By: Deb
To me, it irritates me when people say you have to have “talent”. To me, “talent” is a God-given gift, such as Celine Dion’s voice…something you are born with. I have never known ANYONE that can pick...
View ArticleBy: Róisín Curé
Very interesting Deb. I think back to my student days and as a teen and it took so much dedication and self-motivated practice to learn how to use paint nicely. And I don’t even mean “correctly”...
View ArticleBy: Lia Trocano
I was blessed with a high school art teacher who’s main goal was to instill confidence. One of the exercises he had us do was he passed out paper about 10″ by 16″ that had a grid lightly printed on it...
View ArticleBy: Marilyn
An add to this is something I was taught a year or so ago. If you hate the painting/drawing, put it away for three days. On the fourth day take it out and look at it with fresh eyes. What aspects of it...
View ArticleBy: Róisín Curé
Lia what lovely stories. I will use the exercise with the squares in my kuds’classes – even though they aren’t the ones struggling with confidence issues! – and I think I may also do it with my adults....
View ArticleBy: Róisín Curé
Good ideas Marilyn. Only problem is that sometimes students can become so despondent they claim they were never trying to draw what they saw anyway! Again, I get that with kids – it’s common in boys...
View ArticleBy: Elaine Pang
I think some people have already crossed it off in their minds and I don’t really try to change their thinking. However some people want to create, but get discouraged because it doesn’t turn out as...
View ArticleBy: Róisín Curé
Yes Elaine, that makes sense and explains why I don’t encounter this with kids. That’s why I take it so seriously when I teach them (I mean to convince them that they are competent artists before they...
View ArticleBy: Jayne Barry
Here are some exercises that I used to do with my own kids and in my classes (I taught very young kids ……. who only had to spit on the paper and it was deemed a masterpiece, which was SO fantastic) 1....
View ArticleBy: Róisín Curé
Thank you for those thoughts Jayne. It’s funny what you say about play: I find I often get the best results, in both myself and in others, when I make it clear we’re having fun, and introduce things...
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