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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.
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?
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.
-Shay
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