Doesn't make sense...

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s_Luna_b
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Doesn't make sense...

Post by s_Luna_b »

Wise Turtle, I need some help...
I want to work with cartooning sort of work as a career and when I go to college.. Yet, my art teacher and mom are getting angry with me saying that I need to stop drawing with an anime style and draw more realistically, even though I've done more than the necessary amount..
Not to mention that apparently I have to have some sort of specific theme for my portfolio, such as strictly portraits or strictly still-life pictures.. Shouldn't my portfolio show all of what I'm good at rather than just what they tell me to? I mean, isn't that the point of giving colleges your art portfolio to begin with?

None of it makes sense... What do you make out of it??
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JuddG
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Re: Doesn't make sense...

Post by JuddG »

s_Luna_b wrote:None of it makes sense... What do you make out of it??
I know not what the Sensei will say, but from my own perspective, you must be able to diversify your telents as much as possible to grow your marketable skills as an artist. A single practice or style lends itself mostly to hobby art and not professional art.

I have known many people in gaming groups that draw very well and they usually have a preferred style. That being said, the most successful of these is a person who can do variety of mediums and has a great deal of other styles and skills under his belt. He works with photo editing and product marketing designs for a living, and so he seldom gets to draw in his preferred hand-drawing style at work.

Contrast this to a freind of mine who is an exceptional artist in the anime and comic style, but who ventures away from it haltingly and infrequently. Despite a degree in art, he does not work in the field and lacks the discipline and experience in art that the first example guy has.

They are both great artists and they are both passionate about what they do - one just makes money at it. "Bills before thrills," I guess I am saying.

Art school will give you a chance to stretch your capabilites and you should throw yourself into that at every chance. Try new mediums, new subjects, new styles with verve. No doubt, when the smoke clears, you will find the one that is your ticket to success (and it might even be as a manga-ka, etc), but be open to everything.
Judd M. Goswick
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Wise Turtle
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Post by Wise Turtle »

As forum-devotee JuddG has just pointed out, a wide breadth of skills will suit you much better in the "real world." And it's no little secret that, wherever you go, the very real art-forms of cartooning, and anime in particular, will always be frowned upon by these so called scholars of art.

...That said, there's an old axiom that you have to know the rules before you can break them. Solid knowledge of real anatomy, and reality in general, will serve as an invaluable foundation for breaking those laws to make aesthetically pleasing cartoons. If you simply press forward based on the cartooning work of others, you will never learn the true frame these techniques and styles were built upon.
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