Glenn Vilppu

Glenn Vilppu is trained in the classical art of the Great Masters of the Renaissance. Glenn understands the fundamental language of drawing and he has kept the Florentine School alive. Studying with him today is no different than it was studying with Michelangelo, Rembrandt or Leonardo. His students go through the same steps, beginning with the structure of the subject, the bones, then adding the muscles and finally the flesh.

Glenn Vilppu teaching on location.

Glenn's sketchbook is his personal diary and his teaching tool. He constantly draws and he demands his students do the same. He draws wherever he is, whatever captures his attention: his children, the grass growing outside his door, his wife's floral arrangements, the people at the town meeting. Drawing is his visual language. His sketchbook? is his camera. "I draw better than I speak," he says.

His colleagues declare no one draws as much as Glenn and no one has been able to put down the drawing with his clarity. He personifies the philosophy that one needs three things to succeed: the knowledge, the skills and the spirit to carry it out.

Glenn Vilppu is past Acting Director, Character Animation, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, Current Instructor at the Walt Disney Animation Features Program, Burbank, California, American Animation Institute, Studio City, California and at the UCLA, Animation Department- Masters Program.

Glenn holds a BFA and MFA from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. He has taught at studios and art schools in Tokyo, Seoul, Manila and Sydney (seminars) Toronto & Vancouver, as well as at the University of Helsinki.

The lands of the midnight sun & northern lights have bred a unique community of the arts.

The works of Anders Zorn & Carl Larsson of Sweden whose studios we will visit is world renown. The Danish artists P. S. Kroyer, Michael & Anna Ancher, though not as familiar to us they are artists we should discover. Scandinavia is a land of many surprises. Being able to sketch & paint outdoors until almost midnight under the summer sun is an experience you will talk about for many years.

I will be demonstrating sketching using a variety of techniques & subjects, both landscape & figures. The methods & traditions of the Masters have been a lifetime study of mine & I look forward to presenting them in this exiting & enchanting environment. A once in a life time experience, that can become an annual passion.?

-Glenn Vilppu, Your Art Instructor