A cautionary tale about my art school experience thus far below, but first I just wanna say, it's extremely nostalgic to return to Newgrounds, I hope that I can start contributing better art more frequently now. It's a little embarassing having so much old crappy art on here but hopefully it'll remind me that I'm always improving haha.
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Art school has released me for the summer and it feels pretty great to be able to do my own art again. I always imagined that going to art school to learn illustration and character design would be a really nice enviroment to create art, but it's actually pretty dreadful, and not for the reasons I might've assumed at the start. Handling harsh critiques and working super long hours is not at all the most difficult or draining part; the worst part is the restriction on what we're allowed to do. They force us to work in all kinds of expensive and sloppy mediums that I happen to despise, and our subjects have been overwhelmingly restricted. Stylization, which I'm known for in all my online communities, is looked down on as something people do to hide the fact they can't pull off realism. So I thought, well, if I show all my teachers that I can pull off realism in portraits, landscapes, and still-life they're sure to leave me be and let me do my thing, right?
Wroooong. They praised me up and down for my realistic pieces and said they were 'brilliant' (which I can't accept because I'm just painting from something that already exists, where's the brilliance in making copies) and implied that I was wasting my potential doing stylized stuff. And even though when they said that stuff I was always thinking 'Uh, that's insane, no way am I going to stop cartooning' it all slowly got into my head, and gradually I started feeling strange and guilty every time I did art that wasn't school related. I stopped even using my sketchbook, which I had drawn in daily since I was in middle school.
Long story short, I almost allowed art school to ruin my art, which is a weird experience. Moral of the story, don't let yourself get brainwashed by bitter classicly trained douchebags even if they are your professors. There's a difference between constructive criticism, like 'Your color/anatomy/concept/composition/whatever needs work.' and someone just shitting on your work. 'Cartoons don't have a place here/Why are you wasting your time with that/Who's going to want to see that'. Don't trust anyone who is being blanket-aggro about your style. They're bad news.
Ciullo-Corporation
I know the feeling: I had a literature teacher who continuously told me I should not write following my style because, literally, "you're just an high-school student, not a great author", and limit myself to follow the rules of what they consider the mean level of a student.
It's sad to say, but teachers and schools, which were supposed to help you get some basis or improve those you already have just want to standardize you... just stand your ground.