JanieWC Art & Design

#1. Learn experience level and any learning disabilities.

#2. Discuss expected outcomes and goals.

#3. Discuss needed materials and/or digital systems.

#4. Start with basics or review knowledge base.

Three college art degrees.

Career digital and studio artist

Taugh and facilitated in public school, university, and private training.

$25/hour. I prefer to teach in two hour increments. If it goes a little over that’s no big deal. I have all sorts of art supplies, so if you want to try various things before investing in a lot of art supplies, it’s $10 extra per session to use my materials instead. If something is a lot extra like a large canvas or something like that, we discuss it before and you can bring it and you can bring your own paint or you can use mine for the extra charge. I also want to be clear that I am in Rockford, Illinois. I prefer to teach out of my own studio. If you’re willing to drive to the southwest side of Rockford, Illinois, by all means, please contact me.

I considered a degree in art education at Illinois State University but, back in the late 1970s, the teaching field was flooded and there was no easy way to get started in the industry. Also, I didn’t imagine myself being happy trapped in a room full of 13-year-olds exactly like me, Lol. I started by teaching people how to convert their “cut-and-paste” graphic design skills to the computer. In the early 90s, when I started doing digital art, there was no school to go to. Those who knew how to do it, like myself, taught others. I found I liked it. Enough that I went into public school technology education at Rockford Public School District 205, and then university technology education. I retired from Northern Illinois University in 2018.

I started teaching one-on-one to adults. Then I was hired as a technology implementer at a communication and technology magnet school so I had to learn to teach children. I crash-coursed Marva Collins’ technique that was used with urban disadvantaged students in Chicago. That was the model upon which our magnet school was based. I do not have a degree in education. I’m clear about that when a person first meets with me. However, I was taught by professionals from the age of 12, and I teach what I have learned in my classical academic art education and self taught digital education that I’ve taught others. I spent another 13 years teaching university faculty and graduate students how to implement technology in their curricula.

Realized I was being very focused on fundamentals and academic methodology by listening to my 11-year-old art student. I had planned a color theory project working with complementary colors. We were looking at all the different media I have to choose from and she said she wanted to work with pastels. Pastels are enormously messy and difficult preserve on the paper. I tried to discourage it because, frankly, it’s so ephemeral that I’m unsure I can get it home with them without it being damaged. I asked her why she wanted to use pastels? She answered, “Because I like to get messy.“ It was an epiphany for me. It’s not always important that every art piece be archival-quality. It’s more important that art is experiential and enjoyable. That opened me up to a lot more possibilities. Thank you Addy!

If I were looking for any kind of instructor, and specifically an art instructor, I would want to know, not so much if they’re a great artist, but “Are they a great teacher?” I missed my calling. I should’ve continued into art education because I’m a natural teacher. It’s not my field, it’s my attitude. My daughter says it drives her crazy every time I do something because I’m constantly telling her how I’m doing it when she just wants me to do it and get it over with, lol. It’s really easy for an artist to look down on an inexperienced person wanting to learn art. I assume nothing. To me, from teaching technology for over 30 years, everybody has a start point. It’s my job to find where that is. I always started my students at the same place: the color wheel, choice of media, contour drawing, perspective, gesture drawing, shape building, and lighting. These are fundamentals. If someone nails one of these, we move on. I do it with children and I do it with adults.

The first question, I would ask to the student to ask themselves. Why do you want to study art? I remember the illustration professors at my university, shaking their heads, because their students had spent so much of their art lives drawing dragons and anime figures that they couldn’t learn how to draw anything else. “Are you ready to learn?” is the question. “Are you willing to throw everything you know out the window?” “Can you handle criticism?” It’s impossible to teach a student that already knows everything they’re ever gonna know. There’s no room for growth. That is what I try to find out first: “Are you ready to learn?”