Art Class

Warning: smiley faces may make students appear happier than IRL

I am sitting in the front seat of my white F250 truck hurriedly throwing together an art lesson at the last minute for my homeschool high school art class.

I am throwing it together because we were supposed to be doing some plein air drawing which means drawing outside. I had already told the kids that we were gonna be doing this. Unfortunately, though the weather is not cooperating. It is drizzling, and drizzling and paper don’t go well together.

I had no idea this was going to happen. I had checked the weather. It said it was gonna be sunny and 73. But you know how that works

The weather doesn’t obey the weatherman.

So here I am. I have one hour to throw together a lesson. I can’t even do it in a classroom because every classroom is completely filled up.

I am looking through my book, drawing on the right side of the brain, which is the curriculum that I’ve chosen to use because that’s the curriculum that my art teacher in college used to teach my class and it’s what made me fall in love with art.

I didn’t major in art right away in college believe it or not. I didn’t think that it was something that I could make money at, so I decided I was going to major in education.

In retrospect that’s pretty funny because I can’t think of a Job that would make less money than ART except for maybe teaching.

However I did end up taking one art class as an elective in college and it was based on drawing on the right side of the brain, which is a book I highly recommend by the way and I don’t get anything for saying that.

And once I took that class, I fell in love with ART and I realize this is what I wanted to do.

I just wanted to learn everything I could. I soaked it all up.

So here I am 30 years later putting together a drawing lesson for my art class from the same source, and it’s challenging to me because I have never taught this before.

I really prefer to be better prepared.

This lesson is teaching kids how to draw a portrait from the side - in profile. I’ve only ever taught it from the front and the side is quite a bit different.  So I’m reading through the lessons at a break neck speed making sure I have all the equipment that I need.

And now it’s time for class.

And now I’m rushing to the classroom to set up in the 2

Minutes between classes.

And now the kids are filing in, and now I am drawing a portrait from the book on the whiteboard while I am telling them to grab their paper and pencils.

And now I am telling them about Rembrandt, because they don’t know anything about any artists at all.

So I am taking five minutes of precious art class time to  discuss our Artist of the week.

And now I am explaining to the class how to measure from the bottom of the eye to the bottom of the chin and from the middle of the eye to the top of the head to show them that the eyes really are in the middle of your head.

I am very familiar with this but now I am showing them how to measure where the ear goes and I’m not as familiar with that, and I’m not as familiar with Using all the different elements that I’ve taught them so far in learning how to draw a portrait and I am struggling a little bit.

I walk around and the kids are struggling a little bit too.

Some of the kids have not gotten past being able to draw the egg shape for the shape of the head, and I do my best to encourage them and help them out.

I am just wandering around as they struggle through this exercise for the whole hour and I go back-and-forth between drawing on the board and explaining different things as I see them brought out.

Here's what an eye looks like - don’t use the symbols that you have in your head. Draw what you see and how do you do that and How do you measure it using your pencil as a guide?

It’s exhausting. I’m on my feet the entire hour.

I finish the class and the kids get up and walk around and look at their drawings. Nobody says much. THen they gather their books together and they march out the door.

And I wonder, do I make any kind of difference with this class?

Nobody ever says that they like my class. Nobody ever gives me any kind of feedback. I wonder for the millionth time if what I’m doing is too difficult, if I am working too much on a college level for these high schoolers.

I even had one kid drop out of my art class. I was told that it was because she had too much of a workload and I thought she was dropping out of the Co Op completely but then I saw her last co-op , so I’m wondering, maybe it was just too hard for her.

I feel kind of guilty.

But I don’t know how else to teach this subject. I’ve named the class “anyone can draw” after Ratatouille. He was the rate who believed " Anyone can cook"

I really believe that anyone can draw,

And I feel like I really must prove the thesis of the whole class: “anyone can draw. “

I can’t  sugarcoat what I’m teaching, the whole reason that I wanted to teach this class in the first place is because when I was in high school, I was extremely frustrated that no one would teach me how to freaking draw.

When I was in college, and I took that one art course and I finally realized that there are techniques to learn how to actually draw what you see instead of drawing the symbol that’s in your head, It opened up a whole new world for me.

That was long ago. Now I can draw without thinking, it’s muscle memory for me.

Which is why I have to use a book to teach. Because I can’t really remember back that far to when I couldn’t do this and now I’m to the point where I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve been drawing caricatures for a living for 26 years And I need the guidance of a book to help me to help them.

I basically just give them some instruction from the book and then I go around and help each individual kid, but I don’t hear a lot of feedback and it’s discouraging.

So like I said all the kids file out of the classroom and they leave me with a suitcase full of drawing boards and pencils and charcoal and drawing pads and I zip it up and I very quickly get ready for my next class.

My next class is kindergarten, first and second grade. We call it game schooling.

We play a group game and then the kids play games with each other because socialization is pretty important at that age and that’s one of the reasons why these kids are in the co-op in the first place - to socialize.

So we play some bowling with a kickball and some coffee cups turned upside down and after that the kids have about a half an hour free time where they just play games I bring in from home.

They play with legos and put together puzzles and build with their magnet tiles.  So while they’re doing that, I sit and chat with one of the moms.

This particular Mom, who is my helper for this class, is the mom of one of my teenagers in my art class. Her name is Lisa.

We chitchat about different things, but then she brings up the subject of her son "C."

She says to me:

“C" was never a kid who was into art. He was always a tech kid, one of the nerdy kids. he likes video games. He’s always got his head in a device.”

I say “Really! He always has such good questions and he seems so outgoing and friendly and into my art class.” He is too. He’s always bright eyed a bushy tailed in my art class if you know what I mean.

Lisa says “You’re seeing a side of him that not many people get to see. He’s not normally like that. He's normally pretty introverted and shy.”

I am surprised. C. seems so bright and excited about learning to draw.

In fact, I have been  thinking that he is one of the few kids that will likely major an art one day. I only have a handfull of these.

So I am really kind of taken aback when I hear that he had never been interested in art before.

Lisa continues. “My daughter is the one that was interested in Art, not My Son. He took your  class  kind of as a lark, but that really likes it and it’s kind of lit  him on fire and he thinks he might want a major in art in college now!”

I am speechless.

How many times have I taught this class and felt like it was going in one ear and out the other, and I hadn’t made any kind of a difference at all, and beat myself up because maybe this is all too hard?

But I made a difference for one kid.

That one kid - if that’s all the difference I made, was all worth it.

When you teach a lot of times you don’t see the fruit of your labor. You can’t really see the difference that you’re making.

You know that you are, but it’s not the same as actually seeing and knowing. Kids don’t tell you. They don’t say thank you.

So that just really touched me and I thought it might touch you too.

I think if you put your heart into something the way I put my heart into this art class, I think if you put your heart into anything whether you see it or not, you’re going to make a difference

Even if it’s small, just be encouraged you’re making a difference wherever you are.

Wherever you are whatever you’re doing You’re where you’re supposed to be.

Kathy Buskett

---

Hi, my name is Kath yBuskett. Im a working artist - a caricaturist - and I also teach art class to teenagers. Im a homeschooler to 3 neurodiverse teenagers and a wife to a pastor and a music minister at our house church.

If you need entertainment and youre on the gulf coast, IM one of the fastest caricature artists in the world. Please check out the rest of my site here

you can also contact me at kathybuskett@gmail.com to see if im available for your wedding, corporate event or party.

Thanks for reading!