Academy Scope & Sequence

Entering the Studio and Portfolio Creation

Catholic and cultural formation: Students enter the studio as a place of attentive, orderly work and prepare to preserve and reflect upon the work they create.

Studio learning: Course orientation, art portfolio creation.

Instructional sessions:

1. Entering the Studio & Create an Art Portfolio — Available

God Gives Himself — Chalice and Host

Catholic and cultural formation: The Holy Eucharist as Christ’s gift of Himself; the chalice and Host as sacred images ordered to Christ and the liturgy.

Studio learning: Geometric shape construction, bilateral symmetry, proportion, oil-pastel pressure control, layered color, blending, clean edges, and luminous glow effects.

Project Guide: Open Project Guide
Available to enrolled families.

Instructional sessions:

1. God Gives Himself — Chalice and Host — Available

God Made Me – Portrait with Baptismal Candle

Catholic and cultural formation: God created man, Baptism, Christ as the Light of the World, and baptismal symbols in Christian art.

Studio learning: Simplified self-portraiture, facial proportion, oil pastel on a dark ground, light-to-dark contrast, highlights, repeated pattern, and faux stained-glass design.

Project Guide: Open Project Guide
Available to enrolled families.

Instructional sessions:

1. Building the Portrait and Baptismal Candle — Available
2. Light, Symbol, and Completion — Available

God Made Mary Immaculate – Stella Maris

Catholic and cultural formation: The Immaculate Conception, Stella Maris and Hagiosoritissa imagery, Marian symbolism, and the Christian artist’s use of established visual traditions.

Studio learning: Simplified figure construction, facial features and hands, symbolic color, oil pastel, cutting and gluing metallic paper, repeated ornament, and refinement across multiple sessions.

Project Guide: Open Project Guide
Available to enrolled families.

Instructional sessions:

1. Constructing the Marian Figure — Available
2. Face, Hands, and Sacred Expression — Available
3. Gold, Stars, and Ornament — Available

Signum Crucis — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: The Sign of the Cross in English and Latin; prayer as part of the rhythm of Catholic studio practice.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, margin ornament, ink, and metallic accents.

Project Guide: Open Project Guide
Available to enrolled families.

Instructional sessions:

1. Signum Crucis — Prayer Illumination — Available

God Made All — Majestic Mountains

Catholic and cultural formation: Attentive observation of the beauty, scale, and order of God’s creation.

Studio learning: Depth and spatial awareness, overlapping, changes in scale, page placement, colored-pencil pressure control, layering, blending, and edge definition.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. God Made All — Majestic Mountains — Available

God Made All — Leaves of Green and Fragrant Flowers

Catholic and cultural formation: Careful observation of living forms in God’s creation and an introduction to the place of natural forms in the Christian decorative arts, including the Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts movement.

Studio learning: Contour accuracy, asymmetrical proportion, midline and vein structure, radial symmetry, repeated petal forms, spacing, and colored-pencil rendering from reference or direct observation.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Leaves of Green and Fragrant Flowers — Available

God Made All — Quincunx: The Order of Creation

Catholic and cultural formation: The quincunx as an image of created order, with a central form and four surrounding forms arranged through proportion and harmony.

Studio learning: Dividing a square, locating center and corner points, repeating circular forms, proportional spacing, alignment, compass use for older students, and optional ornamentation.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Quincunx — The Order of Creation — Available

Grace Before and After Meals — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: Grace Before and After Meals and the practice of receiving God’s gifts with gratitude.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, marginalia ornament, ink, and metallic accents.

Instructional sessions:

1. Grace Before and After Meals — Prayer Illumination — Available

God Made All — St. Ciarán and God’s Helpful Forest Creatures

Catholic and cultural formation: St. Ciarán, the creatures of the forest, and the harmonious relationship between sanctity and God’s creation.

Studio learning: Constructing animals from simple geometric forms, crayon resist as a structural boundary, watercolor control within shapes, and simplified spatial composition.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. St. Ciarán and God’s Helpful Forest Creatures — In Development

God Made All — St. Anthony Preaches to the Sea Creatures

Catholic and cultural formation: St. Anthony of Padua, the creatures of the sea, and creation’s witness to God.

Studio learning: Constructing sea creatures from geometric forms, oil-pastel resist, directional watercolor wash, movement, scale texture, and simplified spatial composition.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. St. Anthony Preaches to the Sea Creatures — In Development

God Made All — St. Francis Preaches to the Birds

Catholic and cultural formation: St. Francis of Assisi and attentive wonder before the creatures and beauty of God’s world.

Studio learning: First use of pan watercolor, wash control, lifting color, soft washes, color bleeding, sky gradation, and selective crayon resist.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. St. Francis Preaches to the Birds — In Development

God Made All — Cherubim and Seraphim Love God

Catholic and cultural formation: Cherubim and Seraphim, the hierarchy of angels, and the use of color and light to communicate theological meaning.

Studio learning: Integrating oil pastel and liquid watercolor, symbolic color, tonal control, radiant composition, resist, and visual hierarchy.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Cherubim and Seraphim Love God — In Development

Angel of God — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: The Prayer to One’s Guardian Angel and trust in God’s angelic protection.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, curvilinear ornament, repeated shapes, spacing, pattern rhythm, ink, and metallic accents.

