Copying Art vs. Finding Your Own Style: What Should We Teach Our Kids?

When I was studying art, we copied. Drawings from life. Pictures. Masterworks.

We learned the human form by sketching it again and again. I don’t regret that foundation. It gave me tools. But it also took years to unlearn the idea that “good art” always looks like someone else’s.

Now, as an artist and educator, I’m

watching another generation come up. I see homeschool families relying on YouTube tutorials and step-by-step kits, not because they don’t care about creativity, but because they’re trying to give their kids something reliable. Something that “works.” Something that makes pretty art in the end.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If we never move beyond copying, our kids don’t learn to trust themselves.

There is real value in copying—at first.

One of the first pages in the Let's Do School Art Workbook completed by an 8 year old.

Copying teaches:

• Technique

• Composition

• How to see negative space

• How to slow down and observe

It’s how Renaissance apprentices learned. It’s how many of us trained. Copying helps students get past the “how do I even start?” panic that paralyzes so many new artists.

But copying is a closed circuit. It's replication, not imagination.

If students stay there too long, they start to equate accuracy with talent. That’s dangerous.

Because when they finally try to make something of their own, they hit a wall.

In school, and in many homeschool homes, I see kids who can flawlessly copy a dragon tutorial but freeze when you say, “Draw your own monster.”

They’ve learned execution without intuition. Polish without vision.

This isn't their fault. It's the natural outcome of a curriculum that prioritizes “success” over process, product over exploration.

And as a professional artist, I’ll tell you this:

Style doesn’t come from perfection. It comes from risk. From the awkward middle. From drawing a dozen bad hands until one finally feels right.

What Finding Your Own Style Really Looks Like

Finding your style isn’t something you decide. It’s something that emerges.

It happens when:

• A student mixes charcoal and watercolor “just to see what happens”

• They keep drawing wolves, over and over, because they want to

• They start breaking rules they once depended on

  
  

Real style is recognizable not because it’s polished, but because it’s honest. Because it’s made by someone who has started asking their own questions, not just answering someone else's.

 How This Shows Up in My Curriculum

This is exactly why I built the art book the way I did - Let's Do School: Art Fundamentals.

Yes, it gives students prompts.

Yes, there’s structure.

But each page is a springboard, not a template.

Some lessons invite exploration. Others offer gentle direction, but leave the interpretation wide open. There are no right answers, and certainly no matching results.

Because the goal isn’t to copy something “pretty.”

The goal is to see what’s inside the student and give it space to emerge.

How to Shift from Copying to Creating in Your Homeschool

If you're ready to move away from tutorial-style lessons and toward original expression, here’s how to start:

• Ask “why?” more than “how?” When they make a choice, ask why they picked that color or shape. Make thinking part of the process.

• Allow ugly. Growth happens in the mess. Make space for imperfect, experimental work without needing a polished result.

• Mix materials. Unusual tools and textures encourage creativity over replication.

• Display all kinds of work. Hang the strange creatures, the wild textures, the brave experiments, especially when they don’t look “right.”

  
  

Most of all: let go of control. 

Your child doesn’t have to make something beautiful. They need to make something real.