The Visual Artist: Naturally Skilled or Skillfully Learned?

A Form of Expression Throughout time, people have developed different ways to express themselves. Visual art has been around since the dawn of man, dating back to cave paintings in ancient times. This form of expression has evolved from primitive etchings to beautiful, visually stunning pieces of work open to interpretation by the general public. As time has passed, the skill has become much more refined, and styles of art have constantly been changing. Because the skill has become more refined, people can opt to major in visual art in college. This provides promising artists a way to enhance their skill and do what they are passionate about. Although the classes
The students in the room also maintained a peaceful status; whereas I was a bit shocked the man was standing buck naked in front of everybody. Soon the pupils in the studio were hard at work drawing the nude model that was situated with one hand on his hip and the other resting on his thigh. They drew him for five minutes, and then the instructor told the model to switch poses. The artists then drew him in his new pose for five minutes, and he switched poses again. This cycle continued for a good twenty minutes when finally the teacher extended the time from five to ten minutes, allowing the students to go into more detail on their drawings. As I walked around the room, I observed different people and the methods they used to draw the model. A few artists lightly drew a stick frame of the model, and then drew around the frame to create the body. Another artist drew a line at the top and bottom of her paper to establish proportions, and then drew the nude model free hand. The instructor also paced around the room watching the artists draw intently. David had a very loose lesson plan, changing it on the drop of a dime when he felt like it. I observed that he was usually helping students that were struggling, but seldom helped artists that, to me, visually seemed as if they were drawing well. He suggested different techniques to the artists he assisted, and occasionally drew on their sketchpad if they