Not art school students… I believe ALL children should learn to draw from observation, perhaps at the same time they are learning to read. Learning to see accurately and to depict that onto a 2D surface is a wonderful skill to help us all think. Learning to take the time to observe how things are constructed, how they sit with others things, helps us understand the world in a more concrete way than reading about them. Drawing from observation also forces you to come to terms with how your assumptions alter reality: draw what you think you see and you don’t get a drawing of what you’re looking at. Recognizing how much your own assumptions play into the reality you create is essential for all people to develop critical thinking skills.
Here in the US, we coddle our children too much, especially regarding drawing and painting. If my father hadn't shown me how to draw a cube in perspective when I was 9, I don't know how or when I would have learned it. And, wow, I saw that cube everywhere I went!
Nothing trains the powers of observation more effectively than drawing what you see. No artist was ever harmed by sharpening their powers of observation. It is then up to each artist to decide what to do with their observations, in whatever direction their hearts and minds lead them.
There's only freedom in structure" (Brandford Marsalis)
Mastering the basics is what gives wings to your creativity, the latitude you need to come up with new ways of combining acquired knowledge. Study all the great achievers of our recent times, not only in art, but also in sports, engineering, crafts, etc. and you'll see how their passion for their subject is what allowed them to push farther than was conceivable.
In percussion playing, there are a given set of “rudiments” - stroke combinations from which other rhythm patterns are developed. You start each pattern as slowly possible, slowly build speed to as fast as you can play them, then gradually slow to a stop. As a student I wanted to play rock. My instructor made me learn and repeat again - again - again, better - better - better - the rudiments. Which I loathed. Then I saw a video of Ginger Baker, a revered rock drummer (Cream, etc) demonstrate how everything he did was built on “the rudiments”. Whole new respect for learning “the rudiments”
My college art education did virtually nothing to help me develop knowledge and skills to qualify for the career I wanted - and as a result, I ended up working in a totally unrelated field. Schools should make career counseling readily available. The curriculum should also include basics of the business of art. So many come out of college having no clue how to run a business, or even how to find work in their preferred medium or style.
Agreed. I left art school only slightly better at art than when I came in. I learned so much more from YouTube! By the way, I understand the point about Universities made below, but I paid a lot of money and didn't get my money's worth, not by a long shot. Now, part of that was on me, but not all of it.
I sort of don't agree. A university is not a trade school. Except for things like engineering, architecture, accounting, medicine, law (things that lead to professional licensure), all other courses are for personal self development.
Universities originally were for the social elite with leisure time and money. Everyone else apprenticed to a craftsman or labored in the fields and factories. Nowadays everyone is expected to go to college or university even when they can't really afford to without going into debt, then expect their BA in "general studies" will make them rich.
Yes there are trade schools that teach a specific skill. Some are better than others for anticipating job markets and providing suitably trained graduates to employers. Some are nearly useless charging high fees leading to zero employment prospects and burdening their students with massive debt.
Anyone considering university who isn't already financially independent should first obtain some kind of fallback trade after high school that will help pay for it without going too far into debt. By trade I mean something that pays better than minimum wage for which there is a current need in the job market.
Right now RISD costs 280k for 4 years, meaning a monthly payment for a young artist of 2800 a month after graduation. That’s essentially indentured servitude that will keep the person from being creative or taking risks and they likely will have to stop making art to get another degree to pay that back.
I’m a full time artist and I don’t clear that loan payment amount monthly. Art schools in their current form should think about the sustainability of what they teach for their students long term creative welfare.
I think the rise of Atelier style programs proves that trade school designed models for art school would probably do better, and be more affordable.
I don't understand why we art professionals don't boycott RISD and similar schools. It speaks to how beaten down we are that we allow these terribly managed, exploitative schools to claim they represent the "best" education for young artists/art professionals. I know the AAUP has SCAD on their censure list--we need a lot more of that organized pressuring of these schools to change.
