How to Draw Your Name
Book 1: Memoir
Mr. Potter taught drawing like both a Zen master and a drill sergeant, requiring nights and weekends, and showing his students that art could be a way of life. For more than twenty-five years, his uncompromising approach to art education sent students to the nation’s top art schools and onto multiple award stages.
What made him so effective? In this teaching memoir, former student Jason Brody returns to Potter’s New York City high school art classroom through conversations with his teacher and interviews with classmates. He reveals how creativity can be taught, why it matters as much as reading and writing, and how rigorous drawing instruction reshaped students’ understanding of art, discipline, and themselves.
How to Draw Your Name shows how one art class became a catalyst for transformation and long-term success. Beginning with drawing, it unfolds into a deeper exploration of teaching, mentorship, authenticity, and the creative process—and how great teachers shape lives far beyond the classroom.
Written for students, parents, educators, artists, and anyone interested in creativity, this book demonstrates how art changes the way we see the world and how learning to draw can help us become more fully human.
The second book will contain all of Mr. Potter's Lessons from his four classes: Introduction to Creative Art, Studio Art, Watercolor Painting, and Portfolio. In the meantime, please enjoy the student artwork from those classes on this site.
Planned for publication in 2027
How to Draw Your Name
Book 2: The Lessons
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