Hey ho, peeps.

I was flipping through an old Takuhai (sp?) mag of mine and came across an interview with the creators of A Midnight Opera and amazed by the fact that the guy has no formal art training. Inspirational, because neither do I. I managed to get through one 8-week general art course in junior high, but have either dropped out or failed every class since. ( I guess I'm a rebel. o_o )

Anyways, I guess I'm just curious about everyone's art background and if they think taking art courses and such is really important in the long run. I know it's harder without them, but it surely ain't impossible. ( ain't.. yes, I'm from AR. we use that here! )

Can't wait to get some responses. :)
( didn't see if there was a similar thread. maybe there is. o_O if so.. oops. )

I've taken art classes since I was little, outside of school, and last year I took a studio art course at high school. They put me in studio 1, despite me telling them I had experience, but after a week they bumped me up, and again at the semester, so I was in studio 3 by the end of the year. This year I'm taking double period AP Studio, which I am really excited about :D And I plan to minor in art in college, if all goes well.

Nobody on the internet ever sees my serious work, mostly because I can't scan big things and I don't have any good cameras. I think my DA has one of the pieces that I had in the school arts festival...out of 16.

I've had a fair bit of art training. When I was little I used to take Saturday morning classes, and I've taken about 3 classes in art in high school (I'm planning on taking AP art next year, but you essentially only make a porfolio for an art school). Honestly, I haven't had that much training. I think you can do fine on your own, but you need to have the basics down no matter what.

There haven't really been any art courses around here, nor in the high schools in which I grew up. Sort of sucks, but ey, you live with it. So I've been teaching myself basically, this year I took a few summer courses on comic book illustrating, but since the classes were so short and our project so huge, we probably only had one figure drawing class and the rest was working on our project. Our teacher mainly was there to help us if we didnt know how to position an angle, but yeah, that was pretty much it. I think though, it is extremely possible to get into art and be good without much art training, though then again, like you said, it does help a lot.

Back in High School I took at least one art class every year, but they were never very serious (very little critical advice from the teacher or other students). I did, however, have one year of schooling at Joe Kubert School , which is probably the best thing that's ever happened to me, art-wise.

i trained myself. i never seriously thought of making a career out of it, and i still don't. i don't like people telling me what to create.

Bachelors of Fine Art, probably going for a masters later in life.

Damn I feel old..

No formal training. I am taking a drawing course at the community college at the moment, but I don't know if I consider that "formal". Other than that, up until this point, everything's been self taught.

...Which might explain my lack of "smooooothness" of quality, as of yet.

I took one perceptual drawing class in college to fufill my art requirement. It was just drawing tubes and bottles with conte crayons. Nothing fancy at all. My other art requirement was substituted by music appreciation.
I also took architecture 3 years in high school, but I was lazy after my first year and didnt acomplish much because my teacher just gave me an A for showing up and helping him with paperwork. (I didnt come anywhere near finishing my house design project in that whole time.)

I guess thats about it for any sort of "formal training".

I've taken art classes in school for as long as I can remember, and I'll be going into AP Studio Art 2D this upcoming school year. I've got to learn how to draw "real art", you see, if I want to make it in the comics world. Apparently you can't really draw as a professional unless you can back up your over-simplified style with hundreds of meticulous observational sketches.

~IJ

I was in a high school art class for 2 years, but quit because the teacher would not actually teach... all she would do is thrust us into a project and expect us to do good or get a bad grade.

I'm currently taking art lessons from my friend Tempeste, who was taught all of that type of stuff... and has the memory to be able to teach me that stuff.

In short... I'm taking art lessons from the girl of my dreams >>

i just studied by the books, havent really attended any formal classes or anything (maybe thats why i suck at this stuff ) :roll:

The only art lessons I've went through was during my primany and early secondary school. I learnt mixing colors on the color wheel, drawing cones, cubes, circles, all these basic shapes. Other than that, I was taught more on handycrafts such as origami, pottery, needle works, etc. I never learnt much about how to color, how to do perspectives, how to draw anatomy etc. in my art lessons. So, in other words, I receive no formal art training at all. And I can recall ALL of my artworks during my school days are rated only C to D - simply because I suck at coloring.

All of my drawings are self taught. Anything that I don't know how to draw, I always go figure it out myself through observation.

I'm a bum too, i guess you've either got it or you don't.
I've attempted to put a portfolio of exp together and have a fair few bits now.

