Art Education: College Sadly Isn't An Option Now

[CoruptKirin]

Until my financial situation changes, college unfortunately is not a *reasonable* option. 

(If you know any ways to make college cheap as possible, lemme know though! ? Kinda decideding what I wanna do still) 

The main arts feilds I'm looking at are illustration, animation, and perhaps writing for more context ?.

What are some alternatives to college on these, if anyone knows any?

[Mada_]

Self education. 

- books

- Udemy courses

- YouTube videos

- apprenticeship

I have a friend who is an artist. He is in his twenties and started his own not-for-profit gallery, a monthly poetry initiative, and didn't go to university. 

 

[smurf88]

Great resources here.

https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/dont-go-to-art-school-138c5efd45e9

[Hello from Russia]

Conventional education for ART is shit. I'd say the autodidact is pretty much the only way. Real artists who know what they are doing don't teach at school typically, so you have low chances of learning something useful and cutting edge here. And most schools suck even at basics

Edited August 16, 2020 by Hello from Russia

[CoruptKirin]

@Mada_

Thank you for your part! I've been doing the YouTube/learning by books. I'm unsure what Udemy is. I'll give it a Google search afterwards ?. 

I'm unsure how to get an apprenticeship. ? If you know any way, please lemme know! Otherwise I'll find a way through some Google research! 

@smurf88 

Thank you! I'll check it out tomorrow! 

@Hello from Russia

Thank you for your continued insights on my situation! ? I think you're very right on that. I'm still looking to harness the basics (Though I've been drawing for almost 10 years, it's only in the last 3 that I've gotten serious at it)

If the teachers were good in their field, they wouldn't be teachers ?

Think I have issues with assumed inadequacy and fear of being in my own echo chamber of art. I tend to think I'm "far behind my peers" And that if I don't get others feedback on my work, then I may stagnate. 

A part of why I wanted to go to college is also to get better at socializing. I'm a... cripplingly reserved/shy person. And gets in the way of many great opportunities. ? Comes as no shock that this is rooted in low self esteem.

Never did anything...well fun in my teens. Like, at all. And I wanna learn how to do that with others. I've been trying to find others to connect with. But with the pandemic and not having a car, I'm finding it difficult.

[Hello from Russia]

@CoruptKirin Mate, just go to any art school and see for yourself how most of your peers will be shitters who won't understand much about art and their craft. You'll get surprised how imperfect they are and they'll quickly go off of your pedestal. And I don't say it just because I'm biased against schools (although I am). I am in a creative field myself (I am a designer) and I have some first hand experience on this topic, as well as I've done a ton of research on different art schools and studying successful people in the field, both who went to school and not. Most people i've studied who were successful in art and actually did go to school say themselves that their school didn't matter that much and that it was mostly shit and often an obstacle. I am also having success now as a designer without going to school.

Your biggest teachers will be the consciousness work that you apply to your art and craft rather than fools from the school. But i'd say - do your own research and make your own conclusions. Maybe in your situation going to art school will be great, because you'll be able to pickup some artsy girls and move out from parents. But even there, I think you can do it in more effective ways without going to school. Just don't go to schools for art sake because you are likely won't find it there. And also they are likely to not give you any good career or business advice on how to sell your art, so you'll have to do anything on your own anyways, while being surrounded by a bunch of hippy people who don't know how to do business as well that will influence your psyche and try to get you to believe in a poor artist stereotype

Sorry, I went on a little bit of rant here. I am just super frustrated with the state of things in that area. Maybe I will open my own legit art school that will incorporate art, consciousness work and business under one umbrella, who knows. Right now I wouldn't advice going there, unless you want to pickup some artsy girls (but then again, you can pickup artsy girls just by going where they hang out, you don't have to be their classmate)

And for fixing your shyness: you can fix your shyness by hitting streets/places and meeting bunch of people, will be much more effective and controllable (and also cheaper) than going to school

You probably won't have much fun there too, because you'll be surrounded by hippies who have 0 life experience, yet they have a bunch of naive ideas on how the world based on their school conditioning. You can waste a lot of time socializing with them and pickup bad habits/wrong mindsets from them. And they are often very boring people, because most of them are sheep and can't think for themselves. They will just parrot the ideqs from liberal books and generally won't offer any fresh insight's And breakthroughs. So, in a sense, you're not missing anything by not socializing with those people

Edited August 17, 2020 by Hello from Russia

[CoruptKirin]

@Hello from Russia 

 No problem with the bias or anything. I appreciate the insights/genuine advice. 

