Some people are just nuts. Come on coloring book would make you more creative.

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I grew up in a Waldorf school, where the mantra is “the only thing a child can do with a complete toy is take it apart”, and wonder now if whatever resourcefulness and imagination I learned by anthropomorphizing rocks and playing with other incomplete toys made up for my lack of integration with the popular culture.

And quite often art is what happens within constraints. It’s the limitations of watercolors that allows them to convey different messages than photographs.

I’m still not sure that much positive comes from excessive television exposure or overly sugared cereals, but as I get older I’m much more willing to be of the world rather than merely in it; striving to be a part of the culture rather than trying to understand it intellectually while remaining outside of it.

I was allowed colouring books and draw any where on the paper I wanted. I even enjoyed trying to paint a little at some point in my very early double-digit years. I was encouraged, but not forced to, do anything I wanted, any way I wanted.

I am now a computer programmer who can’t paint, draw or probably even do paint by numbers for shit.

In evolutionary terms, we are the descendants of generations of children who survived their parents.

Thanks Alex, great read, and on topic.

My son is an artist and graphic designer. He just updated his web site a few days ago, so you can see what he does: http://www.nickworthey.com . I, a scientist, taught him confidence with computers. My ex-wife, with some artistic talent, taught him art. Very early—when he was maybe 3—we made a decision that he could have all the art materials he wanted, and we would in general not criticize his art. He had coloring books, but we did not tell him to draw inside the lines, not to waste materials, or anything like that. The goal was that he should not have any attitude of fear, anger, defensiveness, or neurosis about the art. He accepted this challenge and as he was developing his skills, he was his own critic. He set higher standards than a teacher or parent would. As an adult, he has a tremendous power of concentration while doing art or computer work.

When Nick was small, I recall a neighbor bragging that she did not allow her children to color outside the lines. That is what we sought to avoid: coercion and talking—left brain activities—in relation to the right-brain activity of drawing. If you look at Nick’s black-white cartoons, you’ll see that he can bring together the drawing and verbal skills in an appropriate way. But he does not waste time talking about drawing.

The coloring books were too challenging for me. I did not have enough patience to comlete a single pi…

I would have to expect that coloring books and paint-by-numbers are logical stepping stones that would allow a potential artist to gain basic skills before moving on (’Hello World’ anybody?). I still get an absurd view of some ‘parent’ scolding a child for not coloring the book correctly, but then I digress..

FWIW, I attended art school, and now I’m and oracle analyst. Once I got near them pretty humming ‘puters, I’d do just about anything to stay with ‘em.

I remember an interview with David Lynch (the filmmaker/artist) where he says that his mother didn’t give him coloring books for the same reason. Apparently it worked out well for him.

I was given coloring books, but I didn’t worry too much about the lines. I’m a painter (profitable “hobby”) and a graphic artist (day job) now, so something worked.