Fan Forum E-Zine: September I

[Agent Elrond]

Fan Forum E-Zine: September I

Hi guys! Welcome to the fist issue of the Fan Forum E-Zine! Just so that all you lovely artists here don't have to drag yourself over The Writer's Lounge to see what's new, I'll be posting all the art related subjects right here! Here is the link to the comeplete E-Zine for those of you who are interested.

Contents:

September I Featured Art

Line Work By Agent Elrond

Announcements

Featured Art

Fake Meganium Ex Card By Kari & Mewtwo

Comments:

With great flash and dazel the fake card master returns... well, actually Kari & Mewtwo has been around for a while, but this creation is a particularly superb example of rendering and knowledge of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. It is well worth your time to take a look at his other monstrous cards as well.

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LINE WORK: An Art Column... article... thing...
By Agent Elrond



I've often had people (rarely other artists) comment on my artwork, saying such things as; I wish I could draw that well. They use this particular tone of voice too, like somehow they are a failure because their horse-legs look like sausages. It's a rather defeatist tone, "I wish I could do that.... but I never will..."

I hate it.

I've often noticed than many young children draw, perhaps because they simply have nothing else to do. Whether they draw on paper and with traditional means is entirely dependant on whether their parents have the intelligence to give them a notebook. Well do I remember the joy when I discovered, at age 7, that I could draw on the walls! I set aside the hallway beside our bedroom, with visions of a huge mural with animals and monsters on the walls, and birds flying overhead. Of course, the result was nothing like what I had imagined, (I couldn't reach the ceiling) and most of the would be murals have been covered over with more recent works of art.

But during the creation process I quite sensibly realized that this hallway was considerably bigger than my previous canvas (an 81/2" by 11" piece of typing paper) and so enlisted a fellow child friend to help me with this enormous task. We armed ourselves with felt tip markers and allotted a piece of floor and wall each. I set myself in front of some drawers and began decorating the fronts with various winged horses. These were not Michelangelo's horses, but they certainly had some rather distinctive features of their own. Such as the knees that bent backwards, and wings that, in all reality, were far, far to small. Anatomically speaking. Any adult might had been ashamed to draw such technically incorrect beings --- and on a wall at that! But I was satisfied, they captured the energy and character of the horses I wanted to draw, and I had gotten the ears right, which is more than you can say for many professional artists.
After a bit my friend came over to take a look at my progress, I glanced over at her portion of the wall and noticed that she had barely finished one half of her own drawing --- which also happened to be a horse.
"I don't like black Pegasus." She announced sourly as I colored vigorously with the black felt tip.
"I like black." I said. Which was true. She watched me color for a bit more, then added;
"Your's is better than mine." She was quite bitter.
I glanced over at her own drawing, and I had to admit, if just for the fact that I had actually finished a drawing, mine was better. Also, she had gotten the ears all wrong.
I agreed humbly.
"If I drew more than you did, I would be better than you." She said the last part with great conviction, "better than you." As if it was important that she not lose status as a human being for want of being able to draw good horse ears. But when put into a context such as that, my seven year-old's brain though on it for a while, rather bemused, before I once again agreed, and she was perfectly correct.
If she drew more than I did, she would be better.

But she didn't.

That just the thing, doing it, actually drawing, can get harder and harder as you get older. More adult things get in the way, you become to busy, to grown up to scribble away on a piece of paper. And anyway, when you do, it comes out as an unrecognizable blob of a tree, and what's a mature twelve-year-old to do?

Perhaps it has something to do with school, but I think it has more to do with losing incentive, with longing to be something you aren't, and not being proud of yourself for who you are.
It's very important to be proud of you work, and not worry if there are those who are perhaps a little (or a LOT) more skilled. That is the thing with drawing in particular, you are always getting better. If you can be silent, and observe, and remember, drawing is the essence of learning, of developing new techniques and challenging your past beliefs.

When I was young, like, five, I drew about as well as ever other five-year-old I knew. But while most of them grew on and up, they didn't draw much --- or at all, I would look up at such legends as Beatrix Potter, or Robert Lawson, and say to myself; "If I keep on drawing, I'll be as good as them some day. I can be as good as them, I'll just keep drawing."

That is the difference, when people do, and people don't. Even those who do, perhaps do it rather badly, eventually they will do it well. I have found this phenomenon to prevail in many levels of life, not just art, but it is here that it may perhaps be seen the clearest, and gives us the best chance to learn from it.

"If I drew more than you, I would be better than you."
"Yes, but you don't, do you?"

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© Agent Elrond 2004. The writer can be PMed or e-mailed at abra@teleport.com with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

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Announcements:

Looking forward to getting some more features, and maybe even our own comic!

Also, the E-Zine is organizing a Halloween Fan Art and Fiction Contest. Details will be posted as soon as I get Iveechan's go ahead for the art side of things.

Credits:

Agent Elrond, editor
Susan_Rocket, cover artist
Kari & Mewtwo, contributing artist

Enjoy, I'll see you around!

[Mew Master]

Wonderful article. Very true in the respects as to why people comment about not being artistic. Things like that get on my nerves, (But hey, I was voted most artistic in my Senior class *shrugs*)

I don't think it's just the fact that the kids lose interest, it's also partly the parent's fault for not trying to nurture their creative drawing instincts (even if it is a scribble on the wall, it's still art).

Like my American Govt instructor. He said that one of his daughters was caught scribbling on the side of the wall. He went and did one of the last things you would ever expect a parent to do. Going out he got some wood and made a frame around that scribble, where as normal parents would punish their child for ruining a perfectly good wall, he went and encouraged his daughter's artistic ability by framing it permanently to the wall. That is the kind of encouragement I like seeing in parents.

My mom was also artistic, and I watched her draw several things, including some of my toys.

I don't know about all the other artists on this board, but I draw because I enjoy it. I enjoy seeing a vision in my mind start to come to life on paper, even if it doesn't come out the way that I want it too, I stil try to improve my skills with every brush of the pencil.

Meh... I went on a bit too much... oh well....

Later.