Do you go to an Atelier, an Art School or get any offline instruction at all? Share your stories, anxieties and questions here (instead of making several flippant individual threads that will die within a few days as usual)
Just visited the one local atelier today. The building it was in was a dump but the section dedicated to the Atelier itself was well kept. I was surprised with the youth of the students; I'd expected there to be a lot of old people but it looked to be predominantly normal looking people in their mid-20s so I didn't really feel out of place in that way. I'm looking forward to attending but I'm pretty intimidated by how much better the students there appeared to be than I am.
do these ever have weekend classes?
>>2410704
Yeah, one of their biggest strengths is the "pay as you go" billing and the versatile scheduling. Not to mention they're relatively inexpensive vs. a college, though that doesn't make them cheap by any means either.
>>2410726
any you can recommedn in the socal area? or can you point me in the right direction where i can look it up?
>>2410843
What I did was opened maps.google.com and typed in "atelier" and was surprised to find one about 20 minutes away. Hopefully you have the same success. You could also try searching for "atelier + 'your current city/town'" in google and seeing if anything comes up. Not all "Atelier-style" schools are called by that word though, so try "art class" or "art school" as well and see if any come up that pique your interest.
>>2410858
haha cool thanks. for some erason i thought there would be some ranking directory but this works just as well. thanks again!
>>2410660
>in the in real life
I was thinking about going to an art atelier in london that does classical sculpture.
It looks like they just get students to copy greek castes.
It looks interesting, but it is only 3 hours a week. I guess I could practice at home after the lesson.
>>2410880
That's the joke family man
>>2410883
Yeah, the way the atelier I'm going to be attending does it is basically you pay like $250 for 15 weeks of a specific course, sessions of which are a few hours each (so like $17 a session). You can attend full-time but it becomes closer in cost to a college course at that point, currently it's $7500 for a year, but I believe you get your own little space and you can basically work out of there morning, noon and night and attend any lectures and studies if you so choose, in contrast to a college where you're a bit more limited depending on your chosen major or whatever.
>>2410660
>stories
I went to an Art School offering Bachelor's Degrees in Fine Arts, Design, and some other things. It was about $17000 total for 4 years, not including supplies. Now it would probably be about $21000. I went in wanting to get a Design degree with a Character Design specialization, but I lost interest in video games one year in and switched to Commercial Illustration.
The first year featured a mix of Design and Fine Arts classes. The design classes taught fundamentals, while the fine arts classes taught nothing. Design specialization in 2nd year required an entry portfolio and only accepted 1/3 of applicants, Fine Arts specialization required nothing (haha, see what I'm gettin at here?)
Second year Design taught us more fundamentals: anatomy, typography, logo design, page layout, perspective, craft, use of tools. They really loaded us with projects, I remember staying up 67 hours straight to finish a cluster of projects due at the same time. The grading criteria were harsh, based on professional standards. If you were 30 mins late, you got an auto F on the project.
Third and Fourth year, you split into specializations. All projects were based on realistic illustration briefs. For some reason, I improved immensely in Third year. I honestly don't think I would have stuck with it studying on my own, and I had no idea how bad I was before going to school (I would have assumed I was already at a professional level).
However, despite being in the top third of my class, my portfolio was still not professional level at graduation. 5 years on, and I've made back my tuition in art jobs (so I'd say it's been worth it... barely), but I'd say 90% of the illustration graduates are not working in their field.
>>2410946
contd.
One problem with a degree granting insititution, is that you'll have to do a set amount of liberal arts study, (Art history, humanities, anthropology, semiotics, etc...) 90% of which was total bullshit taught by retards. Easy A grades, but a waste of time. I would have liked to have replaced those with business and marketing classes, which were not available at all, but would make all the difference, I think.
I love by an atelier and it looks kind of neat. They do figure drawing sessions 5 times a week for 10 bucks. Though, I feel like I'm not ready to join these guys. I'll have to finish up Hampton before I even try
>>2411156
Don't they do instructed drawing too? I'm taking a basic drawing course just to patch up my weaknesses before I do life drawing and shit. I know if I'd jump into that right away I'd almost certainly look like a retard.
>>2411169
Actually, I'm not sure. Luckily, I love in a city full of Atelier. Bad thing is, some of them are shitty cause of this case.
However, I did finish up Proko's fundamental figure drawing, but I can't but feel like I'm missing some steps. Perhaps I'm over thinking it, but Hampton is helping me a lot on my studies.
>>2411402
Autocorrect?
