FIVE
know thy self
How old is your inner child?
Finding your voice as an artist could be helped by listening to your inner child and getting to know them.
from the inside out
Have you ever considered how old your inner child is? For artists who want to do art that is directed towards children this can be an important question to answer. We all have an inner child within us and they can have a profound effect on our work. Some artists seem to be naturally in tune with their inner child and intuitively channel that child through their art – or maybe they simply can’t ignore them?
Choose the age of your inner child!
Select one of the following:
Option A: After the wizard leaves the emerald city an AI (artificial intelligence) takes control of the wonderful world of oz. A cybernetic robot, undead zombie, and a mutant lion band together to lead the fight …
Option B: A tin boy trying to take heart, a scarecrow in need of an education, and a lion that wishes he wasn’t such a scaredy cat are caught up in a tornado that takes them far away from the wonderful world of oz. Transported to a school yard in small town kansas they have to face something more scary than any winged monkey – children!
if you’ve chosen Option A your inner child may be a teenager. If you’ve chosen Option B then your inner child could be a preschooler!
listening in(side)
If a children’s book illustrator's inner child is the same age as the children who read their books they may naturally be able to connect to that audience. Same with a comic book artist. If an artist is still a hormone powered teen comic nerd on the inside, I’m pretty sure young comic book readers are hormone powered teen comic nerds on the inside too (and the outside of course).
But it can be hard to see who we really are, when the games we play, books we read, movies we watch, teachers we try to ignore, peers we jealously admire, and gigantic media conglomerates are telling us who we ought to be!