just because we say "all people behaving this way are your age," doesn't mean that "all people your age are behaving this way."
as far as this applies to you, issei, while your own sets' content is, yes, "cute," it's also obvious that your work is cute because that's your personal style, not cute because you think that's what you should be doing. in my own early dolls, it was obvious that i liked tasha's and glyndon's sets, even though my dolls weren't as good as theirs, but my dolls didn't look like i was trying to copy them exactly. that's where i would put you. there's nothing wrong with emulating a style or even an artist you like; the problem is when you try to duplicate what they're doing. there are some really good template dolls out there-- tiffany, fashion doll from hell has been innovating in template sets i think since before i was making KiSS sets, and both tasha and emby used templates in their early work. it's not *always bad.* & in dootsie's case while her first sets weren't fabulous (neither were mine), there was always an obvious individual sense of humor and personality, which is not apparent in many sets.
when we say that "teenagers do x" it's not a bad thing & it's not worse than things that "grown-ups" do. it's a different stage in life. as i've said, people like you can draw better on a computer at 14 than i can at 23. that's really cool. & yes, i wish that i could do that, but on the other hand, i've been through a very good education at this point and i know that the important thing is to work to my strengths, not the strengths i want to have. i will probably never be able to draw as well as batchix or jamie gordon. but that's okay, because i can code pretty cleverly and i can come up with creative concepts and characters. everybody learns from what they see around them and because of that, your understanding of kis is completely different from mine which is completely different from that of someone who has been KiSSing as long as dov, which is completely different from someone who is in their thirties and just getting into KiSS for the first time. few of them are wrong, they are just informed by totally different things-- like the worlds we come from, and what we are trying to express by making dolls. there's something just as valid about a beautiful doll with a "standard" wardrobe as there is about a rough doll with a really quirky take on interface and clothing, and many times it can be more valid. more people enjoy playing with the former kind of doll. i don't like playing with most dolls, and i personally appreciate the latter kind, but i don't sit and dress dolls up, either. so of course i don't make dolls in that way. i make the kind of dolls i like, i just have different tastes from a lot of people. i assume that most people make dolls that are the kind of doll they like to play with, so if most people like standard dress-up dolls, then that is what most people who decide to take a stab at making dolls are going to make.
we (myself and the gorwn-ups here) don't want to discourage kids who make dolls that we think are crappy. what we want to do is encourage them to make dolls that stand on their own merits regardless of what "genre" or "style" of doll they might be. we don't want them to hide behind other people's styles because they are afraid to express themselves-- we want them to realize that they don't have to keep trying to be just like some other artist who they would love to emulate-- but hopefully to understand how to emulate work they like in a way that also makes them stand apart from the crowd. if someone insists on using templates and just copying things they've seen in other dolls, how will anyone ever see what their own, individual strengths are-- and how will they figure out for themselves what it is they're good at?
tea
Posted on Feb 1, 2002, 4:33 PM from IP address 64.59.27.162