The School of Representational Art (SORA) is located in Chicago's River North area, a renovated neighborhood of galleries, restaurants and condominiums north of The Loop in downtown Chicago. Founder and Director Bruno Surdo established the school in 1992. "We started out up on Howard Street in Evanston," says Bruno, "and we were there for three years. But we needed to improve the facility, and have more space, and a skylight for life drawing. When I approached the real-estate agent and told him where I wanted to go and how much I had to spend, he laughed at me. But somehow we got it done, and we've been in our current facility ever since."

Surdo first studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago in the early 1980's. The Academy is a commercial art school. Surdo studied life drawing, graphic design, composition and other fundamentals. While there, Bruno met life-drawing instructor Fred Berger. Bruno describes Berger as "a major influence. He basically told me if I wanted to pursue classical training, I'd have to study with a master, and he directed me towards Richard Lack in Minneapolis." With fellow Academy students and future SORA instructors Mike Chelich and Chris Cismesia , Bruno relocated to Minneapolis to study with Lack during the mid 1980's. After leaving Atelier Lack in 1986, Bruno returned to his hometown and worked to establish himself as a painter and a teacher. He taught at various places, including the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art, and at portrait painter Richard Halstead's Studio. Later, he landed a job at Ray College of Design, where he still teaches, as a life-drawing instructor. He also completed a number of portrait and figurative commissions during this period. But he felt strongly that the venues in which he was teaching weren't structured to transmit the kind of traditional training he had received. "When I wanted to study in the classical tradition, I had to go to Minneapolis and work with Richard Lack," Bruno states. "It was a great experience to work with Mr. Lack, and I'm glad I went to live in the Twin Cities for a while; but I thought a city like Chicago ought to have a school of it's own in a similar tradition, and so I began SORA."

Surdo, Chelich and Cismesia conduct the training of 16-17 students at a time at SORA, during a school year that runs from September to June. The basic curriculum consists of life drawing and painting, cast drawing and painting, portraiture, still life, composition and anatomy. The school is divided into a large space for life drawing with a north-facing skylight, where beginning and advanced students work together in a group from the model, and into individual workspaces for the students. Life drawing consists of a mix of long and short poses. The long poses are thorough studies completed over a period of seventy hours, done in charcoal or oil. Shorter poses are done in graphite, with a particular focus on gesture, movement, and applying knowledge of anatomy to drawing the figure. "In a student's first semester, we put more emphasis on comparative measurement, to help students get an integral sense of the figure," states Bruno. "To accomplish this, we have them do various things; find a center point in the figure, measure angles, and so on, but mainly we like them to scan the figure visually and compare. There is inevitably some distortion at first, but diligent work improves that. In the second semester, we introduce them to sight-size, and hone in on the accuracy. Sight-size is very useful for training the eye, and helping you compare what you've drawn to what you see." The sight-size method is a scientific approach to drawing that helps train the eye to see the proportions and subtleties of nature, and helps students solve problems relating to that. Bruno continues, "You improve both your eye and your critical judgment by checking and re-checking the drawing against nature using the plumb line and the mirror. Because you observe the subject at a measured distance from it, you're able to look at the drawing and the model side by side, and compare what you've drawn to what is actually there. If you work hard and you are disciplined, you'll acquire the ability to render shape and value relationships on a flat surface, and that amounts to making an illusion of three-dimensional form in two dimensions. Those skills are essential for representational painting. But I also tell students that if they're going to do figurative work in their career, they are going to find it hard to use sight size, unless the pose is very still. That's why we thought it important to incorporate comparative measurement into our teaching. I think it's essential to capturing authentic gesture. You just can't pose an authentic gesture for an extended period. In my opinion, it's simply more practical to incorporate comparative measurement." The SORA curriculum also requires students to complete studies in grisaille from the nude before proceeding to color. The instructors feel this preparation is a very important part of the program, allowing students to study the range of value available in oil, and paint handling when working from the live model, before tackling color.

