Children on this thread for sketchbooks???

[wannabeanimator]

I've recently joined this forum and have been posting up my own sketchbook in that
thread. My daughter, who is 10, is also motivated in seeing me draw so much and
posting that she has found interest in posting her own sketchbook.

Is there a forum or thread that children in this age group could use to post their
sketchbook drawings for critiques?

I would think here, but I think some of the sketchbooks are not appropriate for
children of this age.

Any thoughts on this is greatly appreciated. I also hope this is the correct place
to post this...

[Black Spot]

I let my son join when he was 12 - he had a computer next to me and I kept and eye on him, which is what parents are meant to do. 10 might be a bit young for here, she'd need to develop a think skin and a warped sense of humour (good life skills.)

[sone_one]

I kept and eye on him, which is what parents are meant to do.

^this.

and theres security settings in your os and browser where you can influence whats accessible. savest way to go about it, to me, would be to browse threads (without her ofc) and showing those to her that you feel appropriate, and otherwise regulating her internet access. its not a matter of ca.org, but the internet/tv/media in general.

[sone_one]

as for my personal view... i wouldnt entice my children to start a sketchbook here at that age (yet thats easily said because i got none). i see ca.org as a place of dedication and growth towards a professional goal. i wouldnt confront my kids that early with that, and rather have them have fun with drawing enjoying themselves doing whatever they like, instead of getting this tunnel vision of whats successful and how to get there going. because frankly theres also a lot of misery involved with becoming and beeing a professional artist, that id rather have my kids not to be spoiled with.

[ebi]

I agree with Black Spot and sone_one.

As long as you monitor her Internet use, there shouldn't be too much of a problem for her starting a sketchbook here if she can handle the feedback that others give her (though I may hope that other members would give her feedback that would be appropriate for her age). And of course, if you look at her sketchbook together, you could discuss the feedback with her.


Besides Internet security settings on your OS, you could also use a program like Norton online family. It's a program that monitors what sites your child visits, what type of words they use in search functions etc. (I think they could even warn you if your child enters words that you have set as inappropriate).
You can also decide what sites are off-limits and you could even set a daily computer time limit (e.g. no internet between 8pm and 7am), so that even if you're away from home, you can make sure that your child won’t be online when they shouldn't.

https://onlinefamily.norton.com/fami.../loginStart.fs
if you want you can take a look here.

[Arshes Nei]

Routers also have parental controls (depending on the model you buy).

I think at 10 though you should be supervising your child on a computer. More things can go wrong on a computer vs a game console (though you can access the web these days through those too).

Also as a parent, you should educate yourself on some computer workings since as your child gets older - well they love to lie and will try to outsmart you. If you show ignorance in your computer knowledge they'll take advantage of that.

[Black Spot]

Girls tend to be more mature at a younger age than boys. There's no way I'd allow my youngest son (11) here as he's so different to his brother and I'd spend most of my time banging my head against my desk. You need to know how she'd react to seeing NSFW and if you are able to discuss it with her. I took my son to life drawing, discussed art a lot so he was well used to nudity and some classical soft porn (which is what a lot of it was painted for, but dressed up in pretty settings), but there are some threads I'd rather a child of that age didn't see.

You could block some sites like here unless you are there to supervise her, or just wait a couple of years.

[Birkeley]

Unless she is a very mature 10-year-old I would suggest starting her out with a more age-appropriate site like DeviantArt, where adult content is filtered and cannot be accessed by minors and there is a large community of young people. 10 is about a good starting age for a site like that. Of course, many of the younger members there are there for fun and just to draw cartoons, but there are also kids there who are serious about learning to draw. She can use a DA gallery as a sketchbook and receive comments on it the same way she would a thread here, but DA does not have the kind of harsh critique which defines CA, so I think it would be a great place to introduce her to drawing and sharing her work.

CA is a site for professionals and serious hobbyists and, content aside, I think it would be really intimidating for someone that age! I have seen a few younger people on CA who are really serious about learning to draw, but 14 is the youngest I have seen here and I think 15-16 is more realistic for someone of average maturity level for their age.

It's great that she is showing such enthusiasm at that age, though!

[Ryan Provenzano]

I don't know if she'll get much attention on deviantart. You could try out that site first(but keep in mind that the minimum age to register on that site is 13 as well, and she'll have to lie about her age), but if it doesn't work out, then you should consider this site again. You will need to be her mentor, so that she'll be able to understand the criticism.

[Star Eater]

Yeah, my first thought was deviantart as well, but hell with that.
While these forums are not really for kids, there are definitely people here who will be far
more willing to help and actually can help than on DA.

Plus I'd say these forums are actually the safer option. Double plus, if anyone gives her hassles, I'll eat them.

