[SporQ]

anybody know of some good ones?

[daz199]

for traditional:

Emily Carr

and for 3d:

CDIS (artschool.com)
Vancouver Film School (vfs.ca)

[rain]

Theres also Alberta college of art and design, in calgary.

[Svanur]

What about Sheridan?

[jabber]

i think sheridan is more 3d digital stuff. i was told by a friend that disney hires pretty much all of the grad from their each year. (i think thats an exageration)

anyways, I went to SAIT, (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), and it sucked. didnt get the training I "thought" i was going to get.


I plan on going to ACA, (Alberta College of Art) in about a year or so. Do the fine arts thing.

thought I would throw some names at ya

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: jabber ]

[Svanur]

Maybe we should include the web addresses of those schools Just so other can check them out.

http://www.sheridanc.on.ca/

[SporQ]

it would rock if there was something like watts altier in that area. anyway, thanks for the help all.

[milano_j]

emily carr!!

[SporQ]

you go there milano_j? if so, i'd be really interested in your opinions of the instructors and the education you get there in general. thanks.

[Socar MYLES]

Emily Carr: http://www.eciad.bc.ca/

I go there...or, more accurately, WENT there, since I just finished.

What I have to say about the place is this:

I took the general fine arts program--mostly drawing and painting, not much design or computer work. The first year was absolutely excellent. I went in without even the most basic grasp of line, value, perspective, or colour, and all the life-drawing, colour theory, and painting classes I took in first year were absolutely invaluable.

After that, however, things went rapidly downhill. After first year, the teachers just stopped concentrating on the technical side of things, and started to critique SOLELY on the basis of concept and development. There were a couple of exceptions to this rule: I HIGHLY recommend Ken Wallace and Renee van Halm. They are excellent professors, and VERY committed. (Also, Ken Wallace is the only professor who ever gave me an A in a non-academic course!) He really is a wonderful teacher, though.

A couple of not-so-good things about ECIAD--They are NOT organized at ALL. They had my date of birth wrong in their records for three years, for instance. They made a more serious snafu when I went to the Dean last summer about finishing this December instead of in May. The Dean told me, at the time, that everything was fixed, and I could leave. In the fall, all my careful arrangements had been forgotten about, and I almost didn't get to take the courses I needed in order to leave. Also, I once went to their office for students with disabilities to explain that I might miss a lot of classes because of my health, and they forgot to mention this to any of my professors! Needless to say, I never bothered with THEM again!

On the up side, Emily Carr DOES offer a degree, not just a diploma. I don't really care about this--I just went there to learn to draw--but my mother thinks it is very important. As she says, I will get that degree if they have to stick it in my cold, dead hand.

And, as I mentioned, they DO have a few VERY good teachers. You just have to root them out and stick with them...because there are also a couple of teachers there who NOBODY wants to get stuck with. I will not mention THOSE names, because it would be rude.

On the whole, Emily Carr is a good general art school. I took a Photoshop class there, and was not impressed, but really, that didn't matter much. If you have a strong basis in painting, you'll be able to paint in Photoshop whether you take classes in it or no.

So, go there if you want a good art education, with art history and theory as well as drawing, painting, sculpture, et cetera.

DON'T go there if you want to do advanced 3D animation, programming, computer science, or high-end design. Their design and animation departments are, I'm told, decent, but not even close to cutting-edge. (This is just what I've heard...not being in either of those departments, I can't say whether it's true or not. I'm pretty sure there are better places for this sort of thing than Emily Carr, though.)

[SporQ]

thanks for the great response socar. i really appreciate you taking the time to write such an awesome answer. that sounds a lot like what im looking for. i want to learn the traditional more than the 3d or other technical fields.

anyway, thanks again.

[Dr. Bang]

i'm looking for the best art school in CANADA, are there any ?

so far Emily Carr is on my list.

[Socar MYLES]

The consensus seems to be that the three best non-specialized art schools in Canada are:

Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Ontario College of Art and Design
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

(I think those are the proper names for them, anyway.) I applied to all three of them some years ago, and they aren't at all difficult to get into. (They let me in, after all.)

I have heard that Ontario is now at least as good as Emily Carr, and probably better. Apparently, a man who was once the driving force behind ECIAD migrated over to Ontario, and is doing a wonderful job there. I have no idea who that enterprising gentleman is, though--this is second-hand gossip I got from my mother.

I chose Emily Carr not because it was the best school, but because it was further away from my mother than the other two!

What I'd advise, though, is that you write to every school you're considering and get some documentation. Read through their websites, too, and pick the one that sounds right to you. And, of course, apply to at least two schools, just in case one of them doesn't take you.