Artistic Skills &

Your Child

Some children have more of an inherent talent, or an aptitude, for art than others. But worrying about how much talent they do or don't have is just a waste of energy and more importantly time.

Any child can learn to master the techniques fundamental to good drawing and learn how to improve their creativity. Having bucketfuls of "talent" is no guarantee any child will be a good artist because it takes more than ability to be creative.

The advantage of believing (or others believing) you're childs ‘got talent’ when they start out is that initially artistic things come easily to them, rather than having to strive to achieve. But relying on talent will only get your child so far. Sooner or later they will reach a spot where talent isn't enough. What then?

If they work at developing artistic drawing skills, from how different brushes work to how colors interact, and actively pursue their own ideas and creations rather than expecting creative thoughts to come from you, they are already in the habit of exploring possibilities, of investigating, of pushing things one step further.

The thing to keep in mind is if your child didn't have any artistic ability in the first place, he/she wouldn't have any desire to paint. It's that desire, combined with persistence and the systematic learning of painting techniques, not talent, which makes a successful artist who can draw.

In the end, "what distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and........” – John Ruskin