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Hi,
I live in Canada and am currently in high school. I've been looking for art schools with programs that can help me to become a better concept artist & illustrator, but even more so a better drawer and painter. I am a hard worker, and am determined to achieve my goals and dreams. I've self taught myself for approximately 2 to 3 years however, I know that I need a school/program to learn design fundamentals. Being pushed by other artists and mentors is one of the main reasons I feel I need to go to art school. I want to get my foot in the door of the industry.
I have found some schools in the US, but they're all quite expensive. There is also FZD, but I'm not prepared to go to an expensive school without serious scholarships. Should I go to a local art school for fundamentals? Should I try to find a internship at a game studio, instead of school?
There are so many options. Appreciate all feedback! Thanks!
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FZD has great results in a very quick time as they plough their students with fundamental work and understanding for something like six months out of the year long course, but it's very expensive for international students, and I don't know if you can get any kind of scholarship unless you are from singapore which is a shame.
If you go to a school in the US really research it and make sure they are teaching what is relevant to the career path you want to take, you can call them and ask them etc to find out. As it would be a waste of your time and money if they cannot help to teach you sound fundamentals to build upon as you would like to learn them.
Hope my ramblings are of some help lol
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As for local schools you should definitely investigate them each before you go to one. Talk to other people who went there, investigate the curriculum, find out who your teacher would be and whether he knows what he is talking about or not. Unfortunately, it's pretty common for a "local" art school to be sort of a scam. Often the teachers will be people who don't know what they are talking about and won't draw examples to the students because they themselves can't. They are teaching because they aren't good enough to make it in freelance or land a studio position themselves. The general experience from people I've known and talked to about smaller "local" schools is they wasted their time and they learned very little if nothing. So again, check into the school as much as you can before you go to one.
I don't know much about the scholarships for those few schools which are amazing (such as FZD) but I know how expensive they are and how it can not be a option for some. Just keep in mind that being self-taught is a option. So long as you stay determined and don't get lazy you can do it. Most of the industries leading artists didn't go to a school OR will say that they went to one but learned nothing there and self-taught afterward. This doesn't always go over well with parents though and you may need to get a part-time job to work out a understanding with them. There are so many tools and resources online now that the people we look up to now didn't have that there isn't really any excuse for not being able to figure things out given time. Whether you go to a school or not you're going to have to learn to teach yourself if you want to keep improving and moving forward as an artist.
I hope this was helpful to you and you figure out just which route to take soon. <3
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Yes, Thanks for the information, Atrenr and JonHop. I appreciate all so I have found a few schools that look good.. quite pricey, but still worth looking into.. One of the schools I have been looking into is Academy of Art University in San Fran. I was looking into the Game Design and Illustration programs, but realized that most Game Design programs include a ton of 3D modeling, animation, and things that are not going to necessary help with becoming a concept artist, so therefore the illustration program looks pretty good. The teachers also seem to have pretty good artwork.
The local art school (Alberta College of Art & Design) is not so good to my knowledge, I talked to some of my friends that has gone there in the past and they said it was okay but, they didn't take it seriously and are in programs like Jewelery, etc. I'm going to look into it more, though. I know that this school is much cheaper.
I feel as if I won't be able to go to FZD for multiple reasons.. price, unfamiliarity, distance, probably not able to get scolarships in singapore.. etc..
I appreciate all the info! Especially from past grads and how they liked or didn't like their art school.
Thanks!
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I'm graduating from the Academy of Art and will say that the programs have a fair amount of flexibility. I really think you should go with Game Design as you will have access to better Vis Dev as well as texturing classes that way; there is a new Visual Development major as well that I think you should have a look at. The best thing about the Academy is the strong grounding in traditional art if you opt to take extra anatomy classes besides what's in your reqs as electives (I would do this if I were you). I am not sure about the digital illustration classes (Illustrative Media) offered by the School of Illustration, they kind of sucked when I took them compared to GAM Vis Dev classes which were taught by concept artists.
I'm actually an Animation/VFX major, but got authorization to take GAM classes to contribute to my major requirements as I explained I did not want to be a pipeline modeler but still have a solid foundation in 3d. If you have any other questions feel free to send me a PM, and I think you'll love SF :)
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.” - Carl Sagan
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