School of representational art

Founded in 1990 in Chicago by Bruno Surdo, SORA is dedicated to training art students in traditional, academic methods, which Surdo learned in Minneapolis at the Atelier Lack. SORA has a four-year curriculum, with the first year learning to draw from casts, "the time honored tradition", and from live models. The second year is a transition from charcoal drawing to monochromatic oils, moving to bust portraiture and emphasizing accuracy of angles and anatomy. Still life is introduced in the third year, with life drawing and portraiture continued. In the fourth year, creative portraiture is the focus with the emphasis on expressiveness or emotions, mood and symbolism. Source: Mark Mitchell, 'Sight-Size and More at SORA', "Drawing" magazine, Summer 2007