Art school for a realist!

[etherealist]

Hi everyone, I'm a new member - I'll upload some work soon. But I'm currently looking at art school options so that is my priority.

What I mean by the thread title is that while I am into realism as an art style, I am also a realist in terms of world view:

I don't want to go to a high-end private institution and end up 100K in debt with no job. That is just not feasible for a member of the economic middle class.

So is there anyone out there who could recommend a good state school in the U.S. (a 4 year college or university for doing a BFA)? East and West Coasts seem to cost too much to live (although there are some exceptions) so my search is largely focused in South and Midwest. I'm looking for a school that teaches classes designed primarily to improve technique, and learn about the fundamentals - color theory, composition, etc. I am just getting into digital art and so if the school had facilities to explore 2D/3D digital and animation that would be a plus.

My Professional Goals: I do like scifi/fantasy/game art creation and would like to pursue that professionally. But my plan is to go the BFA/MFA route and be able to teach as a backup. I'd like a "sanity check" on all of this from anyone who cares to provide one. Do gaming / movie / entertainment companies even respect degrees from state institutions?

Any help or advice others can provide would be greatly appreciated. Pointers to other advice / search sites would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
--James

[dguy]

Well, my first question for you is what program(s) are you interested in? Are you a painter? an illustrator? I'm assuming that you want to be an illustrator by your interest in profession. But you definitely should think about what you want to study to find the right school for you.

Anyways, here is some reputable painting/drawing public universities (according to U.S News at least): University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University at Bloomington, University of Iowa.

From what I understand, artists are judged by their work and not their degree. But if you don't go to a good school, how do you expect to develop good work?

[JoshK]

One of the best, if not the best, public university illustration/animation program is in San Jose State University. They have teachers like sheldon borenstien, Baron Storey, John Clapp teaching there. http://ad.sjsu.edu/school/animation.html

[etherealist]

Thank you both for your responses. I will definitely check out the schools mentioned.

I guess as far as an emphasis of study, yeah it would be drawing / painting / illustration. But I would like some exposure to other areas if they were available. I'm not really into animation, but it seems that studying animation might help me to imbue my static 2d images with a sense of realistic motion.

The consensus that I've read so far is that a traditional art background is more important to working in the industry than software application expertise. But if classes in graphics software were offered it would be cool...

I live in Texas now and it's strange... the community colleges seem to offer more digital art and animation courses than the 4 year colleges / universities.

As far as a job, I think I'd be happy being a concept artist, illustrator, or 3D model artist.

--James

[etherealist]

Oh yeah, is there a URL to get that kind of info from US News online?

Thanks again!

[dguy]

Here's the US NEws list, it's translated from a Korean site because you would have to pay at USNews website:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://www.hana-edu.co.kr/artnd/majors_usa.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dusa%2Bcollege%2Brank%26hl%3Den%26lr%3 Dlang_ko%26sa%3DG%26as_qdr%3Dall