Luka Fernandez

Teacher

San Francisco studio

Luka Fernandez was born in the Bay Area but grew up in Lima, Peru. He later graduated from an arts-oriented high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has become a self taught professional by beginning freelance commission work in 2016. Since then he has been creating character designs, concept art, and illustrations. Most of his client work is done with digital tools, but he enjoys using a variety of traditional media in his studies and personal pieces including watercolor, graphite, ink and markers, as well as acrylic paint.

Luka specializes in draftsmanship, visual development, character design, and life drawing; he also has a great passion for art theory and strives to make art fundamentals accessible to artists of all ages and skill levels. His work has been shown locally at the Mission Cultural Center and Queer Arts Featured in the Castro. He can usually be found tending to his houseplants, drawing on his tablet, or playing video games.

https://lukafernandez.carrd.co/

Students' reviews:

Jessica G.

I moved to SF, begrudgingly from DC, for work in May 2024. After 10 years of not having touched a paint brush, the Art School of SF bay became my refuge. Moreover, Luka in the realistic open studio is paintbrushes down one of the best instructors I have ever had the privilege of working with. The first lesson was a monologue of everything I wanted to work on, things I avoided, and where I wanted to go. Luka masterfully held me to every single point of my articulation while being encouraging and refining my tactics. I avoided portraits like the plague and Luka put me in a short term relationship with a head mannequin, thought that relationship did not last, I'm now happily and confidently painting other portraits in my sketch book. 10/10 recommend booking a session or semester.

M S.

Duboce Triangle, San Francisco, CA

Wow! What an incredible experience for our 12 and 8 year old kids. Our eldest has blown us away with how he has grown in his drawing abilities -- we even commissioned him to draw a few pieces to frame as holiday gifts. And none of it would have been possible without the superb teaching of Luka. Highly recommend!

Rupa S.

I have taken several classes here,the instructors are knowledgeable and give good guidance. I am taking a class with Luka Fernandez, and he has helped me a lot with improving my techniques and giving me freedom to explore subject that interests me.

Kelley C.

I took the Academic Drawing class with Luka. As someone who has always liked drawing but never felt like I had the fundamentals down, I felt it was the perfect fit! The class is well-paced and slowly scales up the complexity of the projects until you're surprised by what you were able to draw. Luka is a wonderful and attentive teacher who has a masterful eye on what could be improved that really made all the difference in my projects and helped me progress. He clearly has a passion for art teaching that shines through.

Zero..

I took the fundamentals class with Luka and it was so much fun. He always gave kind actionable feedback and answered everyone's questions well. The course and projects were designed well and helped the class improve consistently week after week. Would highly recommend!