[Freddio]

life is not always fair

[DiXter]

That sucks!!!
Damn, nothing in life is fair..

Nice dino pics Gecko.

[ceenda]

You probably didn't get in because you didn't submit an upturned trash can with a flag draped over it as your art assignment...

Seriously, there doesn't seem to be a place in art school for genuine talent any more. I'd like to drag those guys to a PC and make them look at every Gecko thread on Sijun.

Nice dino! Watch the composition with the trees next to the tail. Kinda makes the viewer think the forest is somehow reliant on the dinosaur for it's position.

[spooge demon]

Take it as a compliment. I have done fine, and the only reason they let me into art center is because my credit was good. After one semester several teachers told me to go do something else with my life. My family was supportive, but a little leery of the idea of me being an artist. I guess they had visions of me showing up with a tin cup every few months.

It made me mad and made me work harder. "I got nowhere else ta go!!!!"

I know it does not tickle right now, but it is meaningless what the admissions board at art school think. The potential of an person is so much wider than the razor thin prejudices of someone hiding from life in an art school. That is not true of everyone at these schools, but is the rule rather than the exception, unfortunately.

I saw some work recently that set my teeth on edge. You see piles of it streaming out of illustration programs the world over. Generally you see an illustration student use a lot of the figurative distortions of Bacon or DeKooning and throw in a few pop culture references. Art schools and scholarship committees love this stuff! They think it is quite edgy and very creative. The ironic thing is that it is as orthodox and dated and uncreative as the room down the hall with 500 marker drawings of toasters. The irritating difference is the presumption of originality and creativity. This kind of work takes the shallowest interpretation of fine art and tries to “raise” the level of illustration. I think it really reveals the insecurities (financial, professional and creatively) of those who try to “crossover.” I guess it would not bother me so much if it did not usually come with a lot of ignorance and snobbery (amazing how those two show up together a lot). And maybe is bugs me personally because I had to fend off the arm twisting of all the teachers I had in the illustration program at art center to work this way. My academic interests were nauseating to them, and I paid the price many times.

Don’t for a minute think I do not appreciate the developments in 20th Century art. I think it is truly incredible. The questions that have been asked by so many artists about the nature of what is art are really profound. I don’t mean for the previous paragraph to imply that I like Rockwell because it “looks like a photograph, man!”, and I don’t like abstract expressionism because “any monkey could that.” We all owe a great debt to modern art.

Gecko, it is just a guess, but I think you were impaled on this kind of unforgivable snobbery. I sentence them to read comic books and maybe learn something.

[toast!]

damn, you're one of the best artists here, this is just unfair

Did you apply to an exam an failed or did you submit a portfolio and had an interview ?

Well, if it was an exam, you can easily lose your temper there ; this is unfair cause an artist is not supposed to be under such pression, he must be judged in a long time work and in what he has done so far; not in a 2 hour exam

if you have submitted a portfolio, i guess you didn't fit in the school "tastes" ...

Listen to Samdragon , he spoke with wisdom
and hey , look at Joachim and Micke , they never went to any school ...

Sometimes, teaching yourself what you really need to learn and getting feedback from a good community is better than any school.

Private art schools are entreprises , they main goal is to make money .
To get some fame and attract people they need to display 100% success stories ,students that are already good when entering the school have few chances to go away with bad marks and fail

hope you will keep practising and share with us your new works

cheers,
Toasty

[Gecko]

everyone had to do the same assignments at home and send them over, and the school picked about 30% over to continue with the exams.
There really is no excuse for me, it was a leveled playfield, I sent one assignment done in pencil, one in dry pastels, one inked and one photoshopped.
I thought I did well, they didn't agree.
They didn't give critique for the work either so I'm not quite sure which parts caused the refusal.

"I got nowhere else ta go!!!!"
this is true on my case as well. Sorry to hear about the idiot teachers :)
http://www.uiah.fi is the homepage, i applied for graphic design which offers some illustration on the side. There's no way I can ever afford studies in the states, UK is a possibility though.

I need to think about this. Learning by myself works to some extent, but is muchos slow.

And if anyone is going to give up their plans for art education because of what happened to me, i'm gonna come over and hit you with a pipe :)
Keep that in mind while you gather your portfolios.

[-Tepox-]

Sorry to hear that... Doesn't sound too fair..
Actually I had my mind to try there this year also, but i changed my mind (luckily!)when i checked out their student galleries (I didn't like their works at all!). I got clear picture that I wasn't for them... They was looking for something different...
I can honestly say that you didn't fail, they did!!!

[ May 22, 2001: Message edited by: -Tepox- ]

[Oblagon]

yeah, look at those galleries. Freakish.. Your work could be too structured for them. What Spooge said: art schools they give high points for creatvity and their perception of it is totally wrong.

[paltsi]

That first dino is great...specially that ambient lightning...
Gecko: Jos s� et p��se sinne, niin en kyll� taida m�k��n yritt��...jotain vanhoillisia opettajia?

[Lunatique]

Dunno if anyone's ever thought of this, but learning on your own is not what it used to be.

Why? Becuase Sijun IS your art school away from the establishment. Treasure it. Take advantage of it. Most teachers at art schools aren't nearly as nice/generous/open minded as some of the masters here at Sijun.

