My Passion for Teaching.
While I was still studying for my Bachelor's degree way back in the 1990s, my dad kept telling me to get into teaching because, as a pianist, that was how he made a living, as a freelance teacher, and it’s how he expected me to make a living because art school certainly didn’t prepare me for any income. I remember not wanting to teach primarily because I was so shy and couldn’t imagine standing before many strangers and guiding them through an art process.
Interestingly, my first few ventures into teaching were teaching children who only wanted to play with art rather than academically make anything. Teaching kids and having a source for my active imagination was rather liberating in these early years. I created a lot of drawing games for kids back then that I still use in my teaching now and to help my studio practice whenever I feel stuck.
Is There Only One Way To Teach Drawing?
A quick answer is no. There are so many ways to teach drawing, but I teach drawing slightly differently from other teachers. I feel bold saying this!
While pursuing my own art education in the twentieth century in the US and the UK, I experienced many different types of teaching. Many of them were from teachers who could only think academically when teaching anatomy, perspective, or relationships. Though still enjoyable, I found that my greatest learning came from those teachers who went beyond the academic requirements simply because they were excited by each moment of epiphany when a student learns to understand and “see” for the first time! These types of teachers changed everything about how I perceived the world, and still, I have them in an honoured place in my mind for being the reasons for opening my eyes so well.
Who Were My Teachers?
My mother, Juliette McCullough, was my first teacher, not just because she is my mother but also because she is an artist and had the biggest influence on my own creative development. When I was studying in art school for my first degree, she was my unofficial tutor outside of art school, and she was the one I looked to when I set up my own studio for the first time after graduation. She attended the Royal Academy of Art, the Byam Shaw School, and Camberwell during the 1960s and 70s, and one of her teachers also impacted how I teach. His name was Maurice de Sausmarez, and the exercises in his book, “Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form,” greatly impacted my education and how I teach today.
The two other teachers who significantly impacted how I teach were Norma Cowdrick and Michael Walling, who taught at the Kansas City Art Institute while I was studying there. Norma taught with such enthusiasm and exuberance and would leap from one part of the room to another as we listened to how she described spatial relationships, perspective and anatomy. I remember inhaling everything she said and can pinpoint the moment that I understood everything, and when drawing from the life model changed my perception of the world.
Michael Walling was my painting teacher, and although he didn’t teach me to draw, he was instrumental in my understanding of colour and my palette. I was one of the only students who painted from a life model daily while at KCAI. I worked in the studio where Thomas Hart Benton painted. Back in the 1990s, that studio had big high windows and good natural light, but the interior was a bit scruffy with marked-up walls from countless students and a chipped tile floor that was brutal to stand all day on when working at the easel. I used to spend eight hours every other day in that studio with various life models, trying to understand the ever-changing colours in the flesh. With some residual frustration, I remember that those long days painting from the life model ended abruptly when a classmate took over one corner of the studio to dissect dolls while listening to jarring heavy metal. Strange memories!
How Do I Teach Drawing?
First, I want to share that I teach at all levels, primarily adults and teenagers. I’m interested in teaching adults because I encountered many adults who have had difficult introductions to learning about art, and I want to change this and help heal those who have ever had perhaps a teacher or parent tell them when they were young that they were not creative or artistic or that they couldn’t draw. I want to be the changing force in an adult’s life when they make that brave step to face art again after difficulty simply because I believe that anyone can draw and that it’s down to the teacher to find the way forward for the student and not the other way. If a teacher tells a student at any point in their life that they can’t draw, it’s more accurate to say that that teacher cannot teach. I work hard to find ways to adapt my teaching to suit every individual I meet because there is no one way to learn. The most beautiful thing about our world is that we’re all different and unique, so it follows that each person I teach is on their creative journey, which I must work around to support.
So this is how I teach:
First, we have a discussion about your creative goals while looking at your artwork
Then we arrange fees and where, when and for how long we’ll meet
Once together, I’ll bring my sketchbook to offer demonstrations for you
We’ll reference a statue in a museum to draw from or be in the landscape
I’ll demonstrate some quick drawing exercises to get the circulation flowing and make you use instinct rather than thinking.
After a few quick exercises, we’ll begin working on what I call a “Lost in Space” drawing, which teaches you to “learn to see.”
I might draw with you in my sketchbook while monitoring your progress.
We’ll take a break for you to look at your drawing to learn to identify specific areas
I’ll bring you back to a few quick drawing exercises to break down positive and negative space and perspective.
We’ll then start a second “Lost in Space” drawing using the tools learned in previous quick exercises. This drawing may go on a little longer, depending on your focus.
A stretch break is good here, so we can stand, wiggle our hands and fingers, and shrug our shoulders. Drawing often creates tension with all the focus!
We’ll return to drawing with some warm-up exercises to explore how to hold a pencil, depict solid mass and form, or create a contour and blind contour drawing.
Our final drawing will be where I share with you how to create a sort of scaffolding at the beginning of your drawing so that you can literally map out everything you see before you. This is a drawing that you can come back to for days and even weeks afterwards to perfect and adjust as you develop a more intense sense of “seeing”
I firmly believe in positive encouragement no matter how you think you can draw.
What do you need to bring to a drawing lesson?
If you already have materials you like to use, such as a sketchbook and pencils, then bring what you have, and I’ll let you know if there’s anything else to bring. To make life easier for many of my students, I offer a prepared art packet that can be paid for when booking a drawing lesson. This packet includes a pencil case with assorted pencils, an eraser, a sharpener, graphite, charcoal sticks, and an A4 sketchbook. Just indicate your interest when booking if this packet would be helpful to you or not.
Do you teach children?
I used to teach children in schools and as a private tutor, but I focus my energy on adults now. The youngest students I’ll teach are sixteen-year-olds, only if they’re actively enrolled in an art programme or trying for an art scholarship. Though I’ve enjoyed teaching children in the past, busy parents and distracted school administrators often used me to tick the box for including art in their child’s life, even if the child wasn’t interested. There have been exceptions where I taught enthusiastic children who were enrolled in an art programme and wanted more art education, but these have been rare.
Now, my focus is working with teens and adults because that’s where the help is most needed. The arts are not taught in schools or universities in any traditional sense because society deems art of no value.
Will you do an art presentation at my school?
Even though I don’t teach kids, I do share presentations about the arts if a school shows interest. Inspiring young people is worth every second if it sparks the imagination of anyone of any age. I have a few memories of being influenced by artists when I was a little girl and teenager, and I think those moments were the magic that set things in motion for me to become an artist! If I can share something creative that creates that magic in another, I’m all for it!
What does teaching do for me?
You would assume the first answer to this should be that it brings in an income, but surprisingly, this is not my first answer simply because I need to teach! I need it for the same reasons I need to breathe, circulate my blood, drink water, or eat food!
Teaching is a fuel that feeds into making art in my studio. Although my Dad is no longer alive, I think he would be pleased and perhaps amused to learn that I love teaching and crave it because it keeps my creative juices flowing!
Teaching is part of my identity just as much as being an artist. To be able to share what I love about making art with someone else and to be invited to witness another human being’s creative journey is a privilege, to say the least. I’m so glad I began teaching way back when I was working on my first degree! What a journey it has been and continues to be!
So, if you’ve read this far and are interested in learning to draw, then get in touch, and let's talk about your creative journey.
I hope I can help!
