Saturdays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Steve Nocella
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)*
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

This ten-week course teaches the basic skills needed for making metal sculpture. Learn fundamental methods of cutting, bending and welding metal such as sawing, heating, and MIG welding. Students will be encouraged to explore the medium with directness and spontaneity to gain a knowledge and understanding of its complexion. Open to all levels. Note: Tuition includes a $65 lab fee.

*Note: No class on March 8.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $660 (including lab fee). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Register by: January 24
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Tuesdays, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Marguerita Hagan
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit

Explore a custom sculpture experience in clay with veteran ceramicist, Marguerita Hagan.  Learn various hand-building processes with an emphasis on abstraction. Create work that is either wall-hanging or free-standing, focused on 3D qualities or surface treatments, or both. Whatever you imagine will be supported with experienced individualized attention and specific hand-building and painting techniques to manifest your intention. Gain exposure not only to hand-building directions but also to many surface treatment methods including airbrush, underglaze paints, pencils, masking, resist, glaze, overglaze lusters, and waterslide and rice paper transfer decals. Instruction will be tailored to serve the individual whether for learning basic hand-building methods or realizing a work or series.  Come with no experience or translate your existing practice into the transformative language of clay. Note: Tuition includes a $30 lab fee. 

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $625, including lab fee. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Register by: January 28
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Thursdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
Instructor: Dan Miller
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)*
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)  

Printing from a drawing carved into wood or a linoleum block is the oldest and most straightforward form of printmaking. The direct nature of this process makes it an ideal introduction to printmaking for beginners, while artists of all levels enjoy its potential for intricate detail and graphic impact. All aspects of the process will be covered, including drawing on the block, carving your design, ink brayer use and press operation, and printing in black-and white and color. All levels welcome. Tuition includes a $30 lab fee.   

*Note: No class on March 6. 

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $625 (including lab fee). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Image: Dan Miller, Leaning from the Sea, color woodcut.

Register by: January 31
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Thursdays, 6 – 9 p.m.
Instructor: Phyllis Laver
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)*
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Drawing from the portrait and life model is one of the most time-honored methods of art training at PAFA. Improve your observation-based drawing skills as you work in charcoal and graphite directly from life models in short and long poses, exploring gesture, proportions, anatomy and expression. All levels welcome. Note: Tuition includes a $65 models fee. 

Learning Objectives 

• Students will stretch the traditional definitions of portrait and life drawing to merge the two into personal statements. 

• Students will work with clothed and unclothed/life models who are diverse individuals. 

• Students will acquire a working knowledge of varied drawing materials, including charcoal, graphite and ink. 

• Students will acquire a working knowledge of form and structure in the body. 

• Students will develop the ability to better see the model rather than rely on schema. 

• Students will acquire knowledge of diverse artists and their ways of working. 

*Note: No class on March 6.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $660, including models fee. Select credit option when registering.

Image: Phyllis Laver.

Register by: January 30
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Saturdays, 1 – 4 p.m.
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan
Ten-Week Course (30 Hours)
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (See Below)

Learn the fundamentals of drawing with the vibrancy colored pencil! Work from still life objects and arrangements, natural and urban landscape window views, and clothed portrait/figure models to explore descriptive and expressive line quality, light/shadow, composition, color relationships, cross-hatching and layering methods, as ways to render scenic form and space. Instruction will guide students through observational sighting and measuring techniques and color theory essentials to achieve a sense of realism and to serve as a solid foundation for future study. Tuition includes a $25 models fee.

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $620, including models fee. Select credit option with price adjustment when registering.

Register by: January 31
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Instructor: RA Friedman
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only

*Note: This workshop was originally scheduled to take place on February 8 - 9 but has been rescheduled to the new dates of February 22 - 23. Registration is still open!

Using inexpensive materials, this hands-on workshop will introduce the concepts and methods needed to create a strong sense of dimension and likeness in your portrait drawings. Explore the proportions and planes of the head, neck and shoulders. Learn how to create a structural foundation and how to easily manage anatomy by breaking down forms into simple geometric shapes. Instruction will address different strategies for creating a finished tonal portrait as well as tips and tricks that will help you draw like a pro! Note: Tuition includes a $10 models fee.

For more advanced instruction or an optional follow-up to this course, see the instructor's Advanced Portrait Drawing Workshop.

Register by: February 14 (updated deadline)
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Instructor: James Toogood
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only  

Interested in learning or improving your watercolor skills? All materials and techniques will be discussed, including the selection of papers, brushes, and pigments, as well as transparent and opaque painting methods. Students will work from still-life subjects and/or their own source material.  All levels welcome. 

Register by: February 14
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Weekend Workshop
Credit: Non-Credit Only

Many artists can feel frustrated in front of a blank canvas, unsure of how to start and what to paint. Paint with confidence by learning techniques to tap into your intuitive process and find inspiration more easily! Experienced instruction and advice will push students to take chances and explore unexpected directions and accidental marks to achieve artistic discoveries. Students will use line, color and space, and editing possibilities to create busy/calm areas and focal points in their paintings as they work from personal imagery, expression, and imagination. Instruction will take the form of PowerPoint presentation/examples, formal direction from modern and contemporary artists, and one-on-on critiques in Zoom sessions that are geared toward open painting time in a classroom-like setting.  Painting experience recommended.  

Register by: February 21
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2025 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies
Information for PAFA CE Online Courses