There is nothing worse for the excited eager-to-learn art student than walking into a poor learning environment run by a mediocre art instructor.

In short order the student is set up for loss after loss. The fundamentals are either not taught in a simple easy to understand fashion, that the student can grasp, or they may not even be taught at all!

Quite Frequently the student makes the decision that drawing and painting is just too hard and gives up. They blame themselves, often with the the self created idea that they may not have enough artistic talent.

Whereas most of the blame usually falls on the shoulders of the student, the true cause falls at the feet of the art instructor and poor instruction.

This is precisely what happened to my spouse.

My wife is from Toronto Canada. She originally came to America as a student to study fine art in a university. The instruction was terrible.

Both her drawing and oil painting classes were taught entirely on the unworkable method of "if it feels good go with it."

Unfortunately my wife could not "feel" her way into learning basics such as capturing light and shadow, how to draw in proportion, the use of color and tone, how to sketch in charcoal, differences in working with oil vs. watercolors.

Needless to say she the only thing that she could "feel" good about was changing her major.

With hundreds of colleges and thousands of private art instruction schools across the country how does one go about picking an art instructor that will teach one how to draw and paint properly?

I was lucky enough to be able to ask Larry Gluck what one should look for when choosing an art school and instructor so one achieves their goal in becoming a better artist.

Larry Gluck is the founder of the world's largest fine art program.

After 33 years employing hundreds of art instructors and teaching over 3,000+ students every week how to draw and paint this is the advice Larry has in regards to choosing an art teacher...

"Here are a few pointers on what to look for in a fine art teacher. I hope they help in your search for a good drawing and painting instructor.

1. Do you like the teachers work?

It's important to respect what your teacher does. Now matter how objective he is about his work, he'll teach you what he knows - and what he knows will be reflected in what he does.

On the other hand, don't judge a teacher only by his work. Teaching art is not the same as creating art, and some teachers are very good artists but horrible instructors.

Others don't have enough intention to help students through the rough spots. Although a teacher much have knowledge and talent to merit teaching his subject, the determination to help you and see that you indeed learn should be his top priority.

2. Does your teacher start with the fundamentals?

A gradual approach is necessary to learning. You start with the most basic fundamentals and continue from there. Too many instructors assume that you already know them, or worse, don't know them well enough to teach them.

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