All of the tutorials, references, artwork, etc. featured here were not created by me. This is just an area for people to find anything related to helping others improve their art skills.
Please do not hesitate to submit or notify me of resources and tutorials for anything relating to art you can imagine will help people in their improvement of art. Since art is such a subjective and vague term, this can mean anything from writing to cosplay to cooking to even home construction.
Mr. Rogers had an intentional manner of speaking to children, which his writers called “Freddish”. There were nine steps for translating into Freddish:
“State the idea you wish to express as clearly as possible, and in terms preschoolers can understand.” Example: It is dangerous to play in the street.
“Rephrase in a positive manner,” as in It is good to play where it is safe.
“Rephrase the idea, bearing in mind that preschoolers cannot yet make subtle distinctions and need to be redirected to authorities they trust.” As in, “Ask your parents where it is safe to play.”
“Rephrase your idea to eliminate all elements that could be considered prescriptive, directive, or instructive.” In the example, that’d mean getting rid of “ask”: Your parents will tell you where it is safe to play.
“Rephrase any element that suggests certainty.” That’d be “will”: Your parents can tell you where it is safe to play.
“Rephrase your idea to eliminate any element that may not apply to all children.” Not all children know their parents, so: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play.
“Add a simple motivational idea that gives preschoolers a reason to follow your advice.” Perhaps: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is good to listen to them.
“Rephrase your new statement, repeating the first step.” “Good” represents a value judgment, so: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them.
“Rephrase your idea a final time, relating it to some phase of development a preschooler can understand.” Maybe: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them, and listening is an important part of growing.
Rogers brought this level of care and attention not just to granular
details and phrasings, but the bigger messages his show would send.
Hedda Sharapan, one of the staff members at Fred Rogers’s production
company, Family Communications, Inc., recalls Rogers once halted taping
of a show when a cast member told the puppet Henrietta Pussycat not to
cry; he interrupted shooting to make it clear that his show would never
suggest to children that they not cry.
In working on the show,
Rogers interacted extensively with academic researchers. Daniel R.
Anderson, a psychologist formerly at the University of Massachusetts who
worked as an advisor for the show, remembered a speaking trip to
Germany at which some members of an academic audience raised questions
about Rogers’s direct approach on television. They were concerned that
it could lead to false expectations from children of personal support
from a televised figure. Anderson was impressed with the depth of
Rogers’s reaction, and with the fact that he went back to production
carefully screening scripts for any hint of language that could confuse
children in that way.
In fact, Freddish and Rogers’s philosophy of
child development is actually derived from some of the leading
20th-century scholars of the subject. In the 1950s, Rogers, already well
known for a previous children’s TV program, was pursuing a graduate
degree at The Pittsburgh Theological Seminary when a teacher there
recommended he also study under the child-development expert Margaret
McFarland at the University of Pittsburgh. There he was exposed to the
theories of legendary faculty, including McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik
Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton. Rogers learned the highest standards
in this emerging academic field, and he applied them to his program for
almost half a century.
This is one of the reasons Rogers was so
particular about the writing on his show. “I spent hours talking with
Fred and taking notes,” says Greenwald, “then hours talking with
Margaret McFarland before I went off and wrote the scripts. Then Fred
made them better.” As simple as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood looked and sounded, every detail in it was the product of a tremendously careful, academically-informed process.
Realistic Stuttering: “Sorry, I uh… I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean to do that…”
When people stutter, they usually reword what they’re saying as they speak, and subconsciously insert “filler words” such as “uh, like, you know,” and etc.
*puts on speech therapist hat*
ACTUALLY! It depends on why they are stuttering.
A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classic “I, um… well I… look it’s just that… so we…” that @hellishhues is talking about. When someone is mazing their words you’re seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things.
The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain.
With this you will also sometimes see the classic “S-s-s-sorry…” especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.
The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma.
Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when they’re written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter.
But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!
Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)
Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)
Does the stutter stem from intoxication or blood loss? (3)
All of those will sound different!
1 - Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.
2 - This is where you’ll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.
3 - This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words.
v__tori asked about: uhhh posing characters interestingly when theyre just like talking or standing around, this is comic related so camera angles factor into that too i guess,,
I’m going to answer the second half of this question in this post (framing), you can find the first part about posing & acting here!:
As with the previous post, I will be focusing largely on sequential story telling (comics, storyboarding, etc), but it will still apply to a single image!
So when framing your shot, you want to think about what exactly it is you’re trying to say.
As an artist, you’ve got two ways of giving your viewers information: Through what they can read (dialogue), and through what they can see.
Writers are often told “show, don’t tell,” and this is just as relevant for art! Wherever possible, you want to show your viewers what it is you’re trying to say to them. Your audience is smart, you don’t need to spell everything out for them.
Where you place your camera changes what the viewer sees, so what is it that you want to tell them? How do you want them to feel about this situation or character?
Here’s a scribbly example for you:
With the first panel, I wanted to mostly focus on Greta w a lil bit of Edel in the shot… but most importantly the view is a little off kilter! :
Tilting the horizon line like this is called a dutch angle, and using it gives a shot a sense of unease, disorientation, or in this case desperate, frantic action! (I also just happen to like drawing stuff slightly from above LMAO)
So: - What is it that I wanted to tell the viewer? Greta is worried about Edel, and there’s some sense of urgency here. - How did I want the viewer to feel? I want the viewer to feel concerned and a little uneasy.
The next panel isn’t really anything special, Greta is the main focus so she’s the only one in the shot! A mid long shot like this lets you see how Greta is acting.
The next 3 panels are closeups of their hands. What I wanted to tell the viewer is that Greta is scared, and how tightly she’s holding onto Edel. So, the focus shifts from Greta’s face to her hands.
Then we zoom back out to some mid long shots so you can see their faces again & how they’re interacting. The sixth panel is also quite close to them, it gives the shot a sense of intimacy!
Does that make sense? I hope so 💦
As with the previous post, I would recommend studying films - this time to get a better understanding of shot framing, and some ideas of what kinds of shots you can use.
With this in mind, why do i think this shot is framed this way?
Your main aim in doing these studies is to try get into the head of the artist/director.
To give you an idea of what you’re looking for when you’re studying these films, lets have a look at a couple scenes from kung fu panda 3:
So: Po goes off to fight Kai, everything’s been building to this point and Po seem’s to get a strong start!
We’re given a wide shot of the two of them sharing equal portions of the screen, on a level plane. As neither one of them dominates the screen, we’re given the impression that they are equals.
Quickly however we learn that Po’s signature move does nothing to Kai, and shown just how much stronger he is than Po. Immediately, Kai is given more screen presence, the angle changes to look up at him, giving that sense that Po is inferior. Because of how the shot is framed, Po is literally beneath Kai.
We’re shown Kai looking down on Po’s fearful expression,
And pretty much every shot after this has us looking up at Kai, low down from the ground, or looking down on Po from high above. The intent here is to create a sense of fear and anxiety, by putting us and/or the protagonist beneath Kai.
These shots are also tilted a little, remember the dutch angle I mentioned earlier? They’re doing the same thing, creating a sense of unease with the unsteady ground plane.
But then these roles are reversed later when the tides change, and Po becomes stronger than Kai. At this point, Po is the one lifted above Kai, and Kai is left looked down upon, giving the viewer a sense of power over him!
While you’re studying these scenes, I recommend doing some 3-tone thumbnail studies to really get a feel for the composition.
Don’t worry about making it look pretty, just try to understand how the shapes are being arranged in the shot. Why do you think the shot designer made these decisions?
The more you try to understand why something has been done this way, the more you can apply it to your own work!
