Can anyone learn how to draw?

Posted by Adrian Cooper on 1 February 2011 | 0 Comments

Can anyone learn how to draw? (and why should they)

The “natural born artist” is a myth. Even the best of them needed the motivation and desire as well as the training and time. And even non-visual thinkers can, with perceptual training techniques, vastly improve their visual mental skills as well as their hand-eye or digital abilities. There are no drawings or paintings or digital images in books, films or galleries that are the result of a “god-given talent”. They are all the result of a desire to communicate motivated by a need to express, and most of all, the result of training and a lot of hard work. – Tim Newlin ‘Can anyone draw?’

 The extract above is from an interesting article ‘Can anyone draw’ by Tim Newlin. The article really highlights how the creative side of our brain works. Here at Newlands we put great emphasis on nurturing the creative talent in each of our students. If you agree with Tim Newlan, this is arguably an extremely important part of education. It is this nurturing of creativity as a child that allows children to develop into creative adults. Newlin argues specifically about art – he believes we are all capable of becoming good artists if we are given the education and opportunity to expand our brains creatively from a young age. 

This is borne out by our experience of teaching Art; if we get the children from a very young age, then teaching them to draw (which is essentially teaching them to be observant) is easy.  However the task is very much more difficult for older children.  Before the age of 8 children do not think about whether they can draw well or not, they just draw.  Older children begin to make comparisons between their drawings and the world around them or other children’s work.  If they perceive any inferiority then they start to say “I can’t draw” and once they feel that way the shutters come down and they will make no further progress. 

In the Art department we tackle this problem by teaching our students how to use the materials.  It is a common misapprehension, even amongst Art teachers that children will know how to use pencils, paint and brushes just because they have been using them since they were old enough to sit up. Just teaching them to explore the variety of marks you can get with the different grades of pencils will give them a real boost in confidence and this, as in every area of life, is enough to set them going; success breeds success.  

We believe that the boost to our children’s self-esteem that comes from knowing that they can do something really well can lead to increased levels of performance across the board; this, of course, is true of success in all subjects but developing observational skills has other educational benefits highlighted in this next extract from Tim Newlin’s article.

       ‘A brain that learns to observe when it is young grows visual neurons that other brains lack. This is why we have a common misconception that drawing is an inherited talent. It's true that the drawing brain is different, but the difference has been learned and the brain has developed in response to being needed in these particular ways.

When this happens at a young age, the child appears to have inherited talent. It is now known that adult brains can also grow new neurons and develop new talents, but it is slower and the process is more difficult. Adults often lose the love of learning for its own sake. Young children find learning simple tasks to be new and fascinating.’

Newlin raises a very interesting point– it’s an idea that Newlands aims to put into practice and combine in our curriculum as much as possible. All our students are given the opportunity to be creative and think creatively so that they may find their individual talents. If you wish to look at the full article please visit this link - http://teachers.net/gazette/FEB09/newlin/

So, what’s your view on this subject?  Can anyone learn to draw? Share yours in the comments below.