[Odds]

I'm 16, attending high school and studying art with all my freetime. At my high school, lots of different representatives come from various colleges. Such as reps from Art Center, Otis College of Art and Design, and CalArts. I visited every session when they were there to talk, and I have to say all of these schools sound cool. I also attended sessions with representatives from UC schools. My parents really want me to take advantage of my good grades and attend a UC school. But, that's not really what I want to do because I think the art programs are probably not nearly as good as the ones at art colleges. What are the differences between art college programs and UC programs? How can I persuade my mom to let me goto an art college? Oh, by the way I want to become a concept artist in the long run. So I'd probably study fine arts, right?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Naeem]

hey Odds,
i've asked the same question... it still remains unanswered.. hope the 'experienced' ones answer u...

[goldenavatar0]

Hey Odds, if you're looking to get into Concept Art, and you're not getting a specific response here, how about trying http://www.conceptart.org/forums/
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[Odds]

Ok, thanks for the link goldenavatar. ^^ If I find an answer, annisahmad, I'll be sure to inform you about it.

[Naeem]

thanks odds.

[eyewoo]

It's a tough question to answer. Perhaps that's why there has been little input. One of the best pieces of advice that I ever received was from one of my teachers, an artist named Neil Welliver. He said, the best way to teach art is to talk about baseball. In many ways that sums up the "Fine Art" attitude. Fine art is not so much a learned skill as it is an attitude, even though any fine art school will have you spending hours and hours drawing casts and life drawing. But after all those tedious hours, talk about baseball, or anything else... talk about it seriously and in depth and you'll find the fuel for your art - your "fine art". Sounds weird, eh! Yepsir, but it really has little relationship to the fast paced, slam, bam, thank you maam world of producing concept art and illustration under tight deadlines and tight budgets.

So what's my point... I'd suggest that you might be better off heading for a serious commercial art oriented school rather than a fine art school. There may be schools today where the boundaries between the two are quite blurred, but I suspect in most cases there are real differences that should be understood between the "Fine Art" school and the "Commercial Art" school.

...anyone else have input?
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[ieatramen]

I'm a studio art minor at NYU and have a lot of friends who are either art majors in this school, or students at art colleges like FIT or SVA. If you want to make art like the guys on this forum make, go to an art college. If you want to make something that would be shown at the MOMA, go take art at a University.

Art programs at big universities (as far as I have heard from friends/coworkers) can care less about your draughtsman skills. In all my art classes, technical ability and good representation of a figure or place or animal was only a means to an end. They only care about the concept and effort, not the execution. In fact, a lot of the art students can't even draw very well. So by "concept" I don't mean the guy who designs the alien ships for Star Wars, but the concept that Christo put into the "Gates" at central park.

Hope that narrows it down for you. I myself am going to apply for a "real" art school after I graduate.

[Heysoos]

ieatramen summed it up pretty good. universities art programs are going to be much more theory based and less production based. Art schools will really drill you hard in the fundamentals of drawing and color and composition, ect and you will learn how to produce. Universities will teach you how to act like a smartass art snob and hang out at coffee shops (okay, thats a bit of an exaggeration and depends on which university you go to. ) Art schools tend to be more difficult in that you will have a much heftier workload (at least that was the case where I went). Personally, I went to an art school, ccad, and majored in Fine Arts and Minored in Illustration. My goal was to become a skillfull fine arts painter, so the balance of having classes that made me think about the concepts of my work and my place in art history as a whole mixed with the more technique and execution focused illustration classes was very helpful.
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[Odds]

Ahh, so much information! Thanks everyone. I understand a bit more, and am now pretty confident with my decision to apply to ArtCenter, Otis, etc. Btw, I heard that ArtCenter is expanding the number of students that will be accepted... Woo!

[Drunken Monkey]

where did you hear that odds? and which departments, if any specifically?
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[matter]

i've been attending pratt's upstate extension: pratt@munson-williams-proctor in utica, ny. plugging this place because in my opinion, it is at least one of the best, and least known, schools in the US.. less than 200 kids though not much to do in town (helps me focus personally), you'll learn to draw, paint, sculpt... learn the rules behind realism and abstraction, and the teachers are amazing and always available. i originally wanted to illustrate, now ive gotten into art as an end itself in fine arts. after two years, youre supposed to go to brooklyn campus, but most kids transfer to other schools (bunch are goin to chicago and SVA.. im tryin for cooper union) because pratt in brooklyn's mostly for design or architecture.. much different from this school. it seems the small teacher-student ratio is what makes education here so great. its also only 23k a year, minus up to 8k scholarship, plus larger-than-normal dorms. ive heard of many liberal arts schools having good art, but you have to take academic credits to graduate.. i dont mean to be advertising, but goin to a private art college has been a dream-come-true.. feel like im not even in
"school" anymore!

-matt
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[Drew]

Concept art? Go for Illustration or Industrial Design.