Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of art classes and read lots of art books. I even enjoy taking classes and reading books on beginner concepts that I no longer need anymore, just to be a looky-loo about how the concepts are being taught. I feel I’ve learned a lot about how to identify good teachers – and how to avoid, let’s say, people who are better artists than they are teachers.
Should you choose an teacher that’s a good artist?
The more books/classes I’ve tried, the more I’ve become convinced that it’s necessary for your teacher to make the kind of art you like and that you want to make. When you try to learn from someone who works in a style that doesn’t grab you, you will simply not be interested or motivated to emulate them. Even though you may respect their skill and objectively believe their style to be “good”, if it’s not the sort of art you want to make, it won’t be that useful.
Some lessons I’ve learned the hard way:
- I’m fascinated by nature. Teachers who focus on urban scenes, intense perspective architecture, still lifes, or portraits will give assignments that feel like a slog.
- I like painting flowy, expressive skies. Teachers who make detailed, hyper-realistic, fussy botanical illustration are not a good match.
- I’m married to watercolor. Teachers who are big into multimedia will lose me as soon as they introduce colored pencils.
None of these preferences are bad, on either side – they’re just not well matched.
Your ideal teacher will generally match your preferred style in terms of:
- Medium (e.g. watercolor, gouache, acrylics, oils, digital painting)
- Genre / general subject matter (e.g. landscape, portrait, still life, botanical, urban sketching)
- Specific subject matter (e.g. sunset skies, Paris streets, galloping horses, old barns, water droplets on car windows)
- Level of detail and/or realism (e.g. loose, realistic, fantastical, illustrative)
To make it simpler, you should just like their art.
While the teacher needs to work in your preferred style, they don’t need to be the world’s best artist. They don’t need to be flawless, and they certainly don’t need prestige. Many prestigious artists are actually quite poor teachers. Teaching art is a different skill than making art, and in many ways I think it is harder!
Skills an art teacher needs
I’ve identified four key skills an art teacher needs to be really good at. For each one, I’ll provide some “green flags,” signs the teacher has that skill, as well as “red flags” that I try to avoid.
Self-awareness & communication
Green flags are when the teacher:
- Keeps up a steady stream of explanation while demonstrating (book equivalent: tutorials with a lot of process photos and explanation of steps)
- Notices and points out when they are making an artistic or technical choice
- Clearly explains why they made the choice they made
- Acknowledges other possible choices and their trade-offs
- Gets very granular and basic in classes for beginners, e.g. how to hold a brush
Red flags are when the teacher:
- Works quietly in front of you while you watch (book equivalent: showing off a lot of finished work, no process)
- Doesn’t explain choices, or gives a vague explanation like “it felt right”
- Gives advice that presupposes knowledge, experience, and muscle memory, like “make sure you pick up the right amount of pigment”
- Emphasizes reliance on intuition, emotion, and gut feelings (without discussion of how to build those intuitions with specific, focused observations, experiences, and exercises)
- Parrots conventional wisdom, but is unable to explain it
Planning & structure
Some green flags you can identify from the course materials, before signing up for a class, or from the frontmatter of a book (preface, introduction):
- Class/book has a well-defined, attainable goal
- Caters to a specific skill level
- Class/book has a defined structure (e.g. a subtopic for each session, a specific progression of projects)
- Supplies lists are reasonable and specific, allowing you to confidently shop and be sure you got the right stuff
And some more green flags, once you begin the course work or exercises:
- Marketing materials were accurate (e.g. the topic is what it says it would be, and the teacher stays mostly on topic; directed to the appropriate skill level; only uses tools from the supplies list)
- The steps/exercises/projects form a logical progression to bring you from point A to point B, without any one step being extremely more challenging than the previous one
- (in a class) Time is used effectively; class starts and ends on time, and class-time projects can be finished within the time allotted with a reasonable amount of time for questions/discussion.