For those very reasons, I would discourage most people to go to a university if they want to become artists. I did and it was a huge mistake. There are so many other ways to get a good education if you want art to be your main thing, everything from art schools to online training courses.
No one's asking for a a double major in micro economics and printmaking. Three credits for a course on ways artists can make money, understand simple contracts, develop a budget, etc would be great. You could sacrifice one of those art history electives for "Financial literacy for creatives".
I agree with your statement, "A university is not a trade school." I have a degree (not in art) and and have spent a few years learning art in the atelier system. The structure of a university curriculum allows only 14 weeks to learn a subject. Who could possibly learn to draw in 14 weeks?
Ugh. This one is difficult. I didn't receive much encouragement in my art classes and ended up abandoning them, only to continue self-study as an adult. I think a foundation in drawing and painting should begin in childhood, teaching the basics. I remember being very bored with still life exercises and not really getting the point, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. I wish I had absorbed the basics in grade school or middle school.
A few years ago, I took one painting workshop from teachers who had a method, and I knew by that point that I was too set in my ways to adapt and it caused me a lot of anxiety to try to match their methods. That certainly doesn't mean the teaching was bad or unsuitable. It means I wasn't a good fit. Those schools ought to exist for people who can benefit from structured training. They can experiment later after they have a foundation.
I've enjoyed exploring fiber art, and experimenting with fiber sculpture, and occasionally with ceramics and glass. Those other explorations can be very helpful even if you don't pursue them. I find sculpture to be a great break from drawing, as well as spinning yarn even if I'm not a great knitter. Working with my hands in that way can be soothing as well as good for drawing skills.
We definitely do a disservice when we go too quickly to digital manipulation. I can almost always tell when someone has been working digitally without being able to draw first.
Art schools SHOULD teach the technical skills of the craft - a trade school, if you will, because drawing, painting and modeling what is there in front of you is the springboard to drawing and painting what isn't - as JG proves painting after painting.
The best life drawing teacher I ever had loved teaching 'the newbies' because they would actually listen to what he was trying to teach - how to recognize the bone and muscle, the weight shifts, the way a human body moves. And how to really SEE what's there, not what you think is there. this will also greatly improve drawing every other animal. He kept saying, "I have to have you draw as realistically as you can because that's the only way I can figure out how to help you see what I'm teaching. But I would love to see all your abstract and stylized work too."
They should also teach the financial and legal sides of the business of being a professional artist. REAL training, like how to budget time and money, how to write a sound business contract with a client, so you know if you're being dealt with fairly. How to set up a website, how to network.
Look at Leonardo's sketchbooks - he figured out machines, and how hydraulics and ballistics actually do work, not how people thought they work.
Drawing IS a way of thinking, it engages different parts of your brain and should be part of everyone's education. Drawing what you see is a learnable skill, same as writing coherent paragraphs and both lead to better understanding of the world around you and better communication of ideas. It's also just fun, as well.
If people did draw more I suspect the AI fake images would be ignored or called out a lot faster too. It helps people really see and understand the world.
At art school in the late 1990's I struggled to find professors who would teach fundamental drawing and painting skills (even if they used them in their own work). The idea, I think, being that these skills produced "boring" work, that someone else out there was already better at it, and that we'd all be better off discovering our inner artistic style through experimentation and "play" which would lead to a more unique portfolio and therefore a better chance at an illustration career in editorial work. This way of thinking frustrates me just as much now as it did then. As a reaction, I worked extra hard within that environment to learn representational skills (no problem, I don't believe your art education need be handed to you on a platter). And as a result I was more prepared for a surprise career in video games, not editorial, where representational skills were required. I do love all forms of expression and I do believe having a narrow set of tools/skills can produce some very interesting work. But if that's your goal, then I recommend saving your money and not going to art school. Develop your inner artistic style for free simply by experimenting on your own. You will be better off for it.
