Not many people are good at something the first time they try it.
It sounds obvious, but I think we sometimes forget it.
When we’re learning something new, we can struggle with the task. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not capable of doing it. It usually means we haven’t worked out how to do it yet.
Take drawing a perfect circle, for example. It sounds like an easy task, but most people can’t draw a perfect circle the first time they try. There are lots of ways to get one right. I have my way of doing it. Someone else might trace around something. Someone else might use a completely different method.
There isn’t always one right way to get to the result.
And sometimes the struggle is different every time we sit down to create. What seems easy one day may be surprisingly difficult the next. That’s part of the creative learning process. We can’t always be in the creative mood. It isn’t a switch we can turn on and off.
When a student is unhappy with something they’ve drawn, I don’t just tell them what is wrong. First, I ask them what they don’t like about it. And I nearly always find that what they don’t like is different from what I was looking at.
That gives me a starting point. We can talk about what they have done well, what is already working, and then I can show them how to change the part they aren’t happy with. Sometimes seeing how to fix one small part is all it takes to move forward.
I don’t always get things right the first time either. If something isn’t working in my own artwork, it will often end up in my “continue later” pile. I’m certainly not embarrassed by my mistakes or by showing students something that hasn’t worked. It’s part of creating art, and it can open up conversations that help me understand the way a student thinks. That helps me find the best answers for their learning journey.
I teach best when I know the student well.
But I don’t think we necessarily learn from a difficult attempt by sitting there thinking, “Right, I did that wrong. Now I know exactly what to do next time.”
A lot of learning happens without us even realising it. A student might try something, decide to do something completely different, and then come back to that idea weeks or months later. Something has changed in between. They have seen more, tried more and built up experience without necessarily knowing they were doing it.
And then one day, something that was difficult becomes easier.
That happens at Sharz Art all the time. Students who once struggled with something eventually find that they can do it. Sometimes they don’t even realise how much they’ve improved until they look back.
That’s one of the things I love about teaching art.
Being bad at something isn’t the opposite of being good at it. Sometimes it’s simply where you start.