Where to start when you haven't done any schooling in art at all?

[wannabeartist]

Hi there,

I've been painting and drawing all my life, but never done anything professional with it. At some point I decided on a completely different career. Now I am at the point where I could do some schooling on the side and work towards what I really want to do. Where should I start to look, what degree or education do I need to look for? Anyone? Help?:overhere:

[Seedling]

For starters, you could try the "Concept Art 101" link in my sig. . .

[peter_john]

Studying the figure is the best thing possible you can do to better yourself as an artist, so look for some chance to do figure drawing in your area. Most cities have some community of artists that can support open figure drawing sessions and your best bet is to get in on it. Colleges may also have open figure drawing sessions if they have some sort of an art program. If you're living in Boston you should have no trouble finding open figure drawing sessions. If you can't find anything on the internet head to some local art supply houses and check bulletin boards or ask the staff. They are usually artists themselves and they might know where to get in on figure drawing.

The figure drawing sessions I've gone to usually range between $4 to $6 per hour. Some administrators decide to offer bulk discounts if you pre register for a bunch of sessions. Some are ticket based, etc. There's a variety out there.

If a good figure session is hard to pinpoint you can still draw from life by just observing people and drawing from them. When I was going through school I took a gesture drawing figure course. Each week we had to present ten sketchbook pages of various figures in motion. I would go to the campus gym where they had an observation deck over the basketball courts. There were usually at least 3 to 5 people playing a pick up game and they made really good subjects to draw from. In one place you could see poses ranging from squat to extended, throwing, jumping, figures interacting with each other. It was just cool!

Good luck!

[Maxine Schacker]

If you want a serious, intensive drawing experience before commiting to a full time program consider Max the Mutt's summer "Learn To Draw" program. Its held in July, has small classes and top instructors and offers life dawing every day in the morning, and 2 weeks of prinicples of drawing (still life) and two weeks of perspective and structural drawing in the afternoons. Its very affordable and Toronto is a great place to be in spring and summer. The web site is www.maxthemutt.com and the program should be posted in the next few weeks.

If you feel you are ready to commit to a full time program, you definitely need basic representational fine art skills. We offer two three year diploma programs, one in Classical and Computer Animation , and the other in Illustration for Sequential Arts. Both have a strong first year of traditional drawing and painting.You will find the web site very complete. You can also call or email for more information (1-877-486-MUTT, admissions@maxthemutt.com). Best of all, this is a top quality school that is affordable!

[Storyboard Dave]

One huge resource of highly reputable schools is:

http://www.aicad.org/

Take a look there and see what's near by. Half of the battle is just the desire.