Red flags, meanwhile:
- Course topic is broad and unfocused, and/or unattainable (“Mastering Watercolor Painting”)
- Content of course turns out to be different than advertised
- Teacher is unprepared/rambling/appears to be winging it (in a book: steam of consciousness style wall of text)
- Class runs out of time / goes overtime
- Supply list was absent, vague, or inaccurate
- No defined exercises or projects; students are expected to supply their own project/just kind of do some art (unless a student-led workshop is clearly identified)
Learning from students
In a class, green flags are when the teacher:
- Shows interest in students
- Fosters questions and discussion
- Share tips and tricks learned from previous classes of students
- Offers multiple approaches or options; has a wealth of experience in troubleshooting common student issues
- Shares up-to-date knowledge about supplies and resources for a wide range of budgets and preferences
- Tries to help you find information about topics they don’t personally know much about
This is harder to accomplish in books, a one-way medium, but green flags are when the teacher mentions their past students and their questions, or tips learned from them; in other words, when the author has developed a body of knowledge of student needs directly from their experiences as a teacher.
Red flags are when the teacher:
- Lectures one-way; students don’t talk in class (if not a video or other one-way medium)
- Only knows one, highly specific procedure/technique (what works for them)
- Lays on the sales pitch too thick for other products/services; clearly sees the class as “lead generation” first and education second
Fostering creativity
Green flags are when a teacher:
- Encourages students to follow their own curiosity and find their own voice
- Proactively creates (or points out) opportunities for you, the artist, to make choices within guiderails (e.g. “choose one of the techniques we studied” or “choose one of these references”)
- Shows enthusiasm about other artists’ techniques and styles (including students’!)
Red flags are when a teacher:
- Expects a successful project to look just like the teacher’s
- Upholds arbitrary rules (you must always… you must never…)
- Derides other techniques/styles/tools/materials with mocking or contemptuous language (e.g. “garish”, “pedestrian”, “merely”)
- Distinguishes between “true art” and craft/study/doodling/commercial art/whatever else they want to put down
Conclusion
Unfortunately, many of the red and green flags I identified are only noticeable after you’ve started taking a class, reading the book, and experiencing the teacher’s style. Well-organized and interesting marketing materials are a good start, but may or may not reflect the actual experience. And there can certainly be teachers who are good, but not good for you, for whatever reason!
This is why I recommend a “try before you buy [or commit]” approach. Look for opportunities to take bite-sized, free or cheap demos from the teacher (e.g. Youtube videos or one-off sessions.) If they’ve written books, get them out of the library.
Go into your sample class prepared to evaluate the teacher. Take special care to notice:
- How well did they demonstrate the key skills noted above? (self-awareness and communication, planning and structure, learning from students, and fostering creativity)
- Did they say or do anything that especially “clicked” for you / that helped you in your practice later?
- Were you able to produce art you liked while doing their exercises or using their advice? (not just that they produced art you liked)
- Did you leave the class feeling optimistic, inspired, and ready to do more art?
- Did you have fun?
Don’t worry if it takes some time to find a teacher that works for you. One of the beauty parts about trying-before-you-buy is that it’s no big loss if you try something that doesn’t work. But even if you have paid, it’s a sunk cost and you can stop if you’re not having fun, learning, or feeling good about yourself. It doesn’t matter if the teacher’s a great artist, has a great reputation, or is beloved by your art friends. If they don’t work for you, they don’t work for you!
I find it hard to keep that in mind about classes because I have “education brain” as if everything educational must be completed, but I must remind myself that I am an adult and I am taking the class, doing the demo, or reading the book for fun. There is no grade, no “permanent record”. If it sucks, hit da bricks!
Shout outs to teachers I have loved and about whom I was thinking when I listed “green flags”: Kal Anderson (in whose class I painted the featured apple), Kolbie Blume, Maria Coryell-Martin, and Claire Giordano. I will not subtweet the people who helped me generate the “red flags” list 😉