So how many of you guys here are self taught?

[MylCreates]

I had taken a few typical art classes in middle school and highschool and had been privatley tutored when I was like 6 (but all I wanted to do at that time was draw cats). Other than that I just went to the library to look at drawing books or watched other artists online.

Does that count? <.<

[JigokuNeko]

Also self-taught all the (long, meandering) way!
I guess what art school does is give you a more streamlined progress and better foundations. Mine was totally random and all over the place, depending on what I fancied at the time. I first had my anime copycat phase and then some years later took to learning realism and had to undo all sorts of bad anatomy habits. Now it's been some years since I've fallen out of love with anime and most of its influences have dropped, to be supplemented with more european scene elements. I feel like I've finally settled into a style but still enjoy learning neat new things on my own. I really cannot stress how important learning realism is. No matter the style you want to adopt, you first have to observe real life in order to understand what goes where.

ps. I don't see anything odd about the "self-taught" terminology. It doesn't mean you invent the tools available, it just means that you teach them to yourself. Just like if I said "I'm learning a new language by myself, I'm self-taught" does not mean I am making up the language, just learning without a tutor.

[AlkseeyaKC]

I had high school and lower grades art classes. Witch were mostly arts and crafts. There was a local art center that gave art classes and I took as many as I could. Also mostly arts and crafts. Other then that I was self taught and doing digital art on the computer with ball mouse and oekaki board. XD I did that almost every night after school.

I then somehow got into art college. I think that really helped me with anatomy and shading. I also found I'm good at oil painting. I would do more oil painting but it's expensive and I don't like the chemicals. I need to paint like that digitally some time. Need to find the time.

Some mentioned people telling them to stop drawing anime. I got that in high school and college. I was like, "yeah, whatever..." I've never really known how to change my style anyway. What ever comes out is it. Lol

[goenn]

I've never been to art school, only the art club in my school hahaha. I've watched other artists draw and then kinda try to apply their techniques? AHhaah

[scythe]

Hmmm... tricky question. I did go to a design school, where we had an illustration and life drawing class, but I'd say pretty much 90% of the skills I use in making my comic I learned without formal training.

[marzial09]

Didn't go to art school but I looked at tutorials from others to study...and used other artists works as references I never had any training in making comics.Just self study and practice a lot.

This was the old way I drew.

This is how I draw now...Had some improvements I think.

[shaylafarley5]

Yes actually, many folks that draw webcomics are either in school, doing an internship for a production company, work for a game company, or a publishing company. 99% of them being self taught.
I myself can't afford art school yet, so I teach myself. To me it's always best to improve on your own so you can develop your own style in the process. And when you do start school the things you'll learn will just be added to your arsenal.

[zelkats]

.... 99% sounds like a rather big, hard-to-believe number. Unless that was meant to be some kind of joke? XD;

Though, I wouldn't be surprised that many webcomic artists are self-taught. They would either be studying or having a job that isn't entirely art-related, and would draw comics as a hobby/a form of escapism or for extra money (Of course there are those who are self-taught and draw comics full-time). Some art professionals would rather not do anything else art-related outside of work, and there's the chance they've studied art before getting into a video game or movie/animation industry that required long hours of work. There are skills that are probably more suited learning at art schools like SFX, 3D, graphic design and many other things alongside 2D art, which are hugely sought-after in medias these days. Not that they're impossible to learn by yourself, but that would require LOADS of tutorials and buckets of dedication. There are definitely exceptions.

I draw comics now for enjoyment because I haven't got much chance to do 2D art at work (previously).

[lazorchef]

Born and raised on internet art tutorials and years of critique! My mother got a degree in fine arts when I was young, and I got to sit in on some classes, but that was so long before I got into comics.

I would say it was 60% "self taught" and 40% "artistic environment exposure" lol.

[elixiadragmire]

let's try Informally Educated, with the corresponding Informal Education. Seems to cover the bases you are looking for there.

hehehehehehehehehe

I'm 'informally edcuated' and by that I was told 'h'ere's a room you can draw in, sorry I'm busy dealing with the others students bye' College had th ebest eductaion on the basics, that was a fine art course that covered a lot of subjects but uni was pants on head retarded and a waste of money for me. I didnt actually learn stuff until I got a job in the industry and it s a baptimsy of fire all the way.

[VermillionWorks]

IMO, the term "self taught" is kind of weird anyway. You're not holing up in some cave, discovering how to improve your art with absolutely zero influence from the rest of the world.

