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I hate to be all jaded about things, but this is the second story I've seen on this boy, and I feel like he falls under the "extraordinary claims require extrao
by drcode 8y ago
I hate to be all jaded about things, but this is the second story I've seen on this boy, and I feel like he falls under the "extraordinary claims require extraordinarily evidence" umbrella.
These are charcoal-based sketches, and for that style of art a majority of the artistry lies in image choice and finishing detail of the sketch (and a little bit in the presketch, though that's trainable if he's using a reference image.)
I would like to have better evidence that these parts weren't just done by an adult, because without it, this boy is arguably a once-in-generation genius, and that is an extraordinary claim.
- djsumdog 8y agoHmm.. The video doesn't seems to show him in process. Stephen Wiltshire has several time-lapses and videos of him in various stages of the drawing process. Maybe we'll get a reporter that records a time lapse at some point, or maybe not if it's really the work of an adult.
- akuji1993 8y agoI know it's not always Occam's razor, but in this case I tend to be the party pooper. This was probably drawn by an adult and now they try to make it a story. There are amazing young artists out there, but this kind of detail, the boy either learned how to draw one or two specific pictures again and again or somebody has helped with this. I might also be wrong and we've seen the next art child prodigy, but I doubt it.
- kevindqc 8y agoWhat about this? https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/04/africa/nigerian-boy-paints-french-president/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/04/africa/nigerian-boy-paint...
- akuji1993 8y agoThat obviously couldn't be taught by an adult, so the child would be able to specifically draw that one picture...
- drcode 8y agoYeah, a timelapse of his full process would be appropriate evidence here. If one exists and someone could share a link that would be great.
- ainiriand 8y agoTake this with a grain of salt. But I have a friend that is a very bright artist since she was a child. Not this level of skill, but really really close with the chalks. I say that it is 'possible' but unlikely.
- throwawayqdhd 8y agoMozart was writing symphonies by this age. Prodigies exist in every field. Is there a geographical bias in your skepticism? Would you be as skeptical if this kid was from Norway or Sweden or Austria?
- xtrapolate 8y ago> "Is there a geographical bias in your skepticism? Would you be as skeptical if this kid was from Norway or Sweden or Austria?" Nothing in the parent comment implies a so-called "geographical bias", yet there you are accusing them of being racist.
- coldtea 8y ago"Implies" means it doesn't have to be spelt out -- it can linger below the surface. And whether implied or not, it's a legitimate question to ask. E.g. if the kid was asian would as many have the same suspicion given the same evidence (or lack thereof)?
- throwawayqdhd 8y agoLook at everyone in these replies pretending to be race blind. If this kid was Asian, you'd just go "eh, Asian prodigies" and not give it any further attention.
- carlmr 8y agoI have the same feeling here. Although I think it's true that scrutiny is advised in all cases, I don't think I've seen such a critical comment section before.
- ihsw2 8y agoThere's nothing wrong with having a geographic bias in skepticism, Nigeria is not a historical source of innovation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, if anything it elevates this boy's achievements even more and puts his talents in the realm of once-in-a-thousand-generations.
- 8y ago
- ramblerman 8y agoHe draw Macron as well, recently, under quite a bit of media scrutiny: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/04/africa/nigerian-boy-paints-french-president/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/04/africa/nigerian-boy-paint...
- coldtea 8y ago>I would like to have better evidence that these parts weren't just done by an adult, because without it, this boy is arguably a once-in-generation genius, and that is an extraordinary claim. Hardly. Such photorealistic portraits are impressive, and very impressive for a 13 yo boy, but nothing "extraordinary" to achieve, and much less a sign of an "once-in-generation genius". The right technique, many hours devotion, and starting from around 6 would get similar results to most kids -- like tons of kids at 13 can play Chopin on the piano, and are not "once-in-generation geniuses", but run of the mill tiger-mom kids...
- protonimitate 8y agoAgreed. Hyper-realism, while impressive to look at, is not really all that difficult to achieve mechanically (relatively, of course). Even if the finishing wasn't done by an adult, I don't think it's the mark of genius. Artistic genius is about synthesizing multiple styles and histories and creating something novel, or re-presenting something old and tired in a new way. If this is the sole work of the kid, he has a great eye and fantastic mechanical abilities - but 'once in a lifetime genius' may be overselling it just a bit.
- Karuma 8y agoIndeed. This is the easiest kind of "art" (I wouldn't even call it that, as art means something else to me). Just look around any portrait painting on YouTube, there's millions of them with this kid's same results. Anyone can become a human copy machine with various simple methods. There's a reason why all of his pictures just look like a photograph with zero creativity. (The same reason why great painters stopped trying to achieve hyper-realism since~ van Gogh and the invention/popularization of the photographic camera...)
- coldtea 8y agoExactly. Plus even for the masters that could totally achieve hyper-realism, the key to their work was never its realism.
- 8y ago
- hugh4life 8y agoCheck out his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waspa_art/ https://www.instagram.com/waspa_art/