Why I don’t like them to be drawn in my lessons
Well, as you probably know if you follow my blog and lesson plans, for me it’s all about: let the students draw, paint and create as they wish. Don’t make judgments about how and what they do as long as they care and have passion for their work.
So, last week I was talking to a colleague about how much I can’t stand seeing students doing anime eyes when
they do a self portrait or any kind of sketches of people.
She started laughing and asked me how this fits in with my concept of freedom and self expression in my classroom. To be honest I couldn't explain, and felt she was right, why not, if this is what the pupil wants to create.
Now after days of searching for the right words here they are:
Anime eyes are part of the anime drawing style, which is used in Japanese cartoon movies. It’s the equivalent to the manga cartoon books. The characters have huge eyes which dominate the face. Actually for this post I did a little research on why they look that way, and apparently there were all kind of books written on this topic….
Any way back to my original topic:
Anime eyes are part of the manga drawing style. In the end they all look the same, and there is only one type of personality shown. And they don’t show much of the wide range of eyes, which are out there in this world. If we have a lesson with the topic “Manga” I’m happy to let them do that, even teach the different techniques. But if I ask them to sketch their classmates, or themselves. Sorry, no... except.... they can explain why they think they look like a manga or anime figure... because of course everything can be explained.
And everybody is an artist! Really!