What My Week At Toronto School Of Art Taught Me About Life

I took a week-long class in August at the Toronto School of Art with theme of Cartooning and Storyboarding. It was an amazing week! I didn’t really know how to really draw before, I can draw as well as your average 12-year-old, but during that week, I learned the basic elements of art and how the little details are done. I want to share with you 3 really big things that I learned that are really about much more than art.

1. Practice makes perfect.

We made cartoon comics for the class and maybe at the first time, it wasn’t as good as we all wanted it to be. But we practiced at different kinds of techniques like facial expressions and proportions. With a few days of practice, we finished it and we all saw a great difference in our ‘before’ and ‘after’. “Practice makes perfect” is something I apply it to blogging, doing speeches, homework, karate and now with art. With all these things, I may not get it right the first time, but when you practice and it is right, it feels so good. The end result is worth the extra time and effort.

2. Doing well takes time, so don’t rush.

Everything takes time whether it’s doing research for a blog post or creating a comic strip. I’ve learned from my art class that if you rush on a project, it doesn’t turn out as well as you wanted it to, but when you take your time, your project turns out better. You can take the time to think, do some rough work, and plan what you’re going to do.

3. There are different perspectives.
One of the big lessons I’ve learned is that there any ways to see and interpret what we were drawing. What I saw was different from the person next to me, and vice-versa. How I drew an object, or created my story on the same topic as the next person’s was different, and that was ok. We’re all looking at the same thing, but we usually see them differently. We need to value and respect the perspectives of everyone.

I think it’s really cool when you learn more than you expect when you are taking a class. I have been practicing karate for the past 5 years and as I work toward acheiving my black belt, I have learned about focus, determination, patience and respect.

Have you had this kind of experience too? I’d love to hear about it.

This post originally http://www.callmehannah.ca/2015/08/24/what-my-week-at-toronto-school-of-art-taught-me-about-life/on Aug 24th 2015