Art that people rave about that's actually shit.

[Miss Caphat]

I have to agree and I was willing to accept his premise. Art school certainly isn't for everyone. Anyone who want to paint in realist styles shouldn't bother with more than the foundation courses. Instead they should take courses from artists they respect and just work, work, work.

I think that's true in some ways but not in others. Teachers at art schools don't do much in the way of teaching technique anymore...as in, "this is how you do scenery..." (a la Bob Ross - that sort of direct style: copy what I do) but they do give you the tools you need to find your own style and improve your technique from teaching you how to work with the materials, how to create a great composition, how to look at your own work critically, and so on.
I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing.
If you want to learn how to paint in a very specific style, and you're not really interested in anything else, perhaps finding a mentor is the way to go instead of going through art school.

 

[moon]

I like drawing when I have a burning desire to get something out of me, a visual etc etc.
But I do not like just drawing 'stuff' because it is there and you have to practice.
I guess I need to be more disciplined and hopefully I will be... in time

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i can't speak for fine art but certainly as far as my course is concerned they teach us a whole *load* of stuff about professional practice, alongside really challenging theoretical work (which definitely applies to fine art) as well. i really do wonder how many people who have an opinion on the usefulness or otherwise of art school actually have any first-hand experience to draw on (lol).

I went to art school and managed to make a profit doing art. My art school didn't really teach much about professional practice. We got virtually nothing about working with a gallery or even putting together a professional level portfolio. I only learned that by going out and doing it and sometimes doing it wrong. We also only got a foundation in technique. It was really heavy on theory and that's good if you're going to go and try to do "high art". Perhaps I just went to a crappy art school (entirely possible), but I walked away a little bit damaged by the experience.

 

[wayward bob]

I went to art school and managed to make a profit doing art. My art school didn't really teach much about professional practice. We got virtually nothing about working with a gallery or even putting together a professional level portfolio. I only learned that by going out and doing it and sometimes doing it wrong. Perhaps I just went to a crappy art school, but I walked away a little bit damaged by the experience.

sorry to hear that yw, can i ask how long ago this was? professional context and practice is something they've been driving into us from the very start of my degree (even on the not-so-shit-hot-course)

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

sorry to hear that yw, can i ask how long ago this was? professional context and practice is something they've been driving into us from the very start of my degree (even on the not-so-shit-hot-course)

Ok, showing my age here, but it was the early to mid-80s.

 

[wayward bob]

Ok, showing my age here, but it was the early to mid-80s.

i'm the last person to defend tuition fees but ime the expectations of kids who are signing up for a lifetime's debt are quite stringent in terms of what they're getting out of a course.

(i think you're us? so the fee thing may not hold for your experience tbf... )

 

[Miss Caphat]

I've just signed up for a new online class on drawing faces from different angles and expressions.. hoping it will be fun and informative.. but someone told me that going to life drawing classes was one of the best ways to accelerate learning etc..

I cannot agree with this more! Life drawing is so very helpful. You want to start out with a good instructor who will teach you the basics, and then after a while you can just start going to the ones where there is no real "instructor" and you just work on your own objectives.
I need to start going to life drawing sessions again, after I move. I like to go with watercolors and ink & stuff. More fun that way

 

[wayward bob]

I cannot agree with this more! Life drawing is so very helpful.

i have a tutor who's always pushing me to draw she's fab and all but i see it as my mission this year to produce some awesome finished work without a single drawing in sight

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i'm the last person to defend tuition fees but ime the expectations of kids who are signing up for a lifetime's debt are quite stringent in terms of what they're getting out of a course.

(i think you're us? so the fee thing may not hold for your experience tbf... )

I was a scholarship student at a mid-western land-grant school so my choices were pretty much "take it or leave it." Someone who went to the Art Institute of Chicago would probably have an entirely different opinion.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i have a tutor who's always pushing me to draw she's fab and all but i see it as my mission this year to produce some awesome finished work without a single drawing in sight

That's great, wayward bob!

 

[Miss Caphat]

I was a scholarship student at a mid-western land-grant school so my choices were pretty much take it or leave it. Someone who went to the Art Institute of Chicago would probably have an entirely different opinion.

from what I know art schools here are becoming more focused on all of that which wayward bob mentioned. I know a 19 yr old who is going to the same art school that I went to, and they seem much more results driven. Along with the new regulations coming from outside, I think this also may have to do with most art schools having graphic design departments which are far more business-focused, and it's bled into the other departments as well. Just my theory, though.