Well, I took a one week art course this summer which really helped. Also I bought art books, and I've been practicing in a sketch book. But MAN, Studio Art is High School is POINTLESS and utterly USELESS as far as comics is concerned. In an entire year, we'll spend maybe 3 weeks drawing something, and it's not even a person. It's usually objects. Like bottles or crap like that. The rest of the year is taken up with things like PRINT MAKING. Where the HELL do people still use PRINT MAKING?! I mean, geez, what a load of crap.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so yeah, I'm basically self taught other than a few things here and there. Must be why I suck so much...

Never had any art training just started to draw and experiment, my friends teach me some stuff but I just practice and draw on free time

For the longest time I was self-taught and felt like I was doing okay, but when I got into college I started taking figure drawing classes and I feel like it doubled my skill. I wouldn't trade them for any other class.

ccs1989
Well, I took a one week art course this summer which really helped. Also I bought art books, and I've been practicing in a sketch book. But MAN, Studio Art is High School is POINTLESS and utterly USELESS as far as comics is concerned. In an entire year, we'll spend maybe 3 weeks drawing something, and it's not even a person. It's usually objects. Like bottles or crap like that. The rest of the year is taken up with things like PRINT MAKING. Where the HELL do people still use PRINT MAKING?! I mean, geez, what a load of crap.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so yeah, I'm basically self taught other than a few things here and there. Must be why I suck so much...

Yeah, my art class last year was half Studio 3 kids, half AP kids, and basically we just did still life paintings, and sometimes portraits. For the AP kids, our teacher would ask them about once a month for a portfolio piece. That was the only difference.

I taught myself perspective using my uncle's architectual drawings when I was smaller (that is, I keep on drawing them until I mastered perspective.) and I had one Art Class but had some disagreements with the teacher of how he wanted me to be more like. (he wanted me to be more like some kid that knew how to draw manga and some other stuff; and not the slacker, "I don't want to be the same as you" kinda person. I got a D.)

Oh well.

.: Myxomatosis :.

I've got absolutely none and it shows.

now I just feel old and regret not taking drawing more seriously when I was younger...wishing I'd gone off to a nice art college where I know at least I wouldn't be writing papers about topics I don't care about.

...man this is depressing.

oh, i'm very expierienced...*wink, wink*

I've taken a couple community college art classes, but this particular teacher never really taught anything. Instead she would pretty much let you have free reign over a project and then totally criticize the hell out of it later.

I also went to the Academy of Art University for two semesters but it was aboslutely the WORST THING EVER and I promptly dropped out.

Myxomatosis
I taught myself perspective using my uncle's architectual drawings when I was smaller (that is, I keep on drawing them until I mastered perspective.) and I had one Art Class but had some disagreements with the teacher of how he wanted me to be more like. (he wanted me to be more like some kid that knew how to draw manga and some other stuff; and not the slacker, "I don't want to be the same as you" kinda person. I got a D.)

Oh well.

An...Art teacher wanted you to know how to draw like someone who could draw manga? What? Art teachers aren't supposed to encourage that kind of thing! 'Sides, manga is a style, and most art teachers say you shouldn't develope a style until the basics have been mastered.

Which is something we could all learn from...

Ive always hated formalised art training... I just can't stand it... its so tedious.... I had to do it through junior high for my elective class, and I can tell you it taught me NOTHING. Most classes would be like this, "Class, draw this vase" It didnt matter how good your drawing was either, she only looked for certain things (Shading here and there..) if those things were present you'd get an A..

I have actually been considering taking some art classes lately to focus on the areas I most need it... Drawing scenery with equal quality to the characters, and correct perspective mainly.

I think I just don't like being told to do something I know how to do already, only in a different more tedious way. For instance starting with a circle/square/triangle/whatever and add 1 thing at a time till I get the picture I wanted to draw...

Anatak
Ive always hated formalised art training... I just can't stand it... its so tedious.... I had to do it through junior high for my elective class, and I can tell you it taught me NOTHING. Most classes would be like this, "Class, draw this vase" It didnt matter how good your drawing was either, she only looked for certain things (Shading here and there..) if those things were present you'd get an A..

I have actually been considering taking some art classes lately to focus on the areas I most need it... Drawing scenery with equal quality to the characters, and correct perspective mainly.

I think I just don't like being told to do something I know how to do already, only in a different more tedious way. For instance starting with a circle/square/triangle/whatever and add 1 thing at a time till I get the picture I wanted to draw...

Pretty much any course you'll ever take on pretty much anything will have a grading criteria. I don't think you can avoid that.

