There is a myth that the ability to draw and paint is something that you are born with. We have tackled that myth over the last seven years at the Little Art School.

Little Art School Founding Partner Joanne Robinson explains how we shattered the myth and can now teach anyone to draw and paint.

Can We Learn to Draw and Paint as an Adult?

The ability to draw and paint is something you can learn. We often hear, ‘The gene passed me by; I can’t draw a stick man!’ or ‘She gets it from her gran; she has always been artistic’.

The truth is that the ability to draw and paint is not inherited. It is not red hair or brown eyes. No one is born itching to reach for a pencil. You learn that skill and can be taught that skill.

At the Little Art School, we have demonstrated beyond any doubt that we can teach anyone to draw and paint. You are never too old to learn!

A few years ago, a lady in her nineties arrived for her first art class. She was smiling and happy but confessed that she had no idea what she was doing there. Her niece had bought her the art classes as a Christmas gift, and she wanted to show willingness, but she needed to make it clear to me that she couldn’t draw a line.

‘Right,’ I said, passing her a pencil, ‘let’s start with a line then.’

Just three weeks later, this reluctant and disbelieving student finished a watercolour painting and sat back in her chair, staring in wonder at her work. ‘

Well, I never!’ she exclaimed. ‘You are right, anyone can be taught to do this, you just follow the steps and practise! I really wish I’d started in my seventies now!!’

I tell this story anytime someone tells me they are too old to start learning to draw and paint. I said it to myself last week when I took part in my very first online Japanese lesson. I thought of my nonagenarian art student and reminded myself that once I turned 60 (I’m 48 right now), I could potentially be reading and writing Japanese fluently, something which seems unimaginable right now! See, I just needed to start.

There is a wonderful Chinese proverb about planting a tree that says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.

A Structured Drawing and Painting Course

We developed our Little Art School Drawing and Painting Course over several years. We created it, tested it, rewrote large chunks, and analysed it, and seven years later, we are very proud of it.

It starts by teaching how to draw a line and ends with painting Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in pencil.

The evolution and design of the course were inspired by my own journey of learning to draw and paint. I enjoyed drawing as a child and would spend hours copying from my Disney Annuals or drawing illustrations from my favourite books.

No one ever taught me, but I developed my basic skills through repetition.

At secondary school, my confidence dropped. Like many people I have chatted to over the years, I started to doubt my ability. I looked at the people who seemed to be able to draw ‘effortlessly’ and I started to tell myself it was obviously something I couldn’t do.

An art teacher backed this up, clearly separating the class into the chosen few who could draw and the rest of us. I packed up my sketchbooks and put away my pencils before I turned 13. I gave up art at school and accepted the myth that the ability to draw and paint was something you were born with, and I had missed out.

Did you have a similar experience? Did you love drawing as a child but have a moment when you were told you couldn’t do it? That your family didn’t have the gene?

So many of us heard and believed this myth. So many of us stopped drawing for years because we thought that some special magic gift had missed us. But think back: Do you remember how drawing made you feel as a child? I remember losing myself in the drawing. I could spend hours with some paper and my felt tips. It was pure joy.

Learning to Draw and Paint is like Learning to Play a Musical Instrument

Imagine starting to play a musical instrument, teaching yourself, and stumbling and fumbling to find your way. With no lessons and no guidance, your progress will be slow.

You would know that to improve, you need two things: to be taught and to practise.

Learning to draw and paint is EXACTLY the same.

You need to be taught, and you need to practise. Put those two things in place, and they will all come together.

My Story – From First Lesson to Commissioned Artist

I was almost thirty and pregnant with my first child when I came across a poster outside a community hall. It was a simple sheet of A4 advertising a class: ‘Drawing and Painting for those who think they can’t’. I loved the name of the class. It addressed the insecurities that had put me off joining an art class. I signed up and went, with some fear, to my first lesson.

Within ten years I was selling commissions and prints of my work, mainly portraits. That decade of learning was filled with moments of understanding when a point about perspective, composition, or colour mixing would suddenly become obvious, and I could feel ‘the penny drop’. I went to sporadic evening and day classes when I could, but I had four babies in that decade so attending classes was difficult.

Mostly, I learned from reading countless books. And making mistakes; many, many mistakes.

During that decade, I would have loved to have followed the highly structured course we have created here. It all begins with simple shapes and a pencil grip.

The Little Art School online art course breaks everything down into easy-to-follow steps. It is progressive. Our artists are constantly developing their skills, learning week by week.

We know our students need to be kind to themselves, and we aim to build self-esteem and develop self-confidence when we teach how to draw and paint.

There is a fine line between being a reflective practitioner determined to learn from mistakes and being a self-destructive critic.

Let’s stress the good and see where development can take place!