(770) 886-5217
Bill's Classes

Claude W. (Bill) Stevens teaches Basic Drawing and Creative Drawing and Watercolor. He describes his teaching style as a creative realistic approach. He always tries to inject a sense of humor into his classes. As an illustrator, his medium is watercolor combined with graphite pencil. His art reflects two dimensional and three dimensional in sculpture of clay and paper mache.

Mr. Stevens has had a long and storied career in the arts. Early on, he was offered a teaching position at Auburn University. At the time, he felt he didn't have the adequate experience and declined the position. After several more years of work and gathering experience, he felt he was qualified and ready to teach. He's been sharing his talents ever since. Mr. Stevens cites Bernie Fuchs, an illustrator, as his favorite artist and biggest inspiration. His mentor in college was Maltby Sykes, who worked with famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera.

Mr. Stevens earned a B.A. in Advertising Design from Auburn University. His thesis consisted of various design projects for the American Pipe Company, based in Birmingham. His career spans many years as a graphic designer and illustrator, managing corporate design departments, including Teledyne, B.F. Goodrich, and various advertising agencies. Mr. Stevens worked for ten years in the aerospace industry, creating graphic designs and illustrations for NASA. For a time during his military service, he was stationed in Germany as a Field Artillery Operations and Intelligence Specialist and Battalion Artist.

For 32 years, Mr. Stevens was involved in sales with International Paper and Georgia-Pacific. During that time, he also free-lanced numerous designs, illustrations, and children's books. Some of his major accounts included Lockheed, Atlanta Newspapers, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the G.S.A., the FAA, the Atlanta Board of Education, the city of Atlanta, Grady Hospital, W.R. Bean Printing, Geographics, and Corporate Printers.

In 1985, Mr. Stevens was honored with the Number 1 Sales Award out of 400 sales personnel nationwide. His design and illustration work has amassed numerous awards at local, national, and international levels, including Best of Shows, First Places, Gold Medals, and Art Directors Association of Chicago.