So would you be okay with it if the kid hadn’t said he liked the idea of graffiti? It seems petty to dismiss the image based on the caption.
When did he say anything about spray painting stuff on other people’s walls? There are tons of legal walls and other completely reasonable place to create graffiti. Every serious graffiti artist would like more legal walls and legit places to practice their art. There are tons of graffiti artists who never break a single law.
Okay, sure, there are lots of graffiti artists who do break laws. Does this somehow mean that making art with spray cans is inherently bad, to the point that legit organizations should never mention it in a positive light? You’d have to have an awfully huge stick up your butt to say “yes.”
My son, the Eagle Scout, always did his own pinwood derby cars. He never won, but the work was all his.
Yup - they’re kinda normal, really. Kids do come out with some really deep thoughts sometimes, anyway.
The one that looks most sus is from a small boy in India using lots of big complicated English words. I wonder if maybe he was speaking in a different language and the translation got a little too flowery?
Agreed. The drawings are very good, but some kids that age are very good. My daughter goes to a drawing class after school, and the work there is not the sort of work you’d expect from kids. This is one of hers, and this caricature is another, but they’re drawings done in around an hour just for fun - for a competition, I’m sure her standard would be much higher (and, even though I’m her Mum, I admit that there are more talented artists than her in the class).
Parents submitting their own work under their kids’ names is really annoying, but it’s impossible to say how many (if any) of these works had just a little too much help.
Mind you, parents doing the work for their kids is something I’ve only ever seen in movies, not in real life. What a horrible thing to do to your own kid, let alone their competition.
Ah, correction: I thought the little boy who did the religious symbols was in India, not the US. Course, he could still be speaking through a translator, but maybe his parents really did do that work for him. Mind you, he’s 8 - it is possible for an eight-year-old’s drawing to be a s neat as that.
A friend of mine teaches at a magnet elementary school for Arts. Third graders with portfolio pieces I couldn’t pull off. And I know their parents aren’t doing the work for them as the work is happening in her classroom.
Kids also parrot back the most astounding phrases…my daughter learned about inherent worth in Sunday school - six months later in school they had a workshop about respecting everyone - even the kids who are ‘different’ - and my daughter goes spouting off on inherent worth (earning me a call from the principal to say ‘whatever you are teaching your daughter outside of school, keep doing it - that was amazing’). The thoughts were not original (few thoughts are), nor were her choice of words.
In California every student in the fourth grade has to do a project on one of the missions here. I did San Juan Batista and my mock-up of the mission looked absolutely horrid. It was cardboard cutout which was all lopsided and yeah. Awful.
I got a B because it was obvious I did all the work myself. You could tell when I kid either had theirs bought or had their parents help them. Especially that kid whose dad was an architect and the mission had running water. Jerk.
The one that makes me roll my eyes the hardest is K-3 Region 7. If a five year old drew that (letters included!), I’d eat my art supplies. It’s not just that it’s way too good for a five year old, but it’s practically a perfect representation of adults drawing in a childish way. Everything is made up of simple shapes, but the lines have a clean, artistic grace to them. The edges are soft, round, child-like, and are all perfect circles. The coloring is bright, with a scribbled look, but it’s well saturated, and rarely goes outside of the lines. Even the ‘out of lines’ bits look like they’re there for effect.
It’s exactly like a hundred ‘a child drew this’ logos I’ve seen, all of which were, of course, drawn by a professional.
You have a point there. Also, the people have short arms and legs, like in kids’ drawings, but the shortness is the same on pretty much every person, which isn’t normal. Funny, also, that a child who is at the drawing stage where a person standing sideways has arms stuck on one atop the other, but nonethless has the ability to position a drawing of a person perfectly in front of a drawing of some letters.
(FWIW, the pictures that I posted that were by my daughter were drawn when she was of an age that would be the KS-3 category if we lived in the states).
I think the letters were traced or otherwise copied. Are their rules against tracing?
I have to agree that some of these drawings do not seem as if a child drew them.
I have been involved in art my whole life and it’s an important part of me. Because of this,my daughter is into the arts as well. We draw all the time. I think (despite the fact that I’m her mom) that she is quite advanced for her age (5). Some of the things she has drawn amaze me… But truthfully I liked her stuff from a couple of years ago better - my favorite was “angry rooster singing, wearing a dress”. Now her stuff is influenced by what she knows: her mermaids all suspiciously look like Ariel, for example.
In short, despite her talent, I don’t see that she could pull off the friendship one. It’s far too ‘perfect’. Perhaps that child is 5 almost 6 and that makes a huge difference… I have no idea.
I think the hardest thing I would have with this contest is explaining “google”.
If you look at it carefully, a couple of the top figures do look like a young child’s work, like the black girl with the pink dress and dreads, but as you get to the upside down figures, they’re clearly drawn by someone much older: the perspective on the half-turned face of the blonde girl with the crown is actually quite sophisticated. Miriam Lowry, you are a dirty rotten sneak.
I think all kids go through a period of, basically, copying stuff they like when learning to draw. This isn’t a bad thing in my opinion - it is simply a stage in their development.
I have to admit that one of the big reasons I voted for K-3 Region 5 (A World of Pets) was because it looked like something a kid drew alone. Well, plus I love the bunny eating the carrot.
I LOVE the idea of angry rooster singing, wearing a dress.
Oh for sure. It’s not a bad thing… more of a sad thing. I liked the other stuff so much more! I loved it when the mermaids had all colors of hair…now they all have Ariel Red® because that is LAW. 
circa 2 years old, from her barn animal period:angry rooster singing, wearing a dress I absolutely love him. He is framed in a nice frame and it makes me laugh when people ask me if its “real” art or hers.
Awesome! And I think the answer to that question is, “Yes.”
Maybe if she saw an actual mermaid; that is, as close to one as humanly possible.
The only one that looks suspect to me at all is the Region 7 Friendship one. I can’t quite articulate what it is that bugs me, but the outline of the continents is, I think, part of it. But then what is that big green thing in the middle of the Atlantic? I think it’s just the quantity of material. A higher qualtity/larger image would help. Squinting at the screen makes it a challenge to evaluate.
Yes, some of the write ups are suspect, perhaps the wording was helped.
What we are seeing is the work of 100 state Finalists (at each level; 400 total) weeded down to 10 best for consideration. So yes, the themes are going to be what adults think are interesting themes, and the ideas and artwork are going to be above average for the age range.
Never. Jesus, what sort of people would do that?