Musings of Simon Cowell

Usually I reserve my blog to showcase current projects and sketches, but today I am going to digress and blog about something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

It occurs to me that the rising generation in America is more privileged than any previous generation. That being said, they are also, arguably, the most damaged. Why are they damaged? I think this goes so much deeper than bad media, over-indulgence in fast food, video games, television, or even the rise of cell phones. As a society we try to blame our maladies on these things all the time and consequently we ignore the real problem. The problem is that we don't want to take the time or effort to teach them anything.

It's easier to plop a kid in front of a TV show or movie than take them outside to play or read with them. It's easier to tell a kid that there are no losers when they come in ninth, rather than explain to them that sometimes we don't excel and need to work harder and practice more. It's fast to pick up KFC or McDonald's rather than have the kids help you make dinner; it's far easier afterwards to toss the wrappers in the trash rather that have the kids help you do the dishes.

This mentality of "it's not worth the effort" has lead to a generation of over-indulged, lazy, irresponsible people who have an exaggerated view of themselves. I don't think it is coincidence that this same generation has had a dramatic increase in cases of A.D.D., A.D.H.D., and other behavioral problems. This hit home very suddenly this week as I was teaching an art class to a group of sixth graders.

I posted the work that had been done that past week up on the blackboard to critique it. I first asked d the kids what they liked about each piece and I got many responses, but when I asked what they thought could be improved about the pieces they were hesitant to speak up. I began offering my own suggestions for improvement. Some of the kids were defensive, others appeared hurt or offended. I can understand disappointment with critique, everyone experiences that, but by sixth grade I think you should be able to handle suggestions for improvement without becoming irrational. It was time that these kids learned that.

Today I sat them all down and asked them to tell me what "critique" meant. No responses, no hands, just vacant expressions. I asked them if they knew what a "critic" was. One hand. The response was , "I know a food critic says what restaurants are good and bad." Good, we had a starting place. We talked about why that would be important. I asked how many watched "American Idol." All the hands shot up (along with a lot of whispers about which contestant they liked best). I asked how many of them knew who Simon Cowell is. More hands and more whispering, mostly negative comments. I asked why they don't like Simon. "He's mean." "He makes people cry." "He doesn't say anything nice about them." Now we've hit the nail on the head. In their minds critique is an attempt by to make someone look foolish or feel bad because of poor performance. This seems to be most of America's view of anyone who offers critique.

I think Simon Cowell is pretty much always spot on. I'll admit that he can be a bit abrupt in the delivery of his critique, but he wouldn't be doing those singers any favors by coddling them.

Red Riding Hood

Here are some character designs I have been working on for "Little Red Riding Hood." The top one was very inspired by the simplistic graphical designs of Cartoon Network. The second one was more of a herald back to the Chuck Jones Roadrunner and Coyote type of animation.

Grandpa & The Bear

This was a personal project that I used for my final last semester. My grandfather always tell us grandchildren about the time he was chased up a tree by a bear while he was working in Idaho for the Bureau of Land Management. It's a great story, but I knew that as a cartoon it might be a little scary unless I embellished some bits (like the part at the end when the bear was shot or the fact that the bear was indeed trying to eat Grandpa). So I altered the story to be more little kid friendly and storyboarded it out. I really wanted to make this feel like the era that it took place in so I opted for a very retro 1950's style. These images are character shots of Grandpa and the Bear.

African Dog

Last semester in my storyboarding class we did a project based on a myth that teaches why man lives as long as he does and why he goes through the phases of life that he does. I had a lot of fun designing characters for this story and wanted to do it in a sort of African, tribal, cave-painting kind of style. This character is the dog (which we later traded out for a jackal instead), I'll add this and the other character designs to my website. They include God, a man, a donkey, and a monkey. I really enjoyed this project.

I Love Photoshop

So Photoshop has all these neat filters and effects that are supposed to do all these cool things for you like make lens flares, make things look chrome (that's a fun one), etc. If you can't tell I am being fairly sarcastic, the filters usually make things look lame. Until recently, though, I couldn't figure out another way to achieve the look that I wanted any other way; that has all changed. With this piece I just used some custom brushes, custom textures, and a lot of layers to achieve the aged photo effect. I am particularly pleased with the wood behind the photo, however. None of that is a photo that is all brushes and textures. All told this piece consists of 4 photos composited together : The dancers, the foreground, the background mountains, and the sky. All the other elements were created.

Character Designs

I should have posted this a long time ago. These are some character designs for a story that I wanted to pitch to Disney as part of a storyboard class I am taking at BYU right now. The story and characters were later scrapped and we went another direction, but I still love how the style looks. I'll add all the character sheets to my character page on my site if you want to view them.

Presidential Race 2008

So I was just doodling and it wasn't until I was finished sketching this guy out that I realized how much it looks like Mitt Romney. Even though I am not a Romney supporter, much to the dismay of the majority of my right wing Republican extended family, I liked this picture so much I thought I'd post it.

I may even do caricatures of all the front runner candidates.

Family Portrait

I drew a picture of my Brother-in-law Robbie during Thanksgiving. It's simple, but I like it and I think I may do the whole family.

Bored

Here's a sketch I did on my Brother-in-law's tablet PC one day a while back when I was bored. I don't know why the fat guy is dressed like French aristocracy from the 1800's, but I bet that's the reason that the skinny guy is freaking out.

I call him Lavell

Here is a sketch I did recently in my sketchbook. It's an old guy that seems to vaguely resemble someone that most BYU Football fans should recognize.