Master Art in Homeschool

What is it about Art that feels so intimidating to teach? From scratch marks on a piece of paper, to oil paints of stationary objects there is such a wide array of where to start, how do you decide what to teach? Join Janna Koch, BookShark's Community Manager as she is joined by Cody Wheelock, founder and creative arts coach of Fount Atelier as they discuss how to incorporate art into your homeschooling and the challenges that can come with teaching the subject. Learn about the top 3 hang-ups that can prevent you and your student from reaching your creative art goals or maybe how to set goals and pass up the hang-ups altogether!

Janna (00:01):

Welcome to Homeschool Your Way. I'm your host, Janna Koch, and Books Shark's Community Manager. In today's episode, I'm joined by Cody Wheelock and he is the founder of Fount Atelier. It's a fine arts coaching program where he has mastered a technique in bringing art classes, not only in the studio but online. We're going to be discussing the top three hangups that might be holding you back, or your child, from accomplishing the art goals that you have set. Maybe you didn't even know that you had art goals, but hopefully, by the end of this episode, you're going to set some. So let me introduce Cody. Cody, thank you so much for being here.

Cody (00:42):

Hey, Janna, thanks for having me. I am really excited and honored to be on the podcast today.

Janna (00:47):

I'm excited to talk about art because, to be honest, it's not something that I have ever really ventured into or instructed my children in when we were homeschooling. So as a homeschool mom and talking to homeschool families, I feel like we do a really good job of getting the math, the reading, and the essentials in. But when we start to think about adding more things, that can be really overwhelming. And one thing that we like to talk about at Homeschool Your Way is outsourcing. So I think you are the perfect person to talk to about the idea of outsourcing art. So why don't you just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Cody (01:26):

Yeah, sure. So, as you say, my name's Cody Wheelock and I run Fount Atelier Fine Art, which is an art coaching program both in the studio and online. And you're right, I think that a lot of homeschooling families hit a bit of a wall when they get to that point where they want to start incorporating a little bit of fine art instruction into their program. Because I mean, let's face it, we can all read pretty well, right? We can all do some basic math, we can all do some language arts types thing things and do literature. But when it comes to something like art where it's a little bit more skill-based, and even music for that matter is probably in the same boat, that can seem a little intimidating because if, as a parent, you don't feel like maybe you have the skills to do that well, it makes it hard to know how to teach that to your kids. So yeah, I think it's a struggle and a challenge that a lot of families face.

Janna (02:23):

Now we're talking about what you have identified as maybe the top three hangups to not only getting comfortable with bringing this subject into a homeschool environment but just art in general. So let's jump right in. What is number one?

Cody (02:42):

Yeah, so the three biggest hangups that I think a lot of families face when trying to implement a fine arts program, or just learning to draw or paint themselves, number one, I think is a lot of times just a lack of skill. A lot of parents, just don't feel confident in their ability to draw or paint something well. And I think that a lot of people have a little bit of embarrassment over that, or they're just not sure how to do it. A lot of times people think that drawing is something you can or you can't do. It's an innate talent. And yes, I do think that some people have a more accurate eye than others as far as copying what they see, and maybe their perceptual skills are a little bit more developed. But the truth is that anyone can really learn how to draw our paint at a high level. It's a skill that can be developed like any other skill. So really getting over that mindset is often the first hurdle.

Janna (03:40):

In your experience, why do you think that is such a hurdle in our mindsets? I know that I went to public school as a kid and I had art classes and was given some instruction, but as an adult, it's something I didn't pursue at all after those simple classes. But if we don't know how to read or how to pronounce something, I'm the first one who googles it and listens to the pronunciation and maybe does it 50 times to figure out how to say the name of your company. But when it comes to art, I feel like I can't be the only one that there's just this mental block. And do you think it's just a lack of pursuit, or do you feel like it's kind of been put in a box like this magical subject that shouldn't be touched unless you have a very clear and gifted instructor?

