Is there anyway in hell a 6 year old could do this?
“Some”, eh…
I really clicked the link with an open mind. But no fucking way did a 6 year old paint that. Ugh. Fucking asshole parents.
With a ‘coach’ that is an accomplished artist in the field, it seems… possible, but I’ve never seen a 6-year old produce anything even remotely as good as this.
I guess if any 6 year old could, it would most likely be one who has natural ability (her dad is a painter), and lots and lots of time to be coached (she is homeschooled).
If I had a 6-year-old who could paint like that I would make sure to get video documentation or I wouldn’t expect anyone to believe it. So no, I don’t believe it.
Yeah, I was all like, “Y’all are a bunch of haters, 6-year-olds can do amazing work.” And I clicked on the article and thought, “There’s the photo of the duck, but where’s the kid’s painting?” And then I figured it out and burst out laughing. Yeah, color me skeptical.
I’m going with the consensus. I’ll be astonished if it turns out that girl actually did this painting by herself.
“Here, honey, let me hold your hand and, uh, coach you while you paint this.”
I don’t have any trouble believing it. It’s rare, but child prodigies are not impossible.
Googling around I found quite a few other children were artistically advanced at age 6.
Here’s one impressive article:
And another one:
Another:
Thank you, you worded it better than me. My reaction was exactly the same, by the way (down to being confused by the photo and looking for the kid’s picture). I’d be raising an eyebrow if they claimed a 10-13 year old painted that, but I’d probably keep it to myself. But 6? No fucking way.
Without video of the kids painting, I am skeptical of all of these, especially the first one (the Daily Mail? Seriously?). Other parents have claimed their kid was an artistic genius, but when they have to prove it (put the kid alone in a room and watch them paint with hidden cameras or the like) it always turns out the parents are lying. The Vietnamese girl seems the least likely to be a fraud; her paintings show talent, but not nearly as far beyond her years as the others. I still think she’s mostly a fake though.
Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence and all that.
ETA: i noticed in the articles all the parents are making lots of money off this stuff. Yeah, it’s fake
Am I wrong in thinking the duck painting is a lot different than the paintings in the links posted above?
That duck was almost photo-realistic. It seems much harder to pull that off.
They may not have touched the brushes or the canvass, but coaching can take the form of sitting next to somebody with a second easel and saying “Okay, now take your #3 fan brush, dip it in the sap green and do this with it. No, that’s wrong. Be lighter with your stroke, like this.” Over the course of a year, nearly anybody could produce a decent painting with that sort of coaching.
Agreed. I can accept the possibility of the other pictures but not the duck one. Even with a professional painter standing right there and telling the child (or even an adult) what to do, I don’t think a non-professional would have the muscle skills to make that painting.
Both of my parents were artists, and I inherited artistic ability from both of them. But there’s no way in hell I could have painted that at age 6.
My guess is that it was done like “paint-by-numbers,” with Daddy drawing all the contours and mixing the colors. Even the gradients can be done that way. Don’t forget, we’re seeing a tiny version of the real thing.
So I’m calling “fraud!” To say that an “artist” did a painting “himself” means that he did the entire creation by himself. I wonder whether any of the other contestants are suing.
Maybe her parents will drive her to the event in their Pinewood Derby Fleetwood Brougham.
Looks like the folks here weren’t the only ones who are calling fowl…er…foul.
Okay, I can believe it a whole lot more if she started from a tracing of a photograph!
Reading the Thread title I had no point of reference as to what a “Duck Stamp Contest” might be. I could only imagine contestants stamping upon ducks. I thought, “No way a 6 year old could bring her foot down with sufficient power to successfully stamp down a duck!”