 

[wayward bob]

tbf my current plan is to make a machine that will draw for me

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

from what I know art schools here are becoming more focused on all of that which wayward bob mentioned. I know a 19 yr old who is going to the same art school that I went to, and they seem much more results driven. Along with the new regulations coming from outside, I think this also may have to do with most art schools having graphic design departments which are far more business-focused, and it's bled into the other departments as well. Just my theory, though.

That sounds promising.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

tbf my current plan is to make a machine that will draw for me

 

[wayward bob]

yup, like that, but with crystal balls :thumbs :

 

[moon]

tbf my current plan is to make a machine that will draw for me

you may want to look at plotters that can capture a scene then draw it... my silhouette cameo can do this..
Also the robot artist Paul seems to do this too

 

[wayward bob]

heh but not quite what i'm after. my plan is basically a completely analogue "laser cutter" (in effect it will only etch not cut cos i live in wales not egypt ) no motors or anything, possibly clockwork...

 

[Miss Caphat]

tbf my current plan is to make a machine that will draw for me

fwiw, bob, I hope you don't mind me saying so publicly, I really like your drawings...I know it's the actual process you don't like, but still, they have stuck in my mind.

 

[wayward bob]

I hope you don't mind me saying so publicly, I really like your drawings...

i hate you saying it ta

 

[Miss Caphat]

i hate you saying it ta

well, you never know!

 

[Miss Caphat]

I love that Urban's become so arty lately


maybe it's that we're all getting older so seeking out safer, less energy expending pursuits than drugs, raving, etc.

 

[wayward bob]

i do think it's a kind of initiation rite - the whole mark-making/life drawing thing - i can see why, but at the same time i can see equally good reasons why not. my experience with all of this stuff is that talking the talk really does matter, because if you can do that - and by that i literally just mean explain yourself genuinely, rather than making excuses - then they let you do whatever the hell you want. ime, at least :thumbs :

 

[moon]

I love that Urban's become so arty lately


maybe it's that we're all getting older so seeking out safer, less energy expending pursuits than drugs, raving, etc.

Yes, I got fed up of being out all night doing visuals at clubs and needed another creative outlet...

 

[Miss Caphat]

i do think it's a kind of initiation rite - the whole mark-making/life drawing thing - i can see why, but at the same time i can see equally good reasons why not. my experience with all of this stuff is that talking the talk really does matter, because if you can do that - and by that i literally just mean explain yourself genuinely, rather than making excuses - then they let you do whatever the hell you want. ime, at least :thumbs :

I gotta get off this thread and back to work, really but in hindsight, I have to say that was the most valuable part of art school and design school. Learning how to talk about your work means learning how to analyze it and to see it from outside of your own experience with it. It teaches you not just to see it in terms of your own experience, but that of others as well.
It teaches how to analyze your own processes and your own shortcomings and strengths.

I think this, perhaps more than anything, prepares one for a career in art, or in many other professional areas. Being able to assess your own work and see the value of it is a really, really valuable skill.

 

[chilango]

I gotta get off this thread and back to work, really but in hindsight, I have to say that was the most valuable part of art school and design school. Learning how to talk about your work means learning how to analyze it and to see it from outside of your own experience with it. It teaches you not just to see it in terms of your own experience, but that of others as well.
It teaches how to analyze your own processes and your own shortcomings and strengths.

I think this, perhaps more than anything, prepares one for a career in art, or in many other professional areas. Being able to assess your own work and see the value of it is a really, really valuable skill.

Yes.

 

[Miss Caphat]

Yes.

Well, that's what they told me to say, anyway.

(just kidding!)

 

[chilango]

Hmmmm? Well?

On the off chance anyone didn't know .... This artist was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.

 

[cesare]

I wonder whether people separate Roger Dean's art from their view of the music he designed the cover art for. Same with the gaming art work as well I guess.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

Hmmmm? Well?

Possibly because the Turner prize judges are looking at modern art as purely and exclusively conceptual....as in conceptualism.

Here's some more excellent digital art ..

not sure what my own artwork has to do with anything. my own artwork is rarely conceptual. doesn't mean I can't appreciate many different forms of art.

Was just interested in your art.

also, it might very well have been because there would be no one there to instruct them (the students using programming to produce art)...you can't really accept students to a program which doesn't exist.

No...it boiled down to a lack of joined up thinking...and a lack of cooperation between departments....and an over competitiveness between departments...and there was an element of "fashion a step above graphics"..
Thevgraphics dept had a programming option, staff...etc.
It probably doesn't matter now.....I used it as an example of how things can go one way or the other depending on the attitudes of those in charge.

 

[chilango]

Possibly because the Turner prize judges are looking at modern art as purely and exclusively conceptual....as in conceptualism.

It made the shortlist.

As for digital stuff, it's a medium rather than a genre.