My daughter loves to draw.  Honestly, at 11, she might already be able to 
draw better than I can.  That's not saying a whole lot, though, but I think 
she has potential.  She LOVES anime, and that's where her artistic interest 
lies.  She wants to be an "animator".

When I was younger, I loved to draw and paint, and perhaps I could have 
developed that part of myself, but instead, I decided to take a much more 
practical view of the rest of my life, and went into the computer field, 
essentially guaranteeing (I hoped) that I would have a job somewhere.  Do I 
have regrets?  A little.  Do I think I made the wrong choice?  No.  But what 
I do think about is that I could have still mixed-in some art classes in 
high school and college.  Instead, I went all-out geek, and only took 
"geeky" classes: programming (obviously), math, physics, chemistry, etc. 
That's what I regret.

But as for my daughter, she may have more potential than I did.  She will 
likely never be a Salvador Dali, or Hayao Miyazaki, but perhaps she could be 
a Yoshitoshi Abe (one of my favorite animators).  Or maybe she'll change her 
mind when she's 16.  Who knows.  I just want to make sure that I encourage 
her in the mean-time, and if she does choose to take the artistic path, I'd 
like to know what that entails, but I don't know anything.

Any advice?  Tips?

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Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:

> Any advice?  Tips? 

Some day I will be a horrible, horrible parent. You probably shouldn't 
take any kind of parent-related advice from me.



I'm always of the opinion that if you enjoy doing something, you should 
keep doing it.

Unless it's cocane, in which case you should stop. Immediately.



Indie: If that's what you love doing, that's great, and don't let 
anybody tell you any different.

Marrion: Indie, he's your son.

Indie: WHY DIDN'T YOU FINISH SCHOOL?!

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That reminds me that my dad used to encourage me in my youth artistic 
endeavours.  Once I decided to learn to paint, oil, brushes, frames and 
all.  There goes my old man and brings home the full painter's kit.  For 
some reason I can't understand even now, I never touched it.

I can't really say whatever happened, certainly it was not my intention 
to piss off my father.  Perhaps I was too much overwhelmed by the task... :(

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Some day I will be a [...] parent.

  At least you still are optimistic... ;)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Some day I will be a [...] parent.
> 
>   At least you still are optimistic... ;)

I love you too. :-P

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Encouraging your child to be creative may be the very best gift you can give 
her, I think.

I'd suggest you get her a copy of the basic version of the software Anime 
Studio from Smith Micro. It's really very easy to use, it's not awfully 
expensive, and it comes with some good starter content. Despite the name, 
it's good for almost any kind of 2D animation. You can import your own 
images to animate, it's got good vector drawing tools, and it can even 
import some 3D content (OBJ format, I think) and give you a 2D 
representation of it.

For traditional animation, I highly recommend "The Animator's Survival Kit" 
by Richard Williams. It covers 2D cel style animation, but it's got stuff 
that's very useful for any animation medium. Another old one I like is 
"Timing for Animation".

Manga art on paper, which is the art style that Anime derives from, is 
traditionaly done with brush and ink or brush markers. If you hunt around 
you can find some nice felt tip brush markers that are made with the Manga 
artist in mind; they'll come in sets of varying thickness, with black and a 
couple of shades of gray.

For general study in drawing, you can't beat "Drawing on the Right Side of 
the Brain", by Betty Edwards. There's a companion workbook you can get for 
it that's pretty good, too.

I've found a lot of good art instruction books at my local used bookstore 
(Half-Price Books is the chain I have access to around here) and they're 
always pretty affordable.


"Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay" <jer### [at] questsoftwarecmo> wrote in message 
news:4abb70bc$1@news.povray.org...
> My daughter loves to draw.  Honestly, at 11, she might already be able to 
> draw better than I can.  That's not saying a whole lot, though, but I 
> think she has potential.  She LOVES anime, and that's where her artistic 
> interest lies.  She wants to be an "animator".
>
> When I was younger, I loved to draw and paint, and perhaps I could have 
> developed that part of myself, but instead, I decided to take a much more 
> practical view of the rest of my life, and went into the computer field, 
> essentially guaranteeing (I hoped) that I would have a job somewhere.  Do 
> I have regrets?  A little.  Do I think I made the wrong choice?  No.  But 
> what I do think about is that I could have still mixed-in some art classes 
> in high school and college.  Instead, I went all-out geek, and only took 
> "geeky" classes: programming (obviously), math, physics, chemistry, etc. 
> That's what I regret.
>
> But as for my daughter, she may have more potential than I did.  She will 
> likely never be a Salvador Dali, or Hayao Miyazaki, but perhaps she could 
> be a Yoshitoshi Abe (one of my favorite animators).  Or maybe she'll 
> change her mind when she's 16.  Who knows.  I just want to make sure that 
> I encourage her in the mean-time, and if she does choose to take the 
> artistic path, I'd like to know what that entails, but I don't know 
> anything.
>
> Any advice?  Tips?
>

Post a reply to this message

Captain Jack wrote:
> Encouraging your child to be creative may be the very best gift you can give 
> her, I think.

