Readers Respond: Do You Let an Art Teacher Change or Work on Your Painting?

Responses: 41

By Marion Boddy-Evans, About.com Guide

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Years ago my art professor responded to my query by loading up and painting the whole painting with a thin white glaze. It was exactly what the painting needed - but in hindsight, although I didn't know what a glaze was then, it now strikes me as a very easy thing to explain to a student and to have me do it (if I trusted him). He never asked permission and I always felt that the painting really wasn't mine anymore, no matter how great it now looked. At the end of the semester when we had to turn in all paintings for grading, it never came back to me. He told me he was hanging it in the student gallery for a semester. At the end of the next semester it had disappeared. I always wondered - he did own a gallery in another state quite a distance away. Forty years later I still begrudge him - he simply took everything out of my hands without any permission - and I was too naive to put up a fuss. Gone, but not forgotten!
—Guest Jandy

There is never a need to change a student's work. Just use a mylar sheet, tracing paper, tissue or similar covering and show your helpful suggestions on top of the student work. The sheet can be lifted and compared easily.
—Guest Itch

It is my opinion that a teacher should never work on students' canvasses. It is tantamount to writing the answers to questions in a notebook or on a test paper. Teaching is demonstrating not doing. I have had a teacher put paint on my canvas and I can only describe the feeling I experiences as being violated. That may sound a little strong but I can assure you that the feeling in my gut was of extreme disappoint - that now this work was not wholly my own further I had not invited the teacher to work on my canvas nor had the teacher sought permission. Bottom line the teacher violated me, my work and our relationship.
—Guest bonn.hughes

An oil painting teacher (usually a very good teacher) wanted to show me and the rest of the class how to paint a wet-looking puddle among rocks in my painting, just took over and did it - totally inappropriate, the scene was a hot summer, dry rocks around a small trickle of a stream, no other water in sight. I painted over most of the teacher's addition afterwards but still aware it is there. It spoilt what is otherwise one of my favourite paintings. I'd rather the teacher demonstrate on a piece of paper or give verbal guidance, and learn from figuring it out myself, giving myself a challenge to get it to my satisfaction.
—emmiba

As an art tutor there will always be a need to explain where a student has gone wrong or needs to change an aspect of their work. For this reason I carry spare pieces of paper in order to demonstrate. I feel that it is only common courtesy and out of respect for a students work that a tutor not deface it. An artist's mark is his signature; we don’t all want an autograph book.
—maaad

I recently took interest in painting at age 80. I cannot draw, etc, and went to a class where the superb instructor picked up one of my brushes and proceeded to paint the answer to my question right on my canvas! I was very disturbed at this and quit the class as he was doing this with other students and, apparently, that was his way.
—Guest sunegret

When I was a teenage art student, my art teacher used to paint on my canvas all the time. I thought nothing of it. In fact, she would work on the canvases of all the students--young and adult--often while chatting with the students, and especially the adult students. Our art classes were as much a social event as an educational one. Over time, I got tired of waiting for the teacher to come around while making her rounds, so I picked up the brush myself and started painting. The transition to my own work was as simple as that. On the other hand, I always had trouble with art teachers who insisted that we paint in their style using their palette. One teacher I had in particular, bless her, used such a strong palette of colors and such harsh techniques that I actively rebelled. I just couldn't apply her techniques to my own work. If her personality takes over my work instead of guiding it or adding to it, that's when I have a problem with an art teacher changing my project.
—Guest Guest

I don't really like it when a teacher paints on my canvas. It is not that I think that the teacher is a bad painter or that I don't like what he/she does, because I know that he/she has had years of training and I actually expect him/her to be a better painter than I am. I simply don't feel that it is my painting anymore when somebody else paints on it. Also, I am attending the class because I need to learn. That means I need to practice. If the teacher does the work for me I don't get the practice I need. So I really prefer it when the teacher tells me in words to the something differently and explains why it works better that way, or shows how it should be done on a piece of paper or on another canvas.
—Guest memory

If the teacher asks me :"May I touch up your work?", why not. I think being highly sensitive stands in the way of progress. And after all, the teacher is also an artist, and I will have forever a mark of his talent. Besides, assume for instance that Picasso is the teacher...
—yover

We used to have a tutor who would 'help' by adding to your work. When I first started I found it very helpful, or so I thought, but as I became more experienced, I no longer liked him doing this. On looking back at some of the works, that he 'helped', I realise that he did actually take over, and the work is no longer really my own. Far more useful is for the tutor to show on a separate ground what he would do to help your work develop.
—artonabike

I think it's fine. When I was in school, a lot of students complained about it -- but you're in school to learn! Your teacher's been making art for longer than you have -- you should respect him/her for that. Even if you really are brilliant and your teacher happens to be a hack, you can still learn something from having them paw all over your work. If they draw something you don't like on your work, give it time; at least try to understand why they like their stuff better than what you were doing. If you find you still hate it - figure out *why*, and grow. You'll learn something every time. My best art professor told me something that has helped me so much: your art is your enemy. The most beautiful part of your piece is your greatest enemy, because you will change the rest of the piece to suit that one part. You'll fight to keep that part in the work even if it doesn't fit the painting or is inaccurate. That beautiful portion of your painting will seduce you- but nothing's sacred.
—Guest jes

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