Bruno also feels it is important to incorporate the study of composition into a student's training from an early stage. "All of the skills involved in painting are of little value if you can't organize them to serve a larger purpose," he states. "Like any other aspect of a student's training, composition must be learned and mastered, and we think this must be taught at all levels of a students education. Composition is perhaps the supreme challenge for the artist. It takes many years of guidance, study and practice to acquire and incorporate knowledge of the creative process into the creation of realistic imagery." Instructor Mike Chelich has made this his particular area of interest. "We organize the study into a series of exercises spread out over the first six semesters of a students career," Mike explains. "In the final year, we want them to complete a figurative composition with one or two figures as a final project, using the skills they learn in the first three years. The study is designed so there are four projects for students to complete each semester. Most of these are executed in black and white — designing with value, and line, or the flow of line. The first year we deal with basic problems; balance, foreground, middle ground and background, variety of proportion, center of interest, and a single light source. We present them with five subjects, of which they must choose four. From each, they make a design study for a picture. The subjects are landscape, portrait, still life, animal, and figurative. We then have them do three thumbnails of each subject, and help them choose the best design from among those three. From that, they will work up what we call a 'rough.' That's a small study, bigger than a thumbnail sketch, but still concentrating on abstract design elements. We really want them to focus on designing a picture using abstract elements, like masses of value, rather than on representation at this point. As they advance through the program, we have them study and do exercises in various geometric formats, such as horizontal, vertical, and square. We have them design compositions organized in different ways: circular movement, for instance, or diagonal movement. We also talk about what kind of expression the different structural motifs are suited for. Horizontal lines suggest repose; vertical lines, solemnity; circular motion, energy; a triangular composition, stability, and so on. We try to present the information in a way that suggests its usefulness, but not as rules cast in stone. And of course, it's always up to the student to employ it for an artistic purpose."

The study of human anatomy is essential in the education of a figure painter. At SORA, students are presented a series of lectures on anatomy, and incorporate the study of anatomy into their work making gesture drawings from the model. Chelich explains, "We have them start out doing stick figures — simple figures with lines for the limbs, and with the head, rib cage and pelvis blocked in geometrically. Then we have them go in and apply a simplified, balloon-like anatomy to that, representative of muscle groups. After that, we have them break those groups into their component parts. It's very important to begin simply and learn the proper proportions of the figure and it's parts, and they also get a chance to learn a little bit in class about how to draw figures out of their heads. I think this is very important for making thumbnail studies for compositions, and for coming up with expressive gestures. It's easy to play around with figures made like that, and you avoid getting caught up in the kind of details you're used to dealing with when you work from life. We try to make the anatomy classes very relevant to doing figure drawing from your head. From there, we go into more detail about the skeletal structure and the parts of the body, the origins and insertions of muscles, and movement." Bruno adds that, "These combined practices teach the student to understand the movement, strength and structure of the human form. We use body casts, anatomical charts, and master drawings for visual demonstration, and we have a good collection of anatomy books in the school library."

"We also work to emphasize sound craftsmanship from the beginning of training. That includes methods and materials for drawing and painting. Students learn how to do studies, and how to build up a painting in layers using the 'fat over lean' principle. We do painting demonstrations and correct the student's projects by working directly on them, if necessary. The Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago is not far away, and we often take students over there to look at the permanent collection or special exhibits. Sometimes we'll organize group discussions about things, especially composition and artistic expression, to encourage and reinforce the progress of students. We work hard, and we want all the students to be disciplined and do the same, and we expect them to respect our authority. But at the same time we try to cultivate a co-operative atmosphere in the school, and as instructors, to be accessible to students, and not remote or unapproachable figures."

Bruno and Mike share the bulk of the responsibility for the school, with Mike a little more involved in teaching and Bruno more involved in running the business. Chris Cismesia comes in a few times a month to lend a fresh eye and fresh perspective. "Chris has a good sense for line and decoration," Bruno says. "He runs a mural decoration business, and brings a real practical component into the training. He brings another whole element into the picture, and I think that really helps to round us out." The three alumni of The American Academy of Art and Atelier Lack bring a fresh perspective to the classical tradition in the city of Chicago.