Cody (04:35):

Yeah, I think it's a combination of both of those things. So I definitely think a lot of people have it in your mind. I encounter these people all the time when I do shows and talk with families, they think either you can do it or you can't. And what's interesting is that studies have shown that most adults actually draw at about a 12-year-old level. And if you think about it, that's about the age that we start worrying about what other people think. And you start to get pretty critical and insecure maybe about your drawing ability. And so, all it takes is one negative comment or just comparing our work to someone else's and we think, well, that's not our thing. We're not good at it. And so, we just kind of shut it down. And then I think later in life we just kind of keep that mindset as I don't know how to do it. I'm not good at it. This person is super talented. They were just born with that gift, and we kind of forget the fact that, oh, you can learn how to do it just like anything else. And I think that maybe that hurdle is what prevents the pursuit to learn more.

(05:40):

And the other issue with that, with the pursuit part, is when you're talking about math, you're talking about language. A lot of those things are pretty black and white, right? There's a solution that we can Google and find quickly, but when you're talking about something like art, well, in a lot of people's minds that's very subjective, right? And so, you can go down a YouTube rabbit hole all day and find 15 different explanations of how to do the same thing. And so, I think it causes a lot of confusion and we just don't know where to go. And when that's the case, a lot of times I think we just kind of set it on the shelf and think, well, we'll go spend our time doing something else.

Janna (06:23):

Yeah, I'm going to spend my time doing something that I know I'm good at, which, I have talked about in the past. That is such a fixed mindset, right? I'm only going to pursue the things that I am good at to make me feel better about what I'm doing, as opposed to a growth mindset where I'm going to get uncomfortable and I'm going to feel insecure, but I'm going to push forward. And as homeschool parents, I feel like we are insecure about so much that we're doing already, that it's hard to open up and think, let's add one more thing that's going to make me feel uncomfortable in my day. But we are here to encourage parents that that is actually the very thing that we can be doing because it's demonstrating to our kids, not just either you have it or you don't. You can be instructed to be better in anything if you are willing to be uncomfortable.

(07:11):

So what would be the second hangup that you have found when dealing with people who just don't think they have artistic ability, therefore, they don't even make goals?

Cody (07:23):

I think the second hangup that a lot of people face after just thinking they can't do it, is they don't know how to do it. They lack a plan. And again, in other subject areas. So when you think of math and even music to an extent, and there's kind of a structure, a sequence that you go through. You do this thing first, and then you do the next thing which builds on that, and then you do the thing after that. But with art, it just feels real kind of up in the air, right? I don't even know where to start. A lot of people, just end up checking out books at their library, buying things off Amazon, and scouring YouTube for drawing tutorials, and there's no real sequencing or structure to it. And I think that having that lack of a structured organized plan really holds a lot of people back because they don't know what to do.

Janna (08:20):

Yeah. I have to stop and tell you that there was a time during COVID when my girls, like all of us, had a ton of time on their hands. And so, one day I went and checked on them and everyone had Bob, what's his name? Bob Ross.

Cody (08:38):

Oh yeah.

Janna (08:38):

They had a Bob Ross video on, and everyone had a little canvas and was doing it their own way. And part of me just laughed and said, what are you guys doing? But the other part of me walked in and I saw three of my girls interpreting his very same instructions three different ways. And I think we are in a society where comparison is such a big deal. So if I can't create a Monet, then I'm not going to do it at all. Right? What's the point? Someone else can do it better than me. But I recall when I was young, I had an art teacher tell us how he painted with dots. And so, she had us take a picture and work on it with dots. Now, granted, none of us did a spectacular job, but it was just doing it and working through it. Wasn't even that I wanted to become an artist, but it helped me understand what he went through to create this masterpiece. And it was such an aha moment for me. Unfortunately, it didn't stick.

Janna (11:55):

But it's great. We hear so many times like, oh, it's not a marathon. It's not a marathon. And we have part of our mind that understands that. But then when we start to practice it, it's like we totally forget that it is going to be a process. It is. You're not just going to create a masterpiece the first time you sit down and sketch something out. And so again, I think art it's different than some of the other subjects because we have to understand that we're going to do it wrong or incorrectly many more times in the process to find the correct one.

Cody (12:31):

Yeah, absolutely. I'll have students who, as part of my program, they send me images of their work for feedback. And so, when I create the feedback videos for them, a lot of times they'll tell me in the email along with the image, I'm sorry, there are so many eraser marks, it's not super clean and perfect. And I always tell them in the video, I love it. I love to see those erased remarks, and the fixes, and all of that, because guess what? You're not going to hang that drawing or painting in the Louvre, right? You don't have to show anyone. But all of those eraser remarks and fixes tell me that you were willing to spot a mistake and fix it. You didn't just let it go. And so, to me, some of those pieces that have all of those marks and whatnot, that's my favorite thing to see.

