Our Fast Track Program: Portfolio Building is for kids with artistic promise who want to accelerate the advancement of their skills in design and fine art, or to build a portfolio of work as part of their private high school applications &/or SOTA Audition. The Fast Track Program offers children talented in the visual arts the opportunity to take art lessons twice a week or three hours on Sundays, and if the interest is there, the opportunity to build a portfolio that prepares them for admission to prestigious private high schools, the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA), or top art departments in colleges across the US. Students in grades 4-12 develop their outstanding artistic skills under the guidance of Chris Babcock, San Francisco-based portrait artist, author and founder of Chris Babcock Art Prep. Over the last decade, Chris Babcock has helped all her Fast Track Art students with a 3.5 to 4.0 average get into their top choice of high schools. At the request of students or parents, Chris Babcock writes a letter of recommendation for private school admissions based on the students' years of dedicated hard work in building an exceptional portfolio of their artwork. Tuition Includes: Professional-grade Blick, Liquitex, Amsterdam, and Utrecht brand acrylic paints, 150 assorted Prismacolor pencils, 72 assorted colors of Gallery Artist Soft Pastels and Charcoal pencils, Blick Design Markers, complete set of all 12 grades of H16 to B9 sketching pencils, a variety of specialized professional quality Princeton Velvet Touch brushes, 100% cotton American Masters cold press paper, Strathmore paper for colored pencils, Strathmore pastel paper, 8 by 10 inch, 9 by 12 inch, and 11 by 14-inch canvas boards.