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WHAT’S NEW ‘ROUND HERE?

I’m knee-deep in website construction for my school right now. Every lesson has a unique area so it’s a lot of repetition interrupted by spurts of frantic file hunting.

Today’s article was already partially written… thank goodness!

After this, I’ll be running some excellent Best-Of articles for the next few weeks.

Now where did I save my raw copy of that old frog project???

EXPOSURE

Let’s pretend you’re 8 years old again…

You walk into a classroom and the walls are covered in rainbows. The teacher has a lovely laugh and she’s wearing an apron smeared with the most beautiful paint splotches. She says everyone calls her Miss Sunny.

Forget about being a fire fighter— you want to be Miss Sunny when you grow up!

In the sweetest voice, Miss Sunny says your first project is to write a ten page paper on troop movements during the Sino-Japanese War of 1897.

Then the next day Miss Sunny asks you to evaluate the integral of a complex-valued function along a contour in the complex plane.

Later, Miss Sunny has you fill out a Schedule K-1 1120-S form.

You have no idea what the heck she’s talking about because frankly, whatever she’s saying is way above your grade level. But coming from Miss Sunny, it sounds nice.

It doesn’t matter anyway. Miss Sunny is flexible about the projects. You can write the lyrics to the Paw Patrol theme song or you could list ten pizza toppings.

Miss Sunny will always give you a gold star sticker and write “GREAT JOB!!!” on the back.

Psssttt… Want to know why you suck at art?

Because this is how we teach art to children.

I have one of those jobs… everyone always has a story about the worst version of me they’ve ever met.

So I surmise that everyone reading this article today has had at least one bad art teacher but probably two. I know because y’all keep telling me about it.

Me personally? I will never get over the soul-searing embarrassment of getting slapped for using right handed scissors with my left.

But here’s the thing…

Your bad art teachers? Most of them were not bad teachers. They were teaching bad lessons.

School art classes are not designed to help you become an artist.

That’s never been the mission. The goal is exposure.

This is a primary color. This is a contour line. This is Van Gogh. This is symmetry.

At the end of the year, Miss Sunny can tell her employers all the great words she exposed you to. She’s got a showcase full of scribbles to prove it.

She’s not teaching art.

And I know this is going to piss off some of the teachers reading this today but I’m a freakin’ artist DESPITE the fact that I endured the public school system. And I once had to march into my son’s school to explain why teaching first graders the five easy steps to drawing football shaped eyes was damaging their natural development. So yes, I have thoughts.

The Miss Sunny in your life was never teaching art.

Nope.

My theory is proven by the fact that you don’t know how to hold a paintbrush. It’s why you don’t know how a pencil is supposed to work. It’s why you think red + blue = purple.

Most importantly: The Exposure System is why you don’t know how to draw.

Folks, everyone can learn to draw and drawing is especially easy if you catch kids when they’re young.

But no, Miss Sunny had a government approved list of art supplies for you to touch and a glossary of artsy words to mention.

You were exposed to art.

How’s that working out for ya?

Art is one of the few school subjects where basic competency is actively discouraged. Then we wonder why most adults think they’re not artistic?

Ask any professional artist to design the type of classes that would’ve made an art career easier?

I don’t know any artist who’d suggest the current system.

And no, we can’t blame budget failures. I know teachers are buying art supplies with their own money. It’s a real and serious problem but more crayons and better scissors will not fix the Exposure System.

The curriculum is rotten.

And here’s why I’m talking to you about this today… You’re not a child. You’re an adult.

And yet the online art education system is modeled after the failed children’s system.

When you log into YouTube or walk into a class at the local Jo-Michael’s Lobby— what you’re getting is a big stinkin’ wad of exposure. Watch me color while I mention magic words…

Few instructors teach the fundamentals of HOW TO USE ART SUPPLIES and if someone actually does? You ignore that part of the lesson because you’ve been trained to focus on pretty, not process.

We teach you to make beautiful messes and pat you on the head for being creative.

If you fail at watercolor, you’ll switch to markers. Later, you’ll change to the newest trendy product because pretty messes eventually get boring.

Plus, after a while, you realize you really don’t know what you’re doing.

Nobody sticks with a hobby that makes them feel dumb or incompetent.

It’s not you. It’s the Exposure System.

So if I were to design a system?

Ha! The joke’s on you because I already did.

The problem is, I’m an artist, not a marketing specialist.

So I pour my heart and soul into classes and courses with the goal of teaching you the things I wish someone had taught me sooner. I sweat the details, trying my darndest to present things clearly, to never skip important details, and I’m always weighing the applicational value and whether you can use the lesson elsewhere.

Sometimes class creation feels more like engineering…

Anyway, I make the kind of classes I needed. I make the classes I wished for, prayed for.

Then I completely botch the presentation part by calling it a ladybug class.

So forgive me for a moment while I point out the things I should be yelling from the rooftops more often…

If you want to learn to color with markers,

If you want to learn to color with colored pencils,

Exposure isn’t the answer.

Someone needs to teach you how to hold the tool. Someone needs to show you how it works and how to make efficient and artistic marks with it. Someone needs to explain the chemistry, physics, and color theory that goes into making the product look good on paper.

And as you complete the training exercises, someone needs to be watching; helping you make adjustments and pointing out the key bits you missed.

That’s art instruction.

I can demo ladybugs all the live-long day but exposure isn’t education.

I have two beginner courses. One for markers. One for colored pencils.

The marker course is about to close for the season and the pencil course will open in it’s place. Then we’ll switch back in six months.

If you want to learn markers— and I mean really learn to use markers, now is the time.

Enrollment for The Blend closes on June 30th.

Once you’re in, you’re in. Even if you enroll seconds before The Blend closes, you’re good to go. I simply stop accepting new marker students to make time for pencil students.

If you miss the June 30th deadline, your next chance to learn marker fundamentals won’t be until January 2026.

Pssttt… if you’re waiting for colored pencils, get ready because The Point opens on July 1st.