Janna (13:21):

And maybe it's because there is evidence of fixes that does kind of put us in that mindset of, oh, I'm not doing well, because I'm thinking about when my twins started to drive, there were a lot of mistakes in driving, but there was no record of them. Right? It was in the moment there. They couldn't go back and look at it and go, man, I was horrible at that. There are so many things. And now when we write, a lot of times we do it on the computer so we can delete it. And there's no record of the process that it took to go from that really awkward sentence to, wow, that was a beautifully written paragraph. But with art, you can't avoid that. And because our society is so not used to that, it's incredibly uncomfortable to have your missteps recorded every single time you did it incorrectly.

Cody (14:14):

Yeah, absolutely. I always think back to those artists from the past, and a lot of times we like to see their drawings and all of the pieces they did, and I wonder how many of them think, oh, I hate it that you're looking at that stuff because I never intended anyone to see that. But it's good. It's one of the things that makes art unique, and it's one of the things that I think that it's a skill and kind of a mindset that we can apply to other subject matter as well. That's why I think art is so great and why I think every family should incorporate some sort of art program into their homeschool practice, because the soft skills, if you want to call them, that you learn in the process of creating artwork, and sticking with it, and persevering through adversity. I mean, those are life lessons that are great no matter what you're doing.

Janna (15:07):

Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think unique to our position in society at this time is that we really feel like we should be able to perfect something at the moment, in a day, in a week at least. And there are some things that just can't be accomplished. No matter how many hours you spend in one day, you're not going to get to the finished product. So if you're cooking, you can maybe make a mistake, throw it out, and start over, but it's still going to get done within the day, right? With art, it's patience, and that is something in a TikTok generation of 30 to 60-second reels, we aren't necessarily living that out in our day-to-day life.

Cody (15:57):

Sure, yeah. And I always try and remind my students that, you mentioned with the cooking thing, we're not building a rocket ship or anything, right? We're just drawing on paper. So if we make mistakes, we're not hurting anyone. We may have spent a half hour or three or four hours on this thing, but you know what, it was a learning process, even if it didn't come out the way that we want. And art is also, it's one of those things that you're never going to completely master. You go talk to people that have been doing it for 50, 60, 70 years and they'll tell you, my next piece is going to be my best one, right? You can always get better. And that's one of the things I love about it, and it's what makes it, even if, let's say someone doesn't want to go sell their work and whatnot, nothing wrong with that at all. That's one of the reasons why it's such a great hobby to have for your whole life because you can never master it and you can do it until your last day. So it's pretty fun.

Janna (16:58):

Well, I'm going to take your word on it that it's fun because I'm still-

Cody (17:02):

It's type two fun. I have to tell my students it's type two fun. Type one fun, that's fun at the moment. We love doing that. Type two fun is maybe in the moment it's not always super fun, like your marathon, but after the fact, maybe we look back a little bit more fondly on it. Or for all the parents out there, sometimes raising kids is that way.

Janna (17:24):

That is definitely some truth, Cody. What would you say the number three hang-up is?

Cody (17:29):

Sure. So far we have mentioned a lack of skill and a lack of a plan, and I think the third big hangup that a lot of people face is just a lack of feedback. So many times we'll try and start something on our own. Think about a workout plan. I mean, there's umpteen number of New Year's resolutions that people throw out, and then we just get frustrated and we quit a few weeks in because we just try to do it by ourselves. And let's face it, it's kind of hard to go solo, and doing art and implementing art into your homeschool practice is no different.

(18:03):

Oftentimes when you're just starting out, we don't know what we don't know. Our perceptual skills when we're learning to draw are not developed enough to be able to spot our mistakes necessarily. If you talk to people who do any sort of artwork or drawing or painting, this happens to me as well with my work, I'll think it's going great. I'll be working on it one day, set it aside, be super happy with it, come back the next morning, and I see all of the mistakes, but I didn't see them at the moment. And sometimes I think it takes getting a little bit of outside feedback, someone who's a little bit more experienced, who can just point out, hey, did you notice this? You did this really well. So keep doing that, but here are a couple of tips and a couple of things that you could correct for your next one. And I think that is really helpful, not just in art, but in any discipline really.

