Art schools usually insist that you drill on drawing traditionally before moving on to drawing with a tablet because it just makes for more solid growth. That aside, though, if you have problems drawing small details traditionally, they make mechanical pencils as small as 0.3mm. Pentel sells one for just a little over $3: [link]

That site is also where I get the blue mechanical pencil lead I use all the time in my gallery.

Hopefully they will, yes. Most people think that just because there's a computer involved, it does everything for you. If you read them my description of all the different steps of creating an illustration that I outlined in that response to ~SGT-Conley, that should further educate them.

It's depressing how so many parents are so staunchly against their kids going in to art as a career because they think it's silly or stupid or "not a real job". It's prevailent enough that my alma mater, Ringling, put together a website specifically for parents of prospective students in order for them to learn just how versatile and lucrative a career in graphic art can be. I highly recommend you have your dad take a moment to look at it, as should you so you can use the information in your own defense.

You can find it right here: [link]

It's one of the major problems that professional artists and designers (AND kids who WANT to be professionals someday) have to deal with, unfortunately. The vast majority of people who aren't artists and/or don't know any artists are completely and utterly ignorant of how the graphic art industry works, what it does, and how far it reaches. Most people hear "artist" and they think "little kid" or "starving in a cardboard box while trying to sell paintings on a street corner". It's actually why I ask my parents to tell people I'm an illustrator when they're asked what I do for a living. For some reason people take that much more seriously than "artist".

And again for your dad thinking it is a waste of time? Graphic art and design are actually REALLY lucrative careers if you have the chops for it and go to a good school. Even in a sucky economy, many business and studios still need artwork to function. Even though the economy in the US is still struggling, I'm still working for three different design and production companies right now because what they do doesn't come to a halt just because the economy flounders. Society NEEDS artists, and once you're established in the industry you can command a pretty high price for your services. My illustration professor in college had been in the business for over 40 years by the time he taught me, and he was making roughly $100/hr for his illustration services outside of teaching (all teachers at the school are required to be currently working artists outside of the school).

To further elaborate along the same lines as his tooth brush: designers put together the concept for his car. His clothes? Designers and artists not only had to put together the article of clothing itself, but if the fabric has a pattern in it, another artist designed THAT. A couple college friends of mine worked for Carter's Children's Clothing after graduating, and one of the things they did besides drawing the little animals for boys' sleep wear was designing different kinds of plaid print fabric.

The labels and packaging on every product he uses were produced by graphic designers (graphic designers even arrange the text for gov't required things like ingredients, warnings, etc. on food and drug packaging). The ads on TV, in print, and on billboards were all done by graphic designers and advertising agencies, who are MAJOR employers of artists. I recently designed a new mascot for a travel center and restaurant in Texas -- a little cowboy armadillo -- and he's going to be plastered on billboards to advertise the place.

Hypothetically, the logo of the company he works for? Designers. The interior of the office he works in? Interior designers (which are also considered artists as it was a major at the school I went to). The chair at his desk? Furniture designers, also artists. Even the icons on the desktop of his computer were designed by artists. They didn't create themselves!

The books he used while in school? Graphic designers did the layouts of the text, and illustrators and photographers produced the images within the text. Maps? Artists. Posters and other classroom decorations? Artists and designers. The posters he sees on the walls at the doctor's office when he's waiting to be seen? Medical illustrators. Training manuals and visual instruction/assembly manuals are done by technical illustrators. Basically, pretty much ALL education materials, no matter what the subject may be, are touched in some way by artists and designers. Art is literally EVERYWHERE, and it stretches far beyond paintings, drawings, and what most laymen consider to be "art".

There is SO MUCH you can do with a degree in graphic design, general design, or illustration it isn't even funny. It's an incredibly versatile field to be in, and an important one, too. Society wouldn't function without artists.

Sorry for the rambling! I get really verbose about stuff like this. lol