“But you used a picture, that’s cheating!”
One of the interesting parts of learning to draw has been getting feedback from the kids. After a read aloud, the kids and I will spend 5 minutes sketching a key scene or idea from the book.
As I was pressed for time in this exercise, I grabbed an image from google to overlay some of the lines I knew for a scene I wanted to sketch of a road leading into the mountains.
“Am I cheating or using resources?”
I explained that one of the challenges I have as an artist is breaking down images into their parts and knowing how to build in colours and shading to add depth. At the moment I am focusing on lines but it takes some time for me to be able to break an image down.
Overlaying another image to trace I am thinking about lines and how to break down images into different pieces which is the focus of my learning right now.
Even at 8 years old, the children already have drummed into them that getting help (especially from computers) is cheating. When I look at the skills I’m learning today – hair braiding, cake decorating, even drawing, a lot of my learning is coming through the assistance of a computer. Are the skills I’ve learned less valid because they came from a screen?
This child is also the one I have the most challenge moving from “I can’t do this, I’m no got at it” to “I can’t do this yet, and I’m going to find out…”
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Teaching the Teacher 
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