Janna (18:58):

So in order to effectively give feedback in a situation like this. So you're saying that most families who are trying to implement some type of art in their homeschool, most likely don't have that feedback system. So, how can you correct that with the program that you offer?

Cody (19:18):

Sure. Well, one of the things that I do with all my students and clients that I work with, is they'll send me images of their assignments, and what I do is I create feedback videos for them. And I always think of a good formula for giving feedback, whether it's me talking to one of my clients, or it's you talking to your son or daughter who's doing a drawing. I think it's good to keep in mind that we need to be providing constructive feedback. A lot of times people will provide feedback, but it may not be constructive. Oh, that's off, that's off, that's off. And that's going to cause the student's confidence to just plummet. And so, I always try to make sure that I find at least a couple of positives for everything that could be improved. Because a lot of times, even in a piece that you look at and you think, oh my goodness, how am I going to critique this or give them feedback? There's always something that someone is doing well. And so, I think that if we can focus on that and then kind of follow up with some improvements, that can be helpful.

(20:22):

Now, if you're doing this at home and you don't necessarily have someone that you can lean on with more experience, working representationally is really helpful. So drawing things from nature, and I just mean doing realistic style drawings, because nature kind of gives us a standard that we can measure up against because when you're drawing that bird, right, it's either going to look like that bird or it's not. And so, if we have a standard that we can measure up against and compare ourselves to, it makes it easier to provide feedback.

(21:00):

A lot of times I'll have students who like to work from imagination when they start working with me, and they'll want to know, well, what can I do to get better? And I always ask, well, where are your references? What did you use to help you put this together? And they'll say, well, I just did it from my head. It's like well, it's really hard for me to if we don't have that standard to measure up against, it's tough. So in my program, one of the things we do is talk about ways to check yourself and use proportional measuring to learn how to spot your own mistakes and correct them. But there are several different ways to do it, but just a couple of ideas on feedback.

Janna (21:42):

So as a parent, aside from art, but art as an example, how do you keep your child from hearing personal criticism versus an instructional correction?

Cody (22:00):

Sure. Well, I think one of the first things is just to be very upfront and straightforward with the child, and it's a little bit easier if they're a little bit older, and just let them know that, hey, what some people might say things about this if you share it with other people, that isn't nice, but that's okay. Because at the end of the day, you need to try and align yourself with people, whether it be family members or friends or whatnot that understand that it's a process and they're on your team and on the same page. And so, you can get the constructive piece as well as the negative feedback piece, maybe the critique.

(22:45):

As someone who does a YouTube channel, for every three great comments that you get, you're always going to get that one negative comment. And I think it's good to learn those comments as a learning opportunity, but don't get too caught up with it, because at the end of the day, you understand that it's a process. And a lot of times the people making those negative critiques or comments, don't know how to do it themselves.

Janna (23:16):

Right. Yeah. That is usually the case, especially when we're talking about parenting and figuring out how we're going to do this with our kids. I do find it interesting a lot of times, just for any parent to take into consideration that when my child hands me something or gives me something and asks my opinion, I have to ask follow-up questions first. Like, tell me what your goal was. So that, as you said, in my mind I'm thinking it's one thing because it doesn't look like a bird, but if I know ahead of time, because you could say, oh, that's a beautiful horse, and they're like, oh, that was a bird. I mean, right there your teacher-student relationship and trust are broken from the beginning, and that is a personal experience with my children.

(24:09):

So asking what their goal was. So then as I am giving constructive criticism, it's not totally in left field because I think that's the other thing, parents are like, I don't want to crush their spirit. I want them to love it and keep going. I would think, especially if they see in their child something that they're like, ah, they might have a gift here, but it's not my gift, so I have no idea how to foster this gift, right? So asking what the goal is, I think is a really good idea, because otherwise it could just, your child's going to throw away the colored pencils and you're never going to get them to draw again.

