Studio Incamminati / Nelson Shanks

[jetpack42]

Anybody know anything about this place, or this dude. Seems like a good place to go study, but I'd like to know some more. I'm trying to narrow down my options on where to go. Thanks.

[SeraphSword]

Well, that Shanks dude is a pretty famous portrait artist (he's done presidents and the pope, if I'm not mistaken). I don't know much about the school, however I have heard people bad-mouthing him and the school, but I have no idea if those have any substance or are just people's private gripes(might wanna run a search on this forum, as I believe some of those gripes may have been in this section).

For that kinda program, though, I believe a lot of folks on the boards would push Watts Atelier in San Diego, which has a great reputation and most of the students who post here are excellent.

[jetpack42]

yeah, thanks for lettin me know.

watts is one of the options i'm trying to weigh.

[Patton Art]

A lot of people DO bad mouth Nelson's school. I guess there's good reasons though. The guy is an AMAZING portrait artist, very successful, he even owns some of his own ORIGINAL paintings from the renaissance.

But the thing is, from what I've heard, he's never there to teach! He teaches at incamminati and the art students league, but he also has tons of private commissions to do, which are obviously his biggest source of money.

So, if you were a really successful artist, and everyone wanted you to paint their portrait-- it'd be hard to run your own private studio, teach at the art students league, and also do your commissions, don't ya think?

So, until he settles down some, *I'd* recommend studying under someone who knows their stuff, but isn't so busy they can't always be there.

go to the art renewal center and check out their list of ateliers. I think Watts seems the best if you want to work in the gaming/movie industry, they teach fine art and also more specialized classes. I mean, Ron Lemen won't be running around doing $$$$292309u720395 portrait commissions, but he still definately knows his stuff! Good deal, eh?

[hito]

Its 1400$ for a 2 week course, a 150$ registration fee; with a huge list of materials that you have to purchase yourself.

[Patton Art]

1,400 for two weeks? That's almost 3 months at a normal atelier.

the Atelier in Minneapolis is about 6,000 for 12 months. (That's 230 bucs for two weeks.)

[SeraphSword]

Yeah, I was looking at Watts and expecting to pay about $4,000 a year (taking 3 classes a quarter).

[jetpack42]

I wrote the studio an e-mail, and recieved the following reply.

Hi,
I got the brochure, and I have a few questions for you that aren't answered
in there, at least, to the untrained eye.

1- How many students are in attendance, and how many instructors?

We have anywhere from 12 to 25 students on any given day. Nelson instructs one day a week, and we proiodically host master workshops with visiting instructors. On a daily basis the more advanced students teach the newer students.

2- Do all the students work all together, on various projects from
instructors? What I mean is, what is the structure of the studio like? Are
similarly skilled students taught together, or does everyone work together?

There are two models posing every day. One with short poses, and one with long poses, up to one month. The studients alsoo work from still life setups. The new students start with the short poses.

3- The studio provides the models for life drawing? Yes
4- How often is Nelson Shanks at the studio teaching students? once a week
5- Do you have to pay a registration fee before your portfolio is reviewed? No
What is the proper application process. Send in application with a portfolio. These are reviewed once a month.
6- I noticed something about scholorships, any more info on that? Work study applications are available upon request.
7- Full time students attend on a daily basis? Approximately how many hours
a week is that? Do many students have jobs outside of attending, and is it
even possible with the workload? Models pose 9 to 3:30 daily M-F. Many students work in part time jobs.

Thanks for your time, I appreciate you answering these questions.
michael

[hito]

did they mention anything about cost of regular classes? I just realized the cost I quoted was for the workshop which is two weeks long.

I presume the normal class costs are different.

[Patton Art]

for full time it's 800 a month, or 200 a week

3 days a week is 150 a week. 2 days a week is 100 a week.

[jetpack42]

what Patton Art said.

[winjer]

youd be better off catching him at the art students league. around $200 a month and he comes in twice a week. Theres a 1 year wait or something and hell probably just make you do value studies in charcoal for a year.

[kang]

I know this post may be a bit late, but have you considered Michael John Angel Studios, Toronto? It's cheaper since all the fees are in CAD.

Days per Week / Annual Cost / Monthly Payment
1 / $1,797.60 / $149.80
2 / $3,595.20 / $299.60
3 / $4,853.52 / $404.46
4 / $6,111.84 / $509.32
5 / $7,490.00 / $624.16

[-The Swift-]

hey kang,
i don't suppose you know if those prices are the same for HIS one in florence, italy? I've mailed them but they haven't replied yet.
thanks.

[kang]

Hi Swift,
the fees should be about the same but they're in Euro I believe plus the studio environment is somewhat different there. I wish I could go there for a term though. Also, they only admit full-time students.

[master_of_metacognit]

Hi,
I've studied at Incamminati for the duration of three workshops and hope to become a full-time student after I obtain my degree, so I may have some information of interest to you. If you're curious of the level of student work, you can also check out my website at www.melissahardison.com, but remember that my study at Incamminati has been limited to roughly 6 weeks over a couple of years, which is quite brief compared to the duration of full-time study.

As for the questions about Nelson, that's true. He's only here about once a week regularly, but I think it varies, depending on workshops. During the summer painting workshop in PA, he often came down every day or every other day after lunch and worked on student paintings. In West Palm Beach, he was there every day for a good deal of time. In PA, he also invites you to his Chelwood home for the evening, where you can examine his huge collection of Renaissance masterepieces. But as for learning, I agree, you learn mostly from the many instructors, who do awesome work utilizing what they've learned from him (check out some of their websites: www.kerrydunn.com and www.darrenkingsley.com.) Other instructors include Robin Frey, Steve Early, Natalie Italiano (think that's her last name), JaFang Liu, and some others. Maybe they have websites you can google if you want more info.

As far as I know, the school offers full-time and part-time programs, including evening classes. The price of attending full-time isn't very expensive, but the summer workshops are, mostly because of hotel costs. The recommended length of the full-time program is 4 years of study. Students start with charcoal drawings of still life and the model and progress to grisaille and color studies in oils (very fun). If you get those basics down to a great degree, you can pretty much draw and paint whatever you want at a very advanced level. I think there's a good article on wikipedia about studio incamminati, too.

Any questions? I'll try to answer them the best I can.

[Patton Art]

edit: I decided to just pm to Master of Metacognit, instead of posting the reply.