Hello Everyone!
Are you ready for the lesson two? Let's dive in!
Life Lesson 2 - Don't be afraid to learn the hard way
We all heard it growing up: listen to the adult/teacher/authority and learn from them. Don't learn the hard way! When I was young and still lived in Japan, we learned about Confucious at school. Among many famous quotes of his, this quote stood out:
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucious
As my teacher presented this quote, he reminded students of the value of listening to adults and teachers and following their wisdom. This quote stuck in my brain - the wisest way to learn is by observing others and reflecting on their behaviors and the consequences of their actions.
My young brain absorbed this message like a sponge, but one question remained—if people can gain wisdom through reflection, shouldn't there be many more of those wiser, smarter people who know exactly how to navigate life? As I became an adult and started teaching art, I realized that learning through experience is the surest way to learn. It can sometimes get painful, we all know it, but how else do we learn to do something new?
In my early days of teaching, everything was trial and error. I took advice from the owner of the Art House and decided to teach a class in a free-flow style. Students bring the projects they want to work on, and I give personalized instruction to each one. Since I was already used to giving feedback on other artists' work online, I felt this suited my style and temperament. As I started teaching, I realized one major challenge in this teaching structure—students brought projects in subject matters I had never drawn and/or in art styles furthest from mine.
Here I was, looking at pictures students brought thinking "How the heck am I going to teach how to draw these?????" while trying my best to cover my insecurities and initial emotional reaction with a smile. The students looked up to me as though I was an expert knowing every step of their project and every answer to their questions. I felt like the biggest joke in the classroom, a fraud pretending to be a teacher—a classic imposter syndrome moment. If this was happening in an online environment, I could walk away, get some fresh air, regroup, and then respond later, but not here. I was facing the students right then, and needed to be there to teach. The fact that students paid me to spend this time drawing added even more extra pressure.
So I did the only thing I could do: just do it. I looked at my students' projects as if they were mine, and showed how I would approach them. I tried my best to put myself in my student's shoes to guide and troubleshoot their projects. This is where I learned to draw upside down to make it easier for the student to see when I demo how to layer colors. Sometimes I owned up to the fact that I had never drawn that subject matter or that style to my students so that I could approach the project together with the student as a collaborative learning experience.
If you have ever taken my class you probably noticed that I never touch my student's art. All the suggestions for the next step or the correction are shown on a tracing paper over your current project. This is because I want your art to be 100% yours. I had taken an oil painting class when I was a teen and my instructor always demonstrated my canvas. Granted, there wasn't any other good way to show a specific painting technique, so this was an important aspect of my learning. But every project I finished when I started taking the class felt like a hodgepodge of my awkward beginner brushstrokes combined with my instructor's flawless strokes. It did not feel like my work, so it took a long time for me to see any improvements in my painting skills. Needless to say, when I decided to teach I vowed not to do that to my students.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes and learn the hard way when trying something new. Mistakes only mean that the way you tried didn't produce the desired result. It does not mean that you or the project you are working on failed. I tell my students, "About 95% of what you might consider a mistake in your artwork can be fixed or improved in class." This is absolutely true. Once I had a student mistakenly use a very bright neon yellow pencil instead of my suggested soft pastel yellow pencil for the highlights of a cat's white fur on her project. If you are a colored pencil artist, you know that neon yellow is one of the most aggressive colors and it is almost irreversible once applied on paper. She got upset since this was for her Mother's Christmas gift thinking that the whole project was ruined. I gently calmed her down and we worked together to use the neon yellow as an asset to create a dramatic bright highlight of the fur. In the end, the project became one of her best works and everyone who saw her piece commented how the usage of neon yellow made her art special.
Coming back to the Confucious quote, learning the hard way might be the bitterest, but don't we want to learn how to get up from that bitter place? As we all know, life isn't easy. Not all wisdom can be learned from imitating others and sometimes no reflection can teach us what we can learn when we get our hands dirty and actually do it ourselves. In my humble opinion, the Confucious quote works better in reverse order:
First, try it and experiment. Be willing to make mistakes: this is where you learn the most
Second, see if you find someone doing similar things and try their way if that speaks to you
Third, collect all your experiences and reflect - you have everything you need to find your unique method of tackling this!
I think this is a lesson in not taking life too seriously. If we approach it with playfulness and experimentation, we can learn much more, and become wiser and more adept in handling what life throws at us.
Stay tuned for lesson 3!
Noriko
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