Website I made for autistic kid

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Masato
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Website I made for autistic kid

Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:30 pm

Hey all

Around where I live is this awesome place called Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre:
http://www.joshuacreekarts.com/

It is owned and run by this awesome old lady, who refuses to sell out; vultures are always sawarming around trying to turn the place into this or that but the old lady is pure and good and has kept her vision intact.

And what a wonderful place it is to be! I have been there many times for events, sometimes my wife does pottery workshops there, or I'll go for drum circles or take my kids through the Meditation Maze or whatever. Every time I leave feeling charged and positive.

The old lady says there's a 'vortex' on the property, and indeed many strange stories happen on these grounds.

Anyways there is this autistic kid that goes there sometimes that the old lady has generously taken under her wing, and is convinced he is a really special kind of artistic genius. As he has not adapted yet well to school or work environments, and his family (in the old lady's opinion) does not recognize his artistic talents, she let him paint and draw there for years. He loves it and goes there several times a week and just pumps out these amazing images non-stop. He can paint for hours it is clearly where he most likes to be.

She introduced me to him and I was so impressed with his work that I could not say no when the old lady asked if there was anything I could do to help him. My first thought was that we had to get him digital. We managed through friends of the old lady to get him a computer and pen, and I started showing him how to use Photoshop. Needless to say he loved it. I started feeding him some assignments thinking he could make a unique concept artist, and took well to it, interpreting the direction in fantastic ways.

The old lady is an accomplished writer, and had several short stories/children's books written but not published. She had the brilliant idea to hire the kid to illustrate them for her, and they would have them published. He finished the first story and is working on the 2nd, and they are turning out marvelously imo

Anyways we all thought the next step was clearly to build him a website so he could promote himself as a professional artist. I gave him a selection of templates and he chose one and so I made it for him. Its nothing fancy but a good place to start. Maybe as he evolves we can invest in something a bit more pro but for the moment he is happy with it.

Anyways, check it out... I really think his work is amazing:

http://www.tsochoygo.com

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Masato
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Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:32 pm

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robbstar
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Postby robbstar » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:39 pm

Amazing pics. Lots of energy, with very clear direction through out. And a very identifiable and unique style stamped very early across all of his images. Excellent stuff :)

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Postby robbstar » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:39 pm

Websites nae bad too ;)

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Masato
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Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:40 pm

When the book is out I will post a link.

It will be a special book no doubt about it, I can't wait to see it.

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Postby robbstar » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:43 pm

Do it, I'll buy a copy :)

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Masato
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Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:45 pm

robbstar wrote:Websites nae bad too ;)


Its OK. Its a simple do-it-yourselfer... he picked the template and I didn't argue.

I was considering other routes but it was on me to pay for it and set it all up and I really don't have a whole lot of money or free time so I decided it was better to just get something done (he has a show next month) than to delay it forever trying to build something that may be ahead of what he actually needs at this point.

I really hope he can evolve to become a professional artist. The old lady and his family are worried how he will support himself when he is an adult, and the old lady feels it would be horrible to waste his talent working at WalMart or something for the rest of his life. Hopefully with time and some more people we can guide him along this path.

I don't know the extent of his autism, we only worked together in Photoshop a few times, but I don't see it to be that severe to be honest and can totally see him being a brilliant out-of-the-box concept artist working on great things. The old lady has tons of writings to be published, maybe they can pump out a series of children's books or something.

What a unique style man I love it - imagine his work in 10-20 years!!

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Masato
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Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:50 pm

Here is one book the old lady published:

(that's her on the far right, these grannies rode motorcycles across the country or something, the book is about their adventure)
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She is a rockin ol' bird with a really amazing life, endless stories to tell, and a heart of pure gold. A real angel on earth, I'm fuckin tearin' up just typing this lol

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Postby robbstar » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:53 pm

It's very different in style but it instantly reminded me or made me think of the Grufalo story /art work. He Defo has a future :) websites great, clear, fast, does exactly what it says on the tin :)

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Postby Masato » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:57 pm

I am trying to get more of his work for the site... here is one they emailed me:

Someone asked him to make a 'fish spaceship'...
this is what he came up with:
(done with pen & markers)

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