The Monster Project

November 6, 2015 10:20 AM

With decreasing emphasis on creative arts in schools, The Monster Project is a collaborative project between elementary school kids and skilled artists from around the world, where kids draw monsters from their own imagination, and the professional artists take their own spin on it. The goal, according to the projects founders, is "to help children recognize the power of their own imaginations and to encourage them to pursue their creative potential."
posted by Karaage (31 comments total)

>many children don’t have the opportunity for creative exploration they deserve.

I'm a little skeptical that this project addresses that problem. Seems like the unintended takeaway--the mistakeaway, if you will--could end up being, 'See how cool it is when you get a REAL artist to make a better version of your drawing?'

Not to be a total buzzkill, or anything. The gallery is a lot of fun. I'll just see myself out...
posted by Sing Or Swim at 10:31 AM on November 6, 2015 [9 favorites]

That's not how I saw it at all, SOS. I saw it as a testament both to the sheer unfettered creativity of the original kids' drawings and to the ability of the artists to recognize and refine that quality.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:34 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

The kid's pictures are great. Why can't they stand alone as examples of creativity. What the kids do should be valued for itself. It doesn't need to be refined. Can these adults come up with such wonderful monsters on their own?
posted by njohnson23 at 10:43 AM on November 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

I have to say, while some artists appeared to make a real effort to stay true to the child's "vision", other artists seem to have just used the child's art as a vague jumping-off point for their own vision, or at least (wilfully?) misinterpreted parts of the original drawing.

In other words, in some of the cases I can easily imagine the artist sitting down with the kid and asking questions about the picture (such as what's the monster doing, what's that in the monster's hand, What's that sticking out of the monster's side, what's that thing up there in the corner, etc.) then using that in their own art; while in other cases the artist's version gives me the sense that they didn't bother to ask the child (or didn't really listen to the answers) and just chose to create their own picture by loosely interpreting whatever they chose to take from the child's picture.

Still, neat idea though.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

>I saw it as a testament both to the sheer unfettered creativity of the original kids' drawings and to the ability of the artists to recognize and refine that quality.

Yeah, it IS that, but I'm not sure that's how I'd see it as a kid. The adult artists' versions are not necessarily the better ones. They're more polished and feature more "realistic" lighting and perspective and software bells and whistles and so on. My experience has been, and my suspicion is, that those are the things kids are taught to value in art, and the inability to reproduce those things the way they feel like they ought to be able to is a big part of the reason why people hit a certain age and decide that they "can't draw", and give it up. I would never in a million years take a drawing of my daughter's and redraw it with better, for want of a better descriptive, 'adult drawing values', and then show mine to her, and expect it to make her want to draw more. On the contrary, nothing would be likelier to ensure that she never picked up a pencil again. (Again, just my take on it, and I really am not trying to take a crap on the whole post and/or project, which is if nothing else a great idea and fun to look at.)
posted by Sing Or Swim at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2015 [12 favorites]

This is an awfully cynical start to the comments that I'm surprised by. The kids artwork themselves do stand as examples of creativity. My takeaway from the project was that the artists were inspired by their work and it shows kids what you can do with imagination and development of technical art skill, and how your work can inspire others, not that somehow the kids pictures alone are somehow lessened by the remix and this project.
posted by Karaage at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2015 [4 favorites]

Sing or Swim, I guess the difference would be between deciding to do that on your own, vs. being asked to by your daughter to do so (or collaborating on the same drawing).
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:49 AM on November 6, 2015

This is an awfully cynical start to the comments that I'm surprised by.

Turns out that the real monster was inside of us all along.

That and YouTube comments.
posted by Fizz at 10:52 AM on November 6, 2015 [5 favorites]

There is a new line of stuffed toys at IKEA based off of children's drawings. They are awesome. They intentionally made sure the toys looked like the drawings. I really think it is best when the artists follow the kid's vision, rather than clean it up. My son has the IKEA bat and he really likes it. I like how oddly charming they are, asymmetry and all.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:56 AM on November 6, 2015 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I mean, if someone kicked a door down, pointed at a kid's drawing, laughed, and then redrew it better out of spite, that'd be fucked up and disrespectful. But that'd also be something else than what this is.

I remember getting into drawing as a kid and being keenly aware that what I imagined and what I could render on paper were separated by a huge gulf of execution. That distance between what I could conceive and what I could produce was often intensely frustrating, because I wasn't so much interested in putting marks on paper for its own sake as I was in making something cool looking based on my thoughts. So someone running with an idea I worked out would mostly just have been neat as hell to see.
posted by cortex at 11:02 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

>This is an awfully cynical start to the comments that I'm surprised by.

My apologies. I am perhaps not a nice man. However, I am a professional artist, and a dad, and I would regard this as a good way to discourage my kid--assuming, as has already been pointed out, that she hadn't asked me to do it in the first place, and not everybody's kid is the same as my kid, and other disclaimers. But I don't think it's cynical to have an additional concern about how this might make kids feel. Did I mention I liked the gallery?

