Soma Studio Arts Atelier

Summer Art Camp, Monday–Friday, 10 AM–3 PM, Grades 3-12

This offering is for young artists where they will explore art media and techniques in depth during two daily studio sessions. Our talented teaching artists will guide tweens in developing their own personal style while they learn and refine their art skills. Our camp is structured into three daily sessions with snack time, breaks, and free draw built into each.

Morning Session: Core Curriculum (Fundamentals)
Lunch & Outdoor Break Session
Afternoon Session: Weekly Thematic Studio

Our full-day summer art camp is designed for students who want to build real artistic skills while also exploring exciting creative themes. The day is intentionally structured to balance foundational training with thematic exploration, making it ideal for both serious young artists and motivated beginners.

Morning Art Activities

Each morning is dedicated to our skills-based core curriculum, where students develop the essential tools that support all art-making endeavors. Instruction is carefully scaffolded and taught through demonstration, guided practice, and repetition. Content is determined individually by each student's age and skill level.

Students work on:

• Drawing accuracy and observation
• Line quality and control
• Shape, proportion, and structure
• Value and basic shading
• Color Theory
• Confidence and discipline in mark-making

This session emphasizes process over projects, helping students strengthen fundamentals that carry across all media and subjects.

Midday includes a relaxed lunch break and outdoor time in Camaroon Park, allowing students to recharge, socialize, and return to the studio refreshed and focused.

Afternoon Themed Activities

In the afternoon, students apply their foundational skills to a rotating weekly theme, giving them the opportunity to explore different subjects and materials in greater depth.

Themes may include these - and more:

Week 1: Invented Worlds: Drawing & Painting from Imagination - campers will learn how artists transform ideas into believable images by combining observation, structure, and imagination. Through guided drawing and painting exercises, campers practice building scenes, environments, and characters using strong fundamentals rather than guesswork. Emphasis is placed on visual storytelling, spatial logic, and confident mark-making

Week 2: Visual Storytelling: Surrealism & Unexpected Images - Campers learn to combine familiar objects in unusual ways, using strong composition, scale shifts, and transformation to communicate visual stories. Emphasis is placed on thoughtful image-making, helping students move beyond randomness to create clear, intentional, and expressive artwork.using a diverse array of media, including pencils, colored pencils, inks, and colored inks.

Week 3: Our Favorite Figures: Exploring the Human Figure - study the human figure through observation, gesture, and basic anatomy to understand how the body moves and balances. Campers work with drawing media to capture action, proportion, and form, building confidence in representing the figure accurately and expressively. Emphasis is placed on movement and structure, helping students develop strong foundational skills that support all future drawing.

Week 4: Creature Feature: 3D Art and Sculpture -campers explore sculpture through the creation of imaginative creatures, learning how artists build form in three dimensions. Campers develop skills in modeling, construction, and structural planning while working with age-appropriate sculptural materials. Emphasis is placed on volume, balance, and problem-solving as students bring their creatures to life in 3D.

Week 5: The Art of Expression: Portraits, Hands & Feet - campers focus on drawing the most expressive parts of the human figure—faces, hands, and feet—through careful observation and structured practice. Campers learn proportion, basic anatomy, and value to capture expression, gesture, and personality in their drawings.

Week 6: Character Design: campers learn how artists design original characters by simplifying images into their most important features while combining drawing fundamentals and storytelling elements. Campers explore proportion, gesture, expression, and environment to create characters that feel believable and dynamic.

Week 7: Flow & Form: Inkwash & Watercolor Painting - campers explore transparent painting through inkwash and watercolor, learning how fluid media can describe form, light, and space. Campers practice brush control, value transitions, and layering techniques to create depth and atmosphere in their paintings. Emphasis is placed on intentional mark-making and understanding how flow and structure work together in expressive, controlled artwork.

Week 8: Layers of Color: Colored Pencil & Pastel Drawing - tudents learn how artists build rich color through careful layering and blending using colored pencil and pastel. Campers develop control of value, pressure, and color relationships to create depth and form in their drawings. Emphasis is placed on patience, observation, and technique, helping students move beyond flat color to more dimensional and expressive work.

Week 9: Moments in Nature: Landscape Painting, drawing & collage - students explore landscapes through drawing, painting, and collage, learning how artists observe and interpret the natural world. Campers practice composing foreground, middle ground, and background while using value, color, and texture to suggest depth and atmosphere. Emphasis is placed on thoughtful observation and creative decision-making as students capture meaningful moments from nature in multiple media.

Week 10: Light & Air: Plein Air Fundamentals - campers learn how artists observe and capture light, color, and atmosphere by working directly from nature. Campers practice drawing and painting outdoors, focusing on simplifying complex scenes, judging value relationships, and responding to changing light. Emphasis is placed on observation and confident decision-making, helping students translate what they see in the open air into clear, expressive artwork.

Week 11: One Artwork a Day: - campers complete one finished artwork each day while learning how artists plan, execute, and bring a piece to completion. Campers practice working efficiently without sacrificing fundamentals, strengthening decision-making, focus, and confidence across a range of subjects and media.

While the subject matter changes, instruction remains skill-focused, ensuring students understand how fundamentals translate across media and artistic challenges.

Visit SomaStudioArts.com for more details about our Summer Art Camp.