Paint Drip #344 "Under The Shadow of Clouds, Sonoma Mountain" PURCHASE HERE
We all learn art from someone else in some way. Maybe you went to art school. Maybe you took some JC courses, private classes, or even had a parent or relative teach you. There’s also a big chance you are what is known as self-taught. You learned everything you could from videos(or a book, if you’re old enough), and studying other artists in museums or from photos online.
We all use the free knowledge out there for everything. Learning recipes, finance, how to change a headlamp, etc. However, when it comes to mastering anything, someone helping to guide you through the steps that they went through is really valuable. You are very likely to have to pay in some way for that type of education.
Is it possible to put together a curriculum for yourself through the free education out there? Sure. But you’re relying completely on the free resources, and therefore limiting yourself to the idea of what constitutes a curriculum to someone generous enough to do that for you.
I have a lot of free info I’ve contributed to the art world, specifically to my strengths, but it’s not something I would consider comprehensive. I do give everyone an overview of my method out there freely (My ECR Method), but the more specific I get, the more I need to provide hands-on explanations of everything, which means I need to be compensated for my time. And I believe that is how most teachers work.
Yes, you can find most of everything I teach out there for free if you look hard enough. But you’ll never get to the solution to your problem without asking someone for help with your specific issues.The more granular your problem is, the more you’ll need a specialist to help you solve it. If you have gotten to a point in your journey where you feel like you can’t advance further on your own, that is the time where you may need to look at finding a good teacher to help you get to the next level.
All of this is not to say that you shouldn't look to free education for solutions. You can find plenty of solutions there. It is mainly to say that if you are holding yourself back through your unwillingness to pay to find answers to your problems, it may be time to examine if the sunk time is worth the saved money.
A non-human teacher will answer the question: “How does this work?”
A human teacher will answer the question: “How does this work for me?”
-Sergio
PS. Interested in learning about my courses? Please reach out to me at sergio@sergiolopezfineart.com and let me know!