There is no such thing as one painting style/technique being better than another. There are teachers who don’t like this or that style/technique, but that says only about the teacher’s personal preferences. If you or, more importantly, the child, hold different views, it is better to look for another teacher. Your child may like drawings in Marvel comics or fantasy illustrations – each style will require competent instruction and coaching anyway.

Look at the website of illustrators – what different works there! How many different styles, techniques, and visual devices! All of them have the right to exist, they all find their place, depending on the goals, objectives, customer’s opinion and personal preferences of the artist. Each work finds its own viewer.

Is it possible to know in advance if a child will grow up to be a professional artist?

A big plus of any art school (and college later) is the ability to draw all the time, regardless of the mood, theme or desire. This is exactly what a future artist will have to deal with later in his or her career. Because of the transformation of a labor of love into a necessity, it happens that before entering art school, a child usually draws with pleasure and then, in the process of studying, the overall pleasure of drawing often comes to naught or disappears altogether. The joy of favorite themes or subjects that are not always present remains, but it can also disappear.

If all of this does not drive the child away from the drawing lessons, most likely, he or she will turn out to be a successful professional artist. If the child refuses to draw in such conditions – let him/her make a break and decide whether he/she is ready to continue or will give up drawing for good. Sometimes it happens that rejection is caused not by regular drawing as a whole, but by a particular style of drawing or teaching. In this case, as I have already mentioned, transfer of the child to another instructor can help. And sometimes it happens that it is better to leave drawing for a hobby or a pleasant leisure time when compulsion is completely excluded. After all, there are a lot of other interesting professions in the world. If a child has been enjoying trying different styles for a few years and doesn’t want to stop at one thing, you can subsequently send him to a school of design or offer to do magazine illustration.

In any case you should choose only one where the teaching technique corresponds or is similar to the art school your child goes to. An exception is your child’s own desire to try a new technique and willingness to learn it in a short period of time.

At universities, the manifestation of “alien” style in a student will be crushed rather ruthlessly, and you must be prepared for this

Of course, over the years, faculty may reconsider some of their positions, so you should also be prepared for the changes that may occur during your studies.

Personal experience. In my university, the Design Learning Center came into being as an experiment. At the very beginning, when I was just entering the program, my teachers were very much in favor of classical training in the spirit of the Stroganov school. In particular, the computer was seen as a tool for lazybones, which did not suit future professionals. Three years later tasks appeared that were designed for computer work, even though they kept assuring us that we would still be doing most of the work by hand. In the sixth year of my studies I practically did the whole diploma in computer programs.

There are art schools that specifically prepare you for admission to a particular college, so it is advisable to decide on the choice of college in advance to have time to pass the school appropriate training. Most universities have preparatory courses, which, though less reliable, can also prepare you for admission. A good option may also be to contact a teacher who independently prepares for a particular university and has a good reputation. An experienced teacher in some cases can prepare a student for admission in two years practically from scratch (I saw one such case). However, such intensive accelerated training is possible only at an older age, from 15 years, when the brain is already able to absorb and process such large amounts of information. Besides, it is the most severe learning overload and is not suitable for every child.

When choosing any profession that requires the ability to draw (painter, designer, architect, restorer, retoucher, decorator, and so on), you should consider the specifics of work in this field. For example, if you work as a graphic designer, you’ll have to spend up to 14 hours a day at the monitor. Will a visually impaired child be able to cope with such a harsh rhythm? Oil paints will require regular inhalation of diluent fumes. Hand-painting small figures will need to sit with their back bent at all times. Architecture will require the ability to make accurate calculations and sometimes the management of construction work. A book illustrator can afford to work on illustrations for a week to a month, depending on the order, while a magazine illustrator often has to produce a finished result in a couple of hours.

It is best to find out about the specifics of this or that job from current professionals. Alternatively, you can explore job search sites, where the requirements for the employee are described under each vacancy. This can prevent the wrong choice, when health or character peculiarities may not allow the child in the future to regularly engage in the work for which years of study have been spent.

Personal experience. When I received my education, we did not know any designers, the Internet was not yet widespread, and we had nowhere to take information about the future profession, except at the open house of the chosen university. As I said, at that time the attitude of the faculty about the computer in teaching was very negative. Coming in, I was sure that I will just draw with my hands, as usual, and only in the third year I realized that without a computer in the chosen profession (graphic designer), as they say, “neither here nor there. For me it was a disaster, because when I was working at the monitor for a long time I started to have problems with my eyes and blood vessels. It took me several years to get these problems down to a minimum and fully engage in drawing in computer programs.

