Drawing and coloring guru William Olson, will have a unique opportunity for art enthusiasts 4 p.m. Oct. 15.

This class, at the Austin Area Art Center, will be a beginning drawing class for people with little or no colored pencil experience.

Olson will start out with a basic overview of animal and bird anatomy, posing, and sketching out a composition. After that, he will move on to a step-by-step process of how he works up a piece, layers his colors, mixes and blends and works in shadows.

Olson is a graduate of the Commercial Art and Technical Drawing program at South Central College in North Mankato and has worked for such companies as the Taylor Corporation and National Recognition products.

He has won numerous prizes over the years including Grand Champion awards at the Mower County Fine Arts competition in both 2006 and 2009, the City Purchase Award at Austin’s Freedom Fest show in 2009, as well as many other prizes at area art shows.

In 2008, he was a judge for the Owatonna Festival of the Arts and was accepted into the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts exhibit in 2010.

Olson is an old-fashioned farm boy from rural Minnesota, with a down-home personality and love of nature that are reflected in numerous works of wildlife and country living.

Olson has a wild imagination and loves to draw fantasy and comic book style art with fantastic characters and lively action.

His favorite mediums are pencil, pen and ink, watercolor and colored pencil.

This class is subject to a limited number of students, so pre-registration is a must.

The age limit for this course is 16 through adult, with student fees of $35 per person.

All interested parties can contact the Austin Area Art Center during normal business hours, Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 pm. at 507-433-8451 or e-mail aaacoil@smig.net. You can also stop in and register.

A complete supply list can be picked up at the time of registration at the Center. For convenience, the AAAC now carries a retail line of art supplies and will take special orders for artwork needs.

The Art Center is online at austinareaartcenter.weebly.com, where many artists have their work display.

Upcoming events are posted and classes and workshops are listed.