children's art projects

Diva · Post by **Diva** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:26 am

i was talking to my boy's teacher (did i mention that i LOVE her!?) and she does art on fridays. so, i told her let me know if she needs help with any large art projects. after talking, she mentioned the Art Walk the school does. each class makes something and it sits out on display for parents and others to view. i mentioned the art project that i did with the oldest kid's class a few years ago...the Van Gogh Starry Starry Night. basically, each kid in class gets to make one square of the picture, so we fit it together like a mosaic painting. she LOVED that idea and wants to do it. so yay... and then she mentioned that we can get together on a couple others. it's like she heard that i've done this stuff with kids before and jumped on it. lol i love helping kids and helping kids with art is ++. i'll be sure to take pics and share what we do in the coming school year.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:21 pm

i wish i had progressed more in art class when i was younger. i was HORRIBLE at painting.

back in elementary school we had a cycle of gym,art,music every 3 days. didn't matter what day of the week it fell on, just that when it landed in the cycle. i loved music and gym so much and i hated going to art class. i had a good teacher and everything i was just horrible. once i got out of elementary school and they let me pick what i wanted to do i doubled up music classes and got out of art. something had to because i was playing snare in concert band, quads in marching band, and drum kit in jazz band. the only thing i didn't get into was symphony. those kids could get fucked.

now that im 30 im getting more and more into different types of art again, but I have no background training in any of it.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:43 am

I was the most artistic kid/teen ever, then I had a real asshole art teacher in 10th grade, so I gave up on persuing art...I won awards for some of my shit, but that teacher sucked the life out me, left me uninspired and gave me a shitty outlook for a job in the field of art. I ran across and old "art" friend who is now a cartoonist for Cartoon network, who knows I could of been doing something like that but I chose a different path. meh.

blane · Post by **blane** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:26 am

robroe wrote:i wish i had progressed more in art class when i was younger. i was HORRIBLE at painting.

back in elementary school we had a cycle of gym,art,music every 3 days. didn't matter what day of the week it fell on, just that when it landed in the cycle. i loved music and gym so much and i hated going to art class. i had a good teacher and everything i was just horrible. once i got out of elementary school and they let me pick what i wanted to do i doubled up music classes and got out of art. something had to because i was playing snare in concert band, quads in marching band, and drum kit in jazz band. the only thing i didn't get into was symphony. those kids could get fucked.

now that im 30 im getting more and more into different types of art again, but I have no background training in any of it.

If you want to get into it, Practice drawing.. sketch, doodle, and draw. Perspective, The chair, the computer, if you're waiting for something doodle, on the phone doodle, on the computer doodle, etc. Just sketch anything and everything around you all the time In a tiny moleskin notebook or something. You'll progress rather quickly if you stick at it and really take the time to look at what you're trying to draw.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:34 pm

Drawing is like practicing scales. If you want to do it, you will, and you get better. Some people take to experimentation better, but really, talent is more practice than anything. We think people either ARE or they're NOT. This is a myth. As Cowy said, he was good and then got turned off. The ability is still there and comes out in other ways, like painting guitars or whatever. I haven't seriously drawn in years and I can still pick it up like a guitar. Don't think about if you're any good or not. Have fun, make some noise.

Diva · Post by **Diva** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:18 am

the only art classes i've ever taken were photo. loved it. was really good at it. i can draw...haven't in years, but i used to sit and draw things all of the time. painting...i can paint things. as long as i have some inspiration to go on, i probably could draw/create some neat shit. i just don't... sad, eh? i haven't even picked up the camera for art purposes in a very long time.

do you ever remember doing anything in particular as a kid with art? like any cool ideas that i may pass on to other chilluns?

i also used to dance. would love to go back to that. ballet for a couple years when i was younger, then i got out of it for whatever reason. then moved to the mountains where there was no dance class of any kind for miles. so i ended up in cheerleading, as that was the only dance i could get. the first year at the JC i was going to, i tried out for the dance/sheer squad and was chosen. i ended up dropping and never got to do anything after that. pretty sad. why can't i just stick with something? most of the times life just got in the way.

fucking life. fucking shit up since forever.

astro · Post by **astro** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:58 am

More Cowbell wrote:I ran across and old "art" friend who is now a cartoonist for Cartoon network, who knows I could of been doing something like that but I chose a different path. meh.

