A lot of kids in Hawai'i are into drawing anime. Considering that many of our residents have Japanese heritage and we have a heavy Asian influence, that isn't much of a surprise.
Understandably, parents get really excited to see their kid drawing something. They love to see how close their child can replicate a character from an anime show or manga book. However....copying the lines of a simplified drawing that has already been created is a much different skill set than studying something so deeply in in front of your face and turning it into a realistic representation on paper. It's also different from knowing how to realistically represent that subject on paper, and how you can manipulate those guidelines for realistic drawing in order to create a "style" and character of your own.
In other words, a lot of kids are really good at copying other people's anime characters from the internet but lack basic observational skills for almost everything else involved with drawing.
I've found that students whose drawing experience is mostly in copying others' anime and cartoon characters are very "stuck" in their creativity and skills. I don't think 4 weeks of classes will "fix" this. Part of it is brain development stages and a willingness to learn how to expand their repertoire. You have to be willing to take the time to practice things that are "hard."
Copying comes easy for a lot of people. Observing characteristics and angles of objects in front of your face and translating them to paper is hard.
If a child is adamant about learning only anime or cartooning, there are other teachers out there who will be better suited for that topic. However, I am happy to help them hone their skills in a more realistic manner for people's faces, bodies, scenery, animals, objects, etc. It's just a matter of how willing they are to learn those things. (And that's something a parent needs to determine before signing them up for my style of observational drawing class.)
The focus in my drawing classes is always going to be observational skills from real objects or photos, no matter the student's choice of subject. And there's a reason for this. If you can study and know a subject so intimately that you can eventually reproduce its form from memory, you can manipulate that knowledge to create anything you want - including anime and cartoon characters.
Anime-loving kids in drawing classes
