In art, you can learn things from an instructor, or from your own experience of painting, or from your well of creativity, or from accidents. Things you learn from an instructor might be how he goes about organizing things, how he takes care of his brushes, how he works from light to dark or from the background to the foreground. Another instructor might tell you to do exactly the opposite……. If you’re lucky, your instructor will teach you perspective and blending. I would teach students to work on the easy stuff first……Things you learn on your own are how the paint goes on the canvas and how to move the brush around and do tricks with it……… Things that emerge from your creativity will be what sets you apart from other artists, and it’s what a lot of artists lack. Your creativity can take over and make you a much better artist than if you just followed all of the rules……..If you can learn to tap into your creativity, you will become a great artist……..I don’t think you can teach creativity, but I do think that you can sense it when it emerges, and that you should go with it and forget all the rules…….In comparison to music, you might be able to teach people how to hit the notes and use dynamics, but I don’t think you can teach anyone how to sing like Edith Piaf or Tom Jones…….Also, in acting, you get people like Aaron Paul or Jack Nicholson who are naturals. You can’t really teach people to do what they do…… Things that are accidents will become your own little bag of tricks. One day you might accidentally put your brush in the yellow paint instead of the orange paint, and when you brush it on you realize it looks far better than the orange did, so you leave it on. Another day you might accidentally knock over some beer on your painting, and after you try to clean it all up, you realize that you have created a new effect that looks fantastic. It’s probably a better idea to wait for the mistakes to happen rather than to try to find them……….And there are probably many other ways to learn how to paint, too. You might have a dream about painting something and discover a new technique or a new composition………..Eventually, as you continue to improve, you could become better than the instructors, and so you skip them because you don’t want to go backwards……….I’m at the point where I can do almost anything with paint, but I might refer to a book or a video to work on something that’s a little difficult, like water or fur. I might learn something that makes it a little easier to do or maybe a little faster………Whatever you learn from a teacher you might just want to just throw it in the back of your mind and do what you want to do. That way you become an artist and not a clone……..Things you learn on your own are how the paint goes on the canvas and how to move the brush around and do tricks with it……Things that emerge from your creativity will be what sets you apart from other artists, and it’s what a lot of artists lack. Your creativity can take over and make you a much better artist than if you just followed all of the rules………If you can learn to tap into your creativity, you will become a great artist…..Things that are accidents will become your own little bag of tricks. One day you might accidentally put your brush in the yellow paint instead of the orange paint, and when you brush it on you realize it looks far better than the orange did, so you leave it on. Another day you might accidentally knock over some beer on your painting, and after you try to clean it all up, you realize that you have created a new effect that looks fantastic. It’s probably a better idea to wait for the mistakes to happen rather than to try to find them………And there are probably many other ways to learn how to paint, too. You might have a dream about painting something and discover a new technique or a new composition…………Eventually, as you continue to improve, you could become better than the instructors, and so you skip them because you don’t want to go backwards……….I’m at the point where I can do almost anything with paint, but I might refer to a book or a video to work on something that’s a little difficult for me. I might learn something that makes it a little easier to do or maybe a little faster…………Whatever you learn from a teacher you might just want to just throw it in the back of your mind and do what you want to do. That way you become an artist and not a clone……..Things you learn on your own are how the paint goes on the canvas and how to move the brush around and do tricks with it. Things that emerge from your creativity will be what sets you apart from other artists, and it’s what a lot of artists lack. Your creativity can take over and make you a much better artist than if you just followed all of the rules. If you can learn to tap into your creativity, you will become a great artist. Things that are accidents will become your own little bag of tricks. One day you might accidentally put your brush in the yellow paint instead of the orange paint, and when you brush it on you realize it looks far better than the orange did, so you leave it on. Another day you might accidentally knock over some beer on your painting, and after you try to clean it all up, you realize that you have created a new effect that looks fantastic. It’s probably a better idea to wait for the mistakes to happen rather than to try to find them. And there are probably many other ways to learn how to paint, too. You might have a dream about painting something and discover a new technique or a new composition. Eventually, as you continue to improve, you could become better than the instructors, and so you skip them because you don’t want to go backwards. I’m at the point where I can do almost anything with paint, but I might refer to a book or a video to work on something that’s a little difficult, like water or fur. I might learn something that makes it a little easier to do or maybe a little faster. Whatever you learn from a teacher you might just want to just throw it in the back of your mind and do what you want to do. That way you become an artist and not a clone. Things you learn on your own are how the paint goes on the canvas and how to move the brush around and do tricks with it. Things that emerge from your creativity will be what sets you apart from other artists, and it’s what a lot of artists lack. Your creativity can take over and make you a much better artist than if you just followed all of the rules. If you can learn to tap into your creativity, you will become a great artist. Things that are accidents will become your own little bag of tricks. One day you might accidentally put your brush in the yellow paint instead of the orange paint, and when you brush it on you realize it looks far better than the orange did, so you leave it on. Another day you might accidentally knock over some beer on your painting, and after you try to clean it all up, you realize that you have created a new effect that looks fantastic. It’s probably a better idea to wait for the mistakes to happen rather than to try to find them. And there are probably many other ways to learn how to paint, too. You might have a dream about painting something and discover a new technique or a new composition. Eventually, as you continue to improve, you could become better than the instructors, and so you skip them because you don’t want to go backwards. I’m at the point where I can do almost anything with paint, but I might refer to a book or a video to work on something that’s a little difficult, like water or fur. I might learn something that makes it a little easier to do or maybe a little faster. Whatever you learn from a teacher you might just want to just throw it in the back of your mind and do what you want to do. That way you become an artist and not a clone. Things you learn on your own are how the paint goes on the canvas and how to move the brush around and do tricks with it. Things that emerge from your creativity will be what sets you apart from other artists, and it’s what a lot of artists lack. Your creativity can take over and make you a much better artist than if you just followed all of the rules. If you can learn to tap into your creativity, you will become a great artist. Things that are accidents will become your own little bag of tricks. One day you might accidentally put your brush in the yellow paint instead of the orange paint, and when you brush it on you realize it looks far better than the orange did, so you leave it on. Another day you might accidentally knock over some beer on your painting, and after you try to clean it all up, you realize that you have created a new effect that looks fantastic. It’s probably a better idea to wait for the mistakes to happen rather than to try to find them. And there are probably many other ways to learn how to paint, too. You might have a dream about painting something and discover a new technique or a new composition. Eventually, as you continue to improve, you could become better than the instructors, and so you skip them because you don’t want to go backwards. I’m at the point where I can do almost anything with paint, but I might refer to a book or a video to work on something that’s a little difficult, like water or fur. I might learn something that makes it a little easier to do or maybe a little faster. Whatever you learn from a teacher you might just want to just throw it in the back of your mind and do what you want to do. That way you become an artist and not a clone. If you look at some of my paintings, say for example at www.primopaintings.com, there is very little there that I learned from an instructor. There’s the old axiom – if you can’t do, teach. And then there’s the question of whether or not they will teach you their trade secrets – whatever it is that sets them apart. I personally think that you can get more out of a book or a video than you can from a teacher.
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