"Shay" <n@n.n> wrote in message news:4abcf6f1$1@news.povray.org...
> Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:
>
>>
>> Any advice?  Tips?
>
> Not a parent, just a guy who's old enough to have seen a lot of kids 
> around me grow up and who knows a few professional artists.
>
> I have come to believe that a parent's role is to ensure his child has the 
> maximum number of choices available to her when she becomes an adult. Most 
> of the teenagers I know aren't going to have many choices in adulthood 
> because they have been given too many as children. They are crippled by 
> distraction and laziness. Those who seem to be surviving the 
> MySpace/PlayStation/CellPhone/XBox/Facebook epidemic are those who are 
> engaged in disciplined, competitive activities. Art without discipline is 
> poisonous. So what if it fosters creativity? Text messaging fosters 
> creativity -- "sexting" especially I would think.

Yes.  Discipline is needed to be successful at _anything_ in life. 
Unfortunately, I lack a lot of it myself, and I'm often concerned that I 
haven't properly taught it to my daughter.  (not to be confused with 
punishment, even though the terms are often used as if they are 
interchangeable.)

> I believe absolutely that a human being is designed to hunt for his supper 
> and, if not given the opportunity to do so, will almost always become 
> insane and depressed. I wouldn't let my daughter just /have/ drawing 
> anymore than I would let her just /have/ money. I would subject her to an 
> appropriate amount of honest criticism of her work. Laziness, even 
> intellectual or creative laziness, is more debilitating than smoking. How 
> would you react if you caught her smoking? Afraid she'll quit drawing if 
> you don't "support" her failures? Why is no one afraid his daughter will 
> quit academics if he doesn't support her failures in that area?

That is where things get fuzzy, though.  On the one hand, you want to guide 
your child.  On the other, you don't want to be so heavy handed as to cause 
them to hate what they are doing.  Hard work, in any field, can be very 
enjoyable.  Unfortunately, most of us don't really believe that.
>
> On the practical end, I would suggest buying her many technical books on 
> drawing. I don't draw, but I imagine it's much like POV-Ray in that the 
> mastering of technical skills increases the development speed of artistic 
> skills. We've all spent weeks laying a (too solid) foundation for a 
> creative idea that didn't pan out. Had we properly parameterized that 
> foundation, we could have tried several artistic ideas in the same amount 
> of time. Of course, one can go too far in that direction as well.
>
I have never been taught to draw.  Ever.  I used to think that the best way 
to learn anything was to teach yourself by simply doing it.  For most 
things, I wouldn't even bother cracking open a book.  Well, that may have 
some merit, but I no longer believe it.  The truth was that I just didn't 
like someone telling me what to do and telling me what I was doing wrong.  I 
know my daughter is the same way, so it's a tricky balance.  The best way to 
get any person to agree with (or to) something is to let them think it was 
_their_ idea.  In that regard, I show her things that "I just happen to come 
across" on the Internet, then see what she wants to do with it.  "Oh, you 
want that technical book on drawing?  I don't know...  Let me think about 
it..."  ;-)

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