Instructional sessions:

1. Angel of God — Prayer Illumination — In Development

God Will Always Be — Rose Window

Catholic and cultural formation: The rose window in the tradition of church architecture, stained glass, and the circle as a sign of eternity.

Studio learning: Radial symmetry, precision, cutting, layering translucent materials, and constructing a faux stained-glass design.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. God Will Always Be — Rose Window — In Development

The Blessed Trinity — Triquetra Mosaic

Catholic and cultural formation: The Blessed Trinity and the triquetra as a traditional symbol of three Persons in one God.

Studio learning: Forming a circular air-dry-clay base with coils, transferring or scribing a geometric design, sealing the surface, arranging mosaic tesserae, spacing, and pattern.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Forming the Mosaic Base and Triquetra — In Development
2. Setting and Completing the Mosaic — In Development

God the Son — The Holy Face of Jesus in the Iconographic Tradition

Catholic and cultural formation: The Holy Face of Jesus, the Mandylion, and the Christian tradition of sacred images centered upon Christ.

Studio learning: Reverse-glass painting, transferring a traditional image, line control, acrylic application, and careful sequencing.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Mandylion Art History and Drawing the Holy Face — Available
2. Painting the Reverse-Glass Image and Adding Gold Foil — Available

Pater Noster — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: The Our Father in English and, optionally, Latin; Christ’s own teaching on prayer.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, geometric ornament, ink, and metallic accents.

Instructional sessions:

1. The Pater Noster — Prayer Illumination — In Development

Cleansed of Original Sin — My Baptism Candle Bible Page Marker

Catholic and cultural formation: Baptism, freedom from Original Sin, and remembrance of the student’s own Baptism.

Studio learning: Threading a needle, using an embroidery hoop, running stitch, simple embroidered outlines, and finishing a functional devotional object.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. My Baptism Candle Bible Page Marker — In Development

Immaculate Conception — Fleur-de-Lis Keepsake Pouch

Catholic and cultural formation: The Immaculate Conception, Marian symbolism, and the fleur-de-lis in Christian decorative tradition.

Studio learning: Reviewing running stitch, learning backstitch and one decorative stitch, embroidering an outline, joining seams, and constructing a simple fabric enclosure.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Embroidering the Fleur-de-Lis — In Development
2. Constructing the Keepsake Pouch — In Development

Ave Maria — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: The Hail Mary and the Church’s scriptural prayer honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, curvilinear ornament, repeated shapes, spacing, pattern rhythm, ink, and metallic accents.

Instructional sessions:

1. Ave Maria — Prayer Illumination — In Development

Jesus Died for Our Sins Because He Loves Us — The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Ex Voto

Catholic and cultural formation: The love and sacrifice of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the ex voto as a devotional offering of gratitude and prayer.

Studio learning: Rolling an even slab, forming a palm-sized heart, low relief, incised line, sacred symbols, piercing for hanging, drying, and painted surface treatment.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Forming the Sacred Heart Ex Voto — In Development
2. Painting and Completing the Ex Voto — In Development

Things I See in Church — Holy Water Stoup with Baptismal Shell

Catholic and cultural formation: Holy water, the baptismal shell, and the meaning of sacramental signs encountered in the church.

Studio learning: Slab rolling, coil building, mid relief, scribing, piercing, shaping a small vessel, joining clay, drying, and painting.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Forming the Stoup and Baptismal Shell — In Development
2. Painting and Completing the Stoup — In Development

Things I See in Church — Lux Mundi Sanctuary Lamp

Catholic and cultural formation: The sanctuary lamp, Christ as Lux Mundi—the Light of the World—and the use of sacred objects and inscriptions within the church.

Studio learning: Slab rolling, incised decoration, low relief, coil embellishment, piercing, assembling clay and translucent material, and restrained painted accents.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Constructing the Sanctuary Lamp — In Development
2. Assembling and Completing the Lamp — In Development

Jesus Opens Heaven for Us — The Church Is Our Ladder to Heaven

Catholic and cultural formation: Christ opening Heaven to mankind, the Church as the ordinary path of salvation, and the ladder as a symbol of ascent toward God.

Studio learning: Slab construction, incised line, low relief, texture, sacred inscriptions, joining clay, incorporating translucent material, and applying oil-pastel color to dry clay.

Project Guide: Coming soon.

Instructional sessions:

1. Constructing the Ladder and Church — In Development
2. Relief, Texture, and Sacred Inscriptions — In Development
3. Color and Completion — In Development

Gloria Patri — Prayer Illumination

Catholic and cultural formation: The Gloria Patri, praise of the Blessed Trinity, and the student’s response of assent to God.

Studio learning: Text-block template use, illuminated drop cap, curvilinear ornament, repeated shapes, spacing, pattern rhythm, ink, and metallic accents.

Instructional sessions:

1. Gloria Patri — Prayer Illumination — In Development

Portfolio Reflection

Catholic and cultural formation: Gratitude for growth, honest reflection upon work, and recognition that disciplined practice develops gifts received from God.

Studio learning: Selecting and reviewing work, observing growth across the course, completing age-appropriate reflection tasks, and caring for the finished portfolio and sketchbook.

Instructional sessions:

1. Portfolio Reflection — In Development