Hi James. Schools can't teach things like magic and passion, or determination and never giving up. The student that forgets what time it is or won't fold the easel and go home is the one who will learn voraciously and be grateful for each nugget of information. That student won't care about marks or approval as much as others, but will learn as if their life depends on it, which it does.
I’ve been teaching amateur painters at our local art college and in private class for 25 years. I consider myself a fundamentals specialist because you have to know some things even to get going. I did not learn these things in any meaningful way when I went to art school. Learning to draw and paint what you see is like learning a new language, it activates different areas of the brain that verbal language doesn’t reach and is of benefit to every human. It increases the range and type of problem solving skills we have available to us. Once acquired these skills can be applied to almost anything. I’m in agreement with the folks recommending that drawing realistically be part of every child’s education. Also the deeper concepts of visual literacy should be required at all levels so people can better function as citizens. It is not mere marketing. It is how everything we see affects us and informs us.
In addition I’d like to mention how much my education in art history has helped me understand not just art and techniques from various areas, but about real history and how all that art is a record of human endeavour. This has deepened my understanding of arts importance and it’s real time affect on cultures.
I'm doing independent comics and in one of my projects I was struggling with the presentation of a park. The perspective was right, the composition laws were followed, the coloring was prioritizing the final point, but still it looked FAKE For days I had been shifting elements and redoing it from scratch but nothing worked.
Today, while walking through a park, I noticed it looked a lot like the park I wanted to draw. I didn't have my cellphone for a picture, so I tried to sketch it quickly... From whatever angle I tried it, the sketch was just perfect, simply ALIVE.
If I may sir, I believe studying drawing from life is essential. My own experience is that I studied at the Art Students League of NY with Deane G. Keller and it was one of the pivotal moments of my art journey. His effect on my life is still felt after 23 years. In my estimation it is the best training an artist can have.
I have a friend who grew up in Italy, in Pavia, a university city near Milan. She learned to draw in elementary school where all the students were required to learn how to draw the their big, old buildings. What this suggests is not only that drawing is important but also that their town has a historic value that is worth maintaining and recording. What about the students? I wonder how this exercise might affect a developing sense of self.
Learning basic skills such as drawing from observation has allowed me to do a much better job bringing my inner visions to life. I can't really imagine a scenario where a reduction in skills training would harm a potential artist, but then again I was raised under the "learn the rules before you break them" mindset. A class I would love to see art schools provide is a "basic studio skills" course which would include things like proper brush care, paper types, safety guidelines, and other fundamental skills that I didn't have when I went to art school. I didn't have them when I graduated either, hence my desire for such a course.
My multiple attempts at an art degree were disastrous. I knew what I wanted to learn and it wasn’t really being taught - realism. There were some life drawing classes, but I was almost being left to teach myself how to draw from life without any real framework for how to do it. I argued with my teachers and dropped out of art programs three times. It was very frustrating and depressing. I really wanted to design my own curriculum. However, I am incredibly grateful for the art history classes I took. They helped me to put words to what style I wanted to do. Now, I am 42 and finally learning realism in a very structured, streamlined program that works well for me. I’m grateful for my disastrous attempts at art school programs because now I recognize things that work for my learning style. I’m currently learning realistic oil painting in a self-paced program called “Evolve Art” and I’m starting to create my own personal sketching program for myself based on “The Artist’s Guide to Sketching.” I just needed enough guidance and information and I can do the rest. The schools weren’t giving me the guidance and info I needed, nor teaching the realism I wanted.
If I could have learned realism in college, I might have become an artist. But it wasn't in style. I finally ran into it in a scientific illustration course, when I was doing a biology Masters. No regrets -- but now I'm retired, I'm doing an online course that is all about drawing skills and drills.
