Counseling Education

Creative Encouragement In Art Classes

When children are young, most don't know whether their artwork would be considered "good" or not, and they don't really care. They enjoy making pictures and they appreciate that people praise them and admire the drawings. Yet, when kids start school, some of those same budding artists turn away due to comments from other students or lack of support from teachers. Having an art teacher that acknowledges work and encourages creativity can make all the difference in a child's education. 

For teachers, it's not always easy to find ways to encourage students and get them to try new things. As children get older, they tend to lose some of the freedom and inhibitions they used previously. There's a part of the student that wants to conform to peers, and that can lead to a lack of trying.

 Structure 

One of the best things a teacher can do for encouraging creativity is to give some structure. If a teacher says students can choose whatever they'd like to do, the freedom leads most kids to do something they've already done. By giving some structure to the assignment, it will encourage the students to think a little harder and find a more creative path. For example, the teacher may assign a free day, but with the stipulation that students use a medium they are not as comfortable with. Someone who prefers painting could find he enjoys oil pastels. A potter may enjoy jewelry making. Just a little tweaking to an assignment can find new creativity. 

No Copy-work 

In many art classes, it is a staple of learning to pick a picture and copy it to the best of the student's ability. There are skills that come from this, but how creative is it? When it really comes down to it, nearly anyone can copy a picture. To encourage more creativity, have interesting objects around the room to draw. Instead of handing out a picture of a bird, bring one in. Even if it's a stuffed replica, it will be more of a challenge than a picture. Students will see different light and angles and be forced to think differently than they would in typical copy-work. 

Imagine 

It's easy to inundate students with multiple images and lots of verbal explanations. Art is more than that, though. For a full art education, students must learn to feel the image within them before they can start to show it in the medium they choose. One thing a teacher can do is not show a lot of examples, but describe them. Explain lines and textures, colors and angles, so students have a picture in their own minds. Whatever they put down is what they imagine, rather than a copy based on the many images that were thrown at them. 

Reinforcement vs. Lesson 

Many times when teaching Art History, a teacher can become bogged down with what a master created. It is more challenging to encourage students to study how and why it was created. In studying and researching methods, students start to see historical pieces as reinforcement of their learning, not as the lesson itself. It encourages them to see that this has been done before, but they can put their own spin on the technique and create their own vision. 

An interesting way to put these ideas into practice is to have students draw with certain guidelines: draw a face, add a building, use letters in a continuous line, etc. Each student's drawing will be very different, but will probably recall in some way a historical piece they've seen. 

No education is complete without creativity. For art teachers, it's especially hard to force students into thinking and creating outside the box. Keeping in mind a few simple points will make it a little easier and help students to open their minds to new things. 

Author Bio

Ryan Ayers is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to education. In this article, he describes a few ways to foster creativity in children and aims to encourage further study with an Online UF Art Education Degree.

Image credit:  inacentaurdump on Flickr