How I got to this topic:
I just read the journal of a very close friend of mine and she wrote about her teachers. First she is getting ignored by one, another one is just never pleased and another one told her to quit drawing manga and try comic instead...
Okay, first people might just say 'teachers are stupid, ignore them!' but then again I had to think about my own time in school... and not only in school, but in my private life as well and it keeps bugging me so I just need to write this off.
I always came along greatly with my teachers, being even their favorite student in most classes, even if I wasn't the best. I always tried to listen to them and volunteered whenever I could. In return I was allowed to draw during classes... So it was a great deal for me and my teachers. They had a student working with them, I got to draw the whole morning....
But then there was this one teacher who was just never satisfied with me... and what made it the worst was, that it was my art-teacher...
Whatever I tried, she always bugged on me. I tried to make anything perfect to her wishes, but she always seemed to measure my works differently from the others! With what others needed days for, I finished in one single hour or art-class and in the end even my classmates told me, mine was either the best or at least one of the best ones (I always sucked in water-color xD lol My colors blend over each other all the time, so I didn't manage to get hard edges without using colored pencils...) anyway, she always gave me a worse mark. I once drew the picture for a classmate and he got an A for it, while I got for mine only a B+... Might sound stupid, but this annoyed me to no end! Art was always what I was strongest in, but I always got rejected by her.
In 12th grade I chose art as one of my main-subjects, meaning I had it 4 hours a week instead of only 2, hoping to get one of the teachers I came along with nicely... Bad luck for me. But then I didn't bother anymore and just drew what I liked, not what I thought she might like. Nothing changed, but at least the class was more fun again!
Whenever she spotted my manga-pictures amongst my drawings she only smiled at me as if I was a little kid that was going to skip this kind of stuff soon... She always told me I would outgrow this childish way of drawing. She once told me 'Leave the child-play and go for real drawing, girl. You can do better than this! The world of art is open to you!' I don't WANT to have the world of art! I wanted Manga!! And I stuck with it! My teachers, my friends, my family,... whoever saw me drawing manga always thought it was just a phase and I would skip it as soon as I grew older, but it never happened! For me, drawing my Essence of Time-universe was always the only real thing I wanted to draw! No matter how bad things were for me, no matter how exhausted I was, when sitting down and drawing on my pages or characters I just forgot about it all, enjoying only my art!
Additionally I guess I have to say, that when I started Manga, I was 13 years old. Manga grew popular amongst teens here in Germany only a few years ago... There were series like DragonBall or Sailormoon before, but it was more like cartoon than real Manga after all... As I saw X and Noir the first time in TV, I felt so great! People that had always told me that Manga was either for little kids or totally perverted suddenly got to see that there is more to Manga than this!
I had to struggle all my life to prove others that what I am doing are no childplays! Whenever I told an adult I was drawing Manga, they only smiled at me with this 'She will outgrow that soon'-smile! But as soon as they entered my room, saw my work hanging right next to those of my favorite artists, they were struck and fascinated. Suddenly, it wasn't all 'childish' anymore at all! Even my friends at university first thought I was joking when telling them I was studying dentistry to gain enough money in the future to have a solid financial base to continue my drawing on! The second they saw my works, anyone wanted me to draw something for them!
I have met so many people that can not tell the difference in drawing-style between Dragonball and SailorMoon... But then again, someone not into the materia will never see the difference between a work of van Gogh and Monet. Someone who is into art can only laugh about that, but face the truth, it is one and the same thing! We have to decide for ourselves if we like something or not, but just putting something of asl child-play will never lead to tolerance! How are we supposed to tolerate each other if we cannot even tolerate art?! I myself don't like comic-style. Those muscular bodies even of women... that's just not what I like but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its place in art or here on DA!! And just because something is comic-styled it doesn't mean I have to not like it just because of that fact! There are plenty of comic-drawings that are simply stunning and amazing! I look at them and see the great quality of the art even if I don't like the style itself!
But how are we supposed to learn tolerance if even our teachers tell us to quit what we like?! I tell you: By staying strong to what you like! Fight for what you love. Drawing Manga is my LIFE! And I have never given up on it no matter how hard it was to keep at it with no one around sharing my interests! This is by the way one reason why DA is so important to me... I have met the very first person that likes DRAWING mangas herself in my entire life just two weeks ago. I have met very few people that like reading Manga in real life so far, but never someone who actually shares the passion of drawing, which makes me all the more happy to know her. Here on DA was the first place I ever got a whole community of artists! People who shared my interest in drawing, many artists that even draw manga-art! And it is funny how fast I grew into this community. There are people around who flame at others work... and it is insulting, but then again I can only pity those without tolerance, as they will be the first to break together when it comes to things like what happened to me or what is currently happening to my friend Alera. Her teacher telling her to stop drawing manga and drawing comic instead because it will give her an individual style instead of manga. Manga likee what? Going down in the masses, huh? Same goes for any other kind of art if you don't know anything about it!
Look at the Manga-Artists around! I watch 300 artists and most of them are manga-artists. I can tell from the THUMBS(!!!) in most of the cases who drew it without looking at the name!
If you are a photographer, I bet you can do the same with other photographers!
Same goes for writers!
Comic-artists!
Traditional artists!
Vektor-Artists!
Face it, world! We are what we are! Artists! And if we start tolerate the other arts around us, maybe we will be able to get tolerance back from them as well!! What use is there in telling others their art sucks, just because they are not on pro level yet, or just because they don't have the style you like!? Can you honestly expect someone to be nice to you if you spit on anything they stand for? On anything they love? I am sure, anyone who has been victim of flaming so far will agree with me that it is not a nice feeling at all! And it just continues! Look at all those great and famous artists here on DA!
