Art School

[glorybound]

Anybody here go to art school? I made a mistake last year and contacted an on-line school, and I get 10 calls a day, all day, everyday! So, in general, does anybody here have an art degree? How has it worked out for you? would you recommend that route? The on-line school, that I mentioned above, wanted $65,000 for a 4 year degree (done on-line in 3 years). I couldn't justify the cost considering that my pay wouldn't go up.

So, go to school or continue to read, play, and practice what I like to do?

[super gnu]

i went to art college in london, and the idea of doing an on-line degree for ! &%^ 65,000 dollars sounds crazy. (was that a mis-type? ) if not either it was the best art college in the US, or you got a personal tutor for 4 years.

id say at least 60% (if im honest 80%) of the benefit of art college was the people i met, contacts i made, and more importantly the friendships. the lectures and coursework were ok, but even then the best times were in the workshops using the tools, at the exhibitions seeing the amazing stuff other people were doing (plus getting a bit hammered usually) or at the parties, which were usually the most creative part of the whole course.

basically 65000 for more time in front of the computer...? if that was the choice id rather have the self discipline to read a stack of books and get myself out to galleries, ideally spending a small fraction of that money travelling the world for a few months.. youll get a way more energetic, original education.

i did get my first arch. vis job off the back of my final year exhibition (£250 for an image of a pub from a local architect, took me 2 weeks to do..) but it was only related to my degree in so far as i did product design, and used the copies of 3ds R4 they had there to visualise my products, since my marker renderings were crap ( ahh how i envied those guys with their boxes of expensive markers and their swooping highlights!) having said that though, i was doing 3d as a hobby -way- before college ( persistence of vision on the coverdisc of pc-format on my dad's 386 was probably the beginning- 24 hrs to render some checkerboard and chrome fantasies at 640x480 ) so who knows what i would have done without art college.

i do know i would have been a lot less openminded, and had a lot less crazy memories (but conversely possibly a better memory overall)

[3DMK]

I thought that this forum was an art school....

I didn't go to art school...I could never [& still can't] Draw or Paint, sculpt,etc, so it's all about learning from others who have that knowledge.
In all honesty I think that it would be a waste of money Bobby, as you already have the skills required by our industry & you seem to get plenty of work...and in the end that's all that matters.
Cheers
Jamie

[Pixelcon]

Same as above.

[andybot_cg]

Haha, they really gotta work hard for hooking in the few that are willing to fork over $65k. Bobby, I'm sure there are more cost-efficient ways to pursue your dreams...
Money does matter (I know it's contrary to that video you linked.) It's hard going when you don't have it.

[glorybound]

No, it wasn't a typo. $65,000.00!

I have a friend who has her PHD in Biochemistry. She said that she can take a stranger off the street, and teach them what she does, in three months. I know an architect who has his Master in architecture from M.I.T., and he blogs about how much he was lied to. I think, he thought, he would be worshiped as an architect. Now, he draws floor plans. But, now-a-days, it seems that someone with 30 years of experience will be looked over for someone out of school with their masters. I know a ton of people who couldn't get work after their undergraduate degree, so they stayed for their masters. Most of these people are getting their master in 4 years, so it's not what it used to be.

I am reading a book called, Art Fundamentals Theory and Practice". The thought of having to memorize 1700 century pieces of art is mind numbing. I have two Associates, one in construction, and one in architecture. Both, were a waste of my time, and money.

Now, you can go to http://www.googleartproject.com/ and see the masters work, up close, and study their brush strokes. I have been watching some Lynda.com videos on Matte painting and I am about to do some digital paintings. I thing that unless we can show some hand drawing skills we will not be taken seriously as anybody with skill. I did a painting of my daughter a couple years ago. It turned out nice, and people's jaws dropped, until I told then it was with a stylus on a computer. I drew the portrait by hand, capturing her personality, but the computer thing killed it. Had it been on paper, they would have taken it seriously. Unless you do the work you can't appreciate what it takes.

[thablanch]

My vision of it... as a teacher in an art school

First, for Bobby, as you are already in the field, of course this kind of school would be a waist of time and money. As professionals, I'd rather spend my money on a custom class, or private tutoring for a very specific subject, for wayyy less money.

The good thing: As for Art college itself, I've seen people learning stuff way faster than I did my self years ago, as the class is really aimed at their project/learning needs.. I would say that the people I'm teaching to learned the same in 1 year as I did in 4 of 5 years of trial and errors, or books and tutorials....
The bad thing: Art students are customers of the college, giving the college money.. so most teachers will never tell them their work is crap, or that they should change field. So everybody ends up with the same piece of paper at the end, if they are simply amazing or if they are plain stupid people..

The bottom line.. It is what you are willing to grab from it. Also, some people learn well in a school environment, and can not learn by themselves, and for some other, school does not make sense and they feel the need to learn to their on pace..

[glorybound]

I just like the cliff notes! I was reading a chapter last night on Subtraction. Subtraction, in art and after 10 minutes of reading, is removing material. Come on! So long winded and so unnecessarily wordy.