As they say, the grass is always greener...

Maybe my story will cheer you up. I worked for ten years in the animation biz, on all sorts of cartoons (mostly TV shows, a few movies). I loved the work, but hated the business. It was hell. It's a field that attracts a lot of unpleasant people, believe it or not. When I worked on Triplettes of Belleville, I lived a nightmare. The director would physically assault people, and smash up office furniture for no reason (unless being a crazy asshole is a reason). My supervisor spread vicious rumors about me and accused me of all sorts of shit that never happened, trying to get me in trouble. Another company I worked for, where I worked on shows like Caillou (big in French Canada) and Arthur, it was a nightmare as well. Same kind of BS. Our nickname for our boss was "Shitler". We were all miserable.

There is only one animation company that I enjoyed working for, it was my last gig in the biz. It was a revelation! The bosses were nice, and appreciated our input. People were promoted based on their hard work, instead of who they gave a blow job to or who they were buddies with outside of work. They paid us on time. They kept their promises. They never yelled, screamed, or insulted us. The office furniture survived intact. For the first time in 10 years, I was happy. Then one day, I showed up for work, and the doors were padlocked. Turned out the company was a front set up by the mob to launder south american cocaine money. No joke.

I ended up switching careers and I'm a nurse now. At work, I'm surrounded by death, disease, blood, feces, pus, antibiotic resistant germs, and other nastiness. And, in all seriousness, it's a million times more enjoyable to be at work now than in my previous career.

Working in a creative field is not necessarily a good thing if you want to be a creative person! You rarely, if ever, get a chance to provide creative input to other people's projects. And I found that after a day at the office drawing, upon returning home the last thing I wanted to do was make artwork for myself. Pencils and paper just served to remind me of my job and its associated misery. Now that I've been out of the drawing biz for a few years, I find that I'm much more creative, and I'm actually motivated to draw for fun, something I hadn't done since my early twenties.

Diva · Post by **Diva** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:20 pm

Nursing is a fabulous job. Might not be glamourous...

interesting work history there.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:51 am

astro wrote:
More Cowbell wrote:I ran across and old "art" friend who is now a cartoonist for Cartoon network, who knows I could of been doing something like that but I chose a different path. meh.
As they say, the grass is always greener...

Maybe my story will cheer you up. I worked for ten years in the animation biz, on all sorts of cartoons (mostly TV shows, a few movies). I loved the work, but hated the business. It was hell. It's a field that attracts a lot of unpleasant people, believe it or not. When I worked on Triplettes of Belleville, I lived a nightmare. The director would physically assault people, and smash up office furniture for no reason (unless being a crazy asshole is a reason). My supervisor spread vicious rumors about me and accused me of all sorts of shit that never happened, trying to get me in trouble. Another company I worked for, where I worked on shows like Caillou (big in French Canada) and Arthur, it was a nightmare as well. Same kind of BS. Our nickname for our boss was "Shitler". We were all miserable.

There is only one animation company that I enjoyed working for, it was my last gig in the biz. It was a revelation! The bosses were nice, and appreciated our input. People were promoted based on their hard work, instead of who they gave a blow job to or who they were buddies with outside of work. They paid us on time. They kept their promises. They never yelled, screamed, or insulted us. The office furniture survived intact. For the first time in 10 years, I was happy. Then one day, I showed up for work, and the doors were padlocked. Turned out the company was a front set up by the mob to launder south american cocaine money. No joke.

I ended up switching careers and I'm a nurse now. At work, I'm surrounded by death, disease, blood, feces, pus, antibiotic resistant germs, and other nastiness. And, in all seriousness, it's a million times more enjoyable to be at work now than in my previous career.

Working in a creative field is not necessarily a good thing if you want to be a creative person! You rarely, if ever, get a chance to provide creative input to other people's projects. And I found that after a day at the office drawing, upon returning home the last thing I wanted to do was make artwork for myself. Pencils and paper just served to remind me of my job and its associated misery. Now that I've been out of the drawing biz for a few years, I find that I'm much more creative, and I'm actually motivated to draw for fun, something I hadn't done since my early twenties.