Cody (24:50):

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And that's great advice on asking questions to get a feel for where things are at before you just start making comments. Because as we all know from experience as parents saying, just when you're in that upper elementary, middle school, high school age range, little comments that maybe we don't even think twice about can really stick with someone for a really long time. So we definitely have to be careful. And I think that's another reason why sometimes it can be helpful to get outside feedback because as a parent, you're kind of in a hard spot in some ways because of course, we all want to give our kids praise. And a lot of times if we need to figure out exactly how to help them with it, even if it doesn't look quite right, we kind of just stick with, oh, looks great. Oh, that's awesome, that looks fantastic, that looks so good. And they might show it to their friends and their friends will say, that looks great. And so, that's not helpful if you're really trying to get better. And so, I think it's good sometimes to find the outside source of feedback that can give you both, right? Here's great about it. Here's how you can improve, or here's what you can improve, and more importantly, how to improve it. So we can learn from it and move on.

Janna (26:06):

Yeah. I think the best advice for homeschool parents is, if you are that uncomfortable with a subject or a skill, find a way to outsource it. Because if you're stressed about it, what is that going to communicate to your child as you're trying to instruct them in something? I've never learned a foreign language. It wasn't ever a requirement, and I just never did. It's not that I don't want to, but then I'm trying to implement some stuff in my house and my kids just look at me like, what are you doing? And you know kids, I mean, you had said your children aren't quite to that teenage section yet, but let me tell you, having three teenage girls, they will immediately let you know when what you're doing is just bizarre and off the wall.

Cody (26:58):

Oh, I bet.

Janna (26:59):

So I think that's another thing that parents don't want to put themselves out there, because who is your best mirror and going to call you a fraud? Unfortunately, it's the ones closest to you because they know you. So outsourcing the art, outsourcing the things that you have no clue about, and learning it together. It doesn't have to be, okay, you go to this art class and I'm going to wait in the car for you. It's like, hey, you can sit in on it and be a part of it so that you guys can grow together and it can be a good bonding experience, as opposed to then they bring it home and they're like, what do you think? And you don't know what to say.

Cody (27:38):

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, I've had several kids that have, I've started working with them, and then pretty soon, a few months later the parent hops in because they're like, oh, this is really cool. I want to do this too. And I think it's important to remember that as parents, and I think homeschool parents especially put a lot of pressure on themselves to do it all, to do everything, and I think we have to remember that we can't do it all. There's no way we can do it all, and that it's okay to not have all the answers. And it's okay to find outside help, and what a great life lesson is it for our kids if they see that we're not trying to have all the answers, because like you said, they're not dumb, right? If we're trying to fake it, they can see right through it. And so, let's not even try to fake it, and let's just say, yeah, you know what? I don't know. I don't how to do this. I don't know how to play the piano. I don't know how to do calculus. Let's try and get a little bit of outside help and let's learn it together. What a cool experience that is.

Janna (28:39):

Yeah, we're hopeful, right? That's all we can do is hope that what we bring to our children and the lifelong learning attitude that we hopefully live is contagious than to our children that they would want to continue in that. Now, I have to ask, of your two children, do they both enjoy art?

Cody (29:05):

They do. They enjoy art in different ways. So my daughter Alana is nine, and I would say she enjoys art in more of a crafty way. She likes to create and glue all sorts of things together. She's always hoarding some sort of recycling material in her room that she can make something out of. And then my son Asher, who's seven, he's just kind of getting into enjoying representational drawing. A little bit closer to what I do with my students, but I try to encourage it. I never want to force them to do what I do. Necessarily if they don't want to, but they are creative in their own ways. So it's kind of fun to see how that manifests itself.

Janna (29:48):

Yeah. Would you agree that any type of art instruction, specifically what you offer is going to help children open up, and what am I... Is going to help children want to see how art works in life?

Cody (30:08):

Yeah. I think-

Janna (30:08):

Whether they become artists or not, right?

Cody (30:11):

Yeah, oh yeah. I think that it's all good. I do think you have to be a little discerning as a parent because it is such a wide breadth of styles, and processes. And are a lot of, we hear the stereotypes of artists where it's all up in the air, and touchy-feely, and it's all about expressing yourself. And I think that there's nothing wrong with that, but I do think it's helpful to find something that has, like what we just talked about, something that has a little more structure to it that where you're actually developing a skill, you're kind of starting simple and building on it, and then something that gives you a little bit of constructive feedback. Because if we're just doing splattering paint against the wall, I mean, that's fun. It's nothing wrong with that, but probably aren't going to get quite as much from that as you are actually finding something a little bit more structured if that makes sense.

