My daughter did this in a half hour

[surfstix1963]

Thanks hopefully there will be a job market when she graduates.

[hookset]

Very creative, cool.

[bluesdude71]

She has a great talent. She should keep following her dreams. There a lots of scholarships out there for people like her. Tell her to go to your local library to look them up.

[vpass]

That is beautiful work. definitly talented.

[surfstix1963]

Thanks will do Blues dude.

[rip316]

Surfstix, My 14 year old son is also a very talented artist. I asked him to draw that same pic knowing that he could do it but, all he wants to do is play games on the computer. I keep telling him he is wasting his talent and should keep drawing and all it does is start an argument. Congrats to your daughter. Keep up the good work.

[DarkSkies]

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, Rip. It's sad that people are so stubborn sometimes. They only see what they want to see.

I had a response to this thread the other day, but didn't want to make it long-winded.

Throughout life I have known people who had some great artistic talent and never did much with it.

1.There was a friend in JR High, great caricature and comic artist, went on to become a teacher, he never did anything with the art.

2. Another friend we used to party with. He was naturally talented, got kinda famous for airbrushing the blue jean jackets we wore back then.

He did "Eddy" from Iron Maiden for me, fantastic detail. He was doing it before anyone else even thought of it. He never did anything with it after HS. He went on to become a prison guard. We lost touch, he died a few years ago from an accidental OD of pills and booze. Left behind a wife and son, I went to his funeral.

3. The latest one was the nephew of one of my workers. He has a great talent, he makes up these amazing comic book characters, draws them freehand, no copying, totally original. Pebbles and I tried to get him into the Arts High School in Newark. His grades weren't good enough, so they wouldn't take him despite our writing a letter and trying to make the intro with some teacher who might have pushed for him.

Fast forward, he now has a girlfriend and son, and is working at Wal-Mart. He could have been a comic or TV fantasy character illustrating prodigy, if only he was more motivated.




In the end, it's also about luck, perseverance, and making the right connections to get work. You have to want to learn technology because talent is just the beginning. Computer animation is a hot field now, among others, and it seems that the people who don't want to learn computers or further their skills along that path have less of a chance.

That's not the only path though, there are others. Rip, sorry to hear your son's not motivated. Working at McDonald's could be enough of a push to motivate him, maybe not. It's good for kids to see the difficult jobs out there, and then make their own decisions to pursue something they have a talent at that's more lucrative.

Surfstix, your daughter has that raw ability, the natural talent, that someone needs to succeed artistically. What she does with it is up to her. Didn't mean to hijack the thread, but I wanted to explain why I feel so passionately about kids pursuing their natural talents, and not giving up. I've known too many people who only went at it halfway, gave up, and settled for something else.

I think to myself, if only they had pushed a little harder, they could have had different lives. If your daughter ever doubts her abilities, please show her this thread. I hope she doesn't give up. She definitely has the raw talent she needs to really make something of herself, if she's willing to also cultivate the connections and be persistent.

The best of luck to her.