Creative tutoring from a professional artist.

• Undergrad:

  University of Utah

• Tutors Out Of:

  Austin, TX

• Travel Radius:

  16 miles

• Tutoring Certifications:

  algebra 1 - drawing - English - ESL/ESOL - grammar - prealgebra - proofreading - vocabulary

• Tutor's Fee Per Hour:

  $18.00 * with a 10% discount after purchasing $360

• Email Damon from Austin today!

Hi, my main tutoring experience is with students from Asia who wish to improve their written and conversational English skills, grammar, and understanding of both formal and common English speech.I'm very patient and have experience with students who need to improve their pronunciation of English, grammar, or need assistance with doing homework or writing in English.I have a four year university degree and am a native-born American English speaker with experience in writing and editing for newspapers and magazines, as well as communication with students who may be uncomfortable with their current skill level in spoken English.I am available to meet anywhere in the University of Texas, Austin area. Please send me an e-mail if you have any questions. I'm looking forward to being your tutor!

• drawing

  I understand that it isn’t an easy task to prove one’s merit in a subject like drawing (or “draftsmanship”, as I prefer to call it) via mere written description. The easiest thing for me to do would be to refer you to my website, which hosts a variety of my original artworks, so that you could make your own conclusions as to my level of artistic proficiency. If you are interested in that direct approach, please point your web browser to the following address: http://www.denysart.com It will, I hope, suffice to say that I am a professional artist who makes a living by creating original works of art. The works are usually sent to an art gallery, where they are sold, although I do benefit from occasional direct commissions as well. What does this have to do with drawing? Well, perhaps nothing if I happened to be an abstract artist. I am, however, a Classical Realist oil painter in the traditional mode, which has been used by many of our most famous artists for somewhere around 600 years. I focus on painting people, and painting them in excruciatingly high detail. As most artists know, drawing is the skeleton upon which every good painting is built. It is an absolutely essential skill for an artist to develop and hone if they desire to be successful in bringing their visions to light on canvas or elsewhere. I’ve been working as a professional artist for about 8 years now, since graduating from college with a degree in art history. I’ve taught private students in everything from drawing to color theory and traditional oil painting methods, and I’ve been a guest instructor several times for an online instructional painting site. I’ve written articles and theses on art, have worked as an archaeological on-site field illustrator, and I come from a long line of artists, dating back to at least 6 generations, so I understand the value of preserving and passing on information about the craft to others. I seek to do that, and fulfill my own obligation within my community, by offering what I’ve learned to others. As a working artist, however, that is easiest for me to do by tutoring, as opposed to changing my career and becoming a full-time teacher. My approach as a tutor is to discover what the student’s personal goals are in order to best design a strategy for improving their skills. That, as opposed to forcing a style or artistic viewpoint upon someone, is, I believe, the healthiest and most productive way for everyone to benefit from drawing and art in general.

• ESL/ESOL

  My experience with tutoring English as a second language (ESL) began informally while assisting friends and acquaintances at my university with their homework. They were primarily students from Asian countries, and many had a command of English that was limited to what they had learned in school while growing up in their country of origin. They tended to struggle with the specifics and intricacies of English grammar, idioms, slang, and complex sentence formation, which, as you can imagine, made writing formal English papers and school assignments difficult, despite the fact that they could manage well enough in general conversation to be able to establish and maintain friendships with those who spoke only English. I soon found that I enjoyed helping others to improve their English, and I’ve been engaged in private ESL tutoring ever since. I’ve acted as an English tutor in Japan for both adults and children, as well as in America. I have experience working on the writing staff of a newspaper and a literary journal, and have done extensive technical writing while earning a four-year degree in art history. I believe this combination of experience in the media, which tends toward common and artistic use of English, and academia, which focuses on formal and technical English, gives me a broad understanding of the language that is used throughout American culture. I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to assist English learners (some of whom have become very good friends of mine through the years) in achieving goals they had set, and in finding success in their careers through further mastery of the English language. I have tutored students who, through hard work and dedication, have come to depend on their English skills within their respective careers. Among the students I have had, I’m very pleased to say that among them there are those who have gone on to jobs such as the following: an English translator for a multi-national corporation in Asia, an assistant professor at a university in the United States, an ESL English tutor for a cram school, and even the head instructor of a new English school for children in Japan. It is the success of those I’ve had the privilege to help that gives me the greatest satisfaction in assisting others to learn my native language. If anyone is willing to learn, I’m willing to help in any way I can. Although tutors sometimes put their entire emphasis on purely formal English, grammar, and rote memorization, I also like to focus on the practical aspects of the English language that are more often found in spoken English. Pronunciation, which can be a big communication obstacle for speakers who have little to no experience interacting with native speakers, is also something I like to develop as much as an individual student’s abilities allow. As any native speaker knows, the English we speak is often not the same as the English we write. And the English we write can change depending on the context as well. In order to help students to have a more complete understanding of English as a whole, I like to combine lessons on common, everyday English conventions with those that focus on grammar and more academic studies. In this way, I believe a student of English can come away with a fuller understanding, not just of the language itself, but of the culture of the people who speak it. Cultural understanding and exchange, I believe, is the true benefit of studying another language. It is my goal to continue to assist in that exchange to the best of my abilities, and I feel grateful to those who provide me with the opportunity.

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  Excellent

  Damon is a very patient, friendly, and caring tutor to help my son improve English proficiency. I expect the result will be very good even we had just one session.

  -Jong-Dug S. from Austin, TX About Damon D.