Only know Photoshop debating moving from South to LA to find dreams come true?

[JessicaNoel]

Hello folks! I have a BA in Studio Art from a state school and have a few years experience with Photoshop and I hate to admit it, CorelDRAW. I do graphic design with corelDraw in the bible belt now (meh) and have a friend who lives in LA who encouraged me to move in with her and be plugged into an amazing world of art opportunity (so she says).

If I moved there I would probably look for a job that didn't require too much cs knowledge that was entry level and work my way up. (I would have to be able to afford rent though, that's the only thing!) It would be great to be in a bigger city with artsy people!

I need to save $$ for a better computer and the partial Adobe Suite. Eventually I'd like to be a digital illustrator FT...not sure which route (concept design, comic book covers, clothing) would float my boat.

My other option if I don't move to LA is to stay in the cheap yet ever so boring small town, save up, and get a comp and the programs and maybe build a solid portfolio and try to land a job FIRST before moving. My friend seems to think the sooner I get out to an artsy area the better since I'm not getting any younger, plus I have nothing tying me down. She says it's about being there because in person it's easier to network. But I have never been there... so I don't know what to do!

What do you think??????????????

[Medelo]

Not sure if it's representative of what you currently have but looking at the work in your sketchbook link, I'd say Photoshop or a better computer isn't the problem, you'd probably benefit from more traditional fundamentals and life drawing first. Especially if you want to get into illustration; there is little distinction between it being digital or not.

That said, I do live in LA currently and I can say that there is a big wealth of drawing and learning resources here. Other places such as New York have extremely good visual fundamentals training as well, there is simply a different slant on it. Traditionally the East Coast has had more opportunities for editorial illustration and fine art exposure, while LA and the West coast have more opportunities for entertainment, especially animation -- but this is no hard and fast rule.

[Leonor]

and I hate to admit it, CorelDRAW

Why? What's the problem with CorelDRAW?

[Star Eater]

Nothing wrong with CorelDRAW at all.

As for the actual question. What makes a town a great resource for learning art/illustration when you have access to the internet and these forums?
Unless you are planning to actually go to school, but even now theres solutions to that for people who live far away.
Would Cape Town, South Africa be considered an artsy town? I have not seen any evidence to the fact that differs it from any other city. That
did not stop me from landing jobs both locally and abroad which I can do from my house here.

Moving to a new city has its own plethora of potential problems. Moreso when you don't actually have any set income waiting for you there.

[Stoat]

I used to be a beta tester for Corel. I still prefer Draw to Illustrator (though you'll almost always prefer the software package you learned first).

I'm with Star Eater. Moving to another town without a job in hand is fraught. Especially when you can work all over the world without leaving your desk.

[Elwell]

If I were you, and had the option of moving out of the South, I'd jump at it. YMMV.
On a different note, this is on your DA page: "Hi guys!! I do not regularly come to this site but if you'd like to check out more of my work it's on www.jessicacarr.blogspot.com." This is on your Blogger page: "This site has been moved to jessicacarr.com." And this is on jessicacarr.com: "This domain is for sale." If you want to do this professionally, clean up your online presence, don't make it a scavenger hunt, get a new domain (or pay the the squatters their $495[!]), and don't let it expire!

[Medelo]

If I were you, and had the option of moving out of the South, I'd jump at it.

What makes a town a great resource for learning art/illustration when you have access to the internet and these forums?

I think working around people (especially people/mentors who are more experienced than you are), physically in real life, increases one's absorption and rate of learning exponentially. Maybe it's just the way I learn. I think 3/4 if not more of the stuff that I know came from watching other people work, pure osmosis. Learning how to handle brushes for optimal control, paint mixing, setting up a studio, how one goes about starting a drawing or painting, it's all these little things that added together increase one's confidence level to the point of really letting an artist take off and spread their wings so to speak. I'm a big believer in "monkey see, monkey do".

A bigger town also has more resources like museums, which as anyone can tell you seeing real paintings with your naked eye is 10000x better than seeing a high quality jpg on the internet. The new Caravaggio exhibit is up here now That and being around other artistically and professionally minded people is highly enjoyable.

But of course if it would strain a person financially then there are perfectly viable solutions to learn online too, and there will only be more to come in the future.

[Star Eater]

Yeah, we still have art museums here too. Not many but we do have them.
I recently went to an exhibition of Dutch Golden Age painting.

And this weekend I'm going to go see Dr Gunther von Hagens BODY WORLDS & The Cycle of Life. So I guess I'm luckier then some.

http://www.waterfront.co.za/events/e...cleofLife.aspx

[Medelo]

Body Worlds is awwwwesome. It's so creepy and fascinating at the same time Don't know if they have the same models for each exhibit but the one I went to had an exploded plasticized (??) horse and rider.

