MrsImpey 01/19/2013 at 06:19pm
I teach private art lessons to one of my students from school. Her mother came to me at a school event and asked if I would. I had no idea what to ask for money...I had suggested $20 for an hour, but she felt that wasn't enough. She said she paid for private music lessons by one of the music teachers at our school and she charges $25 for a half hour, so we settled on $30 an hour.

When I started these lessons my student was in 3rd grade. I started with drawing a still life and introducing value to her. From there, I just started asking her what she would like to work on or what medium she wanted to use.

We've done drawing pencil (going through the Bs and Hs) and colored pencil still life...acrylic paint (Monet style water lilies and a peacock painting that she wanted to do for her grandparents...we worked on controling different brushes and materials based on what we wanted to create)...we've done watercolor painting (we spent one lesson going through the different watercolor techniques and made a poster, then we did two lessons where we used those to complete paintings)...

Some of our paintings and drawings have spanned over 1 lesson. I also give her an assignment to complete between art lessons.

I tend to lean a little more on what the student wants to learn about, and then I expand upon it from there. Sometimes I run into blocks and I'm not sure what I want to do so I just check out Pinterest and try to get ideas from there! Hope that helps!

MrsImpey 01/19/2013 at 06:22pm
Oh, and she comes to my house for these lessons. Over the summer, however, I was asked to go to her house to help them paint a mural on their play house floor. It turned out amazing! I worked with my student, her younger sister as well as their mother when we painted it. If I remember correctly, it took us 5-6 sessions to complete, some of them 2-3 hours long. You can see it on my blog here:

http://www.artroom104.blogspot.com/2012/08/floor-mural-is-done.html

ArtEngine 02/09/2013 at 08:55am
Private lessons are so helpful for a child's personal development. Don't sell yourself short. You are offering practically one on one enrichment and using materials. Planning, gathering, teaching, cleaning up... If you were tutoring reading or math, you would be making $100 an hour at least! And you will be working with not one but 4 children. I would not settle for less than $80-$100 an hour. However, I am in NY and that is a going rate for my area...Don't let the excitement factor take away from the practical side of what you deserve!

ltcsig 02/18/2013 at 02:24pm
How Wonderful for you! I've recently moved to Michigan where it is very difficult to find an art teaching job. I would love to have more private students. Since I am just getting started on this endeavor I have been charging $25.00 an hour. If I can get the word out and get more interest, I will charge more.
When I teach a Zentangle class I charge $35.00 for 2 hours including supplies.

ltcsig 02/18/2013 at 02:27pm
Oh gosh, I just reread your message- this is for FOUR children. In that case, I agree with ArtEngine - $100.00 per hour plus supply cost is my vote.

Astabeth 02/28/2013 at 01:00pm
I would also ask the parents what they want the children to get out of the lessons - drawing skills, experience with different media, or just a fun time. That way you already know what direction to go and you don't have to spend time deciding.

MrsLee 07/29/2014 at 12:44am
I taught private lessons at my home for homeschool students in my area for four years. One day each week it was set for age specific groups, other days were open to family groups. Best success starting out with a new family was when I focused on a painting technique - the project would evolve from the students picking an image, tracing out the image, transferring to a canvas and painting. I demoed and talked a lot about colours and composition and techniques, focusing all the talk on their resources. This way I got to observe the group's dynamics, individual strengths and they took home an awesome painting after four weeks. Having had five different families I can say the only disaster was when the youngest was allowed to do a different project. Good luck. It was an incredibly rewarding experience!