>>2410947
I agree, that's the worst part. You actually have to pay for that worthless garbage and it's honestly borderline criminal. Ateliers and courses like them are among the only "ethical" ways to teach art for that reason, really. If a student is guaranteed $20,000+ debt whether they succeed or fail that's simply not right. An Atelier at the very least gives a student who falls the chance to pick themselves up
I'm planning to go to LAAFA. It's not as expensive as CalArts, not as hyped, but it seems that it got all the fundamentals down and they're starting to gear up for the techie side as well.
We all gotta be careful with art schools/ateliers nowadays.
http://petapixel.com/2011/09/02/us-gov-sues-the-art-institutes-for-11-billion-fraud/
>>2411598
http://laafa.org/degree-atelier-programs/tuition-financing/
>Per Year – $22,000
Ouch, son. It looks like a decent school but I don't know, man. I can go full time at an atelier for less than $8k a year. Do you have a scholarship opportunity by any chance?
>>2411558
Yeah, I regret it because the degree itself is not what's valuable. If I had a choice, I would have just taken all the classes I wanted and simply not 'graduate'/receive my degree, but you need the humanities credits to proceed to 2nd year, 3rd year, etc..
The only problem with an atelier is that it teaches only technical skills. Our illustration classes were good because they taught us how to work within a brief, solve specific illustration problems, play with concepts, work back and forth with art directors, and to use the design process to develop a project from research, to roughs, to execution.
Also, I'm pretty sure you won't learn graphic design and typography at an atelier, graphic design is super important for illustration I think.
One thing I'm worried about is materials. Art paper is so fucking retarded expensive it's not even funny. For example, if I get a 100 sheet pad of paper at 12 x 18 or something like that it's over $10, but I can get a 500 sheet ream of similar paper off of Blick.com for a couple bucks less (and I mean less total, not less per sheet or whatever!). All that's missing is a way to stabilize it. The only thing separating this ream from a pad is some glue and a piece of cardboard, I don't feel like the price should be over 5 x more because of that alone. I could see 2 or even 3 times more, honestly, but 5 times? God damn, son. Does anyone have any tips for holding big ass loose sheets of paper in place for drawing without looking like a huge retard?
>>2412075
I mean, is a clipboard sufficient? Could I hypothetically clip multiple sheets at a time to get that soft feeling that you get with a pad or no?
Doing classical and computer animation in BCFE
Honestly amazing.
3D classes about 6 hours on Monday learning how to make anything in Maya and animate it
2D animation on Tuesday for 6 hour doing lots of assignments to teach us the classical approach to amazing animation
Wednesday 7 hours of Figure drawing with an amazing teacher that hands out notes and gives amazing advice every week
Thursday scriptwriting class learning to write scripts and develope stories for animation. Later on perspective and storyboard class teaching good like quality, perspective and composition
Friday is Visual communications learning about appeal and illustration style works later on watch films and discuss their appeal
It's very competitive and they are harsh with their grading. Also everyone in the course is really good no exaggeration, no one bad could last whatsoever
>>2412161
That sounds cool anon, good luck!
>>2412161
>It's very competitive and they are harsh with their grading. Also everyone in the course is really good no exaggeration, no one bad could last whatsoever
Kind of reminds me of those animation classes I took up. I remember towards the later end of my classes, we'd get so many students sign up but soon drop out simply because they underestimated the work load. It was interesting to see teachers from the beginning of my animation course, who I felt gave too much mercy, go all out and straight up till you how much you suck towards the final courses. I kind of wondered how students took that when they were under a lot of stress. I guess that's why our classes would see a drop from 20 to about 7 students half way in.
>>2412250
This is true, a lot of people underestimate the workload and think that they can just wing it. Most of the people in my year dropped out, but even by the time of our thesis presentation there were still a bunch of fucktards who thought that they could bull their way into a passing grade. They obviously failed, I had the most satisfied smile when I learned that the panel of judges wrecked their shitty piece.
No matter which course or school you pick if you think that it's just gonna be easy shit be ready for a world of pain.
>>2412161
tfw this is all I want, but I have no option so fine arts it is.
>>2413580
I hope by 'fine art' you don't mean that you're going to a conceptual art school or something
>>2413777
>remembers art centre's "art" course
>retarded art installations everywhere
I shudder at the thought of the dumbasses who takes that course or any basic ass course you can learn online.
I've seen plenty of people drowning in debt due to art schools' bs courses.