[QueenGwenevere]

DeviantArt is probably not the best idea for a ten-year-old... 1) she'll be banned as soon as the admins find out she's under thirteen and, 2) she'll be heckled by real thirteen-year-olds.

Plus there's far faaaar skankier stuff posted on DA than on here. Eye-searing stuff. And not everybody thinks to put a mature tag on it.

I'd suggest Nabyn.com as a smaller and friendlier version of DeviantArt, but I think they're still invitation-only...

There's also sheezyart, which skews pretty young and seems amateur-friendly, but I don't know anything about the community or how safe it is.

[blogmatix]

Yeah, my first thought was deviantart as well, but hell with that.
While these forums are not really for kids, there are definitely people here who will be far
more willing to help and actually can help than on DA.

Plus I'd say these forums are actually the safer option. Double plus, if anyone gives her hassles, I'll eat them.

Yes, I also think CA has some advantages. For one thing, while the membership is no doubt huge, the number of people actively posting is relatively small, so it is a community of friends that you get to know instead of a bunch of strangers.

And while we have some rather crusty bastards here, who can be very blunt in their comments and criticisms, I think virtually everyone here will be kind to a ten year-old.

There are probably some threads that a kid should rather not view, though I don't think porn is an issue. Thus far I have seen mostly fairly harmless nudity here. What you do get in some threads is ultra-violence. :-)

[JFierce]

Honestly I wouldn't post on a social network at that young of an age. I'd wait a few years personally. But I'd still be encouraging them to draw.

[Star Eater]

There's also sheezyart, which skews pretty young and seems amateur-friendly, but I don't know anything about the community or how safe it is.

Nah, trust me. That's a whole different kind of crusty.

[Craig D]

Well just to start I'm not sure I would want to explain the signature in Star Eaters threads, and there are some very distinctly pornographic threads in the sketchbooks, maybe not many but they are there. Good think I'm not a parent though, I'm not sure I'd handle these things well

[Star Eater]

Whats wrong with my sig?

Yeah ok. I'll change it.

[Arshes Nei]

Sheezyart used to host porn, till one of the owners or people running it were found out to be underage...

[KONM]

Nah, trust me. That's a whole different kind of crusty.

Yeah, please don't send her to SheezyArt. I used it when I was 13, its worse than deviantART. The last time I visited, there were pornographic furry images everywhere.

[Heyriel]

In my opinion, 10 is too young for CA. Or dA. Or any other site which is not explicitly dedicated to small kids (the general age restriction of 13+ is there for a reason afterall). Especially considering that CA is aimed at (aspiring) pros and unless she already wants ppl lecturing her about color theory, she wouldn't have much fun. :/
How about you post some of her drawings in your Sketchbook from time to time?

[QueenGwenevere]

Nah, trust me. That's a whole different kind of crusty.

Ouch. I kinda suspected that, considering it seems to be the place people flee to when they think DA is too strict... So much for amateur-art-site alternatives.

[blogmatix]

In my opinion, 10 is too young for CA. Or dA. Or any other site which is not explicitly dedicated to small kids (the general age restriction of 13+ is there for a reason afterall). Especially considering that CA is aimed at (aspiring) pros and unless she already wants ppl lecturing her about color theory, she wouldn't have much fun. :/
How about you post some of her drawings in your Sketchbook from time to time?

Suggestion: How about a section on CA specifically for the under-13 crowd?

[QueenGwenevere]

Suggestion: How about a section on CA specifically for the under-13 crowd?

That would be pretty neat, actually. I think it could fill a niche. I can't think of any really kid-friendly art-sharing sites off the top of my head. I know one for music and one for science, not sure if there's anything for art...

[wannabeanimator]

Hey everyone,

I read through everyone's post and you gave some really enlightening points.
I already have internet filters and monitor her interenet usage. My post here
was geared towards her wanting to have a sketch book here. Some of the
sketch books I've seen are really for mature audiences who can handle that.

I agree that most of the stuff is ok, like the studies on human figure, but I've
seen some really racy stuff.

I also agree that this forum is geared towards a professional or aspiring professional
and perhaps letting her have her own sketch book on here would be too much at this
stage.

Based on everyone's opinion, I think I will simply share my sketchbook with her and
block this site for her so she can only view it with my surpervision. Mentoring and
hopefully inspiring her to continue her interest...I don't want to discourage her in any
way as children; once discourage is very hard to get them to try that thing again...

Thanks for the links to the other sites also. I will go through Nabyn to see what it contains.
I think DevArt might be a little too much to. I like to pay attention the age restrictions.

Finally, I think a thread dedicated to 13 and under would be great. Especially for
the aspiring amature.

Thank you very much for your insights. Please share more...

Thanks

[OmenSpirits]

Pencil jack is a kid friendly site mainly comic book art, but very kid friendly.