Are you school trained or self taught?

[tayo_rafferty]

My mother was an artist but she was always too afraid to pursue her career. I loved her work and would try and imitate it as well drawing other work that I liked. Eventually more and more people started telling me I was talented, it also allowed me to tell stories and express myself. Around the same time I started getting into Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks as well as animation in general. I have never taken a formal class in drawing (excluding the standard school curriculum).

[shazzbaa]

I went to art school in college, at SCAD! Though "School-trained" is a weird way to frame it, since it implies that's where I got my start -- I started drawing when I was a year and half old and never stopped, like most of the self-taught people here; devouring every how-to-draw book I could get my hands on and constantly experimenting and trying to learn new things.

At the same time, having really skilled professors critique my work and point me in a more effective direction was DEFINITELY a huge boon. I wouldn't say "oh, but I basically learned everything on my own" because, while it's true that I was already "good at art" when I got there, they were able to build off the skills I already had to teach me a lot and help me improve really quickly.

I think that's the main benefit of art school -- it speeds up your development. I don't think it gives you skills you couldn't get otherwise; art classes just force you to practice and push yourself and then critique that work with the insight of a professional. It might take some time to discover that same insight on your own, but it's completely doable!

[lunaartemisasama]

Mmm school trained? I started as a self taught, but then I took some courses in drawing and painting in the nearest community centre and I study grahic design so I took one elective in ilustration, but I didn't learnt too much, and a basic course in general art, where they taught me about color theory and all that stuff that I forget sometimes.

I can say I have a school background as good as someone that went to a high school with a decent art program.

What helped me to be more decent in art , was the book You can draw in 30 days from, it took me a year almost lol... yeah I am a slow learner. That gave enough courage to try to study something in grahic design, but after the elective in illustration I realized that drawing can always be a hobby, lol.

And I also started all that after finishing college when I took my first job, just to releax, but I ended up liking it a little too much lol...

[nessiefynn]

Self taught! I've been drawing since I was a little kid, and have just been making sloooowww improvement since then. I've taken some art classes in high school, but they mainly taught art history and a few specific techniques, so I learned most of drawing on my own from online tutorials and books.

[UrMom]

I'm self-taught. Not very good at being instructed, which is probably why I'm so bad at a lot of stuff. Lmao!
I've been drawing forever, and while I did take a couple classes, they were either things I already did and knew, or I was too young to take them seriously. Started really getting into artsy stuff when I was 12, but I didn't start doing life studies and getting into the serious stuff till I was 15-16. Got a tablet and did some digital about 2008-2009, but it wasn't very enjoyable so I went back to traditional only stuff.

[VexinglyYours]

i'm half-and-half! i pretty much spent most of my grade school life just doing my own thing, but then i went to SCAD and majored in comics and i really feel like their sequential art program really helped refine my techniques in comic making.

[Kayke]

I went to art school (University of the Arts) for illustration. I found it to be a really valuable experience. Like others have said, that's not where I started drawing. I definitely went into art school already knowing how to draw, but the classes helped me improve. More than that though, I think just being in that environment (surrounded by other artists and professionals) helped me when it came to thinking about art as a career.

[VermillionWorks]

Self taught.....unless you count online tutorials.

[Aspie_Gamer]

Self taught all the way baby! Only thing school ever taught me was how to take a test.

[Pandastrophic]

I guess mostly self taught?
I do go to uni for graphic design however that helps me in a limited way with my regular art and comic. I can take away some stuff from it, what I found most helpful with my comic was my typography class (learned about good/bad fonts to use and I ended up changing my comic title) but for the most part I'm self taught.

[KSlinger]

Self taught here. I just like to draw. It's only recently that I've considered making it into more than a hobby, but I'm clueless about where to begin.

[joannekwan]

Half and half really.
I didn't take an art class until high school (even then it was mostly do whatever the eff you want after shading some blocks and cones). But I did take photography in highschool and that's where I learnt the basics of photoshop which I am grateful for. Then in college I actually decided to major in graphic design, so I learned more technical things, and I also took painting and life drawing. Life drawing was suuuuper useful, that's probably the one class I'd tell anyone who wants to draw any sort of character to take.

As far as comic-making goes, I was never taught a thing for it.