Janna (31:07):

Yeah, and what I do love about your YouTube channel is that you do kind of give some history. You are explaining how artists just don't wake up and create a masterpiece. There is like we talked about in the beginning, there is a process, and there is a plan because I think that since our society's kind of gotten away from the fine arts, we have this idea that if you're talented, it will just come out. And if you can't just produce it, then you must not be able, you don't have the ability. And I think those two things are separate, and they don't necessarily, one can't lead to the other. But one, if you have the plan and the discipline, you can produce fine art, you can learn it.

Cody (31:55):

Yeah, absolutely. And like we've talked about previously, you don't have to sell it. You don't have to put it up in a museum or show it to anyone. It's a great thing to get into. And you're right, like the program that I do, I modeled it based on the 19th-century French academic method of training, which I know is kind of a mouthful. That's where the term atelier comes from. It's actually a French term that means studio.

(32:18):

But there was a system, there was a process that you went through, and you developed your skill. Art used to be much more like how you learn music and how you still learn music today in that if you learn piano, you have to first learn where in the heck are you going to put your fingers. What are the hand positions? What are the notes? Play scales. And then you build on that, and you start playing some sheet music with one hand, and then eventually you put in the other hand. And even then, a lot of times when we play that sheet music, it sounds very kind of stiff and robotic. And it's not only until it becomes second nature that then you can start to express yourself and put your own kind of creative voice into it. And I feel like that's how art used to be taught. And it's harder to find that today. But yeah, I think it's important to look back on history. There's a reason that there were so many fantastic artists back in the day. They didn't all just, as you said, roll out of bed being able to do these masterpieces, they were trained. And so, trying to, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Let's go back and see what worked for them and see how we can incorporate that and implement it today.

Janna (33:32):

Yeah, I think a lot of people would not equate art with discipline, and that may be where we are falling short in how we are looking at this particular subject

Cody (33:43):

Yeah, totally agree.

Janna (33:46):

Well, Cody, before we go, I always ask our guests to share a homeschool or life hack. So what do you have for us?

Cody (33:53):

Yeah, so I have a couple of things. So number one, no matter what you're doing, art or social studies, focus on the process. All right? Don't get so wrapped up in the end goal or the result, right? Yes, we want a good result, whatever you're doing. But more importantly, just take one step at a time, and just focus on the process of getting there. Because if we fix our attention on that end result, sometimes that just seems so big and intimidating that it's just like, we'll never get there. But if we can just focus on today, let's just get 1% better today, and then tomorrow. Let's just get a little bit better tomorrow and just focus on that, and set some of those smaller intermediate goals, I think that that can be a lot more helpful. And I'm always big on setting smart goals. So setting goals that are specific, that are measurable, that are actually attainable, they're relevant to your end goal, and that they are a time base. And that way we can set goals that we can actually hit.

Janna (34:59):

I think that's a great encouragement coming on to the new year with all of our New Year's resolutions that by now have probably been long forgotten.

Cody (35:09):

Right?

Janna (35:11):

Unfortunately, but hopefully, homeschooling is still on people's radar as they are coming through into the spring and thinking about finishing up their homeschool season. Cody, I want to thank you for taking the time, can you go ahead and just tell our listeners where they can find you?

Cody (35:27):

Yeah, definitely. Well, the first thing you can do is check out my YouTube channel. If you just type in Fount Atelier, and that's A-T-E-L-I-E-R, atelier, it should pop up. But I put a lot of short videos with studio tips, just some encouragement, and I document some of the outdoor painting trips that I do. And then if you want to learn more about my coaching program, I'd really encourage you to check out my website, www.fountatelier.com. If it looks like something you want to learn more about, we can definitely set up a free online coaching session where we can talk about their child's work, kind of what they're looking for, and maybe some strategies, and I can share how my program works, in case that's something that they want to pursue.

Janna (36:11):

Wonderful. Well, we will have all of those links available in our... Crap, I don't even know what's it called? We will have all those links available in our show description. So Cody, thank you so much for taking the time to give us the top three hangups of why maybe this idea of art just isn't going anywhere in our homeschool. I want to thank you guys for listening. Until next time, bye-bye.