LESSON THREE

When you are truly Learning…

Active Learning means you are interacting with your resource.

“When first interacting with a source, break it down into manageable slices. A chapter. Five minutes of a video. A few scrolls down a site’s page. Give the material your full attention and let it settle in. Once you’ve absorbed the information, then return with purpose. Highlight ideas, take notes, and draw thumbnails.”

Goals That Mean You Are Actively Learning

Understanding

First you must understand the concepts presented in the resource. This is not meant to be a difficult barrier - just a checkpoint. The material should challenge your skills, but not exceed your comprehension. Growth happens just beyond your comfort zone. 

Practicing

Unlike other subjects, simply grasping a concept isn’t enough. As an artist, improving your drawing skills means implementing new ideas into your work. Start by adding a few thumbnails in your notes, but to truly demonstrate your understanding you must apply this knowledge into your sketches. The act of creating transforms knowledge into skill. Submit your work in the Guild Hall for feedback to ensure your understanding before moving on.

Verbalizing

Once you’ve cleared the first hurdle, the next step is being able to verbalize what you have learned. Explaining the concept in your own words helps to show that you understood the material. To double-check, post a summery in the Discord Guild Hall, as restating the idea to someone else reinforces the lesson and deepens your grasp on the subject.

Application

Beyond knowledge and skill, a true show of mastery is the ability to integrate - bringing together not just one concept, but many. When you weave past lessons alongside new ones, you demonstrate the mark of a true artist. You have taken loose threads and interlaced them into a single, cohesive tapestry.  This  doesn’t show just understanding, but the growth and intention you’ve worked so hard to achieve. 

“Only when you have 1. thoroughly reviewed a subject, 2. written notes about it, 3. drawn a thumbnail, and 4. created a sketch or drawing including two or more concepts have you become an active learner!”