Some College Questions...

[JTmole]

Well, I'm 16 and I've been thinking about what I'm going to do after high school and such... and I have a couple of questions for you...

1. Are high school art classes required to get anywhere good? You see, I'm kinda in a pickle because my school has absolutely none... not even correspondence courses. *God I hate my school... not to mention my town which is extremely small.*

2. What are some art related careers you guys recommend going into?

3. What are some good schools? (Preferably in Canada...)

Thanks for the help, and sorry for such a newbie post...

[goldenavatar]

Well, I'm 16 and I've been thinking about what I'm going to do after high school and such... and I have a couple of questions for you...

1. Are high school art classes required to get anywhere good? You see, I'm kinda in a pickle because my school has absolutely none... not even correspondence courses. *God I hate my school... not to mention my town which is extremely small.*

2. What are some art related careers you guys recommend going into?

3. What are some good schools? (Preferably in Canada...)

Thanks for the help, and sorry for such a newbie post...
1. High School art classes aren't required, but if you're interested in getting an education with a focus on visual arts, you might want to develop those life drawing skills now, rather then later. If you're hard pressed to find any, colleges and universities do offer high school enrichment programs that you could look into. You should also find out if your area has any museums, botanical gardens, community centers, art students leagues, artist groups, and art studios as they could better assist you. Time to crack open that phone book.

2. That depends almost entirely on where you'd like to go in art.

3. Whoa now, you're putting the chicken before the egg. You're 16 now & you'll probably be graduating at 18. What you should do now is focus on locating people and places that can give you the fundamentals to art & drawing now. Once you develop some skill, you'll be able to better see what directions you can take your newly developed skills in.

[Athey]

1. Are high school art classes required to get anywhere good?

Most art colleges don't really care much at all as to what classes you took in Highschool. What they care about is your application portfolio. If you can send them a sample of your art and it's all good, that's usually all they really care about.
Therefore it isn't important that you take specific highschool art classes, as much as it's important that you just dedicate yourself to getting at least a little good before you go.
Life drawing, anatomy studies, color theory studies, perspective studies, etc. Focus on that sort of stuff, and try to get better as much as you can. Looking for workshops, etc. is a very good idea, but if you can find any in your tiny town, work as hard as you can on self-improvment and maybe find some books or something.
I know one of the art stores in the city I used to live in would hold life-drawing sessions once a week. It cost $7 per person, so that the model could be paid, but that was it.

Just go and draw.

2. What are some art related careers you guys recommend going into?
Um... geez.
Well, I'm a 3D Artist working on a video game, but you're probably looking for more of the 2D type of jobs, right?

Commercial illustrator
Storyboard Artist
Conceptual Character Artist
Conceptual Enviroment Artist
2D Animator / InBetweener > Keyframer
Graphic Designer
etc etc.

3. What are some good schools? (Preferably in Canada...)
Don't really know any in Canada. Not too familiar with Canadian shools ^ ^;

[Saga]

I'm currently a 2nd year student of fine arts at StFX University, and I'm looking for a career as a concept artist in the game industry. I would suggest that if you live in a small town, that you put some of your work up on the internet and (hopefully) get some good critiques of it. As for art schools in Canada:
Sheridan College is in Ontario, not to far away from Toronto. They seem to be the top Canadian college to go to if your interested in animation and illustration (I'm considering it myself). Many students of Sheridan are picked up by the House of Mouse (or so I heard)
Another place I've heard of is the Art Institute of Toronto. These Institutes are spread across North America and are interconnected. The one in Toronto is only a couple of years old, and deals with game and computer design to get you a quick entry into the industry.
Besides these 2 there are the usual art colleges, like Emily Carr in BC and the Nova Scotia college of art and dexign in Halifax. There. That should give you some ideas. :zzz: