"The peculiarity of my temper is, ma'am, that I
won't be swallowed up alive."
Charles Dickens, "Little Dorrit"
Before I started to write this article I
made a little Google-search to check out what other people think about
attending such classes (just in case my notion was totally contradictory to the
generally prevailing). It turned out, that there are surprisingly many (though maybe
not SO surprisingly many) opinions maintaining, that attending drawing courses
is quite redundant. Why? Because everything can be learned from YouTube videos and
internet tutorials totally for free. I decided to test it (oh, how mistrustful
I am) and typed "How to draw a cockroach". The browser found over
10.000 results... in a split second... I had no more questions.
Anyway I'm going to insist on my point of
view and bring forth those benefits of real-life art classes, which you won't
get from Internet:
1. Professional feedback (i.e.
comprehensive, constructive criticism) about
your own work. The truth is that you may make mistakes/encounter problems other
than the person presenting his/her own
work on the Internet. A skillful teacher can notice weaknesses, which you could never notice
yourself, or at least would discover after a longer time.
2. High
efficiency. Apparently it's best to learn from your own mistakes, but... mistakes
of other course participants can also be very "developing". When
you're watching your colleague getting remarks, a metaphorical warning light
turns on in your brain. Thereby you become aware of many errors before you'll
make them yourself. What a time saver! Initially, pointing out errors publicly seems
slightly... embarrassing. But look at this matter from a different angle: the
more remarks you get, the more conclusions you can draw. Furthermore your
splendidly bad example will serve your colleagues :) (nope, it wasn't
comforting to me either).
3. Necessity
of drawing under pressure and awareness that your work will be evaluated. Maybe it doesn't sound like "oh so fun", but it helps to
develop more "responsible" attitude to drawing. And it's not as unpleasant as it seems (though, after that, drawing at home is a pure relax).
4. It
helps you to accustom yourself with presenting
your artworks to a real audience (even if it consists of your tutors and other participants of the
course). It's a completely different feeling from putting a drawing on the
Internet. It also teaches you to accept criticism with dignity (i.e. you're
able to hold back bursts of crying in front of strangers).
5. New
exciting friendships - for many people it's a BIG
PLUS to meet individuals with the same interests. Well... as an extremely alienated teenage
girl I hadn't benefited from this aspect. In hindsight
I regret it a little, but, as written above,
we learn best from our mistakes.
6. Maybe you have some insights on art classes? I'd love to get to know them!
6. Maybe you have some insights on art classes? I'd love to get to know them!
After rereading first 4 points I got a
strange impression, that attending drawing classes can appear as series of
stress and humiliation... I have no idea why. But in reality it's not that bad! (in most
of cases)
At the end here are some of my works made during art classes (long, long time ago):
