Every style and technique has its place

There is no such thing as one painting style/technique being better than another. There are teachers who don’t like this or that style/technique, but that says only about the teacher’s personal preferences. If you or, more importantly, the child, hold different views, it is better to look for another teacher. Your child may like drawings in Marvel comics or fantasy illustrations – each style will require competent instruction and coaching anyway.

Look at the website of illustrators – what different works there! How many different styles, techniques, and visual devices! All of them have the right to exist, they all find their place, depending on the goals, objectives, customer’s opinion and personal preferences of the artist. Each work finds its own viewer.

Is it possible to know in advance if a child will grow up to be a professional artist?

A big plus of any art school (and college later) is the ability to draw all the time, regardless of the mood, theme or desire. This is exactly what a future artist will have to deal with later in his or her career. Because of the transformation of a labor of love into a necessity, it happens that before entering art school, a child usually draws with pleasure and then, in the process of studying, the overall pleasure of drawing often comes to naught or disappears altogether. The joy of favorite themes or subjects that are not always present remains, but it can also disappear.

If all of this does not drive the child away from the drawing lessons, most likely, he or she will turn out to be a successful professional artist. If the child refuses to draw in such conditions – let him/her make a break and decide whether he/she is ready to continue or will give up drawing for good. Sometimes it happens that rejection is caused not by regular drawing as a whole, but by a particular style of drawing or teaching. In this case, as I have already mentioned, transfer of the child to another instructor can help. And sometimes it happens that it is better to leave drawing for a hobby or a pleasant leisure time when compulsion is completely excluded. After all, there are a lot of other interesting professions in the world. If a child has been enjoying trying different styles for a few years and doesn’t want to stop at one thing, you can subsequently send him to a school of design or offer to do magazine illustration.

In any case you should choose only one where the teaching technique corresponds or is similar to the art school your child goes to. An exception is your child’s own desire to try a new technique and willingness to learn it in a short period of time.

At universities, the manifestation of “alien” style in a student will be crushed rather ruthlessly, and you must be prepared for this

Of course, over the years, faculty may reconsider some of their positions, so you should also be prepared for the changes that may occur during your studies.

Personal experience. In my university, the Design Learning Center came into being as an experiment. At the very beginning, when I was just entering the program, my teachers were very much in favor of classical training in the spirit of the Stroganov school. In particular, the computer was seen as a tool for lazybones, which did not suit future professionals. Three years later tasks appeared that were designed for computer work, even though they kept assuring us that we would still be doing most of the work by hand. In the sixth year of my studies I practically did the whole diploma in computer programs.

There are art schools that specifically prepare you for admission to a particular college, so it is advisable to decide on the choice of college in advance to have time to pass the school appropriate training. Most universities have preparatory courses, which, though less reliable, can also prepare you for admission. A good option may also be to contact a teacher who independently prepares for a particular university and has a good reputation. An experienced teacher in some cases can prepare a student for admission in two years practically from scratch (I saw one such case). However, such intensive accelerated training is possible only at an older age, from 15 years, when the brain is already able to absorb and process such large amounts of information. Besides, it is the most severe learning overload and is not suitable for every child.

When choosing any profession that requires the ability to draw (painter, designer, architect, restorer, retoucher, decorator, and so on), you should consider the specifics of work in this field. For example, if you work as a graphic designer, you’ll have to spend up to 14 hours a day at the monitor. Will a visually impaired child be able to cope with such a harsh rhythm? Oil paints will require regular inhalation of diluent fumes. Hand-painting small figures will need to sit with their back bent at all times. Architecture will require the ability to make accurate calculations and sometimes the management of construction work. A book illustrator can afford to work on illustrations for a week to a month, depending on the order, while a magazine illustrator often has to produce a finished result in a couple of hours.

It is best to find out about the specifics of this or that job from current professionals. Alternatively, you can explore job search sites, where the requirements for the employee are described under each vacancy. This can prevent the wrong choice, when health or character peculiarities may not allow the child in the future to regularly engage in the work for which years of study have been spent.

Personal experience. When I received my education, we did not know any designers, the Internet was not yet widespread, and we had nowhere to take information about the future profession, except at the open house of the chosen university. As I said, at that time the attitude of the faculty about the computer in teaching was very negative. Coming in, I was sure that I will just draw with my hands, as usual, and only in the third year I realized that without a computer in the chosen profession (graphic designer), as they say, “neither here nor there. For me it was a disaster, because when I was working at the monitor for a long time I started to have problems with my eyes and blood vessels. It took me several years to get these problems down to a minimum and fully engage in drawing in computer programs.