Not art school students… I believe ALL children should learn to draw from observation, perhaps at the same time they are learning to read. Learning to see accurately and to depict that onto a 2D surface is a wonderful skill to help us all think. Learning to take the time to observe how things are constructed, how they sit with others things, helps us understand the world in a more concrete way than reading about them. Drawing from observation also forces you to come to terms with how your assumptions alter reality: draw what you think you see and you don’t get a drawing of what you’re looking at. Recognizing how much your own assumptions play into the reality you create is essential for all people to develop critical thinking skills.
Here in the US, we coddle our children too much, especially regarding drawing and painting. If my father hadn't shown me how to draw a cube in perspective when I was 9, I don't know how or when I would have learned it. And, wow, I saw that cube everywhere I went!
I agree completely! I especially appreciate the point you made about thought and assumptions.
You just said A LOT right there and I think should be the whole organizing point of view for this whole subject!
Double like❤️❤️
Nothing trains the powers of observation more effectively than drawing what you see. No artist was ever harmed by sharpening their powers of observation. It is then up to each artist to decide what to do with their observations, in whatever direction their hearts and minds lead them.
Yes, and learning observational drawing skills doesn't preclude the mastery of other skills such as storytelling or networking.
"There's no freedom in freedom, my man.
There's only freedom in structure" (Brandford Marsalis)
Mastering the basics is what gives wings to your creativity, the latitude you need to come up with new ways of combining acquired knowledge. Study all the great achievers of our recent times, not only in art, but also in sports, engineering, crafts, etc. and you'll see how their passion for their subject is what allowed them to push farther than was conceivable.
In percussion playing, there are a given set of “rudiments” - stroke combinations from which other rhythm patterns are developed. You start each pattern as slowly possible, slowly build speed to as fast as you can play them, then gradually slow to a stop. As a student I wanted to play rock. My instructor made me learn and repeat again - again - again, better - better - better - the rudiments. Which I loathed. Then I saw a video of Ginger Baker, a revered rock drummer (Cream, etc) demonstrate how everything he did was built on “the rudiments”. Whole new respect for learning “the rudiments”
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. - Kris Christofferson
My college art education did virtually nothing to help me develop knowledge and skills to qualify for the career I wanted - and as a result, I ended up working in a totally unrelated field. Schools should make career counseling readily available. The curriculum should also include basics of the business of art. So many come out of college having no clue how to run a business, or even how to find work in their preferred medium or style.
Agreed. I left art school only slightly better at art than when I came in. I learned so much more from YouTube! By the way, I understand the point about Universities made below, but I paid a lot of money and didn't get my money's worth, not by a long shot. Now, part of that was on me, but not all of it.
I sort of don't agree. A university is not a trade school. Except for things like engineering, architecture, accounting, medicine, law (things that lead to professional licensure), all other courses are for personal self development.
Universities originally were for the social elite with leisure time and money. Everyone else apprenticed to a craftsman or labored in the fields and factories. Nowadays everyone is expected to go to college or university even when they can't really afford to without going into debt, then expect their BA in "general studies" will make them rich.
Yes there are trade schools that teach a specific skill. Some are better than others for anticipating job markets and providing suitably trained graduates to employers. Some are nearly useless charging high fees leading to zero employment prospects and burdening their students with massive debt.
Anyone considering university who isn't already financially independent should first obtain some kind of fallback trade after high school that will help pay for it without going too far into debt. By trade I mean something that pays better than minimum wage for which there is a current need in the job market.
Right now RISD costs 280k for 4 years, meaning a monthly payment for a young artist of 2800 a month after graduation. That’s essentially indentured servitude that will keep the person from being creative or taking risks and they likely will have to stop making art to get another degree to pay that back.
I’m a full time artist and I don’t clear that loan payment amount monthly. Art schools in their current form should think about the sustainability of what they teach for their students long term creative welfare.
I think the rise of Atelier style programs proves that trade school designed models for art school would probably do better, and be more affordable.
I don't understand why we art professionals don't boycott RISD and similar schools. It speaks to how beaten down we are that we allow these terribly managed, exploitative schools to claim they represent the "best" education for young artists/art professionals. I know the AAUP has SCAD on their censure list--we need a lot more of that organized pressuring of these schools to change.
