By Casey Curtis
Leader Staff Writer
When Nathaniel Kiplinger used to draw pictures on his school work in first-grade, his teacher didn’t yell at him.
She encouraged him. And it looks like it paid off.
Kiplinger, a senior at Oxford High School, was one of the many students who received awards for their excellence in art April 12 at the Orion Art Center. The center held its seventh annual Joan Brace Scholarship Competition and awarded more than $4,000 to high school seniors interested in art in the north Oakland area.
Kiplinger won the Marce Cyrowski Scholarship of $200, donated by Cyrowski Realty, for his redesign of the DVD cover for the movie Grosse Pointe Blank.
He plans to combine this scholarship money with other scholarships he’s won and attend Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids.
Out of all the projects Kiplinger has done, he said his favorite is a hand-drawn portrait of a friend of his. It was inspired by a person he knew who committed suicide.
Although Kiplinger likes to draw with pencils and the usual art supplies, he prefers graphic design and using software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
Once he finishes his schooling at Kendall, Kiplinger said he would like to stick with the technological aspect of art.
‘I’m hoping to do a lot of website designing,? he said.
Kiplinger’s advice for aspiring artists is take lots of art classes ? even if you think you don’t need them ? and most importantly, ‘doodle all the time.?