I used to be (and still am to an extent) still under the intense conditioning of "one must go to school." But also had my own journey where I found that standard education can actually hold you back. School isn't always helpful- depends on your teachers/environment/ECT. 

I'm moderate now on school. Either it's a pretty good or bad idea. Think I'm so keen on it because originally I wanted to be a doctor, like you heard. And the only way to become one is going to school. I still worship science feilds over creative unfortunately: falled for the "intellect is the greatest strength of all." 

I've found that a lot too in my research: some of the most successful people just start doing the thing they want. Rather than going to school before they're "good enough." Best wishes on your designer carrer! ? Conciousness work by far had been the greatest help in my art as well. 

I'm an artsty girl myself, I'm covered in picking one up ? ( Though I am bisexual, I'm already with someone, so got that covered) I find it curious most people think I'm a guy over the 'nets ?. Wonder what in my tone suggests that. Also am moved out of my parents house (Kinda have been since 13/14 to be honest) but am a broke 20 something. The bus is cheaper than insurance/gas for now ?. 

Suppose having high quality company is a bit harder to find. Suppose I'll still try my Facebook groups and see if those produce anything. (Stuff like hiking, plant enthusiasts, ECT. Shared interests are a good foundation)  

Thank you for all your advice again! ? I'm naive in the sense I think more of peoples good traits than there are. Need to get out of my bubble and remember not everyone does conciousness work. Not seeing my introversion as a whole a flaw is a good step. But recognize when it's holding me back. 

Overall, think I'm lacking a sense of community, and that's a main driving factor to go to school. 

 I could get behind an art school like you have in mind. Like I sad, no need for apologies about the rant ?. I appreciated the honesty in them and they do give me stuff to mull over!

[Hello from Russia]

@CoruptKirin 

Doctor chicks are hot too  . I am glad my rant helped you. Didn't realize you're a girl, wow. Then you'll just have a lot of desperate chicks in this art school who can't find a boyfriend and most men here will most likely be gay or too feminine. So, it is even less worth it for you as a girl, haha . But yeah, there seems to be the tendency that you have more girls than boys in art schools.

Regarding your science and intellect statement. I wouldn't call art an unintellectual activity. In my eyes, it is as intellectual as it can get. That is why they call the artworks an "Intellectual property" and there is a whole legal industry of protecting "copyrighting rights" . All art is highly intellectual activity independent of the medium. I also consider doing science as an art. But then, there is a lot of dogmatism scientists, who are shitty artists, they don't produce much meaningful stuff. And just reading sciency books and repeating them over and over again is nor artsy nor that much intellectual, in my opinion. The same actually applies to what we call creative fields as well. If you're just creating the same stuff over and over repeating after other people, it's not that cool. The point is to make something new and better, that is what will give you satisfaction and other rewards

[Hello from Russia]

9 minutes ago, datamonster said:

If this is what you want to do, why go to college at all?

What you need is a portfolio not a degree.

++++++

[shallotsometimes]

Hello!

There are a lot of online classes you can take while still interacting and getting feedback from an instructor.

Schoolism is a good option if you're interested in animation or more commercial art. It's cheaper if you just buy the videos/subscribe vs participating in a class. They also have a lot of free lessons & talks on YouTube.

I know Art Center is offering classes to people who aren't enrolled or looking for a degree (ACX).  With the COVID restrictions they're all online. Although I'm not sure if you'll have to submit a portfolio for that or if that's only required for the more advanced classes.

If you post your work on instagram I'm sure you could find or form a community of artists who comment on each other's stuff. That will also help keep you motivated and aiming towards improvement. Personally, working in retail helped with my shyness more than going to art school lol, but you will find more inspiring people through school.