Gecko, cheer up. The bottomline will always be this: do what you love, be passionate about it, make sure you have a roof over your head and food in the tummy. The rest is just distraction.

Jeeeesus. I just checked out the link to the school that rejected you. I'm most positively not impressed. In fact, I'm downright sickened that they had the balls to reject you. The gallery of their students' work will get laughed at if they were posted here at Sijun. But as others pointed out, much of it has nothing to do with whether they think you are talented. It's money, politics, and leftover misguided notions about art from the modern art era.

[ May 22, 2001: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[Snake Grunger]

I don't think Sijun can really replace a whole art school. I mean, we're a big family here, willing to give criticism, help out, repaint, etc etc.. But, we're all here on our free time, we have jobs or other primary concerns (well most of us).

The truth is, you need some sort of 'frame' to guide you and give you orders. You need teachers to give you their lessons and tell you: "Do this assignment for date X", and the second date X arrives, the next assignment comes in, and it's non-stop until Christmas/summer vacation. I mean, I've been "on my own" for the past few months, because I ended college in December and decided not to go to university on January. Thus, I can honestly say, being under some sort of control is very good. Unless of course you're a super-disciplined individual. But when you are let alone, with 100% liberty, it can also mean 100% slavery to your own desires, which can ultimetaly lead to the thing you had most feared => Total laziness. During that time I had started learning japanese from a few books I bought, but then I decided to take on lessons in a language school nearby, and boy will I be crying when they're over (they're kind of expensive..) I think I'll beg my teacher to like, write me a few assignments in e-mail

Gecko, if worse comes to worse, you could practice for a whole year and apply next year, maybe getting a little job during the meantime, not to make your parents mad, and practice or read books on anatomy, lighting, anything.. in all of your free time. This demands alot of self-determination. But you are a powerful individual, there should be no stopping you.

Spooge, hahahaha, I'm imagining seeing you as a judge in court and say, "By the power invested in me by this court of law, I sentence you to 2 years.. of comic book reading!" *smack* Then you hear the crowd whisper and be surprised.. (well, you know.. kids are usually the ones that read those, do homeworks? or read comic books)

[Blitz]

Im gana throw you my supor as well.
You are also one of my fave artist on the bord. You have a style that if lined up with everyone elses is unique enough to say,,,,HEY, thats Gecko's....and you work with the color Green better than anyone, or at least more than anyone hehe.

I just finished getting my Bachelors of Arts in Digital art. Its mostly a school of 3D modeling, animation, some drawing, and Film Editing. It was fun, but I found myself in love with Illustration and just 2D art all around. In some ways its the wrong school for that, but we had a couple of AWSOME instructers that simply ADORED anyone with some imagination. One guy is a 70 year old man with a dirty mind hehe. He has worked at Disney back in the day and Warner Bros. As a school goes its all about the teachers, Id check out who teaches there, maybe look at their stuff and get some inside thoughts from some students, because it the teacher sucks, Then you Waste your Money.

Anyhoo. Your Great, I love your work and I think thats all that matters, That I love your work. =P kidn

Cheers and Have fun drawing bro.

Seeyas in the funny pages
Blitz

[nt]

whow that's pretty mad because I thought you were one of the most talented artist in these forums! And I mean you are!

Good luck for the future! Show 'em what ya got man!

[Svanur]

Why does school have to be so much bother in Northern Europe? They are all yuppies with no sense of talent!

Really nice work. The underlighting, the shading and the pose all work together to make for a great pic.

By the way, just throw a molotov cocktail at the school, it helped me (Well I am actually lying about that last part)

[Affected]

*blink*

Now THAT'S a surprise... Damn. I figured you'd get in for sure. Bad luck, probably. Although I've also heard of schools not accepting people because their work has just been too refined to begin with. Keep trying, though, it'll be a wonder if you don't get in next time.

[Nick2k]

Hey dude i will tell you why you didn't get into to art school, the same reason i didn't get in, you either have to be an amazing looking girl, gay or super bloody rich well if you are one of those you must have been very unlucky.

If you come to the uk to study avoid glasgow art school like the plague if you going for computer graphics, you should apply for the dundee university degree in computer game graphics or the time based degree.
All i know is that people who have some real artistic talent like your self are not appreciated in art schools because of there love for modern art like Jackson Pollock "art" (who even said himslef he can not draw)

We put so many hours of effort into our artwork everyday yet people do not class it as art that would be fit to hang in a gallery when some so called artist paints a large peice of canvas black and they pay millions for it even though there is no real artistic foundation to it.
How would you guys like it if i posted a black square and called it art because i spent 2 days filling every pixel in one by one. That is not art. This is the bloody attidude artschools take towards people, you do get execptions now and again but on the whole they would rather see something you knocked up in 2 minutes then a 40 hour illustration . Okay i just needed to say that! Your images are amazing the lighting is just so cool, the orange highlights across dinosaur body work very well to define the form of it. Great stuff and good luck with what ever you do.

[orionix]

Hi...Gecko

sorry to hear that...cheer up!

I and many people may like your work, style.
Especially, I think you are a man having ablility design good mood, color scheme.