For those very reasons, I would discourage most people to go to a university if they want to become artists. I did and it was a huge mistake. There are so many other ways to get a good education if you want art to be your main thing, everything from art schools to online training courses.
No one's asking for a a double major in micro economics and printmaking. Three credits for a course on ways artists can make money, understand simple contracts, develop a budget, etc would be great. You could sacrifice one of those art history electives for "Financial literacy for creatives".
I agree with your statement, "A university is not a trade school." I have a degree (not in art) and and have spent a few years learning art in the atelier system. The structure of a university curriculum allows only 14 weeks to learn a subject. Who could possibly learn to draw in 14 weeks?
Ugh. This one is difficult. I didn't receive much encouragement in my art classes and ended up abandoning them, only to continue self-study as an adult. I think a foundation in drawing and painting should begin in childhood, teaching the basics. I remember being very bored with still life exercises and not really getting the point, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. I wish I had absorbed the basics in grade school or middle school.
A few years ago, I took one painting workshop from teachers who had a method, and I knew by that point that I was too set in my ways to adapt and it caused me a lot of anxiety to try to match their methods. That certainly doesn't mean the teaching was bad or unsuitable. It means I wasn't a good fit. Those schools ought to exist for people who can benefit from structured training. They can experiment later after they have a foundation.
I've enjoyed exploring fiber art, and experimenting with fiber sculpture, and occasionally with ceramics and glass. Those other explorations can be very helpful even if you don't pursue them. I find sculpture to be a great break from drawing, as well as spinning yarn even if I'm not a great knitter. Working with my hands in that way can be soothing as well as good for drawing skills.
We definitely do a disservice when we go too quickly to digital manipulation. I can almost always tell when someone has been working digitally without being able to draw first.
Art schools SHOULD teach the technical skills of the craft - a trade school, if you will, because drawing, painting and modeling what is there in front of you is the springboard to drawing and painting what isn't - as JG proves painting after painting.
The best life drawing teacher I ever had loved teaching 'the newbies' because they would actually listen to what he was trying to teach - how to recognize the bone and muscle, the weight shifts, the way a human body moves. And how to really SEE what's there, not what you think is there. this will also greatly improve drawing every other animal. He kept saying, "I have to have you draw as realistically as you can because that's the only way I can figure out how to help you see what I'm teaching. But I would love to see all your abstract and stylized work too."
They should also teach the financial and legal sides of the business of being a professional artist. REAL training, like how to budget time and money, how to write a sound business contract with a client, so you know if you're being dealt with fairly. How to set up a website, how to network.
Look at Leonardo's sketchbooks - he figured out machines, and how hydraulics and ballistics actually do work, not how people thought they work.
Drawing IS a way of thinking, it engages different parts of your brain and should be part of everyone's education. Drawing what you see is a learnable skill, same as writing coherent paragraphs and both lead to better understanding of the world around you and better communication of ideas. It's also just fun, as well.
If people did draw more I suspect the AI fake images would be ignored or called out a lot faster too. It helps people really see and understand the world.
At art school in the late 1990's I struggled to find professors who would teach fundamental drawing and painting skills (even if they used them in their own work). The idea, I think, being that these skills produced "boring" work, that someone else out there was already better at it, and that we'd all be better off discovering our inner artistic style through experimentation and "play" which would lead to a more unique portfolio and therefore a better chance at an illustration career in editorial work. This way of thinking frustrates me just as much now as it did then. As a reaction, I worked extra hard within that environment to learn representational skills (no problem, I don't believe your art education need be handed to you on a platter). And as a result I was more prepared for a surprise career in video games, not editorial, where representational skills were required. I do love all forms of expression and I do believe having a narrow set of tools/skills can produce some very interesting work. But if that's your goal, then I recommend saving your money and not going to art school. Develop your inner artistic style for free simply by experimenting on your own. You will be better off for it.