>been drawing for a year by now
>going to my first ever life drawing class (hopefully itll be at leats half legit since its organised by an art school)
wish me luck anons!
I just found out a local museum of classic art reproductions has really cheap drawing classes and they offer an intensive course during the summer. Would signing up and going there to draw ancient greek statue reproductions over and over a good way to learn to draw? The instructors apparently have been teaching there since time immemorial and they also have some model sessions.
>>2410858
Nothing around for 500 km
Thanks Europe
Fuck, I hate living in the southern US. The closest atelier is 5 hours away. Better than >>2414214 at least.
I don't think I'd do good in an atelier anyway. Having to draw cones and spend 30 hours on a bargue plate sounds intimidating.
>>2410660
I go to school for something unrelated, but I noticed my campus has a digital art club. Are art clubs cool? I've never even been in a club before.
>>2414256
>Are art clubs cool? I've never even been in a club before.
I can't imagine that it doesn't depend on the people. If you have major social anxiety it might be something to avoid but other than that it couldn't hurt to try for fug's sake.
>>2414214
>>2414251
Damn, I feel lucky having an atelier 20 minutes away holy shit. Make sure to look up "art class", "lifedrawing", "art studio" or things like that though, too. Atelier may be the formal term-but not every Atelier is called by that name. if that makes sense. For example the "Silver Drawing Academy" comes to mind.
>>2414927
There's nothing here at all, I made sure. Just some awful 1 hour "courses" where amateurs tell you to paint flowers or some abstract shit.
About Europe being the art center of the world and all, don't believe it. I don't know how it's in France for example, but Germany sucks art wise. Everyone hates art and wants to be a Engineer.
>>2415050
>Germany sucks art wise. Everyone hates art and wants to be a Engineer.
not my experience so far, where do you live?
>>2415087
where do YOU live? Do you have good ateliers, art schools and courses there? That is hard to believe.
>>2415151
Köln. And yes, i think it's quite decent.
First day at the Atelier tomorrow morning
Basic drawing - busts and statues in charcoal I believe; jumping in on week 5 of 15. A couple sessions in and I guess I'll decide if I want to attend other classes as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIbZ7dE0tD0
I attend an Art high school in Slovakia.
>Our school system is basically 9 years of "elementary" followed by 4 years of "high school" which can be specialised, that includes art. Then you can sign up for a college.
I don't know what exactly I expected, but I was worried before I got accepted, about not being good enough than anyone else and so on.
I found out that it's full of people who don't really care about art or drawing. There's some people who put care and thought into art but it's a minority, probably like 1-2 per a class (~20)
Worse thing is that there's a lot of people ambitions about drawing, but I feel like they genuinely think they can get better just by attending, one girl asked this my figural drawing teacher:
>Where did I lag behind everyone so much, I attended almost every class
Perhaps I shouldn't blame them, it's a graphic design school after all. Maybe they think they can make it by doing flat design logos or something. At least I found a really good before mentioned figural drawing teacher. He's really nice and always happy to help. I asked him to give me extra assignments, since we only have one 3 hours class per week.
pic related, it's some of his stuff I found online. Couldn't find the really good stuff he showed us in class.
>>2415829
>I asked him to give me extra assignments, since we only have one 3 hours class per week.
Good mentality
>>2415700
We're doing sight-size. I'm used to hours hunched over my flat tablet or paper - drawing on a vertical surface and sizing things up from 10-15 feet away is very different and very difficult for me. I've very little control over my lines at all using this method and I'm drawing both worse and way slower than usual as a result. I need to rig up something at home to practice this method somehow. The fact that it took me 2 hours to even come close to depicting the contours of a grecian statue's gooch with any degree of accuracy is pretty frustrating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuuWozX8P5o
>>2415829
ta zadni ruka je na bliti
I go to open figure drawing sessions at the local college. It's usually dirt cheap, like $5. Sometimes they have pizza which is nice.
>>2419609
>free pizza
That is nice. Wtf, I'll have to look into that. I assume it's uninstructed?
>>2419610
well it's not free technically cause of the door fee. it's uninstructed, just a model comes in and poses for various lengths of time. even if you're not a student, it's great to meet other artists at these things too.
>>2419613
Wow what a steal. You get to draw and bs with other artists for $5 that are probably paying tens of thousands of dollars to do the same thing; that's insane. I wandered into a life drawing session at the atelier and I was kind of hushed out by a guy whom I assume was the instructor. I felt like the guy was being a bit of a dick but I was interrupting his drawing to force him to "escort me out" (whether that was necessary or not for fug's sake) so it's understandable I guess.
