Hey So last week I took some time off, and looked through some of my old art work – a
bunch of sketchbooks and drawings from a good 10 years ago - drawings I did just for fun,
waaay before I went to a bunch of art schools and got my illustration degrees n all that
- which really got me thinking – Looking at my art before and after art school
I cant help but wonder – was my art degree worth doing?
What did I learn in art school and does going to art school make you a better artist in
the first place?
Let’s talk about it!
Pupupupppp DANTIER N BALOGH Hey Guys!
Welcome to our channel, the No 1 place for people who love Design, Art and everything
Creative!
You are watching Dantier and Balogh’s channel, my name is Laszlo and, in this video I wanna
speculate on if my art degree was worth doing or not!
We’ll get into the investment side of things in a bit because higher education wherever
you are in the world WILL require a great deal of time and money,
but for the most part I want to keep things light n fun, by showing you a very hands-on
approach in terms of how did art school change my art, my artistic style and image making
abilities by recreating a drawing from 10 years ago.
Just as an experiment!
Let’s get to it
This is a drawing I did back in 2011 – I was 19 years old, just about to finish high
school, and spent a great deal of my free time making drawings like this – graphite
pencil copies of cool photos I have found online.
I chose this joker drawing to redraw today because well in hindsight while I see some
obvious flaws in it, its still one of my favourite drawings which I have kept on me for all these
years, so I thought it would be fun to revisit.
So let’s do it Now – art school has taught me to visually
plan things out , while before I used to just start a portrait drawing usually with the
eyes of the person and then moving around, gradually increasing my circular radius of
filled in space.
I did that because eyes are the hardest, but also the truest way to capture the likeness
of a person, so once that is done, everything else will likely to fall into place quicker.
These days’ my approach is much looser, so im just gonna block in the basic shapes,
and then work on the whole composition simultaneously.
I wanna put down some of the most important lines, to get the overall figure in place,
which will serve as guides I can work around.
I remember I used to be very precious about my artwork, I was so terrified of making mistakes,
and ruining my drawings, that my work oftentimes ended up looking quite soft, unconfident and
for a lack of a better word ‘too safe’.
Once I embarked on my art studies, I was constantly challenged on this, by my teachers, which
I gotta admit initially I found really frustrating, but as time went on, I realized, that was
the most important part of their jobs: to guide me OUT of my comfort zone.
A good art course with good teachers won’t just let you do the things you already know
how to do – it will push you into directions which you might never explore on your own
– I spent time learning about photography, fine art, mono printing, textiles, - different
mediums and styles of creating, which ultimately expanded my skillset and artistic abilities
overall The other thing that I found the naïve 19
year old version of me was so hung up on is clinging onto accuracy, instead of creating
something new and unique within my art.
I used to think that the better you can get at rendering, making your drawing photorealistic,
the better artists you are.
Now, 10 years down the line I know for sure, that s just not true.
Making a mark, and creating a style is much more profitable and rewarding on the long
run than meticulously copying photos, making art which resemble photographs – perfectly
recreating a photo is a desirable art skill, but at the same time, let’s be honest – it’s
not much more than a party trick.
I got some technically strong drawings in this 10 year old portfolio – very accurate
renderings, but are these inspiring, good artworks?
Im my opinion, they are not.
That’s not what good art is to me anymore.
I ignored my instincts and went for the rendering style closest to the photos I was able to
copy at the time.
Huge mistake – if your gut tells you to go to one direction, you need to explore it
– take those chances, cause it might just elevate your work to a level you wouldn’t
have imagined!
My last technical lesson is a bit controversial, but I think if you are considering pursuing
a degree in the arts we DO need to talk about it – and that is profitability, and the
market value of your art work.
These days I don’t really do drawings like this – for one now I know that copying a
photo, like we are doing here can get you into all kinds of legal issues when it comes
to copyrights, - So if anyone asks you to draw someone famous, collage a bunch of photos
together for reference, instead of using just one image –
And also it feels like this kind of artwork just not worth my time, so id much rather
do something more unique, fresh and stylized – something that will make people say oh
this is a drawing by LAZ, instead of them going oh cool drawing of the joker, but I
feel like ive seen this drawing a million times before.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t draw portraits, if you find it fun go ahead, it
is a fun thing to do after all but chances are this kinda thing is not going to help
you building your brand and your portfolio as an artist – so I would keep these in
your free time.
Now say what you want about the quality of my art works 10 years apart, now that it’s
done, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Higher education in Art and design, degrees and diplomas are EXPENSIVE!
I said it earlier, wherever you are in the world, getting an art degree is a serious
investment , and you should not forget, that most artistic fields don’t really care if
you have formal education or not One of my lecturers always said, illustrators
don’t have CVs – they have portfolios.
And that’s just real.
Creative agencies and studios really don’t care which university you went to, or what
your grades were if you are trying to make it as an artist.
– they just wanna know if you can do the job or not.
Which obviously raises the question – what is the point of doing all that hard work to
get a degree then.
Is it worth it?
Year by year tuition fees are climbing up globally , while job opportunities are getting
more scarce making the field more competitive–basically meaning your art degree loses value as time
goes on.
Year by year its getting harder to justify getting an art degree.
Right?
Well, listen I can only speak for myself, n my experience as all of this depends on
your own individual circumstances.
Also I reserve the right to change my mind about this in the future, but as of today,
I still think that formal education tends to be a good investment, - so if have the
chance, and this is what you wanna do, you should do it – but I am also aware, that
for me it was a lot of hard work and luck as well - a lot of stars had to align for
me to make sure I could afford all the costs of my art education.
Listen I don’t come from wealth, I grew up being the eldest child in a family of 5,
in an eastern European country - and as most big families, money oftentimes was a struggle
growing up.
And still, I always felt privileged, because My parents, bless them they have never, not
once, raised concerns about my artistic aspirations and the shaky financial future, which this
whole thing could bring within itself.
They saw that this is what I cared about from a very young age, and they supported me all
the way through, they believed in me , even at times I didn’t believe in myself.
And I know for sure, that a lot of you guys, young people who are watching might not have
the supporting family or friends, to encourage you taking the steps I took.
Most parents would much rather push their kids into medics, engineering, law, economics,
basically ANYTHING but the humanities just to make sure once you are all done, you get
what they call a ‘real job’.
You will meet a lot of people like those parents which will ultimately affect your career decisions,
so if you are on the verge let me just tell you how I made up my mind;
10 years ago when it was my time to choose what I wanna do with my life, there were TWO
main areas that I showed affinity for at school.
There was visual art and design, and there was ICT and computing.
I had interest in both, and not to brag but I was pretty good at both too, so I had a
long hard think within myself and decided that ultimately computing is not what will
make me happy.
It would have been the safer option to go into IT, maybe the more profitable one too,
but I am a 100 percent sure, that have I gone down that path, I would spend the rest of
my life thinking GOSHI should have gone with art.
I would be living with regret, instead of living my truth.
And for me that felt like a price, much higher than any possible college fee..Hope that helps…
Guys, let me know what you thought of this draw this again reminiscing video, and your
opinions on art education, and join our design tribe if you are into this kind of content.
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illustration, and everything in between!
Leave a like if you enjoyed this one, and I’ll see you this time next week!
Bye!