Preserving the Teaching Methods of Mr. Douglas Potter

How to Draw Your Name is a preservation project dedicated to documenting the teaching methods, classroom practices, and student work of art teacher Douglas Potter, who taught at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, New York City from 1984 to 2008.

 

This site serves as an educational archive that brings together instructional approaches developed in Mr. Potter’s four art classes—Introduction to Creative Art, Studio Art, Painting, and Portfolio—and the student artworks produced within them.

 

In addition to finished artwork, this project emphasizes the process of teaching and learning art in the classroom, showing how instruction shaped creativity, observation, and individual artistic development.

 

The Book

How to Draw Your Name is a companion book that explores Douglas Potter’s teaching philosophy and classroom methods in greater depth. It documents how students were guided to develop artistic confidence through structured exercises, observation-based drawing, and creative interpretation.

 

Student Artwork Archive

This site also functions as a living archive of student work created in Mr. Potter’s classes. These pieces reflect the range of instruction, experimentation, and artistic growth that occurred in his classroom over more than two decades.

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Each work represents a moment within a broader educational system designed to help students see, interpret, and develop their identities through art.​

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For inquiries, contact: info@howtodrawyourname.com