Am I supposed to believe this, Google?
 

Google recently had a contest called "Doodle 4 Google" where young school age kids across America sent in their own Google doodle designs.

Here are the results.

My gut reaction is that some of these doodles have to be fraudulent. Some of the ones by 9 year olds might be sort of believable, but there's some by 7 or 6 year olds that...I mean if these kids can actually draw that well then they should be on the news.

Maybe Google just managed to get entries from 40-some wunderkinds...I'm presuming they got hundreds of thousands of entries, after all.

So what do you think? Genuine talent? Maybe some actual talent combined with some tips from parents and some tracing? Just straight-up cheating? You decide!

The most believable one is from Lauren J. of North Carolina. I congratulate you Lauren on not tracing and not getting any help from your parents. Also, Janessa, I think you're legit too. Keep on drawing, kiddies.

Being a brother to a "Artistic Prodigy"*his words not mine I can vouch for the authenticity. That level of detail is available to some rather talented kids. Heck if i was motivated enough I could have produced art on that level at that age. All you really need to do is trace for the most part.

Looking though them Yeah this is Kid level stuff. Nothing too impressive.

If a child is instructed on how to draw from a young age plus they have some "talent" (whatever that may be) they can totally draw awesome stuff like what is submitted here. Drawing is a skill that can be learned just like reading or any other number of things children are taught- it's just not a standard part of the curriculum.

Yeeeeees? It's not a random sample of third graders, it's the best ones out of thousands, and they all look like something a talented second or third grader could do. At that age, you're well past the "scribble random crap onto paper and make your parents do an impromptu Rorschach test" phase, and the ones who are good at art can produce stuff like this.

Think you're being a bit too cynical here.

This is some impressive stuff for their age. If these kids keep at it, practice a lot, and study the arts. They could become fantastic artist when they grow up!

I wonder if I could get my little sister into learning how to draw this summer. She already loves doing it so far.

I'll be sure to pass the Art of Facepalm down to my brother.
 

If I don't come back here in ten years and find a thread by your sister full of heavily sexualized catboys, I will be sorely disappointed.

That won't happen. She won't be drawing anything like that. Not on my watch. I plan on demonizing all forms of anime art include furry and even my own stuff. I want her to hate me and my work and become thebetter artist that I never could. If shes interested. But that has very little to do with this thread so let's leave it at that.

Too bad most schools are trying to take the arts OUT of the curriculum in order to shore up state budget deficits.

I'm sure the teachers are still fighting to prevent/undo that.

Man I make some weird topics at one in the morning.

Teaching
 

Many do. But, depending on the school, teachers (and their departments) also have financial limits placed on them by "other" subjects, as there's only so much money to throw around. So, you know, some don't 'cause they'd be hurting themselves and their department. Is it sad? Yes. But it's still a thing.

The arts are really important and need to be a part of our society on a base level. But we're* they're often relegated to the least of places. And given that teachers make little financially, are given the hardest of tasks, and have the most ridiculous sanctions against them, it tends to turn away those who'd want to teach these subjects anyway. This is a sad, terrible thing.

* Sorry, I still sometimes talk like I'm still an active teacher.

I just feel it's important to out this entire contest as an obvious crab battle.

Oh. Erm. Sorry.

CRAB BATTLE!!!

Holy crap these drawings.

Kyanbu, stop this you are not Itachi.

"Kyanbu! Why did you kill our familyclan with your art?"
"To test my slutsuwa."