Three Young Artists

All 3 of my kids became artists

My oldest daughter's talent was not discovered until the age of 12 when I saw her drawing of Queen Amadala (from Star Wars). I signed her up for art lessons at Creative Images to hone her skills. She did great and we encouraged her progress. Later, she took commercial art at Gibbs School, which was based in Piscataway at the time (it is no longer there). She did many fine works of art and graduated with honors.

My middle child and youngest were both encouraged from a very early age. By the time each was at least 3 years of age, I noticed how they were doing just as I had told them to do: Draw what you see and how you're seeing it. My son would often copy what his older sister was drawing and he did so well that at times, I couldn't tell which child had drawn what (they are 3 years apart, so he was drawing at a level for a child who was 3 years older than he was).

As any proud parent, I posted my children's artwork on the internet and the site also included a guestbook. One day, a rude remark was written in my children's guest book by someone back in 2001 or so when my middle daughter was about 6 and my son was about 3. The person said that I should take away my children's crayons and tell them they can't draw. I, of course, refused to do so and just kept encouraging them to “draw what they see and how they see it.” Neither of my 2 younger children had any formal art lessons.

Later, I put together a collage called, “Through the Years” showing the artistic progress of my children. My advice: NEVER discourage a child from drawing, ALWAYS encourage them!


As for me, I had been drawing since an early age, and was encouraged whenever my great-aunt, Marion S. Ott  would visit her sister (my grandmother). I knew I wanted to be just like her!
(There was a bio about her online but it is no longer there unfortunately. The Brevard Art News only goes back as far as 2009 now. This was the link:
http://www.loubelcher.com/artnews/2008/11/brevard-art-news-november-2-2008.html )

Starting from the age of 12 until the age of 17, I took art lessons from an excellent artist. She taught me what to look for and how to capture the spirit of the subject.

I have experience with traditional media such as: oils, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, pastels, and now, computer software such as: PaintShop Pro, Photoshop, Gimp, Art Rage, Open Canvas 1.1, Inkscape, Corel Painter Classic and Art Of Illusion, a 3D program. I especially like to draw gymnasts and I also design furniture for SweetHome3D, a home design program written in Java.