Of course I would also recommend getting books on the topics you're interested in. This book is great for anatomy. Look around for some on perspective, storytelling, color theory, etc!

Hope this helps!

 

[alexsandro22]

That's really sad but if you have enough knowledges in art you can try yourself anywhere. For example designer for pc users - you can make wallpapers, posters; banners etc. There are a lot of job that need people like you bro

[waking_dreams]

@CoruptKirin I have a couple great resource for you!
This is The Draftsmen Podcast made by 2 experienced art educators, and much of their 2nd season has been dedicated to the topic of how to reproduce art education for yourself!

In their art education episodes, they cover what you need to reproduce in case you aren't going to art school or what to do to get the most out of it in case you are going. 
They did an episode for each of the big important benefits of art school including Knowledge, Structure, Mentorship, Community, and Workspace & Equipment.
The Draftsmen are Marshall Vandruff and Stan Prokopenko, and while they're primarily focused on picture-making types of art like illustration, animation, portraiture, etc, the principles they discuss apply to other forms of art too. Even though I'm not a picture-maker, their content is so good that it transformed how I pursue my life purpose of helping people raise their consciousness by experiencing my large scale 3-dimensional works of public art installations and sculpture. 

There's another powerful resource to mention as well. Marshall Vandruff has a lecture on his website called "How To Design Your Art Career With A Whiteboard". It's a spiral dynamics stage yellow approach to plot a course for your creative career, one that balances making money with staying true to yourself creatively. The first 18min of the lecture are free and the rest only costs $4, which is a steal for the value. 
Here's the first 18 minutes of it:

And the rest of it can be bought for $4 here:
https://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-products/all-videos/how-to-design-your-career-with-a-whiteboard/

I hope you find these resources as helpful as I did!

[waking_dreams]

@modmyth you reminded me of another great resource, Radiorunner's Curriculum for the 'Solo Artist' - The one-stop-shop for structuring your self-taught art journey. It contains some of the resources you mentioned above. 

I've attached the curriculum as an image to this post, and in case it compresses to become unreadable, here's the link to it on imgur as well:
https://imgur.com/gallery/RXJ2nmH

[Leo Gura]

@CoruptKirin Dude, you can learn all that stuff yourself. Tutorials for every technical field are all over the web.

Animation and illustration are the kind of things best taught to yourself through massive practice.

Have you not heard of stuff like:

https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com

https://www.lynda.com

[Dingo]

Just adding another non-school source for learning...

https://www.skillshare.com/

You might be able to find some youtuber's referral link for first-month free... 
This channel in my opinion combines very well animation with education: https://kurzgesagt.org/ (they have a skillshare course of their own)

 

[diamondpenguin]

On 8/17/2020 at 4:13 AM, CoruptKirin said:

@Mada_

Thank you for your part! I've been doing the YouTube/learning by books. I'm unsure what Udemy is. I'll give it a Google search afterwards ?. 

I'm unsure how to get an apprenticeship. ? If you know any way, please lemme know! Otherwise I'll find a way through some Google research! 

@smurf88 

Thank you! I'll check it out tomorrow! 

@Hello from Russia

Thank you for your continued insights on my situation! ? I think you're very right on that. I'm still looking to harness the basics (Though I've been drawing for almost 10 years, it's only in the last 3 that I've gotten serious at it)

If the teachers were good in their field, they wouldn't be teachers ?

Think I have issues with assumed inadequacy and fear of being in my own echo chamber of art. I tend to think I'm "far behind my peers" And that if I don't get others feedback on my work, then I may stagnate. 

A part of why I wanted to go to college is also to get better at socializing. I'm a... cripplingly reserved/shy person. And gets in the way of many great opportunities. ? Comes as no shock that this is rooted in low self esteem.

Never did anything...well fun in my teens. Like, at all. And I wanna learn how to do that with others. I've been trying to find others to connect with. But with the pandemic and not having a car, I'm finding it difficult.

Don't stress too much man. Just take it one day at time. Work on your art each day and things will start to add up. Its inevitable. You got this, put yourself out there my brother. 

[Eoin]

Courses in Learn Squared help a lot. 

https://www.learnsquared.com/