There are many good teachers of painting and drawing. Some allow children to create freely, others develop certain skills. Some teach slowly, others intensively. But there are a lot of schools and courses, and they teach in different ways. Artist tells how to choose an art school and what goes on behind the walls of art schools.

If a child is young, any experienced teacher who loves children and his subject, and with whom children study with pleasure, without much strain, will do. Later on if the child becomes seriously interested in drawing and specifically wants to develop their skills, you can think of a new teacher and a more narrow focus: black and white or color graphics, painting, drawing from life, painting and so on. Each teacher has his own style of drawing, his own technique of drawing (usually these two points are interconnected), and his own method of teaching. You can see this by looking at the work of his students: they will most often be different from one teacher to another. Art schools have a similar situation. Let the child look at the exhibited works of students and teachers and say whether he wants to draw the same way. If yes, then the child can be initially sent to this school (to this teacher), and then observe.

1- about the compatibility of styles and techniques

In simplified terms, style is how a drawing or a work of art looks like, technique is how to achieve it. I would compare different artistic styles and techniques to playing different musical instruments. This is an analogy, of course, but in this situation it is quite accurate. If a child is taught to play the violin, it makes no sense to transfer him or her to a teacher who teaches piano to further develop the skills he or she already has. The situation with drawing is very similar. If a child is taught to draw neatly from life, then, later getting to the teacher who specializes in decorative painting, drawing skills from life will gradually deteriorate.

It happens that a child likes the drawings that are done by the teacher or school, but the method of teaching, as they say, “did not go”.

If a child is not comfortable at drawing lessons, and during one or two years, there is no visible improvement (if you cannot determine it yourself, the child or his teacher will tell you), it is better to change the teacher or school. The situation can be remedied by a different technique or the child simply wants to try drawing in a different style or technique.

If a child has studied drawing with one teacher (or school) for a long time (several years) and successfully, it’s not desirable to transfer him/her to another teacher who uses a different style or technique, even if you’ve heard more positive feedback about him/her. The situation I mentioned above, “retraining from violin to piano,” may arise. Sometimes the differences in style or technique are not noticeable at first glance. In this case, look at the child.

A drastic change of style or technique can cause a noticeable regression in a child’s learning and the more different styles of work and teaching, the longer it will take a child to get used to it, which will inhibit or even freeze the development of their skills. Even if you don’t draw yourself, you can understand if the child is satisfied with the teacher and his or her work, if his or her drawing skills are improving, by asking questions unobtrusively. The child can even like the teacher as a person, but if one or two years have passed and there are no significant improvements in their learning, it means that the teaching methods or drawing techniques do not suit them. It is best to change the teacher, no matter how good a person he or she is.

A wise and experienced teacher will probably tell the parents after two years. In a shorter period of time it is rather risky to determine whether there is improvement, because some children learn in “accumulation mode”: up to a certain point there is no progress, there is an accumulation of knowledge and skills, and then there is a sudden jump, then the usual, moderately steady improvement begins.

2 – Stability in teaching for successful skill development

Virtually all styles and techniques lead to the desired result – improved drawing skills – but in different ways. Only unreasonable switching from style to style, from technique to technique worsens the result. It can (with rare exceptions) severely slow down and even stop the development of skills.

Some teachers allow their child to develop his or her own style which is not similar to style of other students

But if a teacher himself/herself does not know this style at least in theory, the process will be left on its own, and it is difficult to predict what the end result will be.

Personal experience. I have been painting for a long time, about 25 years, and during my studying I have changed about a dozen of teachers. All of them were, in my opinion, good teachers, and shared their experience with great pleasure. The only drawback is that many of them were painting in different styles and techniques, so I had to spend a lot of time on retraining when switching to a new teacher, instead of developing what I was really good at.

At the beginning of each such transition I regressed, trying to adapt to the new methods. Moreover, I met teachers who would tear apart all other styles, except their own, and categorically forbade me to paint the way I liked. Because of constant retraining in my head a real mess of styles and a lot of unfinished works which I did not know what result I wanted to achieve in the end. Little by little I became disillusioned with my drawing and painting skills. I had to give up drawing of any kind for a while and work in a different line of work in order to figure out how to draw a little. It wasn’t until eight years later that I found my niche as an artist.

3 – Is it possible to study several techniques at the same time?

Yes, as long as they are either related techniques or studied superficially. Some teachers do this by asking students to try one or the other.

Design schools almost always force students to study a variety of techniques and styles. But it is important to remember that in this case everything is studied shallowly, that is, there is not a strong load on the brain. In addition, all this is subordinated to the development of a single skill – the ability to create a comfortable visual space that would facilitate the perception of a particular style. In-depth study of several different techniques and styles at once usually does not lead to any good result.