Art is a Shared Experience.

I've tried virtual teaching and I don't like it.  And you know what, the students who know the difference, don't either.  Virtual education is better then nothing, but it's much harder to be successful and it wasn't until I really started to teach virtually, that I understood fully, why that is.  

Obviously, when a student is learning in person, I can see every step that they are taking and re-direct them if it's not going in a good direction.  When students are at home alone, they can feel unnecessarily lost.  Besides that, I can put my hands in your artwork and demonstrate tools, techniques and processes, in a way that relates to exactly what you are doing.  But that's the obvious reason why virtual art education doesn't work.  Let's move onto the less obvious.

Teachers are only one part of the equation of learning.  Art teachers present students with problems to solve, but all of your classmates show you how many different artistic solutions there are to that same problem. One of my favorite aspects of teaching is when students show me a solution that I've never seen before, or that I never thought of at all.  

Even the great masters of art history, took classes from other artists, and worked in an artistic community.  It's typical that newer students of art will be shy about showing their artwork, and until they get over that, they tend not to grow as quickly.  Community is the unspoken variable of artistic success.  It's not being talked about enough, and it matters.  Art doesn't work when it's created in a closet, it has to be shared.