From the standpoint of someone who's been through an college art program, I think people that haven't committed to the process just don't understand how the whole thing works. It's not a cherry-picking "I want to learn how to do THIS" sort of deal; you have to learn how to do everything leading up to point X, and hopefully somewhere along the line pick up the ambition to realize how much further than X you really want to go.

If you can't draw a vase or a box or a circle you honestly aren't ready to understand spatial relationships in a way that will make a convincing comic. I blame those ridiculous "Drawing Manga" books that try to make people think you can go from stick figures to SUPER-PRO just like that.

I gotta agree with radarig on that. Knowing how to draw should be a basis for a comic, not the comic being the basis for drawing. It's having to learn how to do things like printmaking that annoys me.

I think some of the best artists are self taught. writing an essay about old painters is pointless to me. And i hate those art pieces with just a square, doodling, and abstract. its crap to me, i dont get why they are being bought by museums.

Honours BA with a double major of English and visual studies (studio art.) It's more theory then technical though and while my professors have in the past gave technical lessons, the stress has been more on ideas, execution, and problem solving with the goal of preparing potential fine artists. (Which is an important thing to remember. They weren't training me to be a cartoonist, a graphic artist, or an architect but an artist, the kind that exhibits in galleries and such.)

I loved the four years I spent in my major. I think it really pushed me as an artist and it broaden my horizon and how I viewed things. My only regret was not taking more classes.

It really depends on what kind of formal training you're talking about and what you're planning to do in the long run but it's not impossible without them. I think it's a great idea if you're planning to be an artist but one new prof that was teaching in my program never had formal art training either so the possibilities are there. (And I think it's a requirement at my school that any visual studies prof have to have been at some point a practicing artist with exhibitions under their belt.)

Bottomline is that if you're planning to be an artist, you should know the basics and know your field. Whether you go about it with formal training or not is up to you but it's probably easier to take formal classes at some point.

I think some of the best artists are self taught. writing an essay about old painters is pointless to me. And i hate those art pieces with just a square, doodling, and abstract. its crap to me, i dont get why they are being bought by museums.

Modern art are usually more heavily context based but once you understand the context, they're actually really fun to look at.

My favourite artist is Marcel DuChamp and he invented the readymades, which were basically everyday objects chosen by the artist as art. So he had things like a bicycle wheel bolted to a stool, a snow shovel, a hat rack, etc. Most people I know dislike the readymades and think the only reason why DuChamp did them was because he had no skills (which ignores all the paintings he did prior to the readymades.)

Recent research however have suggested that DuChamp wasn't being completely truthful about his readymades. He may not have actually gone to a store and randomly picked mass manufactured objects to be art pieces. He may have made the objects and then pretended they were everyday objects that he just happened to have chosen as art. Which isn't that unusual since some of his past works have hinted at him being very good at forgery.

.: Black Kitty :.

Black Kitty
My favourite artist is Marcel DuChamp and he invented the readymades, which were basically everyday objects chosen by the artist as art. So he had things like a bicycle wheel bolted to a stool, a snow shovel, a hat rack, etc. Most people I know dislike the readymades and think the only reason why DuChamp did them was because he had no skills (which ignores all the paintings he did prior to the readymades.)

Recent research however have suggested that DuChamp wasn't being completely truthful about his readymades. He may not have actually gone to a store and randomly picked mass manufactured objects to be art pieces. He may have made the objects and then pretended they were everyday objects that he just happened to have chosen as art. Which isn't that unusual since some of his past works have hinted at him being very good at forgery.

Sounds like the kinda guy who would do well on Art21. Still, exhibition art isn't my thing.

I've had to teach myself.
I've been drawing comics for a long time now, ever since I was 8.
it all started with Kirby...
But I stopped for a few years, and only took it back up three years ago in my sophomore year of high school, when I first came up with my characters for Radec and Jon, who have evolved beyond all recognition or thier prior selves.(I felt that I need my own characters, not just ones I've collected from videogames and such, although Radec is a name I stole from a game I liked :smt110)
I took some classes in art in High school, but they've all been a load of bunk about painting and printmaking and such, and I've never been any good at those.
Alot of my progression has been experimentation with different styles, proportions, etc.
I have had a few books that help teach a person how to draw, but I never really read them. I've always felt that art isn't something that can be learned through a book, that technique and skill have to be developed over time, and not merely photo-copies of better artists.
Of course, whenever I found an artist who was truly good, I would take the opportunity to ask them a few questions of my own. :-D

(I can most definitely say, though, that the biggest influence on my work has been my friends. I loved the expressions they would get when they hit the punchlines, so I always tried a little harder to make it seem just that much better.)