Questions about online Art school (plus questions about SCAD)

[Mike338]

Greetings,

Well this is my first post ever at CA. I have been drawing off and on most of my life, yet only seriously since my freshman year of high school. I'm getting to a point where my free time is limited, yet I want to obtain a college degree while i'm not working for the Army. Since my job takes up most of my time, and my wife and daughter take up alot of the rest. I am looking at either going to school for something boring and never having any fun, or I can get serious about my Art and use working towards a degree as the perfect excuse to have some fun. I haven't done much in the last couple of years due to a lack of time since I was going to school for something else. I had several questions for the fine members of this forum.

The first one is should I even bother? I'm 26 years old. As I stated its been a while. I want to draw, its just since I was majoring in something else for most of that time I didn't have as much time as I would like. I was fairly good for my experience level before, which still puts me far below the quality of alot of the work I see here. Is it ever too late to improve my skills to the level where they need to be? I do have a great work ethic.

Next Art school is expensive as we all know. My thinking is that I should start by getting an associate's degree in general studies(all of my credit thus far is nationally accredited and therefore not transferable), that way I have a couple of years to improve and see how serious I can be about art, and I wont be paying 700 a credit hour for english 101 or college algebra. Before I begin this route I was wondering if starting with a general studies degree is a reasonable path to take towards an art degree.

What level work do I need to have in a portfolio to be accepted in an art program? I am pretty much limited to online schools being in the Army and all. The ones I looked at were the art institute of pittsburgh, SCAD online, and academy of art in San Francisco. I'm nowhere near what I consider to be a pro, but then again i've got high standards on what I consider to be professional looking. I'll try to post a sample or two soon.

A SCAD Specific question - do they accept CLEP credits for general education, if so is there a limit? Is there a gaurentee that CLEP credits will always be accepted?

Does anyone know of any other good online art schools? I want to get a degree in actual Drawing/Painting/digital painting type stuff not graphic design.


Well this is all I can think of right now. Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Like I said i'll post an example soon. (I'm at work right now)

[/Anders]

From my point of view, online schools are kind of a hack. It seems to me that they do not teach much that can't be learned by studying this forum, going to an atelier, and working your ass off. And I really do mean working your ass off. If you are at a point where art sounds like a fun thing to do, but you haven't draw even a doodle in 6 months, I'd think this over VERY thoroughly before you decide.

Art as a field is HARD. It's competitive, and coming from an art school I can tell you: even if you were the best artist in you entire high school, when you get to art school, there is a good chance that you won't even be in the top 50 best artists there. and upon graduation, you are looking at competing for jobs with people who have been doing this for 40 years.

[Mike338]

Anders,

Thanks for your input, i've been giving it alot of thought. For me getting a degree, while something I want, is ultimately not as important as becoming a better artist. I figured that alot of the improvements I can make will come from as you put it "working my ass off." I figure if I can keep focused and work hard on my own the degree will just be a nice bonus. Also, if I fail as an artist, alot of employers dont give a crap if my degree is an art degree, they just want me to have a piece of paper that says I went to school. I would like to attend art school at a physical location but being in the military makes that pretty much impossible.
Since i've posted i've been drawing quite a bit. I know I have an uphill battle but even if I don't end being a pro, i'll learn alot about something I enjoy.
Thanks again for responding.

[/Anders]

I understand what you mean, and as a current student in a pricey art school, The reason I don't think an online program is a good idea is because a lot of what I pay for is the interaction with my peers, the connections I make and the ability to sit down and discuss things that don't relate to art at all with my professors. The social interaction of artists in a studio, critiquing work, with an involved dynamic discussion is something I see hard to achieve in an "online course" While this forum attempts to do a decent job, we can not understand the personality or the background or desires of the posters beyond what they convey in limited text.

As I mentioned prior, I don't think there is anything that such a program would offer that this can not, and I'd go so far as to say the degree is the only thing more it would, while this forum boasts many things that such a program at University of pheonix online or whatever they are called now, can not. Overall I think being in a physical space with other creative individuals is a very important part of an art education, and I would not discourage it.

When it comes down to it, a degree might mean something if being an artist doesn't work. But why would you enter into a field with the idea that you can fall back on art degree if you don't make it as an artist. If you want to view an art degree as a "Fallback" plan should you be unsuccessful with your art, by all means go ahead. But why not invest in a degree that puts you into a field that has the ability to bring in much more cash if such a thing is only going to exist as a backup plan anyways. In my mind, art degrees are something that is more of a passive achievement that comes with a certain amount of time and money invested into something you love to do so much that you would be doing it anyways.