It’s a few weeks now since settling back into our autumnal school, work and education-related routines and, as ever, I’ve been pondering potential creative projects for the upcoming seasons. At a certain point of dreaming up and exploring a project, I’ll ask myself how I would go about setting up and teaching or facilitating the activity. Is it something quite straightforward and with an accessible starting point, or is it something that will need a few more instructions and if so, what do I need to work out first in order to teach?

When my children were younger, I would definitely tend to lean towards ‘facilitating’ more than ‘teaching’ or giving instruction, as this worked well with a process-led approach, and gave the children plenty of space to explore freely. As they grew a little older however, and they began to explore online tutorials, I came to recognise that following instructions could be equally exciting to them as they were essentially able to de-mystify, break down, and learn the steps to things they initially didn’t know they could do themselves. The facilitating of creative projects can give a great sense of permission to play with materials and ideas, letting go of the sense of there being any right or wrong, placing value on the enjoyment of the process over outcome. On the other hand, teaching the steps and learning how things work, from the inside out, can be empowering and confidence building.

Whilst I had a personal inclination towards facilitating when it comes to creativity, I came to value each approach equally, for the different benefits and outcomes they can each offer. It’s also often the case that individual children will have a preference for one approach over the other – in the same way that some children love to follow all the instructions in a Lego kit, whilst others will ignore the instructions completely in favour of inventing their own magnificent creations!

Teaching

Last year, I thought I would finally have a go at working with the book Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I learned about this book many years ago at a PowerWood camp and it turned out it had already been sitting on our bookshelves for a long time, having belonged to my husband during his art student days. I have to confess that I didn’t get very far with the exercises at all. But what I loved in the opening chapters was the clear message that drawing is not a special gift mysteriously bestowed on a few talented individuals, but a skill that can be learned and taught. She states early on that “drawing is a global (or whole) skill requiring only a limited set of basic components” of which she lists five components. She goes on to explain that it is not really the skill itself that is difficult to master, and that what she teaches through her work is a way of seeing. She describes the perceptual shift involved in “seeing like an artist” and offers exercises that cultivate the perceptual shift. Her work is arguably, both teaching and facilitating as she herself explains in the opening chapters of the book:

“The exercises and instructions … have been designed specifically for people who cannot draw at all, who may feel that they have little or no talent for drawing, and who may feel doubtful that they could ever learn to draw – but who think they might like to learn. The approach… is different from other drawing instruction books in that the exercises are aimed at opening access to skills you already have but that are simply waiting to be released.”

The core philosophy that it is possible to teach drawing – both in terms of technical and perceptual skills – is very empowering. It can transform beliefs around not being able to draw (which I have heard so often over the years), into a sense that drawing is no different to any other skill and that is possible for anyone to learn if they want to. I remember seeing this process in action when we used to explore Kawaii and Anime drawing when the children were younger, with kawaii drawing being a simplified and theme-orientated (cute characters!) version of learning-to-draw skills. In a way, following the steps line by line to realise that we had created an almost exact version of the given example was just as magical as trying to somehow conjure it ourselves. The ‘ah, that’s how you do it!’ and the finished result of a cute character for us, was just as fun as if we had ‘just been able to do it’ (without special instruction).  

As well as teaching being about giving instruction, and providing a series of steps in order to understand and execute a particular technique, the structured acquiring of core skills can be foundational, in the sense that it provides underlying tools and perspectives for thinking and seeing like an artist. As confidence and skill grows from understanding the inner workings of creative techniques and methods, these tools can be drawn upon in ever new ways to the point at which the skills are truly being used in the service of a persons’ own inner imagination.    

There are plenty of creative activities that do involve a technique or certain steps to be completed in order to create a desired effect. Sewing, cross-stitch, knitting or crochet can all involve following patterns and knowing different types of stitches. In pottery, one might learn the technique for making pots from coiling clay, and how to ensure there are no air-bubbles before firing, when and how to apply a glaze and so on. If it helps to get started on your own creative journey using a teaching-led approach, there are plenty of kits, tutorials and books to explore, and maybe even some in-person art classes?

Facilitating

When it comes to teaching younger children, I think one of the reasons for favouring a facilitation approach over teaching is that, unlike a more skills-based approach, there is no right or wrong.

The facilitation approach doesn’t exclude teaching or offering some form of guidance but, in my experience, places more emphasis on the process, and following, allowing, nurturing the innate creativity of an individual. In this approach, there is an underlying assumption that everyone has a creative impulse, there doesn’t have to be a right or wrong way of executing any given creative task (which could be a barrier for some), values all creativity – everything is welcome – and there no sense of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art or creative output. Of course, an individual might still be disappointed with what they create if they have certain expectations from the outset, however over time, this approach can lead to breaking down the barriers of perfectionism, encouraging playfulness and an attitude of exploration when it comes to creativity. It also makes space for everyone’s different learning pace, styles and needs as the emphasis is not on mastering a skill in a set way or time, but on the experience of creativity as much as the development of skill.

I truly love to see how within one given activity there will be so many different outcomes, and I find that there are other benefits to this approach when working in groups or sitting together with friends or as a family. I personally find this approach can lead more easily into ‘finding flow’ and as a result, connection too. If you are not thinking too hard about technique, learning skill, or the steps of a craft it’s possible to settle in and just let the activity unfold. Of course, if you are already skilled in a technique you will use this automatically, and it is still entirely possible to enter a flow state!

I often set up a facilitated session by showing an example of what we are working towards – to minimise the need for verbal instruction (if possible, I show more than one example to give a sense of possibility and open-endedness). I then offer a range of materials, give a little orientation about the task, and allow people to set about creating. It is an invitation to creativity, rather than a set of instructions on how to create. It will usually also be an activity that has the potential to be as simple or as complex, as structured or as open-ended as an individual would like. For example, in a greeting card-making session, I might provide some card blanks, a range of drawing and colouring equipment, some glue sticks, some embellishments like buttons, gems, die-cut shapes and so on… some in the group might choose to draw and colour on their blank card, whilst some might make a collage with lots of elaborate decoration. All are equally wonderful and welcome!   

In this situation, it’s also easy to chat and connect with others in the group as well as discovering new ideas and techniques from the others, and not necessarily the teacher alone. There are always surprises for me in this scenario! I am frequently surprised by what people create and I myself am always learning new ways of seeing and new ways of putting things together. 

A mix of both

If having to think about ‘how to teach’ the steps of a project feels like a bit of a barrier to getting started – as it did to me at times – or if facilitating feels too open with no clear beginning or end – hopefully this post explores the balance and offers some inspiration on how to combine the two approaches to suit your own family creativity.  

I think the ongoing question for me is, how can I ‘teach’ without necessarily setting up the feeling of right and wrong, and how can I ‘facilitate’ without leaving the field too wide open – because this can be equally as intimidating or confusing for some who do enjoy more instruction as a starting point?

Ultimately both approaches have great value and a fusion of both, as Betty Edwards offers in her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, can offer both confidence-boosting skills, and new ways of thinking/feeling/experiencing creativity.

As I go into the autumn, I’m also going to remember that when it comes to facilitating creative experiences, the projects and ideas don’t always have to be new and original. Circling back on old-favourites from time to time can mean that one single project or idea can have so many potentially different outcomes and manifest differently each time. It could also be that we practise one skill for a while, for example sewing, and then set up projects that are not exclusively sewing-based, but where a few stitches might be incorporated into another project as creative embellishments… When a few simple tools, techniques or core creativity skills are put together with a process-oriented approach, the possibilities are endless! 

© 2024 Abigail Cole

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