The text advises teachers on encouraging students to develop their drawing skills through inspiration and selective feedback, emphasizing both copying originals and fostering creativity. It stresses the importance of balancing praise and criticism to maintain motivation and enhance learning. The significance of finishing their drawings and the impact of teaching methods on a student's unique artistic development are discussed.
42 METHOD FOR LEARNING
about the knowledge they have acquired. A skilled teacher can inspire the students and encourage them to undertake creative work by demonstrating something himself in their presence and teaching them at the same time how he does it. This is how La Fage taught drawing to his students (a). One should also encourage young people by praising the good they can achieve without pointing out all their faults at once. Instead, address each mistake at different times, one after the other. Therefore, it is useful, when criticizing part of their work, to praise another part simultaneously, to compensate somewhat for the inner disappointment and distress they might feel from their lack of success. This method should be followed from the beginning to the end of their studies, so they steadily advance in drawing by these two means: copying good originals and creating something from their own imagination.
Of what importance it is to finish drawings.
When young people make some progress and start putting their figures well together, it's crucial to present them with finely drawn heads.
(a) Some Masters used to have their students draw from memory the things they had just created from an original, and this practice can be beneficial, provided it is used sparingly and only at the start of studies; because, once they are more advanced, it would only imprint the Master’s particular style in their memory, from which they must eventually break free to spread their own wings.
Translation Notes: "La Fage" refers to a method or style attributed to the artist La Fage. The term "dessiner à la fes élèves" means teaching drawing to students.