07-10-2015, 08:05 AM
Like Zearthus, I'd suggest you look into ateliers. Art Renewal Centre has a list of quality ateliers to check out.
So maybe what I've done might give you some inspiration or ideas on what to do... I did the whole self teaching thing for about a year along side some freelancing. I've improved a ton but when being realistic, if I kept working really hard, I'd maybe be able to work full-time in a year or so. That would mean getting scrappy jobs and struggling to pay rend and stuff the first few years. Not the most appealing thing in the world. I started having doubts like you.
I started then to look into ateliers and what options I had available. It became clear that studying at a good atelier is both a big investment of time and money but also has an enormus payoff if you work hard. I personally saw ateliers as the most ideal place to study. I looked at what ateliers there where and I decided that I might as well apply to the best one I could find. To my surprise I was accepted into The Florence Academy of Art, I'm starting there in September (and I couldn't be happier). I got to visit the atelier and talk to teachers and students, it's clear that it's an optimal place for learning art.
Often what you hear from professionals is "Go to an atelier if you can, otherwise self teach". This doesn't necessarily mean one is better than the other, however one has a higher success rate.
- Now to answer a few of those questions. I realised that self teaching was a thing when I learned about Rapoza. I self taught throughout highschool and have now done a year of full-time self teaching. One of the most difficult things about self teaching is that you need to learn how to take it seriously. Just working hard isn't enough. You need to be structured and go "okay, this week I'm doing anatomy" and then you need to take it upon yourself of finding appropriate resources and actually learn. It sounds obvious but it's difficult to have the right approach to be efficient.
- Getting commission worthy is a tricky thing to answer. You can get crappy 20 dollar commissions early but it took me a fair amount of time before I could bring a job worth at least 300 dollars.
- I don't think I have any regrets so far. My year of full-time self teaching was valuable but going to an atelier feels like the right thing to do.
- My social life is trashed from self teaching. It's really hard have a social life when you self teach because all your free time eventually becomes "potential study time".
So maybe what I've done might give you some inspiration or ideas on what to do... I did the whole self teaching thing for about a year along side some freelancing. I've improved a ton but when being realistic, if I kept working really hard, I'd maybe be able to work full-time in a year or so. That would mean getting scrappy jobs and struggling to pay rend and stuff the first few years. Not the most appealing thing in the world. I started having doubts like you.
I started then to look into ateliers and what options I had available. It became clear that studying at a good atelier is both a big investment of time and money but also has an enormus payoff if you work hard. I personally saw ateliers as the most ideal place to study. I looked at what ateliers there where and I decided that I might as well apply to the best one I could find. To my surprise I was accepted into The Florence Academy of Art, I'm starting there in September (and I couldn't be happier). I got to visit the atelier and talk to teachers and students, it's clear that it's an optimal place for learning art.
Often what you hear from professionals is "Go to an atelier if you can, otherwise self teach". This doesn't necessarily mean one is better than the other, however one has a higher success rate.
- Now to answer a few of those questions. I realised that self teaching was a thing when I learned about Rapoza. I self taught throughout highschool and have now done a year of full-time self teaching. One of the most difficult things about self teaching is that you need to learn how to take it seriously. Just working hard isn't enough. You need to be structured and go "okay, this week I'm doing anatomy" and then you need to take it upon yourself of finding appropriate resources and actually learn. It sounds obvious but it's difficult to have the right approach to be efficient.
- Getting commission worthy is a tricky thing to answer. You can get crappy 20 dollar commissions early but it took me a fair amount of time before I could bring a job worth at least 300 dollars.
- I don't think I have any regrets so far. My year of full-time self teaching was valuable but going to an atelier feels like the right thing to do.
- My social life is trashed from self teaching. It's really hard have a social life when you self teach because all your free time eventually becomes "potential study time".
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