and you know what? my blog so yeah... gunna talk about whatever i feel like... cause thats what i do.
Now i've mentioned before that i went to College for art.... in fact i went to a college that is well known specifically for their animation and illustration.
If you've seen Technical Dave's videos on youtube (which you should cause they are great.) I went to the same school as him and in fact i even went to a similar program.
I did a course known as Visual and Creative arts
what does that mean?
it was a 2-3 year program that essentially focused on a bunch of different types of art instead of one specific medium.
well what does that mean?
It means that we had a Life drawing class, a Life Painting class, a 3d materials/sculpture class, a graphic design class, a new media/digital media/photography class and some sort of class where they could give us work like art history/english or an elective.
sounds like a lot of work doesn't it?
well... yeah... the 6-7 classes a semester at 3 hours each... each with anywhere from 3-6 hours per class worth of homework.
yet the despite the sheer amount of work one thing remains true about VCA students like myself and Art fundies (exact same course but only 1 year long and a bit sped up due to the short time frame) students like technical dave... one common truth...
we get completely shit on.
it's sad but true despite the amount of work we do no one gives us any respect... why? cause it doesn't take a portfolio to get into VCA... anyone can get in as long as their grades are good enough and there's enough space.
it doesn't matter that we work our ass off and the course it kind of designed in a way where if you can't take the class load you will be kicked out/drop out.
hell in my first year we enough people drop out where a few groups (cause we had the same people every class) need to be amalgamated into other groups cause you can't have under a certain amount of students... and keeping in mind every class has 30 students... yeah...
hell in my last year i had some classes (cause at this point we got to pink our times) that only had 8 students in them... great for critiques but it shows you that it's not an easy course to stay in.
but still we get shit on.
teachers from the other programs were amazed at the work we were put through but no... still shit on.
just cause no portfolio.
the elitism at the school wasn't that bad but there was a lack of any kind of acknowledgement from the other students.
the best example i can think of is in my final year we put on a year end show and one of the fundraiser events was to sell prints.
some of the works were nice but as my friend (who went from vca to Animation) overheard someone saying "i would never buy those cause they are just in VCA"
i never understood this mentality...
why does it matter what program their in.... do you like the piece? yes or no.... what else matters?
still i was happy for my friends when they got in to whatever programs they tried for, they were confused why i never even tried to get into anything else...
1. i don't think i have the skills for the big two programs... i honestly just don't think i would make it through a portfolio selection. (especially since i'd rather go for illustration and my style just wouldn't mesh)
2. i don't like the idea of spending another 4 years in school.. after the 2 i spent saving up for college and the three i spent in it i really want to get on with my life.
3. i'm already partially working in the industry i want to be in so more school, while would be helpful for my skill level, would not help me in the job front.
but the question is one of "is VCA/fundies a good program"
only if you are willing to push yourself as hard as you can.
but in the end... that goes for any program now doesn't it?
i enjoyed my time in VCA, i know i improved as an artist and more importantly i learned what makes me tick.. i could have learned this in the other program i'm sure but it may not have been the same aha moment... it may have taken longer... it may have happened right away...
i will never know... all i know is that i met some of my best friends whom i hope to be friends for life with and that alone means i wouldn't trade my time in VCA, the most shit of program i have ever seen, for anything.
anyways this is quite personal so i'll just keep this to myself... i just needed to talk... and thast what blogs are for... aren't they?
also the line in technical dave's video that spurred this on was
"an illustration teacher came in and said 'i'm amazed at the work you do, we don't push our kids this hard'"
and it's true... we did a lot of work... even if no one ever recognized it... it didn't matter... we still did it.
now excuse me... i'm gunna go draw something.
anything.
also i'm not sayign the other programs don't work hard... i never had to pull an all nighter at the school... i'm just saying when my friend told me the story about the prints, i got a little defensive... this has been a long time coming... and it's dangerous to bottle things up for that long.
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