>The kids artwork themselves do stand as examples of creativity.

Of course they do--as I said, the adults' versions are not necessarily the better ones. But I think *most kids would think the adult versions were the better ones*.

Anyway, I spoke my piece, and I'll shut up now; sorry if I peed in the pool.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 11:02 AM on November 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

For what it's worth, Sing or Swim, I don't think you peed in the pool. I don't share your assessment of the project, but you brought in another perspective on the issue. Don't apologize for fostering discussion on Metafilter!

As to the topic, one thing that I'd like to see (and the Onion did a spoof on it a while ago) would be this project done with children's spaceships.
posted by miguelcervantes at 11:19 AM on November 6, 2015

Sorry, I'm with Sing or Swim. This reminds me of dads who offer to help their kids a little with a school project and then take it over. Given the resemblance of most of the artists' versions to the slick style of heavily-marketed CGI kids'-movie animation, it's hard to imagine there's a kid out there who wouldn't instantly pick the professional artist's version over the original, including the kids who made the originals.
posted by aught at 11:22 AM on November 6, 2015

"MOST DESTERY!"

The ambiguity (Must destroy? Most destruction?) only makes it more terrifying.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:35 AM on November 6, 2015

These kids are, what, six or seven? I'm very bad at judging ages.

Regardless, I feel like I would have been excited as hell to make a drawing and get a fancy version back at that age. Sure, I'd think the professional version was "better", but not in some kind of discouraging way, just in the same way that being an astronaut is clearly way cooler than sitting around in dumb school and I want to be one.
posted by lucidium at 11:45 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I sort of did this with my son. He had a kindergarten project to bring in a monster of his design for class. We sat together and talked about what makes a scary monster (I admit using Ethan's methods he used when drawing Axe Cop) and then my son drew his monster - four arms, three legs, a fire skull, and glowing eyes.

I spent a few days assembling his creation and then we painted it together. Here he is.

Monster came home from school the other day and is sadly waiting out by the trash for his next adventure. My son continues to draw monsters, much to my wife's consternation.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:56 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I LOVE the ikea stuff. Love them a lot and I'm not a stuffed animal guy (though I always keep two on top of my t.v. that my exes have always taken).

Looking through the monster gallery there definitely seemed to be two camps, those that actually looked at the kids drawing and those that glanced from it. The difference is remarkable. None of them have titles but the very first one on the page, the purple people eater is superb. Both of them, I think. I like that the artist used a different medium, I think that really helps, they used it as a base and kept it almost exact. They put in the heart, the little kid screaming for help.

The very next picture I look at the two drawings and I have to really squint to see it. I want to show the adult artist the picture and say "that's what you got? The kids picture looks NOTHING like yours, you failed." There's one where the child drew a person with a yellow skirt and pink leggings in the sky, the adult artist decided absolutely that they could do better.

There's a bunch like that. I hate it. I don't know tons about kids but I think that I'd be a lot happier if an artist redrew something I did I'd feel a lot happier, and respected, if they didn't completely change everything. I think the CG ones and the sculpted looking ones are the best way of doing that. Like in the spirit of the ikea stuff. One way I could see kids being inspired by, which is important, the other is much more condescending. Again, I don't know a ton about kids but if I drew some of these and got the adult artists interpretations back I would be crushed. Some of them though, would inspire me to keep going.
posted by Neronomius at 12:07 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love the kids' monsters. I really wish they had a sentence or two from each kid talking about the story of/about/behind their monster, because that would add a whole new level of extra awesome to this.*

*perhaps that's just me though
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:39 PM on November 6, 2015

Kids are funny, and diverse in their views of the world. My four year old son used to freak out about not being able to replicate the letters and shapes himself, but he finally came to terms with his abilities and now happily draws wild scribbles to represent all sorts of things. That said, I can see kids getting pretty excited about their crude drawings being made more "true" by full-fledged artists. Most kids are happy with what they create (they don't all freak out about their hands "not listening to them" as my son said, right?), but it's neat to see your ideas more fully realized.

On the other side, parents can also benefit, as if the artists were translating the vision and language of children into something that adults can better comprehend. Is that monster really scary, or fun-scary? (And does it really look like me/ your big brother/ your teacher?) Adults aren't always great about understanding and appreciating the crazy stuff kids come up with, and many are focused on kids stuff looking like real things (see: playgrounds that look like actual things that adults can comprehend, instead of abstract shapes that become anything a child wants them to be).
posted by filthy light thief at 12:53 PM on November 6, 2015