Hi James. Schools can't teach things like magic and passion, or determination and never giving up. The student that forgets what time it is or won't fold the easel and go home is the one who will learn voraciously and be grateful for each nugget of information. That student won't care about marks or approval as much as others, but will learn as if their life depends on it, which it does.
I’ve been teaching amateur painters at our local art college and in private class for 25 years. I consider myself a fundamentals specialist because you have to know some things even to get going. I did not learn these things in any meaningful way when I went to art school. Learning to draw and paint what you see is like learning a new language, it activates different areas of the brain that verbal language doesn’t reach and is of benefit to every human. It increases the range and type of problem solving skills we have available to us. Once acquired these skills can be applied to almost anything. I’m in agreement with the folks recommending that drawing realistically be part of every child’s education. Also the deeper concepts of visual literacy should be required at all levels so people can better function as citizens. It is not mere marketing. It is how everything we see affects us and informs us.
In addition I’d like to mention how much my education in art history has helped me understand not just art and techniques from various areas, but about real history and how all that art is a record of human endeavour. This has deepened my understanding of arts importance and it’s real time affect on cultures.
I'm doing independent comics and in one of my projects I was struggling with the presentation of a park. The perspective was right, the composition laws were followed, the coloring was prioritizing the final point, but still it looked FAKE For days I had been shifting elements and redoing it from scratch but nothing worked.
Today, while walking through a park, I noticed it looked a lot like the park I wanted to draw. I didn't have my cellphone for a picture, so I tried to sketch it quickly... From whatever angle I tried it, the sketch was just perfect, simply ALIVE.
Funny I read this today of all days.
Hugs from a Brazilian admirer, James.
If I may sir, I believe studying drawing from life is essential. My own experience is that I studied at the Art Students League of NY with Deane G. Keller and it was one of the pivotal moments of my art journey. His effect on my life is still felt after 23 years. In my estimation it is the best training an artist can have.
I have a friend who grew up in Italy, in Pavia, a university city near Milan. She learned to draw in elementary school where all the students were required to learn how to draw the their big, old buildings. What this suggests is not only that drawing is important but also that their town has a historic value that is worth maintaining and recording. What about the students? I wonder how this exercise might affect a developing sense of self.
Excellent post. Learning skills has enabled me to take my imagination out of my head and onto a 2d surface in an articulate manner
Learning basic skills such as drawing from observation has allowed me to do a much better job bringing my inner visions to life. I can't really imagine a scenario where a reduction in skills training would harm a potential artist, but then again I was raised under the "learn the rules before you break them" mindset. A class I would love to see art schools provide is a "basic studio skills" course which would include things like proper brush care, paper types, safety guidelines, and other fundamental skills that I didn't have when I went to art school. I didn't have them when I graduated either, hence my desire for such a course.
My multiple attempts at an art degree were disastrous. I knew what I wanted to learn and it wasn’t really being taught - realism. There were some life drawing classes, but I was almost being left to teach myself how to draw from life without any real framework for how to do it. I argued with my teachers and dropped out of art programs three times. It was very frustrating and depressing. I really wanted to design my own curriculum. However, I am incredibly grateful for the art history classes I took. They helped me to put words to what style I wanted to do. Now, I am 42 and finally learning realism in a very structured, streamlined program that works well for me. I’m grateful for my disastrous attempts at art school programs because now I recognize things that work for my learning style. I’m currently learning realistic oil painting in a self-paced program called “Evolve Art” and I’m starting to create my own personal sketching program for myself based on “The Artist’s Guide to Sketching.” I just needed enough guidance and information and I can do the rest. The schools weren’t giving me the guidance and info I needed, nor teaching the realism I wanted.
If I could have learned realism in college, I might have become an artist. But it wasn't in style. I finally ran into it in a scientific illustration course, when I was doing a biology Masters. No regrets -- but now I'm retired, I'm doing an online course that is all about drawing skills and drills.