Defo cheered me up.

I saw my "what if I pursued art" life flash before my face.

I did on a whim see if I still had anything the other day and sketched my baby boy. It took a few minutes, but it really pulled me in and took me away from the world, I'm kinda inspired now to try something nice, I think I'll take it step further next time and work harder to make it better...I posted it in your sketch thread.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:56 am

I LOVED Triplets of Belleville. The movie was good too. I watch Caillou with my 3 y.o. The voice of his cat sounds a little ghey. Anything is better than Dora's singing. I work with a guy whose daughter worked for Disney and said it was great to have on the resume, but a shit job. She is super religious and designs stained glass windows now. I wonder if her Madonnas look like Pocahontas.

astro · Post by **astro** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:46 am

More Cowbell wrote:
Defo cheered me up. I saw my "what if I pursued art" life flash before my face.

I did on a whim see if I still had anything the other day and sketched my baby boy. It took a few minutes, but it really pulled me in and took me away from the world, I'm kinda inspired now to try something nice, I think I'll take it step further next time and work harder to make it better...I posted it in your sketch thread.

You're more than welcome to post in the thread I started. It wasn't meant to be a thread for just my work, I intended to have others post their work as well, like the photo thread.

I'm glad you enjoyed your experience drawing again! Now that I'm no longer a professional in that field, drawing is a hugely escapist activity for me. It's both entertaining and therapeutic.

I like the drawing of your kid that you made. The cool thing about drawing portraits of people that you know is that you don't just get to capture what they look like, but how you personally see them. My brother was like you, he hadn't drawn in almost 20 years, but when his daughter was born, he started again, by doing her portraits.

By the looks of your drawing, it looks like you never lost the skills. Keep it up and post moar drawings!

astro · Post by **astro** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:01 am

DGNR8 wrote:I LOVED Triplets of Belleville. The movie was good too. I watch Caillou with my 3 y.o. The voice of his cat sounds a little ghey. Anything is better than Dora's singing. I work with a guy whose daughter worked for Disney and said it was great to have on the resume, but a shit job. She is super religious and designs stained glass windows now. I wonder if her Madonnas look like Pocahontas.

I loved Triplettes once I watched the finished product, over a year after it was completed. I was invited to the private screening for the people who worked on the film, but I never went to that. I was literally so traumatized by my work experience on that film that I dreaded having to be reminded of it. I ended up seeing the film in the cinema when it played locally. My experience was so negative on that job that I had a mini nervous breakdown once I left the place, and I couldn't work for months. In fact, it was the gig that made me realize that if I wanted to stay sane, I needed to switch careers.

I had no idea that Caillou was known outside of Quebec! I worked on that show for 5 years. I actually have no idea what the voices sound like, because I never bothered to watch any of the shows that I worked on (except for a very few things). I'll always remember getting in deep shit from the big bosses there. Some work buddies and I were bored shitless, and we decided to draw various pictures of Caillou in various scenes of torture and mutilation (e.g. decapitation, crucifixion, impalement on a spear, etc.). Being proud of our work, we hung the drawings up on the wall. They were there for months, until some of the suits from Cinar saw them and had a shit fit! We got a stern talking to, but thankfully we didn't get fired.

It's true about it looking good on the resume... when people find out what I used to do, they can't understand why I decided to switch jobs. People tend to automatically assume that any kind of work in film and television is glamourous, exciting and well paid. But that's only true for the Hollywood A list, for the other 99.99% of people in the field, it's nothing of the sort. Nursing might not be glamorous, but it's the first job that makes me truly happy. For the first time in years, I look forward to going to work. And to be able to see that my work can have a positive benefit to others is a huge ego boost!

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:34 am

Caillou s aired on PBS here I've seen it alot.

My wife is a nurse. Nurses are fun people outside of work.

Thanks for the kind comments, maybe I'll do more sketching, etc.

Diva · Post by **Diva** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:24 am

We've watched Caillou in the past as well. My kids are just too old for that now.

ludger · Post by **ludger** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:24 pm

DGNR8 wrote:I LOVED Triplets of Belleville.

Plus one.