I'm not gonna argue with that.

> For general study in drawing, you can't beat "Drawing on the Right Side of 
> the Brain", by Betty Edwards. There's a companion workbook you can get for 
> it that's pretty good, too.

I have this book. I found it to be rather unhelpful.

Post a reply to this message

"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:4abb954c@news.povray.org...
>> For general study in drawing, you can't beat "Drawing on the Right Side 
>> of the Brain", by Betty Edwards. There's a companion workbook you can get 
>> for it that's pretty good, too.
>
> I have this book. I found it to be rather unhelpful.

I've got another book I like, called "From Script to Screen" (IIRC, by 
Shamus Calhun, the spelling of which I may be butchering badly) where the 
author talks about traditional animation (really more history and business 
than artistry, but, still...) and he talks about his drawing technique, and 
how it's similar to what Betty Edwards was talking about.

What I took away from her book was the importance of getting away from rigid 
structures and goals in my drawing (I do my best thinking in terms of 
mathematics and software design) and to let the myself "zone out" and "just 
draw". There's something about letting loose of concentration and analysis 
and especially a need to erase that has helped my drawing skills a lot.

Not that they didn't need serious improvement from the outset, mind you. :)

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Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:
> My daughter loves to draw.  Honestly, at 11, she might already be able to 
> draw better than I can.  That's not saying a whole lot, though, but I think 
> she has potential.  She LOVES anime, and that's where her artistic interest 
> lies.  She wants to be an "animator".

Encourage her to experiment with different styles of drawing. Different
media, perspectives, layout. More on why, later.

> When I was younger, I loved to draw and paint, and perhaps I could have 
> developed that part of myself, but instead, I decided to take a much more 
> practical view of the rest of my life, and went into the computer field, 
> essentially guaranteeing (I hoped) that I would have a job somewhere.  Do I 
> have regrets?  A little.  Do I think I made the wrong choice?  No.  But what 
> I do think about is that I could have still mixed-in some art classes in 
> high school and college.  Instead, I went all-out geek, and only took 
> "geeky" classes: programming (obviously), math, physics, chemistry, etc. 
> That's what I regret.

I did the same as a kid. I could handle 2 point perspective before I was
ten, and was trying to wrap my head around 3 point. I loved Imagination
Station on PBS, but that might be aimed a little too young for an 11
year old.

What stopped me, and got me behind a camera or keyboard was too many
people telling me what I should not be drawing. No one told me what I
should try, just that there were things I shouldn't draw.

Don't over critique her work. If you notice that she is trying a new
style or technique, offer subtle pointers if you have to but help her
spot the stuff first. Ask for an explanation why, if say one shadow is
going the wrong direction or a building is leaning out of kilter, she
did that. That will also help her get used to the BS sessions that she
may do later if she goes to art school. At 11 she can get away with "The
red splotches represent my inner anger when my pet hamster died." but at
19 that will just get an eye-roll from professors.

> But as for my daughter, she may have more potential than I did.  She will 
> likely never be a Salvador Dali, or Hayao Miyazaki, but perhaps she could be 
> a Yoshitoshi Abe (one of my favorite animators).  Or maybe she'll change her 
> mind when she's 16.  Who knows.  I just want to make sure that I encourage 
> her in the mean-time, and if she does choose to take the artistic path, I'd 
> like to know what that entails, but I don't know anything.
> 
> Any advice?  Tips? 
> 
> 

Yeah, she will never be any of the folks you mentioned. She will either
be her self, with her own style and vision, or she won't be in the right
field. Taking after someone elses style in order to learn a new style is
fine. Striving to be like another artist leaves your own work feeling
dull, since your real meaning was to copy, not create.

Take her to museums when you can. Teach her to critique other peoples
work by doing so. You may never have to teach her to critique her own
work, then. Take her out and teach her to draw a scene; landscape,
buildings, whatever; exactly as she sees it. And how to draw things that
she doesn't see.

Even if she changes her mind later, she will always have those skills
and the memories of learning them from YOU.

And even if she doesn't study graphic art later, there is always
photography, advertising, chemistry, physics, computers, math, biology
and everything else. All of which can be applied to artistic endeavor.
So encourage every hobby that you can. I don't mean you need to buy her
all the tools she needs; drums if she wants to be a drummer one day,
lots of paints, paper and easels for painting, a new computer and Maya
for 3D animation. But get her to look at the tools, figure out if she is
willing to put in the time and effort to both acquire the tools and
learn to use them.


Disclaimer: Not a parent myself. Just what I have picked up from
baby-sitting teenagers, child psychology, and watching freshman trying
to build portfolios for college. The last is amusing if you are studying
in a different department and can listen in on what the professors
actually think.

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On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:10:58 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>Warp wrote:
>> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>> Some day I will be a [...] parent.
>> 
>>   At least you still are optimistic... ;)
>
>I love you too. :-P

That wasn't very nice. I read it as being optimistic.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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