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If a child is young, any experienced teacher who loves children and his subject, and with whom children study with pleasure, without much strain, will do. Later on if the child becomes seriously interested in drawing and specifically wants to develop their skills, you can think of a new teacher and a more narrow focus: black and white or color graphics, painting, drawing from life, painting and so on. Each teacher has his own style of drawing, his own technique of drawing (usually these two points are interconnected), and his own method of teaching. You can see this by looking at the work of his students: they will most often be different from one teacher to another. Art schools have a similar situation. Let the child look at the exhibited works of students and teachers and say whether he wants to draw the same way. If yes, then the child can be initially sent to this school (to this teacher), and then observe.

1- about the compatibility of styles and techniques

In simplified terms, style is how a drawing or a work of art looks like, technique is how to achieve it. I would compare different artistic styles and techniques to playing different musical instruments. This is an analogy, of course, but in this situation it is quite accurate. If a child is taught to play the violin, it makes no sense to transfer him or her to a teacher who teaches piano to further develop the skills he or she already has. The situation with drawing is very similar. If a child is taught to draw neatly from life, then, later getting to the teacher who specializes in decorative painting, drawing skills from life will gradually deteriorate.

It happens that a child likes the drawings that are done by the teacher or school, but the method of teaching, as they say, “did not go”.

If a child is not comfortable at drawing lessons, and during one or two years, there is no visible improvement (if you cannot determine it yourself, the child or his teacher will tell you), it is better to change the teacher or school. The situation can be remedied by a different technique or the child simply wants to try drawing in a different style or technique.

If a child has studied drawing with one teacher (or school) for a long time (several years) and successfully, it’s not desirable to transfer him/her to another teacher who uses a different style or technique, even if you’ve heard more positive feedback about him/her. The situation I mentioned above, “retraining from violin to piano,” may arise. Sometimes the differences in style or technique are not noticeable at first glance. In this case, look at the child.

A drastic change of style or technique can cause a noticeable regression in a child’s learning and the more different styles of work and teaching, the longer it will take a child to get used to it, which will inhibit or even freeze the development of their skills. Even if you don’t draw yourself, you can understand if the child is satisfied with the teacher and his or her work, if his or her drawing skills are improving, by asking questions unobtrusively. The child can even like the teacher as a person, but if one or two years have passed and there are no significant improvements in their learning, it means that the teaching methods or drawing techniques do not suit them. It is best to change the teacher, no matter how good a person he or she is.

A wise and experienced teacher will probably tell the parents after two years. In a shorter period of time it is rather risky to determine whether there is improvement, because some children learn in “accumulation mode”: up to a certain point there is no progress, there is an accumulation of knowledge and skills, and then there is a sudden jump, then the usual, moderately steady improvement begins.

2 – Stability in teaching for successful skill development

Virtually all styles and techniques lead to the desired result – improved drawing skills – but in different ways. Only unreasonable switching from style to style, from technique to technique worsens the result. It can (with rare exceptions) severely slow down and even stop the development of skills.

Some teachers allow their child to develop his or her own style which is not similar to style of other students

But if a teacher himself/herself does not know this style at least in theory, the process will be left on its own, and it is difficult to predict what the end result will be.

Personal experience. I have been painting for a long time, about 25 years, and during my studying I have changed about a dozen of teachers. All of them were, in my opinion, good teachers, and shared their experience with great pleasure. The only drawback is that many of them were painting in different styles and techniques, so I had to spend a lot of time on retraining when switching to a new teacher, instead of developing what I was really good at.

At the beginning of each such transition I regressed, trying to adapt to the new methods. Moreover, I met teachers who would tear apart all other styles, except their own, and categorically forbade me to paint the way I liked. Because of constant retraining in my head a real mess of styles and a lot of unfinished works which I did not know what result I wanted to achieve in the end. Little by little I became disillusioned with my drawing and painting skills. I had to give up drawing of any kind for a while and work in a different line of work in order to figure out how to draw a little. It wasn’t until eight years later that I found my niche as an artist.

3 – Is it possible to study several techniques at the same time?

Yes, as long as they are either related techniques or studied superficially. Some teachers do this by asking students to try one or the other.

Design schools almost always force students to study a variety of techniques and styles. But it is important to remember that in this case everything is studied shallowly, that is, there is not a strong load on the brain. In addition, all this is subordinated to the development of a single skill – the ability to create a comfortable visual space that would facilitate the perception of a particular style. In-depth study of several different techniques and styles at once usually does not lead to any good result.

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