Last year I signed up for a class at an art gallery and wound up getting a membership that gives me discounts for anything I do there. Every season they have a couple different classes along with figure drawing sessions. I really liked the latter, it was around $10 to spend three hours drawing a model at night. There weren't many people attending either, I want to say around six or seven max but there was a great amount of skill level. Everyone there understood how important figure drawing is.
I haven't been able to go recently because of car issues and it kind of sucks because this is the only place I live near that has open figure drawing classes. It's a 45 minute drive. There's also an atelier school another town over and their drawing sessions get swamped because of its reputation.
>>2419609
I wish I could do this but I live in butt fuck nowhere.
>>2411612
It's pricey but cheaper than the other schools I've seen so far, and for the classes and instructors? Yeah, it's gonna be worth it. Of course I need to put A LOT of effort to even get my portfolio accepted in the first place but yeah. It's not gonna be an easy ride but I'm gonna do it or die trying.
>>2410660
there's not many good atelier options where i am... im considering travelling somewhere to study art for a couple months...
Budget is key, the cost of education is one thing, but the cost of living is the bigger challenge to sustain longer periods of study.
I'm open to somewhere like Thailand, or Prague because their cost of living is lower, and the cultures would be inspiring.
Does anyone know of any good schools/ateliers in cheaper cities where i could study for a couple months ?
schools i would attend if i had more money.
>Laafa would be amazing. (but too expensive in LA)
>3kicks would be amazing. (but too expensive in LA)
>Schuler school would be okay... (but still USA and expensive compared to other countries)
>repin academy summer school would be amazing. (approx 4k for 1 month.... too expensive)
anyone have any good European or south east Asian ateliers they know of (english speaking) ??
>>2423196
pic of inspiration
>>2423196
>>2423196
>prague
no pls dont its all conceptual ateliers with shit teachers. talking from experience.
if youre interested in learning illustration properly i would recommend considering the illustration atelier in pilsen on FDU ZČU or the illustration atelier in ustí on FUD UJEP (you can google those). pretty open and good teachers in there, lots of free space, tools and ability to develop on your own
>>2423318
the atelier in ustí is actually called Drawing & Painting
>>2423318
>>2423318
cool, Thanks for the reply!
are you Czech? or travelling like i want to do?
i quickly googled all those, and proper universities are not really what im looking for... im not interested in credits.
I want good exposure to art and artists, while having guidance and feedback along the way... all the while in a cheap city (preferably where there are single women and sunny beaches)...
Are there any online schools which give personal feedback to traditional studies?
>>2410660
>was asking my mom for drawing classes all throughout my youth
>all she did was put me "artist" summer camps where they just had you make little doodles for 8 hours
>i search online and there's a youth-only renaissance-style atelier like 20 minutes from my house
fug
>>2423368
yes, im czech, studying in pilsen. had good amounts of exposure to current branches of art scene in czech republic, made contacts, met people. looking for a studio job outside of all this consumershit chaos.
sorry to be intrusive but what is the exposure for? do you want to be a part of the art scene? or do you want a lot of fans to follow you? what do you actually strive to do other than create traditional paintings?
>>2423196
You're not gonna get quality education in shitty countries. I thought that was common sense. If you're just on a tight budget and think 3rd world countries are inspiring, move there and study on your own while freelancing if you can.
>>2423394
cool
i've been to prague... i love the architecture
>exposure
i want to be around painters and culturally rich inexpensive cities... not exposure like online fame or rapport... i just want to take a break from my usual grind and get to study painting for a while somewhere cheap... the bohemian dream...
...a good atelier would be the best, or private instruction.
im most interested in ala prima painting (plein air, portrait, figure)
paris, italy, russia come to mind, but i think they would be expensive, and some language barriers/visas.
ireland, portugal, spain, romania, czech, budapest... thailand, vietnam, cambodia, indonesia... these are all cheaper countries. if there were good schools, it would be a great place to study.
>>2423502
czech has a lot of space for that i guess, but there isnt really any scene thrown towards traditional art
most of the popular illustration artist do tasteless pop art (check out pasta oner) and the digital painting groups are focused towards comicsy tumblry styles (check out DrawEtc.).
literally the best exposure to have amongst other ilustration artist are those two ateliers ive mentioned. otherwise youll get the same amount of exposure anyhwere.
no one here is interested in traditional art to a point where there would be a worthwhile scene.
