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Art class in College.
Shurakai
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Next fall, i'll be starting the Visual Arts program at my local college. This will be basically the first time since around grade 8 that I have attended or been part of an arts cirriculum.
In high school, my days were filled with acedemic classes that I didnt really want to be in. In short, parents suck.
This leaves me in a bit of a pickle. I have no idea as to what I am expected to know going into introductory drawing or painting classes. All through High School we are taught that Post Secondary classes are much more difficult, and all high school amounts to is preparation.
And so, I am wondering if I may have missed essential preparation in order to even come close to passing even the introductory courses. I know a few things here and there, self taught and otherwise, and I'll provide a recent doodle so you can gauge my skill (no polished works, unfortunately. I used a friends scanner for this one, I havent bought one yet myself. )
I do love the arts, and wish to further my skills and take it seriously. If anyone can shed some light on what art courses are like in Post Secondary, or what I should be doing or buying to prepare I would be very thankful.
In high school, my days were filled with acedemic classes that I didnt really want to be in. In short, parents suck.
This leaves me in a bit of a pickle. I have no idea as to what I am expected to know going into introductory drawing or painting classes. All through High School we are taught that Post Secondary classes are much more difficult, and all high school amounts to is preparation.
And so, I am wondering if I may have missed essential preparation in order to even come close to passing even the introductory courses. I know a few things here and there, self taught and otherwise, and I'll provide a recent doodle so you can gauge my skill (no polished works, unfortunately. I used a friends scanner for this one, I havent bought one yet myself. )
I do love the arts, and wish to further my skills and take it seriously. If anyone can shed some light on what art courses are like in Post Secondary, or what I should be doing or buying to prepare I would be very thankful.
Shurakai on
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Then, stop drawing monsters, and draw from life (LIFE).
But I'd draw from life to get a head start.
Yea, like many I stray from drawing real life objects, though I suppose it makes sense to try and copy perfection (reality).
So they will teach you techniques and what-have-you? Assignments are marked based on completion, not skill? I can probably handle that. All I know is that in high school, the art teacher marked students work based upon what she thought looked good or didnt look good. Apparently no one liked her, though.
And don't try and copy reality. Try to understand reality.
Yea, I suppose I have to ask around locally. The college is Red Deer College if chance happens to favor me.
*nods* very interesting thing to say. Ill keep that in mind.
If you're just looking to skate through an easy, enjoyable class, then just complete your assignments and "do your best", and that will be good enough for most foundation level classes.
It amuses me how much I know already when he starts talking, especially how much of it I learned from this forum.
Truth. And just to expand on that, being able to skate by, even with all A's, in an art class means dick-all. It just means you suck less than the average student who takes the class, which is not a very ambitious goal for anyone. I knew a lot of people in art school (admittedly it was a pretty shitty one, but...) that got all A's in most of their art classes but probably will never, ever be able to find an actual job making art, because they let themselves believe doing well in art classes means you are good at art. More likely the case is doing good in an art class means your teachers don't feel it's worth the time to argue with every pretentious art school dipshit who thinks they're going to be the next big thing about why their hanging mobile made of urinals got a "B-".
If you don't want to get out of college in 4 years and not have anything to show for it but a degree that's worth less than a hobo's shirt, it's up to you to make that happen. Look at the professionals working out there, look up interviews, see how they got there. Read all the books you can about technique, anatomy, inspiration. Start bookmarking art sites for inspiration. And for the love of God, DRAW. Draw everyday, carry around a sketchbook and draw in that, draw from life, draw when you're supposed to be paying attention to some other class about, I don't know, English Lit. or something. Just draw. Don't stop drawing.
Also, if you're looking for books that should give you some heads up/head start on these classes, check out Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and The Natural Way to Draw (last I checked amazon.com gave you a discount if you bought both, so I'd recommend that). They should give you a good idea of what you missed in high school art/what you're going to be doing in foundation courses, but they're both written and explained much better than most of my teachers were ever able to manage, so they're useful even if they end up being somewhat redundant.
I'd also recommend flipping through The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Vol. 1 for some solid advice from a bonafide master that makes you look a lot smarter than you really are if you repeat it to anyone.
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I was an art minor and all my classes were like this too. One teacher would give us themes like "This monoprint should be the style of (insert artist) and should be about something wrong with the world that's international but not something as simple as poverty". She says she did this to make our art "deeper and more meaningful" and she would expect hidden meanings in people's art and then make them change and add random crap whether they wanted to or not (she called this "editing") because in her words "a piece of art is never finished"! Luckily she generally left me alone because I would make up some crap story about how my art tied into the theme and I was one of the few people in class with a slight artistic talent.
For me I didn't learn anything at all in art classes but theyre generally fun and they give me an excuse to make time for art.
Alright, thanks for the info and motivation!
As a matter of fact, im not doing it for the degree. I realize that a BA isn't worth all that much in the real world, people want to see a portfolio, not a sheet of paper saying you passed a class. Im taking these courses for my own personal development as a creative artist, parents be dambed. To be honest, Im not just taking visual art classes. Im also in Lit (creative writing is what Im aiming for, but I have to get through the awful essay writing/literature interpretation bunk first) and Music (preformance and composition).
If I end up getting a BA, cool, but thats just a bonus. Visual arts are actually my weak spot, which is why I was/am nervous. But for the most part you guys put that those fears to rest. Thanks!