I guess I can understand the idea that kids would feel dejected by this, but it all seems pretty hypothetical? I think I would have loved this as a kid, especially as one who tended towards an inhibitory perfectionism and excessive self-criticism. Like cortex said, that gap between idea and execution can itself be pretty disappointing, and it's easy to look at the gulf and think that your ideas are bad, too, and that there's just something about you that will prevent you from ever being a skilled artist. I like to think kids will look at this and realize that their ideas are great, and that all it takes to close the gap between what they see in their minds and what they see on paper is craft and practice.
posted by invitapriore at 12:54 PM on November 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah sorry I'm a bit grouchy about this too.
I appreciate the sentiment, but just the whole framing of it is a bit too comparative for me. I mean maybe if they're hooked on the before-and-after thing, they could have workshopped with the kids and taught them some different techniques or how to use different media and then had the kids do a second drawing to compare/contrast. I'd see a bit more value in that and get less of a "here's how a REAL artist does it" kind of vibe.
My son used to draw all the time when he was little, and now he's 14 and intimidated by art because he's "bad at drawing," which totally sucks.
Also, I like every one of the kids' versions better.
posted by chococat at 1:20 PM on November 6, 2015

I guess I can understand the idea that kids would feel dejected by this

That certainly wasn't what I was saying, nor I think what other skeptical commenters meant. A kid with a drawing doesn't have to feel dejected or be overtly mocked (as in cortex's comment) to get the message that it's other people who make the real art. That's just what this feels like to me. The project means well, but in its over-eagerness to make the coolest possible end-product, it might actually be counterproductive - and I think it's too bad someone involved didn't think this through a little more.
posted by aught at 1:37 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

But, like, you're saying that it's poorly thought-out based on your personal projection of what message a kid would receive from it, and that seems like overreaching.
posted by invitapriore at 1:54 PM on November 6, 2015

When I was a kid I have very distinct memories (similar to cortex) of getting mad at my hand for not being able to draw what I was imagining in my mind. I also recall looking at art books that drew things that depicted things closer to the manner in which I wanted them to be depicted - but my takeaway wasn't at all "guess i'm not a real artist," rather it was looking at those art books and saying "i want to draw like that!" and I definitely was encouraged by the adults around me that it was possible, with time and practice.

That's what sort of baffles me about some of the "but what if the kid gets the message that it's not real art?" comments, because it seems to me that perhaps my parents were sending me the wrong message when they bought me art books to look at to encourage me to think about what my work could be.

I think I would've loved this opportunity if I was given it as a kid. Maybe I wouldn't have loved the results, especially if I felt like the artist got it wrong and wasn't true to the original piece, but that's why its being presented as someone being inspired by my work, not that someone is making my work "better."
posted by Karaage at 2:33 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

There is a new line of stuffed toys at IKEA based off of children's drawings.

yea, i remember seeing a show about a guy who did that in japan, but couldn't find him, only budsies...
posted by kliuless at 3:14 PM on November 6, 2015

Great idea, but I gotta say I like the kids' drawings better, on balance. They're crazier and scarier. Too many of the artist renditions take the edge off. Way too many cutsie, smiling monsters in that portfolio.
posted by jpe at 6:10 PM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was part of a project that remotely teamed up a classroom full of kids with a "real scientist" helping them design their experiments. Despite being a "real scientist" I was never able to figure out the computer interface I was supposed to use, so I couldn't reliably find the homework I was supposed to look at. Although I was supposed to interact with the kids, I didn't have time to interact much because I work 11-hr days as a "real scientist". Then the experiments were (at their best) so unlike a real experiment that I was unable to give useful advice that would not exhaust and embitter the kids. I ended up feeling that the teachers should teach the science. Hope this works better, but I'm not sure.
posted by acrasis at 6:50 PM on November 6, 2015

As someone who had teachers throw away my art and openly berate me because I was "terrible" and "should never draw again", I would have loved something like this, because it would have been the first time anyone took my work seriously enough to want to build on it.
posted by divabat at 4:55 AM on November 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love it and I would have loved it as a kid. I was always heartbroken that my product never matched my imagination, and this would have been inspiring that my ideas were good and it is possible to realize what you imagine.
posted by arcticwoman at 6:49 AM on November 7, 2015

I was talking with an artist friend about this; his perspective was entirely positive, until of course I spoke up like a Debbie Downer = Sink or Swim. He remembered being a kid and having crazy ideas and drawing them all out, and was thinking how excited he would have been to see how one of his things could go all the way from an idea his head up into something that looked like a movie poster, and how that would make him want to do it again and again until he could make his own movie posters. I mostly remembered being a kind of okay draw-er, but not as good as my older brother "the artist" and being really frustrated that nothing I did was good enough, so I think I would have found this project really infuriating - can't you see that was fire coming out of his mouth, why did you draw a goofy yellow tongue, oh crap I'm terrible at this. And yes that part looks like what I wanted, but now mine looks so stupid in comparison, I'm obviously not cut out for this art thing.

Then, the more we talked, I realized I was thinking about myself in 6th-7th grade, and he was thinking about himself in 2nd-3rd grade. I think age makes a huge difference in how kids perceive their own work relative to the world, and how self-judgmental they are. I didn't see an age range mentioned, but it looks like elementary school rather than middle school, which could make all the difference.
posted by aimedwander at 12:37 PM on November 7, 2015

Yeah, I was thinking those kids must be under 6, if even that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:03 PM on November 7, 2015