I was just thinking I'd like to meet a person who actually learned that way and see what their art looks like...
...but you guys got a point, "Informally Educated" and/or "Self Directed" it is. XD

[eagle1]

keii4ii:
IMO, the term "self taught" is kind of weird anyway. You're not holing up in some cave, discovering how to improve your art with absolutely zero influence from the rest of the world.

I was just thinking I'd like to meet a person who actually learned that way and see what their art looks like......but you guys got a point, "Informally Educated" and/or "Self Directed" it is. XD

Like This!

Eagle
(Couldn't resist)

[VermillionWorks]

......I should've thought of that. XD Cave dweller art ain't too terrible, actually.

[eagle1]

My sense of humour is somewhat dry. Like the Sahara. To the point that a lot of people reading my posts seem to think I have none, and miss the jokes, but this was too obvious to pass up.

Eagle
(Back to somber mode)

[MaiStarberries]

The only type of formal art lessons I've had were in elementary and middle school, and those jumped around from "super basic art tips" to "today we're gonna make clay bowls" so my actual skills in drawing comics and the like are all self-developed through practice on my own time, looking up advice online, and countless "how to draw" books (of varying quality). I sort of dropped the books though after I realized the varying quality factor, so now I just watch artists I like and study how they do stuff.

[fanyart]

As far as I know, people usually started with drawing comics, then chose an art school. This was the case for people I know from my country, mostly. We didn't have internet for a long while at home so I first went to an art highschool and there I learned about comics from my classmates (I used to do all kinds of book illustrations before, so switching to comics wasn't hard).

But I have to say I'm 99.9% self-taught. At the art highschool I only learned (what has some significance to my comics and so):

• Basics of Illustrator and Photoshop, which I really appreciated later.
• Also some figure drawings took place but I can't say for sure if it had some real impact on my comics, apart from practice.
• Anatomy couses made me realize I'm scared of blood and don't want to draw spilling guts and such.
• Ehm... at that time Adobe didn't even have student licences available for our country so the happily blooming graphics software black market at highschool helped me a lot - I tried various software and could choose what works best for me and what software to buy later.

... apart from this, I don't think the art school really gave me much. But maybe in other countries it's different.

[Aeonhue]

I wish I wasn't self taught I need a mentor but can't afford that either. oh well I'll just use a time machine.

[Freith]

I learned to draw without any art school or mentors. I did of course develop my drawing skills through lots of observing other drawings and some tutorials online.
My mom was an art teacher, and she was rather surprised when she saw how well I started to draw animals at less than 6 years of age, given that I've rarely even seen animals in real life and that she had never taught me anything about how to draw them. I really loved animals as a little kid and I was obsessed about learning to draw them by looking at animal picture books and photos alone. Even as I grew up I never really took drawing classes for the sake of learning how to draw, even while having my own mom as a resource. She didn't even need to teach me as I was improving so well on my own.
It was during my later years of high school that I started becoming interested in drawing humans rather than just animals, and I've improved a lot since then as well, by simply looking at illustrations, comics, movies, etc. created by others online and applying what I've observed to my own drawings with my own twists and style.
Learning is exponential. Once you go over that first learning curve, you'll start learning the skill at a much faster rate until people have a hard time catching up to you. That's when a lot of people who see those exponentially improved artists start getting discouraged and give up. But they really just need to stick with it, keep going, ...you know the rest. It's been repeated so many times on this forum haha.

But yea, that's my own personal experience. Thank you to those who took the time to read all that. ^^

[facemeltingsolos]

I'm learning through books and loads of generous YouTube artists. Funny how they all say the same thing: "Draw a lot!" To be fair, it is the advice that works the best. Went from zero art last year to drawing things that other people can recognize! Ha!

[oreza]

Weeeell I'm 100% self-taught. I've never looked up tutorials or anything either, I learnt anatomy through reproducing random poses and doing it over and over again till I had results. Then someday I started copying anime traits, and it became a very simple style half-anime half-random.

Then I decided, like, three months ago or something, to start all over again, create my own proportions, facial traits, features and all. My coloring technique is something you won't find anywhere else, too. Because it's heavily reliant on a feature of Photofiltre 7 that nobody uses. It became the style I have now, and voilà !

(That's probably because I have never even tried to look up tutorials or anything that my art looks so bad though ._.)