Educating the Adult Artist

[Julianne Lowman]

As an adult artist with a large family, and one who has talent, but very little art training, my question is this: How does an adult receive the kind of art education necessary to become a great artist?

I am aware of the fantastic art workshops available world wide. However, because of my lack of training in the classics, etc., I feel very intimidated and unqualified to attend (not to mention the time committment to go to France for a summer). I know I can benefit from more training.

The last "college class" I signed up for at our local community college took me at least a year after to find my own style again. I found all of my work looked like the instructor's.

Also, many workshops or classes are juried and will only accept intermediate to advanced or professional. How does one decide if the work I produce is of that caliber?

Education comes in many forms and I've gained a great deal from this site!

[Michael Georges]

Education comes in many forms and I've gained a great deal from this site!

Julianne: Your point is well taken. There are many ways the adult artist can improve themselves without committing to an Atelier or lengthy school.

My first recommendation would be to read everything you can get your hands on about art. Specifically, the books listed on this site can help a lot, and there are many many other books on drawing and anatomy that can help if you read and do some drawing from them. I recommend drawing books by Tony Ryder and Giovanni Civardi and Burne Hogarth, and painting books by Chris Saper, Harley Brown, and Frank Covino as a good start.

Also, let me recommend Georgio Vassari's The Lives of the Painters, and Cennino Cennini's Il Libro Del Arte. These two books from 1550 and about 1437 are wonderful reading and very insightful into the techniques and lives of the great master painters of old.

Second, I can highly recommend that you try to find an open studio or life drawing class in your area and go as often as you can for years and years. Drawing what you physically see in front of you - especially people - will greatly help your skills, and it helps to keep your work fresher regardless of what you are creating, or what you are creating from.

Finally, there are a number of really good artists giving week long workshops around the country. A week with a really good artist can change your whole world. You are correct that you will need to sort what you learn and not just make yourself a copy of them, but the experience is valuable nonetheless. I recommend William Whitaker, David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw, Timothy Taylor, and Frank Covino for workshops that will be worth every penny you pay for them.

Hope that helps.

[Marvin Mattelson]

I hate to be a party pooper (actually I don

[Michael Georges]

Marvin, you raise a good point. Even I have to admit that I got most of my basics from an actual teacher, not from a book, and once I understood the basics, what I could learn from a book went up considerably.

In my case, the teachers have been other artists who have generously taken time away from their painting to teach me. My first teacher was an illustrator named David Martin. From him I learned the absolute basics of drawing, painting, color, value, etc. I then went on to Frank Covino who taught me more about painting, value, color and so much more. My latest teacher has been Bill Whitaker who has helped me see alternatives that will help me improve and really helped me refine my work. Bill has also provided some basics that I never got like painting from life under natural light.

So while it may not be optimal, I believe that it is possible for an adult artist to get good training and learn the basics over a spread out period of time.

[Michele Rushworth]

Julianne, as I'm sure you've gathered, learning to be the best artist you can be is a never-ending adventure and you've got a lot of work ahead of you. I've been producing professional artwork of one kind or another for over twenty years and I also feel I still have a lot of learning and work ahead of me, too. The most accomplished artists on this site would probably also say the same thing about themselves.

So, yes, there's a lot to learn, but don't be discouraged.

To the lengthy list of what Michael and Marvin have given you, I would add one more source of knowledge: museums. Marvin gives a lecture he calls, "Everything I Know About Art I Learned at the Met" (meaning the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).

Go to your local art museum or visit museums whenever you travel to another city. Visit often, peer closely and copy if you can, for practice.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Just to fortify what Michele said, my experience is that the more you know, the worse you are.

Show me an artist who doesn't feel that way and I guarantee you their work looks exactly as it did the day they realized they had "made it."

Ignorance is bliss.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I agree with all the previous posts that there are many ways in which one can learn the fundamentals of art. I too have attended many classes, taken private lessons and attended workshops. After all the time and money I have invested in

[Marvin Mattelson]

Sorry Enzie. I hate to say it, but, in my experience, it just don't work that way. Had I not met and studied with John Murray who studied with Frank Reilly who studied with Dean Cornwell and Frank Dumond who studied with Gerome who studied with Delaroche who studied with David, it would have taken several lifetimes to arrive at the point I am now. That's a heck of a lot of accumulated knowledge that each subsequent generation has both digested and added to.

How can one possibly strengthen a weakness that is a result of being left to one's own devices to begin with? If you knew what your weaknesses really were they wouldn't be weaknesses. The history of Western Art was built on a tradition of great masters training apprentices who in turn became great masters, etc.

David begot Ingres, Bouguereau begot Leyendecker, Carlos Duran begot Sargent, Gerome begot Paxton and Eakins. Life is simply not long enough for one to develop knowledge and understanding on one's own.