[Star Eater]

Is photography allowed? If not, I'm sure there will be a book I can pick up there.

[Medelo]

No I don't think it's allowed. Which is a shame for us artist folk, but I did spend quite some time sketching what I saw. Definitely a multi-day trip if you really want to get some thorough notes/drawings in.

[JessicaNoel]

Hey that's a valid point sorry about that!

Medelo I agree with you completely!!! Maybe a McDonald's will pay enough to afford rent there! LMAO

Hey that is an old link I ended up taking Drawing 2 twice in college to get down fundamentals better let me see if I can throw some addt'l stuff on there. THat's what I was worried about with the LA vs NYC thing but I don't have an opp to stay with someone for free there.

MOD EDIT: Merged your 3 posts. Rather use the edit feature to add more to a post. Thanks.

[Medelo]

Medelo I agree with you completely!!! Maybe a McDonald's will pay enough to afford rent there! LMAO

Low rent in LA is like... $600/month without utilities, and that's a really shitty studio in the middle of nowhere, haha. You can conceivably go down to $400 if you find a house with lots of other college kids, but I'm not sure how sane you'd be living like that in the long term.... to be comfortable, around $950/month is probably advisable. That's just for rent, too.

so yeah, either have savings or be able to land a job here

[Star Eater]

Again, please, use the edit and quote function for your posts. This is a forum, not instant messenger.


Thanks.

[JessicaNoel]

Why? What's the problem with CorelDRAW?

Hey I guess it's not a problem but from what I've heard from designers/animators currently working in the industry they say Adobe is the industry standard. COREL is capable of a lot (I use it at work so I know ha!) and it's a lot cheaper I think I just prefer Adobe.

[JessicaNoel]

Again, please, use the edit and quote function for your posts. This is a forum, not instant messenger.


Thanks.

IS this ok?

[JessicaNoel]

If I were you, and had the option of moving out of the South, I'd jump at it. YMMV.
On a different note, this is on your DA page: "Hi guys!! I do not regularly come to this site but if you'd like to check out more of my work it's on www.jessicacarr.blogspot.com." This is on your Blogger page: "This site has been moved to jessicacarr.com." And this is on jessicacarr.com: "This domain is for sale." If you want to do this professionally, clean up your online presence, don't make it a scavenger hunt, get a new domain (or pay the the squatters their $495[!]), and don't let it expire!

Elwell valid point!!!

[Star Eater]

Sigh...i just get no respect anymore.

[dpaint]

If you have the chance to move go ahead and take it. The worst that will happen is you will end up like all the other people who moved there to make it and didn't because they were too lazy to focus on what they want. There are better schools there and more opportunities. Your work is nowhere near professional level though, so be prepared to work at a minimum wage job for a few years (2 or 3 at the very least) and go to school while you make a portfolio. If you can't do that in a timely manner it won't matter anyway. At least you will be out of the humidity.

[dpaint]

Sigh...i just get no respect anymore.

I guess that means you'll just have to take it from their dead, still bleeding corpses after you teach them some.

[JFierce]

That looks exactly like one of our dogs..... except it grew up.... . .. ..... ... and got fat.

[Dusty]

I wouldn't recommend moving without a job already landed.

In 2000, I had my first job in the games industry as a 2D texture artist. I lived in LA at the time and all was comfortable. Except, I really hated the heat and traffic of LA, so I decided I wanted to move back to Seattle.
I figured, "Hey, I work at a respectable game developer, I'll easily be able to get a job!". So I moved on some small savings with no job at all. I did not find a job easily - everyone wanted 2D AND 3D skills. With no 3D skills at the time, I couldn't find work. I was out of work for about a year only living off of freelance and outsourcing companies.

I went SEVERELY in credit card debt.

I would absolutely recommend moving in any way shape or form, even if you can't find a job beforehand.
(huh? but...you just said...)
Once I learned the necessary 3D skills, I was fine. Of course, it took me about 6 years to pay off all of that credit card debt that I accrued. I was dead broke, couldn't afford any luxuries, could barely afford food, and was overall completely miserable. But I pulled out of it and I learned a hard life lesson. Now I have a great job (still in Seattle area!), a house, an awesome wife, and 2 cats that are completely awesome, plus exciting freelance opportunities that I don't *have* to take if I don't want to.

All because of my choices.
I fucked up. You'll fuck up.
But you'll probably recover.

I grew up in Kansas, btw. There is nothing out there for you. You need to move, get out any way you possibly can and as FAST as you can. Deal with the ramifications later, but know that it's a high risk thing. You'll likely make mistakes that will last with you for a very long time. But someday, you'll see they were worth it when you are working in the field you adore.

