The Proverbial Learning Curve

See one, do one, teach one. I first heard this famous phrase in medical school. Later in my Dermatology Residency at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, it became a way of life. Indeed, the premise for the phrase is simple. You must witness a procedure once, before you can do it yourself and subsequently teach the same procedure to someone else. This same principle applies to just about any hands on type of task. The degree of proficiency, however, ultimately depends on how many times you perform this task thereafter. In Art for example, the more you practice a similar technique, the better it gets. Thus, the concept of the learning curve, simply put, is the process of improving ones skills by repetition. As a self- taught artist, the learning curve is indeed steep. In addition to mastering the individual media, learning how to draw, understanding values, color theory, and composition, one must then develop his own self expression. This means, producing a body of work that consistently demonstrates ones mastery of the medium, subject matter, and philosophy of painting.