Professional Artist Neil Blevins (16 Year Pixar Alum: Incredibles, WALL-E, Up, Cars, Brave) is opening a new after school program to teach high school students Digital Art. If you’ve ever wanted to learn the skills and software necessary to make Animated Films or Characters / Environments for Videogames, come join us!
Who: High School students (college and adult classes coming later). Class size is small, between 6-8 students to allow for more personalized instruction.
When: In person after school once a week for 40 weeks (Sept-June), choose 1 slot (each day is the same curriculum with a different set of students):
Tuesdays from 4:00-6:30pm
Wednesdays from 3:30-6:00pm
Thursdays from 4:00-6:30pm
Where: To be announced, in the Redmond / Sammamish / Issaquah / East-Bellevue area
What you will learn in the classes:
2D: Digital painting and drawing
3D: Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Camera, Story Telling
Subjects: Characters, Props and Environments
Software: Procreate, Blender, Affinity, Davinci Resolve
Styles: Stylized and Cartoony to Realistic
Cost: 2026-2027 price: $600 per quarter (plus tax, see FAQ below for more info). Class meets once a week, full year is 40 weeks, split into 4 courses.
Early Bird Special: Sign up before July 15th 2026 to get a one-time $50 off the first quarterly payment.
Student Work
Take a look at some of the high school student work created in our pilot project by the students of Gibson Ek, ages 14-16:
Who is Neil Blevins?
Neil Blevins is a Canadian born artist who has worked in the Film, Videogame and TV industry for 25 years as a Digital Artist, Concept Artist, and Art Director. He has contributed to 9 feature length animated films, including the 5 Academy Award winners The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3 and Brave during his 16 years tenure at Pixar Animation Studios as a digital artist. During his time in videogames, he has worked for companies such as Blur Studio, Warner Brothers’ Monolith Productions, V1 Interactive and Lucid Games. While a versatile artist who has made artwork from cartoony to photoreal, he is perhaps best known for his scifi art, portraying alien environments, futuristic robots, and scifi vehicles. He has published 5 books, from art collections and narrative artbooks to the award winning “Megastructures: The Visual Encyclopedia”. He has taught extensively at workshops and conferences around the globe, as well as being an adjunct professor at the California College Of The Art in San Francisco. He currently lives in the east side of Seattle with his wife, high schooler and australian shepherd.
Visit the Neil Blevins Art Gallery to see more artwork.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Are you a fully accredited school?
No, we are a set of extra-curricular art classes. The classes can be paired with a formal education in the arts, or taken by themselves for those who want to pursue digital art as a hobby. While the focus of the school isn’t on getting you employed in the entertainment field, the classes are taught by a 25 year veteran of the 3d animation and videogame industries. So if you are, say, a high schooler who plans to pursue the arts as a career, these classes will teach you so many important topics like working on art projects collaboratively as part of a team, industry proven software, the art of cinema, the important design considerations of videogames. In short, these classes will give you a tremendous head start and put you in a much more advanced position when you reach college. But if you want to pursue digital art as purely a hobby or to make your own indy projects, you will get just as much from these classes, they will teach you how to express your artistic ideas at the highest levels possible.
What sort of Digital Art is covered?
We cover both 2d painting and building scenes, characters and assets in 3d.
Do you teach Video Game Design?
Not at this point. We teach digital art, which is an important element in creating videogames, but we do not teach how to put it all together into a playable game. We may offer courses in this in the future.
Are the courses online or in person?
They are in person on the East Side of Seattle area. While we have done zoom classes in the past, we have found that nothing beats instruction in person, it creates a stronger bond between class members and is far easier to discuss and critique work.
How many students are in a class?
Usually between 6-8. We keep the classes small so the students get the maximum amount of customized instruction and critique possible.
Do students do a full year or a la carte courses?
In general, all students will do the full year (4 course program). Exceptions can be made for students who are already well versed in a course’s subject, but we highly recommend attending those courses as well since there’s always new things to learn, and the practice time will just let the student get even better.
What materials do I need?
A more detailed hardware and software list will be provided before the class begins, but in short you’ll want a decently fast laptop (mac or windows), and an ipad with pen. All software for the course will be free or almost free (for example, Procreate and Blender), no expensive software or software subscriptions are necessary to take classes.
What are the fees?
Each quarter is $600, plus WA state taxes. Class meets once a week, full year is 40 weeks, split into 4 courses. Early Bird Special: Sign up before July 15th 2026 to get a one-time $50 off the first quarterly payment. The fees pay for the rental of the space, extra materials, and the instructor time. Tax details: in 2025 WA state started charging retail tax for live presentations, and as such we will have to charge taxes (approx 10%) for the courses. More info here: https://dor.wa.gov/laws-rules/interim_guidance_statements/interim-guidance-statement-regarding-changes-made-essb-5814-live-presentations
A longer FAQ available upon request…
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Neil Blevins Academy of Art and Design 