Anyone else have problems taking art classes?

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I am going to my local junior college, because they are the only ones that provide services for adults on the spectrum in my area. I'm taking digital art classes, which includes some traditional art, but as has always been the case, am running into a lot of problems. I for the life of my can't do thumb nails and work top down. My best work has always come from starting with bits and pieces I like and then building them up into a great picture, which is the joy of my life, but that's not how classes are taught. I never get it when teachers show an example and say "do something like that." Paradoxically, I need the help of a teacher to improve; I lack the self-motivation to work independently. I also have a horrible time drawing people I don't know well in classes because it makes me so uncomfortable, even though I have no problems drawing those I love. I have a very photo-realistic style and love surrealism and fantasy art, but for the life of me can't do abstract or stylized art.

I have an official PDD-NOS diagnosis along with a ton of other stuff, so I can get whatever accommodations I need, I just don't know what to ask for. Has anyone else had these kind of problems and found a way to work around them?

Thanks for any advice you can give me,
Cat

I had issues with art classes in elementary school - in kindergarten/first grade, it was because I was too much of a perfectionist and would get upset every time something I made didn't turn out the way everyone's else's/the teacher's example did, and as I got older, it was bcuz I just didn't see the point of some of the assignments we were given....the one I hated most was where we had to choose a particular painting, measure out a grid on a wide sheet of paper, and then copy our chosen painting detail-for-detail onto our papers. I was like, "Uhhmmm, helloooooo - isn't that plagiarism?" Not sure what we were being taught there.

When I got into high school and got to take Art Humanities and Foundation and Design classes, I liked those a lot better.

I liked art camps during the summer a lot better than "classes," too...one of my favorite ones was where this guy basically told us we could draw whatever we wanted, and I just filled up ream after ream of paper with realistic dolphin and orca drawings.

I was an art major, and have worked professionally in design for 18 years. What do you mean exactly by "thumbnails" and working "top down"? Sometimes the exercises are meant for a specific purpose. I can imagine the teacher might be trying to get you to consider the overall composition, not just the details. This will improve your work later, even if you keep your personal style. Surrealism and photorealism are informed by abstract art, believe it or not. The paintings need to work on many levels. If you stand back from a photorealistic piece, the composition should work even without seeing all the details.

LtlPinkCoupe,
Measuring out grids is a useful way to copy images into larger formats. Even though the exercise involved existing works, you can apply it to your own work. Say you have a reference image or even a drawing that you need to scale up, this is a great way of doing it.

Hmmm...I never thought of it that way. Thanks, AspE.

You're quite welcome, although I always used an opaque projector instead. These days a digital projector might work better, but it's good to know the traditional methods. It's also a way of getting artists to see the abstract relationships between lines and shades instead of seeing and naming the objects. When you see the object as a recognizable thing, we tend to ignore how it actually looks and draw how we think it's "supposed" to look.

AspE, believe or not, I'm very good at design and also did that professionally for many years. I can appreciate and understand abstract art, I just can't do it. My problem is that I am unable to start a work with the big picture, or rough sketch, or anything like that. I get an idea in my head, like a head on fire, and then I get another idea, like a space photo, and so forth. But I can only put them together in a nice design if I use actual photos or fairly finished drawings/paintings that I can move around and adjust as I go, which is why I rely heavily on computers and photos for my work. When I try to start with a concept sketch and work down towards the details, it always ends up looking like garbage. But that's the way art teachers want you to work. So I am trying to figure out how to deal with this. I'm 48 and have been struggling with this all my life in all areas of my life (not just art), and my psychologists say that's just the way my brain works, and I'm always going to need to start with the details and build up to the finished product.

So I'm trying to find someone who has figured out how to deal with a society that wants you to start with an outline, when your brain insists on starting with details.

Thanks,
Cat

AspE, I just saw this post. Some people on the spectrum, like myself, are not like this. We don't get symbols, and draw things the way they really look. That's the way I've been since Kindergarten. I drew things in perspective without even knowing what that was; it's just the way it looked to me. I also have no depth perception, and huge problems with driving and other activities where you need to quickly categorize visual information into subjects of various importance. I do much of my thinking using non-linear detailed photographic images that pop into my head, rather than verbally as most people do. Rough sketches mean absolutely nothing to me, and it's nearly impossible for me to do things in a linear order.

Perhaps unfortunately, I started out in art with learning how to draw this or that, there were books that told you step by step how to build up a stylized drawing of something, which I loved. It was only later that I learned this isn't how most artists draw things (maybe not cartoonists). Then when I learned the trick in high school, all of a sudden I was drawing photo-realistically and even got a scholarship to study art. Your case is interesting, as a teacher, I wouldn't be sure how to go about adapting drawing lessons to your learning style. Maybe you don't need it?

Interestingly, my little brother was about 8 when he drew something I was drawing, but he was seeing it upsidedown, so it came out almost perfect.

Copying existing artists' work for practice is a great way to teach yourself new techniques and styles to incorporate into your own work.

AspE,

Thanks for your suggestions. It sounds like I'll just need to work things out as I go along, and get extra help when I need it. Drawing individual objects isn't a problem, just an entire scene where you need to decide how much detail to include, and what to change to make the picture look more appealing.

It's interesting that I was given one of those drawing books too, but by then I already had years worth of art awards under my belt, so I never really got the point of it. Then someone gave me "The Natural Way to Draw" at age 9, which talked about the importance of having nude models to draw from, and I pretty much gave up on art till after college.

So what's wrong with your attempts "looking like garbage"? That's how it goes when you try new things. No art teacher expects you to do things perfectly the first time.