[keii4ii]

... Mind you, "self-taught" is kind of a weird term, because googling tutorials on how to draw stuff or use software or tools is technically being taught by someone else.

I fully agree with this. Receiving critiques =/= "self teaching," either.

I think a better set of terms would be formally educated VS non. But even that's weird, because

Though "School-trained" is a weird way to frame it, since it implies that's where I got my start -- I started drawing when I was a year and half old and never stopped, like most of the self-taught people here; devouring every how-to-draw book I could get my hands on and constantly experimenting and trying to learn new things.

So yeah...

This entire distinction makes me rather uncomfortable. XD; It's not like those who went to art school didn't have to work their butts off to learn what they learned.

[ratique]

Like most I am both I guess. When I started drawing I just sat down and... well, drew. I didn't have internet back then (way to age myself) and while I had some books I didn't understand how to use them to my advantage. So I just drew and eventually got better.

In my later life I made sure to take a few art classes here and there, but to be honest, I am not good at learning in that environment. Nothing beats just sitting down and practicing things you are bad at by doing things you enjoy (like making a comic). Analyzing other people's work is also helpful.

In the end it doesn't really matter. Every artist has to put in a huge chunk of their life to improve their skill. A teacher can not take that away, they might just give you some helpful pointers along the way. A great teacher does not make you a good illustrator by default. It's all on you.

[NickRowler]

I'm half and half. However, I feel like I improved more by learning on my own than in school. Heck, even school assignments were more reading from a book than an actual teacher or lesson. I learned Adobe Flash from a book a teacher gave me but by the end of the year, I think I knew more about the program than her. Similar with learning 3D modeling, the professor just gave me a link to a website.

The things I actually did learn from a professor instead of an assign book was was to paint traditionally. But even then, I think I got lucky and got a teacher who knew how to teach painting.

When it comes to cartooning, I rarely ever turned in "cartoons" as an assignment. I did once take an Illustration class for the heck of it however, it did not really expand on my knowledge of the topic, it was mostly just an easy A. Which I guess is sort of my criticism of the school system. It was an easy A with little help to actually let me improve or challenge me. Which sort of explained why I shifted to learn more painting and video editing. Video editing as a skill and painting to show I actually learned something from art school.

[indagold]

In comics I was partially self trained. I took a cartooning course in highschool as a major and a pre college course but we learned barely anything besides the basics. All my comic knowledge is self taught by constantly making comics and reading them. I think even with all the art courses I took I still consider myself self trained. It's not like learning coding or 3D which I had to fully rely on someone else.

[Kura]

Self taught. After being told I would never get about 50% in art class in grade school because 'it would be unfair to the other students' I never wanted to associate school with art ever again.

Got kicked out of school and never finished it anyway though, so I'm self taught in a lot of areas.(it's really scary for teachers when the brown students get angry and raise their voices)

[dojo]

@shazzbaa Heey I also went to SCAD!

But yeah to answer the question, I too, would consider myself half and half. It's like... I dunno. I'm trying to figure out how to put my thoughts into words. But I've been trying to answer this for an hour so here's the most shortened, simplified version of the novels I keep trying to write in the comments section here:

I haven't 100% taught myself anything, but I haven't 100% been taught anything either. Heya, nailed it.

[atlas]

Self taught. All I had with me at the beginning was the book "How to draw the Marvel Way" from Stan Lee and John Buscema. Only in the last three years did I begin to use the internet for references.

[JessJackdaw]

Alright so... Most people have said that they are some degree of self taught, and that actually makes a lot of sense. Artistic skill is one of the odd professions where you really can't learn it with schooling alone, because it takes a lot of drive and motivation outside the classroom to hone the skill.

It would be like if a bodybuilder took classes on how to lift weights but never actually worked on his own time regularly. No matter how much instruction this example guy recieves, he's not going to gain any muscle.

Inversely, you could have a bodybuilder that works out really hard, but maybe his/her routine isn't as optimal as it could be. If he/she only had some professional instruction, perhaps they could gain far more muscle even faster.

The point is... you have to strike a balance somewhere.XD

Now if you work hard everyday with a passion while watching professional videos, desecting other works, using reference, recieving art schooling, and/or getting help from other artists, your skill level is going to skyrocket!

The thing is you have to find the best way for you to learn which doesn't always mean school, but it is wise to find new outlets to learn. ;D