Art Classes VS Self Taught

I guess a mix of both plus learning from working a job.

I think having both is important. I feel like just because you are no longer in school, that doesn't mean you stop learning.

I also find it a bit odd that some people who claim they are self taught actually learned from books, videos, online tutorials, etc. I don't know if that counts as "self taught". Versus something like Outsider Art which is people just doing whatever and not caring about fundamentals or realism.

I learnt from art classes. In secondary school, I took up art as a subject. The teachers would force me to draw relentlessly, on and off art classes (I'd show you if I could, but I'm not allowed to till somewhere next month maybe). It was honestly very tough, because I like to procrastinate a lot. So it felt more like I was self taught, with occasional advice or feedback given to me.

I've graduated from secondary school, and am planning to move on to polytechnic where hopefully I'll get into animation course, and be taught everything I need to know about animating. I had taught myself to make a basic 2D animation, but that's all, and having a teacher would help a ton.

Both.
I practiced drawing and taught myself a few things while also following some tips online; learned even more in art class in highschool and college. So now I apply both in my art.

Self-taught, but I took an art class as a junior in high school. I was decent at drawing though, so the teacher just let me do my own thing because it was a beginner's class. Then she requested I take AP studio art so I did that, and it was more of doing my own thing, but also I had like a dozen prompts to draw. That was all traditional art though, but I'm more of a digital artist now, so I kinda learned more from youtube and reading a lot of comics, lol.

self taught for the most part. i took the usual art classes in middle and high school and like the one graphic design course in college before i essentially dropped out but everything else i've learned has come from practice and studiying the crap out of other folks art styles and looking at a million youtube tutorials, speedpaints and whatever other free resources the internet had to offer at a given time

i will say i can give a pretty good amount of credit to my understanding of like hella basics of color theory to my graphic design class and the little bit of practice i got doing "contest style" work (as i can best think to describe it) which made further explanations on online tutorials a lot easier to grasp and then just kinda goin wild via hands on practice

i think the biggest thing tho is the fact that al my k-12 art classes were all traditional (since tbh i couldn't have seen them spending hundreds if not thousands for the equipment necessary back then) and i do digital now but in theory a good bit of it does cross over so it's not like anything went to waste

Everyone is self taught.
The art class is just a medium like a book, an online teacher, youtube or sending your
work to a mentor and getting critique from them.
It´s like learning an instrument, going to the gym, learning languages. You can do that
with a trainer, teacher, youtube, a book. You have to do the work and teach/train yourself

Self taught, my college area lies in mechanical engineering

a mix of both. I went to a fine arts school, but it was conceptual-art focused. I took a few technical classes, but mostly taught myself the techniques.
Conceptual arts sometimes get bad reps, but it taught me a lot about creating meaningful art with intentionality, which has been very important in my comic work too. Both are important.

I studied art up to A-level in school, but the syllabus at my school and sixth form (UK early 00s) were so focused on how to become a modern fine artist (ie. how to document your process and develop pieces for exhibition focused on the meaning and novelty of the work and the exploration that went into it over the actual quality of the piece) rather than grounding in the basic principles of art like anatomy, perspective, value, composition etc. I largely consider myself self-taught.

I read a lot of books, practiced, made webcomics and got feedback from peers and industry professionals through uni even though what I was studying in Uni was English Literature and Japanese. When I finished university, I found myself more in demand as an illustrator than a Japanese-speaker, so I just kept going, then saved up and went back to Uni to do an MA in Games Design. There was an artistic component to that degree, but the only tuition was in 3D modelling since I was already a professional-level illustrator (that's how I got onto an MA unrelated to my BA).

Honestly only a minority of pro Illustrators I know have relevent academic qualifications. Most of them just took their hobby very seriously and got really good at it. Art school does sound good for exploration and also for making contacts and learning how to market yourself and manage projects though, those are definitely some things I missed out on and see in friends who did go.

Do both. Any learning is good.
You will find some art teachers limit you. Put you in a box. But you can get access to life drawing and whatnot it's a benefit.
Learning yourself will help you keep your own identity and free to experiment.
I'm in the art should be free expression camp rather than do it this way as the other way is wrong approach.

I was self-taught mostly through trying to draw characters from coloring books & then eventually trying portraits of people. Roughly 6 years. Since I hadn't taken art classes or drawing tutorials prior to college, I went to University for Art. I was used to trial by fire without drawing tutorials (no internet or art books) or classes it felt very easy for me to absorb any structural learning whether it was art history or design fundamentals. I did a similar approach with programming except I only did 1 semester of computing in college.

I always forget, self-taught for many people I talk to makes an exemption for self-teaching through how-to-draw tutorials or drawing tips books. So, I'm not sure how effective my progression would have been if I had indulged in a tutorial or 2 before going to college as opposed to just guessing and using my imagination.

@Lensing It's amusing how we have the same sentiments with exact opposite conclusions. I find creators, who are self-taught, through the means of youtube vids or drawing books, are formally taught by the authors of their tutorials. It's more less a different formality. Though I definitely could see your point had I not gone from extremes.

Mostly self taught...I studied a lot of comics when I was younger then started studying muscle magazines for anatomy as I got older; I then started buying anatomy books, reading articles about the comic production process(when I began to take backgrounds seriously), and got insight from comic professionals that I was introduced to.

The only class that I could say I felt like I gained anything from was a life drawing class session where we did quick charcoal drawings of a model...I felt like I learned to try to draw the body in a more natural pose/state. I also gained a lot from my graphics/design classes- it opened my eyes to design, which I try to use a lot in the creation of my books.

If you think about it we're not really self-taught since people who are get their info from other artists (Either online or via books.) trying to teach, so we're still technically learning from someone who is educating. It's just not in the classical sense.

That being said I'm basically self-taught/self-educated. I've taken a class or two as a kid but I either dropped them or totally flunked. Lmao! Everything I've learned is stuff I've picked up from observing the works of artists I like, looking into the occasional traditional art friendly tutorial, watching a lot of videos on film creation/studies/analysis, reading books on art studies, doing a lot of nude studies and reading a lot of comics.

I had one art book when I was younger, called Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth. Other than that I'm completely self-taught.

Besides art classes during compulsory school years, the closest to any formal art education I've had were some oil painting lessons as a teen, and later a few courses on udemy. But other than that I'm self taught.

I'm an aggressive mixture of both. I started drawing when I was old enough to hold a crayon, and took every art class I could get my hands on in school, and a few summer classes here and there through the local parks and recs district. I have had many 'how to draw X' style books throughout the years (and still have many). I majored in fine art in college, and have my degree in it. I worked at an art store for six years, which honestly taught me more about the supplies I was using than college ever did. I've even taught 'how to draw comics' classes to middle schoolers as part of a summer program a few times.

As far as my marker work goes, I'm almost 100% self-taught, meaning I figured out all of my techniques without books, tutorials, videos, or anyone telling me how to use them. I started using alcohol-based markers in high school (mid-to-late 90s), and by the time I even thought to look for tutorials about how to use them, I was already so familiar with them that I could have written most of those tutorials. I even use some techniques I've never seen anyone else talk about/use.

...all that, and I'm still disappointed with my art. I feel like I should be way better than I am.

I’m completely self-taught. I did go to art school at one point but it wasn’t for me.
I learned by looking at other people’s art online, and just constantly drawing until I got to where I’m at today. (Though there is always room for improvement)

I took a lot of art classes in high school to start with. I wanted to enroll into my college's art school, but they wouldn't let me in, so instead I looked up online tutorials, got some how-to books, and read a lot of comics.

I saved a lot of money on art school fees, plus I got pretty good at it.