IN THE CLASSROOM:

Five-year-old Adrian Diaz-Infante finished brushing watercolors across his page and stopped to admire his rendering of a black, green, purple, orange and yellow sunset.

He had been looking at a painting of a sunset placed in the middle of the Franklin Elementary School auditorium for inspiration as he quickly put together a multicolored horizon during an after-school art class Thursday.

“I just did a lot of colors,” Adrian said. “Because I like it.”

Other students made similar paintings of sunsets, working off a brief set of instructions and imitating the piece put on display by art teacher and Burbank artist Randall Williams.

“What’s the color at the top?” Williams asked the students at the beginning of the session, pointing to his canvas of a near-dark sky.

“Black!” the students called back, as Williams explained that the scene of a sunset could be created by arranging layers of different colors on a page.

With two minutes of directions out of the way, the class hurried to work, mixing water with paint that was being shuttled to different tables by parent volunteers.

“At this age it’s just about them having fun,” Williams said. “If you give little kids too much instruction, they don’t like it. It’s just like school, and they’ll close up and don’t enjoy it.”

For Williams, who has an art studio in Burbank and teaches at the Burbank Adult School, the goal is to get students to enjoy art by showing them simple methods for getting their creative juices flowing.

He started teaching an after-school art class at Franklin last year and is in talks with other schools in Glendale and Burbank about expanding his basic lessons to help foster creativity in young students.

For most elementary-school-age lessons he offers an example of art that students can mimic, followed by a few basic instructions to get the children, ranging in age from 5 to 8, to begin rapidly making artistic expressions, Williams said.

Eventually, the young artists begin making their own pieces without direction, he said.

“It’s endless,” he said of students’ creativity. “Once you fan that flame, all kids love to draw and paint.”

After completing their sunset paintings, some students moved on to drawings and others continued with watercolors, creating their own images.

Iscaret Negrete, 8, chose to paint flowers, while her friend Nique Lintag, 8, brushed an expansive blue sky above a lone yellow flower.

“When you’re done with the drawing you can paint whatever you want, and they don’t judge your drawings,” Iscaret said.

Other types of after-school art classes focus more on perfecting techniques, she said.

“If you don’t do a good job, he doesn’t really care,” Iscaret said of Williams. “He lets you express yourself.”

That philosophy is key to building an appreciation for artistic expression at a young age, Williams said, adding that the details of specific painting concepts and techniques should be introduced once a child has established a passion for learning about art.

And developing a passion for art starts with simple activities, which begin with mimicry and emphasize fun, he said.

If students enjoy art during their childhood, they will be more inclined to explore the field later on, like in high school, which will in turn make them more creative and help balance their academic lives, he said.

“If there is an art class, they’re going to take that art class because they know they enjoyed it as kids,” he said.