, 
, 
, 
,... People almost anyone here on DA knows... They all started small! Today, no one would dare anymore to tell them their art was bad, because we all know it isn't, but that is what makes the difference! Some people get all crushed by the rejection around them. Others rise with it and continue practicing until they are good enough! We tolerate these artists today, even if we were no Manga-Fans. Maybe 5 years back though, we wouldn't have done so! So when looking at someone's work, ask yourself what could become out of this work! Watch over the edge of your bowl and discover something new! Don't destroy dreams just because it is not what you are used to and especially don't let others destroy your dreams! If there is something you really have faith in, then go with it! If you think something is truly right, then don't be afraid of continuing! But then again, we ourselves have to tolerate others as well! If there is someone giving a critic on your work, it doesn't mean it is bad, or that person wants to insult you! Some of my best friends here on DA always tell me something I could do better in my work! ... and here comes the tricky part: We have to tolerate critic from others as well. Even people that leave no good word on your work might have seen something, you missed. We ourselves rarely see our own flaws and by taking critic and accepting it, we can become greater artists! I don't want to protect flamers here. What they are doing is just wrong, but people who crit your work, even if they are rude in a way, can help us improve. Turn their critique into something that strengthens you! Critique is one of the things here that causes a lot of drama around. People feel offended, attacking others back for their rude comments, and then again this person might have just wanted to help, and didn't put it right.
You don't have to accept a critique given to you. But then be so tolerant and ignore it! You are better than flaming all about user XY in your journals and ask your friends to drop by his/her page and teach him a lesson! Honestly, we are not in kindergarten anymore.
Here on DA, it all starts with art, but it goes on in the same way on our everyday lives!
There might be things in this world that are just wrong! But without tolerance, how are we supposed to get along with each other?! I got friends that are lesbian. The people around them keep making jokes about them, but they love each other and if you'd not know they were a couple, you would think of them just as best friends! I need to listen to all kinds of joke all the time when I am around them... Things like 'Don't go into romantic movies with them.', 'Aren't you afraid that might color of on you?' or what I heard lately: 'If you drop the soap around them, girl, don't pick it up!' (btw: That works only for guys, morrons T_T) It might not be what I like, it might not be what others like, but it is what they feel is right for them! They don't make jokes about boy/girl-couples around them either! And treating them just like normal people won't hurt anyone, will it?
Same goes for religion. We had a Muslim-guy in class and after the terror-attack on a german trail-station, anyone avoided him. Why?! Because he was one of over 1 billion Muslims on the world of which only very few have ever done a terrorist-attack?! How many guys in my class played those killer-computergames?! Do I have to be afraid of those guys now as well just because one of them totally kicked out and killed his teachers?! As long as someone is growing up with enough friends or family around and gets to learn what (watch out, here comes the word again!) tolerance is, there is no need to be afraid of them! I came along with the Muslim in my class very well! He even took part in a science project of our school and built robots in our school-science-team. Now then again anyone around said he did that only to learn how to make a bomb... Grow up people!
Or nationality. I love my country. It is great to be German and it is great to live where I live! But just because I love my nation it doesn't make me a Nazi as many online-users have called me already! It hurts to get struck upon a prejudice for something people did with which you have nothing to do! Movies like the Hellsing OVAs don't really do good on those prejudges as well... Doesn't mean I didn't watch/like them, but some people seem to think that anything a movie shows off to them is for real. Look at James Bond! In 90% of the cases, the bad guy comes from either Germany or Russia. Bad guys most of the time come from Russia... and don't ask me why. I have a lot of great friends coming from russia and even my sister in law originally comes from there... So can anyone explain to me what's so bad about Russia?! We can continue this on! After the attack of Afghanistan most people blamed America for being a bunch of warheads. But looking all around here on DA, most Americans I talked about it with told me they were against it and that they were lucky Bush was going to leave. It is easy to blame something very few people responsible for a country did on the whole nation.
You see what I am trying to show you? It starts with small things, like sticking to our own style, standing up for what we like and accepting what others like, and it goes up into be big subjects that rule this world.
Art is for most of us the most important thing in our lives. And we should stick with what we love. But we should also accept others and what they think. Tolerance is important. Without it, we cannot live together.
I'm not a Philosopher, I'm not a Psychologist, I'm not a Politician... but I am an Artist! And what we can learn from our art, we can reflect on anything in our lives!
Come to think about it. I'd be glad if this helps some people getting along better with flamers, critics, or intolerant people around them.
I wish you a nice weekend and think about this when you are looking at a beginner's piece of work again
Let's make this community here a better place for all of us!Contest
Time for a new contest!
Deadline: 15th November 2009
Prices:
1st: 3 month subscription, 2 month journal-feature
2nd: 1 month subscribtion, 2 month journal-feature
3rd: 2 month journal-feature
Special-Price: Free sketch, 2 month journal-feature
Alright! This time I was inspired by these two pictures: coralstone.deviantart.com/art/… and zeiva.deviantart.com/art/OASE-…
So the theme for this time's contest is 'Computergames'. Again I want it to be EoT-themed (next one will be OC, alright?
)For example: Smash Bros. EoT, a fightingscene, a charasheet with special-moves,... Whatever you can think of that matches with the theme. If you have questions, feel free to ask!
Rules:
-You are allowed to submit more than one entry, but only one entry can gain a prize!
-All medias accepted
-Must have something to do with the two themes
-No 18+ content (a little mature content is okay, but don't overdo it...)
-Entries must be submitted till deadline: 15th November!
-Send me a note with your entry. No messages, no comments, NOTES!
~Deamond
Artist-Feature
A wonderful artist from Thailand. he colors and textures she uses give her picture an amazing individuality. Her drawingstyle is very interesting and the characters she draws absolutely lovely! Go and take a look~
If you want to be featured or know someone who needs/deserves attention, please send me a note!
