, as well as fundamentals like linear perspective and proportion techniques.

Realism in Painting:
Realism as an art movement began as a reaction to the romantic idealization of life.  Through an exploration of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic, learn how the realistic style documents events and implies social commentary.

Drawing With Jordon Schranz:

Drawing What You See:
Drawing what's in front of you sounds easy, but can be one of the biggest challenges for any artist.  Explore techniques for breaking apart a subject into line, contour, shape, and value.

Lighting and Shadow:
The position of your studio lighting can drastically change the shading and mood of your subject.  Learn how to place your lights for various effects and draw the light and dark areas of a subject accordingly.

Painting With Jordon Schranz:

Underpainting:
The underpainting stage creates a strong foundation for your painting's contours and values.  Learn how to create ground layer, mark out your proportions and contours, and separate lights and darks.

Using Color As Value:
Painting with colors as light, middle, and dark values helps you gain control over your levels of value and create paintings with more depth.  Explore how to use pure color to capture the effects of light.

Annika Connor’s paintings depict a fascination with beauty and decadence. They present the viewer with spaces to exist in, which are both alluring and unsettling. The paintings are infused with mystery and convey a sense of unbalance. Overall, they seem to be fragments from a daydream, and portray a longing for a time of romance and pleasure. In 2002, Annika received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied painting and philosophy. Since then, Annika has worked professionally as a painter in New York and London and participated in numerous exhibitions in California, Chicago, Atlanta, and New York. Reviews and publication of her work have appeared in Art Papers magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing newspaper, C-Heads magazine, and in many other Internet and local publications. Annika Connor is Swedish-American with dual citizenship status. She currently resides in Manhattan where she maintains an active studio.

Carolina Caycedo is an emerging contemporary artist whose most recent exhibitions were at Blow de la Barra in London, UK, and Galeria Comercial in Puerto Rico. Her fine art and photography collections have been written about in The New York Times, Artfacts.net, Artecontexto, The Nation, and Art Dispatches. Photography from Carolina's bartering project, entitled "Daytoday," was featured at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City. Carolina has given talks about art at The Whitney Museum in New York, The Art, Memory, and City Seminar in Bogota, and the National University in Bogota. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Contemporary Artists Center in Massachusetts and at Foraneza in Puerto Rico. Carolina was born in London and educated in Colombia. She earned her BA in Fine Arts from Los Andes University.Notable Exhibitions: "Locomotion" (2006) Blow de la Barra, London, UK; "La Nina" (2006) Galeria Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico; "Solo Under" (2005) Galeria Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico; "Break It" (2005) Ibid Projects, Vilnius, Lithuania; "Sonidos De Una Cuidad" (2003) Alianza Francesa Norte, Bogota, Columbia; "Break Dance Season" (2003) Espacio La Rebeca, Bogota, Columbia; "Dia Bandera. 24/7" (2002) Wall Gallery, London, UK; "Daytoday" (2002) Secession, Vienna, Austria.

Jordon Schranz, a 7-year inhabitant of Brooklyn, New York, is represented by the Black and White Gallery in New York, New York. He has had one-man shows in both New York and Chicago and he has participated in several group shows in the USA and internationally. His work is also included in several private collections as well as the collection of the Museum of Air and Space in Moscow, Russia. His work focuses on the idea of social and political interaction and how the media influences it. In addition, Jordon Schranz regularly stages, performs, and promotes avant garde, free jazz and experimental music performances, and is a recording artist on the Black Saint record label with his group The Eastern Seaboard. Jordon is currently leading the development of the Fine Arts program at Sessions. Jordon earned his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.