Need comic drawers help, acutally any artisits advice is much appreciated here

Question

Ok, I homeschool my son, due to the special ed teacher he had wasnt helping him or the other students. She was ALWAYS calling them stupid, while knocking them on their heads.

Anyways, this year for arts I told him, since he loves to draw & has such a love for all of the Marvel & D.C Comics so much. He's really good, but right now, he's at a stand still, because he said his mind is blank on how to draw what he wants.

When this happens, he starts hitting himself on his head & calls himself stupid, because his teacher he "used" to have always called him this. This is the biggest reason we homeschool.

Im trying to get him to understand that artists always goes through this, & that there NOT stupid, stuipd I feel is letting teachers like what he once had!

I am trying to get him to understand that everyone has days that they are blocked, & that if they just keep trying something will become of his drawings. He just has to believe in himself!

Can any of you artist out there give me some advice to encourgae my son, he's 11 yr old. And feels like he should just give up on his drawings.

I dont, nor will I let him give up on himself!

When you homeschool, they dont have an arts subject set up, so I am the one that suggested for him to learn more about it this year. So he was all excited about it, now he wants to just give uup.

Answer 1

Ok. First off, brilliant choice in home schooling your child. My (now adopted) younger sister was in Special Ed when we were just her foster family and didn't have the option to pull her from school. I swear, Special Ed programs are like a plague with what they do a child's self esteem, and the good teachers are so few.... So, kudos to you, really. But I digress...

Secondly, if your child is upset because he's having artists block, he's not stupid, just keep reminding him and he will eventually understand. A blank piece of paper can be one of the most intimidating things in the world...you have all these awesome ideas swirling around in your head and no idea how to put them down on paper, and then when you do, they don't turn out the way you like. It's terribly frustrating. But, as your skill grows, this does disappear.

He's probably too young to really dig traditional drawing exercises like rendering out still-lives and such, so just encourage him do draw whatever he likes. Comics are great because they're so contemporary and it does get kids into reading as well.

If he's feeling blocked, encourage him to trace a drawing instead and then color it in. You'd be amazed how much hand control you can learn by tracing. Plus, you can let him know that Inkers for Comic Books do just that. They trace over the Penciler's work and make it better and clearer, so he's practicing to be an industry professional that way.

The most important thing to do is to just draw, more so than which ever type of exercise you're doing. One of the most amazing artists I know once told me that we each have 100,000 bad drawings in us before we can be truly great. So each drawing that goes wrong, however frustrating, is just one more, necessary step to being your best.

If you do give him exercises give him ones that are both creative and technical. Instead of: draw this vase of flowers and fruit... try draw this comic character as a fruit.  Dude, the Hulk as a kiwi...need I say more. If he's getting frustrated, have him draw with his left hand...not in a serious way, but to get him to just draw and not be too concerned with how it turns out. Or tell him to draw something in 10 seconds. And do 20 ten second drawings. Stuff like that can really help artists not get so precious. To draw well, you can't be afraid to draw poorly.

Answer 2

Tell him to doodle. If I have no inspiration Ill just draw shapes until I see a picture come out of them. I then take the time to apply my skill and make a decent drawing.

Give him situations, Like how does he think Jack Kirby would draw Batman. Or what a fight between Superman and the 300 would look like.

Answer 3

First of all, I am a junior in an art college and have been drawing since I was 3.  Just to get my... I dunno, credentials out there.

Tell your son that you don't always need a subject.  Even the doodles on the sides of notebook paper and tests while daydreaming are useful.  Many of those little things can become bigger pictures.

Like I said, I've been drawing since I was 3.  I didn't however spend every single moment and day drawing.  There were times, even months on end, that I didn't draw.  This isn't a good thing, since practice makes perfect, but what I'm trying to say is just because you can't think of what to draw doesn't mean you should get discouraged.

There are plenty of things he can do:

Copy pictures from comics.  This is the way most people learn a style, and since he likes Marvel, this will benefit them.

Draw anything, and I mean anything.  You can either grab some objects from around the house (starting off w/ basic ones like pots, cups, bowls, and vases with from fruit here and there is a good start) and set them up for him, or he can just draw whatever is already in place.  He needs to learn to draw from real life.  I -hate- drawing still-lifes, but it really does help.

He also can copy photos of his friends, family, or favorite celebrities.  

If he has vivid dreams, have him draw/paint them.  This is how surrealism was created.  It's dream imagery.  Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali (the guy w/ the melting clocks) are two well-known artists.  

Not sure where you live, but drawing outside works too.  Of course he'll need a clipboard and a pencil bag, but whether it's a field, tiny backyard, or a city block, he can still observe people and things.  

Speaking of observing things, have him draw people from real life.  Have him look in a mirror or have someone in your family sit still so he can copy their face (and body.)  This is incredibly crucial because drawing comics still requires knowing anatomy and proportion.

This part is important.  The drawings don't have to look finished.  Get him a sketchbook.  Then later he can go through and find things he wants to redo and/or finish up.  He can draw scribbled outlines of things, just as long as he's observing them and actually doing something.

Another way to break artists' block is to take some index cards, or something similar.  Put adjectives on one set and nouns on another, and verbs on another set.  Color-code them or something and then put them facedown and draw one adjective, one noun, and one verb.  Sure, Calico Robots Kick-boxing are silly, but it's certainly something no one else has drawn before.  

     My friend and I did something similar to this for a while.  She and I liked drawing people, so we took index cards, would write a description as detailed or vague as we liked, and then flip through them, find a card, both read it, and draw our visions of that character, then compare.

He's not stupid (as you know.)  He just needs to know that all his art doesn't need to be "fridge-worthy" (I think I heard the term once for things worth showing-off, and I hope you don't think it's condescending.) but instead that some of the coolest ideas come from really messy doodles and sketches.

Oh yes, thumbnails.  If he comes up with a really cool idea, have him draw a few compositions on a paper divided into 4-8 rectangles.  That way he can decide where he wants everything and the ones not used are still recorded for possibly later use.

I'm wary to tell you about this next part because it could be more damaging than beneficial, but someone is going to mention it, and I'd like to be the first.   Someone, sometime, will probably discuss Deviantart.com   Having an online gallery is great and you get to show off your work.  However, the site is a popularity contest and when he only gets 10 pageviews he'll be upset no one likes his stuff.  Barely anyone on there bothers to critique and encourage budding artists, and many actually get annoyed at young artists who have been given nothing but empty "I want my kid to feel good about him/herself" praise and encouragement and think everyone online should go crazy at how awesome their stuff is.  If you do decide to let him on there, my gallery is http://kurios.deviantart.com and I'd be willing to critique his work and help him.  Even if you just posted it to a family album website, Photobucket, or what-not I'd give it a look.

Best of luck to him and you in this endeavor.