[QueenGwenevere]

I know if I was in the Bible Belt I'd clear out fast... Heck, if they all secede you'll have to move in order to stay in the U.S anyway.

I grew up in the sticks and moved to NYC to go to school, and ended up staying because there were more opportunities here than back home (granted the internet hadn't fully kicked in yet, so you kind of had to be where the publishers were in order to get work.) It does help if you have some kind of internship or school you can go to right away when moving to a new place, because then you can build up contacts and connections more easily than if you're entirely on your own. You'll still be broke for a while, of course (or broke AND in massive amounts of debt. School loans, yay.) The contacts I made in school definitely helped me find enough work to stay afloat after school, and while I was in school there were job boards where I could pick up odd freelance gigs, and work-study job opportunities which were a good way to pay for food and art supplies while still having a flexible schedule and time to study. So a school or something similar can be a good way to segue into a new place. Even just signing up for workshops or classes somewhere is good, it's all networking opportunities.

[JessicaNoel]

I wouldn't recommend moving without a job already landed.

In 2000, I had my first job in the games industry as a 2D texture artist. I lived in LA at the time and all was comfortable. Except, I really hated the heat and traffic of LA, so I decided I wanted to move back to Seattle.
I figured, "Hey, I work at a respectable game developer, I'll easily be able to get a job!". So I moved on some small savings with no job at all. I did not find a job easily - everyone wanted 2D AND 3D skills. With no 3D skills at the time, I couldn't find work. I was out of work for about a year only living off of freelance and outsourcing companies.

I went SEVERELY in credit card debt.

I would absolutely recommend moving in any way shape or form, even if you can't find a job beforehand.
(huh? but...you just said...)
Once I learned the necessary 3D skills, I was fine. Of course, it took me about 6 years to pay off all of that credit card debt that I accrued. I was dead broke, couldn't afford any luxuries, could barely afford food, and was overall completely miserable. But I pulled out of it and I learned a hard life lesson. Now I have a great job (still in Seattle area!), a house, an awesome wife, and 2 cats that are completely awesome, plus exciting freelance opportunities that I don't *have* to take if I don't want to.

All because of my choices.
I fucked up. You'll fuck up.
But you'll probably recover.

I grew up in Kansas, btw. There is nothing out there for you. You need to move, get out any way you possibly can and as FAST as you can. Deal with the ramifications later, but know that it's a high risk thing. You'll likely make mistakes that will last with you for a very long time. But someday, you'll see they were worth it when you are working in the field you adore.

Hey! Thank you so much for this honest and open post. What an inspiring story! I love how you came through but also talked about the struggle to survive in an art job market. im definitely intimidated but yeah, the south is what it is.

[Notophthalmus]

What's with all the south-bashing? There are design and illustration jobs in any big city. Nashville has a huge book and music publishing industry, and Atlanta is a media center; I'd be willing to guess there are plenty of jobs there for an aspiring illustrator or designer. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, but you should at least look at all your options are before deciding that it's "move to LA and hope" or "never get anywhere".

[JessicaNoel]

What's with all the south-bashing? There are design and illustration jobs in any big city. Nashville has a huge book and music publishing industry, and Atlanta is a media center; I'd be willing to guess there are plenty of jobs there for an aspiring illustrator or designer. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, but you should at least look at all your options are before deciding that it's "move to LA and hope" or "never get anywhere".

Maybe I meant to say "big city".......

[Forrest_I]

I can see why you'd want to move away from your town and go to a big city full of artsy people, but try and think realistically. I grew up in the small town of Keizer, Oregon and still live there now. I want to move soon, but no where big and crazy. When I was considering college I looked at places up in Portland, lots of artsy type people up in Portland and tons of people to connect with, it's a nice big city which sounds super exciting when you just hear it at first. After I got to thinking I kind of slowly started realizing that all I do right now in Keizer is sit at my computer and occasionally go out with friends, there aren't a lot of distractions from my art which is what I like. If I were in a big city I'd be wanting to go out all of the time, there's be so many new people and places I wouldn't want to stop and focus on my drawing.

Now if there is a studio nearby you could get in-house work with then I can understand that, that wouldn't be half bad. But if you need to improve your artistic skill then try and be patient and enjoy your small town for what it is good for; giving you the time and space you need to improve. Hell, you could even postpone moving in with your friend for just a year or two and work your ass off so you can try and start getting into the industry. You don't need to live anywhere exciting to get jobs, like I said I live in a small town too and I still am getting jobs. It may not be enough to pay rent yet, but that just means I gotta get better xD

This is all just suggested, no matter where you go you can always get better and improve as long as you're determined enough