About

It wasn’t until I started tutoring my daughter’s homeschool group that I finally noticed it.

Lots of people want to draw and be creative, but too many believe that it was either a natural ability, or they just weren’t born with the right talent.

That saddened me, because it’s not true. It’s true that talent is real, and some people are more bent to an artistic lens, but drawing and art is a set of teachable skills which anyone can learn and use. A couple of weeks in, one of the moms told me she’d never been more encouraged in her own art skills, just by watching me draw something on the board while listening to me talk through how and why I did what I did.

For many who homeschool, finding a piano or instrument teacher for music is fairly easy, but art lessons might be harder to find or afford. For those whose schools cut funding to fine arts (a short-sighted solution in my opinion), learning the tools of art may be so foreign they just never learn.  For those who always wanted to, but never figured out how to “express yourself” or “look more closely” enough to bring the realism you wanted, I’d like to help you.

I’m not alone in this venture, there are many teachers and art authors who have written about this subject, all of which I’d love to introduce you to, if you want.

The world of art isn’t foreign and scary and too bizarre to understand.  It has rules and techniques.  It has stories and legends. There are even visual gags and backstories that find their way into even the most classical of works.

I’d like to introduce you to art.  The techniques of drawing. The use of color. The stories behind art and artists. Maybe a class or two, who knows?  Want to join me?

 

About Me

My name is Rebekah Hughes.  In the publishing world, I go by R.J. Hughes.

I was born and raised in Michigan, spending every spare moment reading and drawing. While I wanted to be an artist, I was encouraged by well-meaning adults to pursue “more practical” training, I entered Taylor University as a Secondary Education Biology Science major. Two and a half years later, I switched to an Art degree with emphasis on Art History and Metal Arts. The mixed training in science, education and psychology, plus art, has given me a unique view of them all.

After earning my degree, I moved with my husband to Wisconsin, training as an Apprentice Jeweler under Master Goldsmith William Howard. After achieving Journeyman statues, we moved to Muskegon Michigan, where I worked as a museum exhibit designer and archivist/curator for the USS Silversides Submarine Museum.[1] Some of my work adorns the Main Exhibit Hall.

Following another job to Indiana, we eventually had three children who we now homeschool. In addition to schooling, I research history, blog about WWII submarines at ussflierproject.com, write, draw, and illustrate children’s books (while avoiding housework as much as I can).

This (2016-2017) is my second year tutoring Classical Conversations, as well as my second year involved in CC. You can find my books, Surviving the Flier (author) and Catherine’s Pascha (illustrator) on Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles.  I’d also encourage you to check out the Catherine’s Pascha website, where I occasionally blog, and my author does amazing projects.

You can contact me through e-mail at rebekah@drawingdemystified.com  or on Facebook through my author page “R.J. Hughes, author”

 

[1] You can sleep aboard the Silversides, a WWII sub. It’s a fantastic field trip, if I do say so myself!