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Art Advice - Want to start at the beginning in a structured environment.
Enc
A Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
A Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
Hey all, you know me from maps and other things maybe.
I've been readmitted to my local university for Studio Art, which is what I have always wanted to do as a degree, but my enrollment status pretty much precludes ever actually getting into the courses. So I'm left with a couple of options:
My real goal is to get structured guidance from beginning drawing through advanced digital painting and illustration over time. I'm making some money now with my various D&D related products and map commissions, but what is preventing me from really diving into that market is having a solid foundation to also do digital painting and character art. I need to not skip steps here and work my way toward it, and my hodge-podge finding freemium guides and books over the years has helped but not really gotten me the momentum I need to really improve (much less feedback).
My day job pays fairly well, and I can absorb some costs, but I'm wanting to make sure what I invest in is actually going to help my ability. What would you suggest?
I've been readmitted to my local university for Studio Art, which is what I have always wanted to do as a degree, but my enrollment status pretty much precludes ever actually getting into the courses. So I'm left with a couple of options:
- Pray and hope each semester that I'll get into 1 or 2 of the intro courses, which right now has about a 10% or less shot of happening (but I wouldn't have to pay tuition if I did successfully get in).
- Go to my local art atelier and take community classes for about $300 a course, with 5 blocks a year.
- Enroll in self-directed Udemy courses.
- Other options for instruction?
My real goal is to get structured guidance from beginning drawing through advanced digital painting and illustration over time. I'm making some money now with my various D&D related products and map commissions, but what is preventing me from really diving into that market is having a solid foundation to also do digital painting and character art. I need to not skip steps here and work my way toward it, and my hodge-podge finding freemium guides and books over the years has helped but not really gotten me the momentum I need to really improve (much less feedback).
My day job pays fairly well, and I can absorb some costs, but I'm wanting to make sure what I invest in is actually going to help my ability. What would you suggest?
Enc on
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The real answer is to do it a lot, and find some nice people to give you brutal but constructive critique as you do it. As far as I can tell, that's really what you are paying for in taking classes.
The entire curriculum is mostly full up at 2-year and 4-year here unless I decide to pay for regular enrollment (which sucks since I got these three free classes a semester waivers for being an employee), but that looks to be what I'll be paying for come Spring.
What are you aiming to get out of the degree? That will help us advise on possible pathways - if you're interested in going into design, for example, then a tertiary degree will be helpful, but you can probably get the foundational stuff elsewhere and use the free classes to focus on the more theoretical or business side of things.
I have no intention of teaching, going into a pipeline, or working beyond the occasional commissions I'm doing now.
I've for sure seen people drop into school and come out with a ton of skill in short order, but it is usually someone who hyper focuses on it for a couple years. Something to keep in mind as you weigh your progress against your monetary investment.
Obviously a class you can't get into in the first place doesn't do you any good at any price. And if you're waiting for what, years? to get into it, it'd better be somebody amazing teaching that class.
And if your university is anything like the one I went to, it definitely won't be worth that wait. (Spent 3 years waiting to get into a life drawing class, and am told by the teacher in their 60's that they'd never studied anatomy. Swell, glad I spent those 3 years studying anatomy books on my own, as to not have the thing be a total waste of time).
With a university, you're kinda getting whatever they want to hand out (you wanna draw D&D characters and the Intro to Drawing teacher this term is all about non-representational neo-expressionist charcoal scribbles? Tough luck! And they'll probably be a real snob about it, too), but you, as a consumer, should really use your buying power to get the education that you want. Which works out, since people that are really good at art probably have realized they can make more money teaching outside universities, and they don't have to blow a ton of cash getting a master's degree for the privilege.
That said, even at an atelier, you're probably not going to get 100% of all the education you might need or want just from the classes offered, so you'll probably still be buying books (most of the people I know that are good at art have bookshelves sagging under the weight of their art tomes), or going to outside workshops to fill the gaps regardless of the quality of instruction. (IE: A very traditionally focused atelier may be great for drawing from life, but may lack digital instruction, or not have much to offer in the way of character design, so you'll probably have to seek that instruction elsewhere).
If you're signing up for a class, whether it's at a college or an atelier or online or in some dude's backyard art dojo: vet that teacher. Are they producing, or capable of producing the sort of work that you want to be making? If the answer is "no", or they won't show you their own work, look elsewhere.
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