I'm afraid you haven't studied with the right teacher. You have a lot of talent but based on the amount of time you have invested you should not be having the kind of problems that I see in your work. If you think that by listening to advice from people who are simultaneously asking you for advice is the path to artistic savvy, I think you are in for a big surprise.

The forum is great but anyone who thinks they will become a great artist using the advice here is borderline delusional. I just doesn't work that way. Find yourself a master, surrender and save yourself decades of spinning your wheels.

I hope you take this in the spirit it is offered, a kindly stranger offering directions to a fellow traveler.

[Michael Fournier]

Since others have already given much better advice on the rest of your post than I could I would just like to make a comment about who can decide when your work is of what caliber.

Put aside judges and juried shows, since these are often based on certain bias no matter how objective they try and be. Not a bad thing, due to varied tastes, it leaves plenty of room for all kinds of work. But it really has little value in your own growth as an artist if others, even very knowledgeable others, like your work.

I prefer to always answer this when asked with, YOU. What do I mean? If you look at your own work with a critical eye and then look at work of others I think if you are honest with yourself you have a pretty good idea how your work compares. I am not saying that your work must be the same as someone else's. But if you look at your work you can see if your drawing is good, if your values are correct and so on.

Of course it helps to know what you are looking for. But that is were the other replies to your post come in about education. Even when you haven't learned about edges and how to handle paint you can look at a good painting and you can recognize that it is good even if you are not sure yet what makes it so, or why it is appealing to you.

If you truly want to improve you must work on developing a critical eye. How do you develop this? By looking at great works of art, for one thing, and also by studying the things around you. I mean really looking and recording in your mind what you see.

You might get a few odd looks at parties when you get caught staring at a person's nose under a particular light or your significant other may jab you in the ribs for looking at something else when they are trying to talk to you. But so what? You're an artist. Just reply that you are working on developing your critical eye.

Then look at your work with this same eye. Does what you painted hold up to what you saw in nature or does that passage of paint have the finish of that painting you saw in the museum? You will know when your work is good when you can look at it and say, yes, I think I handled that area pretty well.

You will know when it is not good also. It amazes me that those whose drawing skills need work ask what is wrong with their painting. I always think they must already know. After all, we all could see if a person walked up to us with a distorted face so why can't you see it in our work. Of course you can. But you must want to see it. Be critical and honest and you will know when your work is good or not. This was just an example, not meant to be directed at anyone in particular.

On a side note, don't be discouraged. A certain amount of dissatisfaction with everything you have done so far is a healthy thing. It helps you grow. Heaven forbid I ever feel I have made a prefect painting. I might just give it all up. After all, what goal could I set after that?

Thankfully I doubt I will ever have to worry about that since there is so much in nature to challenge the artist. Trying to capture life on a 2-D canvas and light with just paint will always come up short, so no matter how good we get, if we keep working on that critical eye it will always tell us we still have work to do.

There is still plenty to learn about the use of paint and how to apply it and about design and composition and that is where the instruction you asked about comes in. Without developing a critical eye of your own you will never be able to take what you have learned and apply it to your own ends. It is up to you to develop this.

It cannot be taught. Guided, yes, but taught, no. Why? Because your critical eye must also be unique to your view of the world. Others can guide you on your journey but only you know where you want to go.

[Michael Georges]

Marvin makes more good points. I have been blessed with very good teachers who really have saved me decades of frustration, and I have been lucky enough to be able to find the time to go and work with them when the door was opened to me.

However, I will disagree just a bit on the value of self study and the value of forums like this one. There are those out there who will talk you out of painting altogether if you let them, with doom and gloom stories of your artistic career. (Please understand that I am not talking about Marvin here):

"If yea do not get thy self hence to an Atelier forthwith and doth sacrifice thy life and livelyhood to the great plaster cast...foresoothe the sky will fall and cleave thy skull which thee don't know how to draw, and thy career will perish in smoke and flame to the ruination of thee and thy family and thy decendants!"

Let's face it, many of us have children, families, mortgages, and car payments. These realities of life are not forgiving while we at midlife or later up and go off for four plus years to find the basics of art. Mind you, if you have the means and time, then by george, get thee hence, but most of us don't and thereby are forced to find other means of improving our art without leaving for lengths of school.

You cannot and should not sit politely on your hands while you wait for the great master to come to your door and fulfill all of your artistic dreams - you have to go to the mountain, and you have to be elbow deep in the paint when you get there.

So, I will still encourage you to read all you can, go to a life drawing class as often as you can for years and years, and realize that teachers are out there who can really help you. However, you may have to forestall the four year hiatus from your life and settle instead for one week a year for several years.

I have found that the universe gives you exactly what you need if you first act to help yourself.