#dentity

I actually didn’t go to art school, I went to university and majored in Studio Art.

This might have been a cheaper option? (Sorry, I didn’t even look at art schools because all we had was the Dallas Institute of Art and it didn’t seem very legit to me at the time?) But my main reason for going to a university was that I could change majors easily if I ever wanted to, and I wasn’t just stuck taking only art classes (I really like learning like a lot). Unfortunately, UNT has no illustration program to speak of and I knew, after two semesters, that I had no desire to be a fine artist but I didn’t know what to do with the fact that I’d already started on that path.

Learning about this Game Design grad school was fantastic, because it allowed me to use my fine art skills in a very illustrative way and I’m doing assignments that I actually enjoy most of the time AND can still do strange, abstract art on the side.

THAT BEING SAID, I had a horrible teacher the first half of my grad school and it’s basically made it so that I’m spending upwards of 60,000 dollars to teach myself how to do things because my teacher didn’t do it. At all. (This is a WHOLE other rant, but basically, when you tell fine art students that you love to have them and want to encourage more fine art students to start in the curriculum, maybe you should make some effort to make sure these fine art students are actually taught how to use the programs and not berate them for not having the knowledge already)

But I’m also happy to be here? Like…The fact is, you can go to art school or you can’t. You can get a job in the art industry without it, as long as you have the skills. Art schools and things like them (like my grad school) facilitate learning and basically give you the initiative to improve and to keep working. You also have access to teachers who can teach you things or guide you through different tasks. If you are willing to do all this work on your own - learn the techniques and the programs and work hard to be as good as people who DO go to art school - then, no, art school probably isn’t worth it.

For what it is, I think art schools are way too pricey (my grad school is astronomically too pricey), but the best thing about them is that they get you working constantly. AND they help you build connections. In the professional art world, you will not get anywhere unless you know people. And that’s pretty much a fact. You need networking and promotion and all that jazz. It’s the same in the game industry. You won’t get a job if you don’t put yourself out there.

For me, it really just came down to, yes, I am teaching myself a lot and I was teaching myself in undergrad too - but would I teach myself if I weren’t in school? 

Art school will make you love art and hate art. You get to a point where you realize you are making art for a grade and not because you want to and it’s a really hard moment because suddenly you aren’t passionate about this thing YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN PASSIONATE ABOUT. And you gotta push through it and you gotta think, “Is this really what I want to be doing every day for the rest of my life?" 

And for me, that was a no. I didn’t want to be a painter. If I’d gone to an art school that had illustration or animation, it might have been a different story, I guess. If I’d known about printmaking when I was a freshman at UNT, I’d definitely be a Print major I think.

TL;DR: I do not regret spending the money I did, both at UNT and here at SMU because I am a much better artist for it AND, despite often being in a “teach yourself" atmosphere, I know for a fact that I would not have taught myself anything OR gotten better without having been a Fine Arts major.