Animation Portfolio Workshop vs. Sheridan's Art Fundamentals...

[Vince Peets]

Here's another portfolio from another recent student of the Animation Portfolio Workshop (APW) who has uploaded her portfolio of drawings on her own blog. Have a look through the character designs, room drawings and object drawings. I oversee the Drawing for Animation section of the APW. We cover areas like character design, 1 point, and 2 point perspective for room drawing, object drawing, hand drawing, and some storyboarding as well.

http://cs-artwork.blogspot.com/

[Vince Peets]

Here's a portfolio uploaded by another 2011/12 fall/winter session student of the APW. She has started a blog of her drawings. Enjoy.

http://cs-artwork.blogspot.com/

[Gerard Sternik]

Here is another link to the portfolio of one of our students who just got accepted into both the Sheridan College Bachelor of Animation program, as well as the Seneca College, three year diploma program in animation.

Caroline Schwepper came to study with us all the way from Brazil, and did a great job this year turning out a strong portfolio.

Click here to view Caroline's portfolio:

Caroline Schwepper animation portfolio

[Gerard Sternik]

Hi Uptown.

Sorry it took a bit of time to get back to you.
I'm out of the country right now and I just got your post today.
I asked our administrator to re-check all of the recent batch of inquiries and respond to them right away.

If you don't get a response by tomorrow then post your email here on this thread and I can go back through the information request emails and connect up with you personally..

Gerard Sternik / Director

[Gerard Sternik]

Here is another example of a portfolio of drawings that was accepted into the Sheridan Animation Program

The portfolio was created by Sam Vest, a student from the 2011 Fall Workshop.

Click here to view Sam's portfolio

[Gerard Sternik]

Here's some examples from the portfolio of Josh Miller, one of our students who used these pieces to get into the Seneca College animation program this year.



visit:

Josh Miller Animation Portfolio

on our website, to see examples of Josh's animation portfolio and the animation portfolios created by our students to gain acceptance into various animation programs.

[Gerard Sternik]

I am happy to announce that the Animation Portfolio Workshop has been voted one of the top 100 animation schools in the world by the Animation Career Review website.

Please take a look at the review of our school on our blog post link below:

Animation Portfolio Workshop Voted One of Top 100 Animation Schools in the World

Thanks to Animation Career Review on behalf of everyone at the Workshop.

Gerard Sternik / Director

Animation Portfolio Workshop

[Gerard Sternik]

So it is official....

We'll be holding a Fall Session of the Animation Portfolio Workshop starting in mid September 2012, that will end in March of 2013.

We had more students than we could squeeze in for the spring 2012 session, so the wait list transformed into a sign up list for a new session.

Please visit our website to get Program Information about the upcoming session.

The spring group is off to a great start, and is developing well.

Anyone interested in joining the Fall session is welcome to stop in and pay us a visit before our summer break in August.
Please drop me a line if you would like to stop by.


Gerard Sternik / Director

Animation Portfolio Workshop

[Gerard Sternik]

Here is another portfolio from one of the 2011 / 2012 Workshop students.

Alexanne Boissonneau's portfolio got her a spot in the Sheridan College animation program for the upcoming 2012 / 2013 school year.

Way to go Alexanne!
Best of luck next year!

Gerard Sternik / Director
Animation Portfolio Workshop

[Gerard Sternik]

A brief word to any of you contemplating signing up for the upcoming Fall Workshop.

The course is currently half full, with us waiting on a number of potential registrants doing their paperwork.

I suggest that any of you who are interested in signing up make haste with respect to securing a spot for the upcoming term.

Follow this link to get course information about our next session.

Gerard Sternik / Director

Animation Portfolio Workshop

[STgirl1701]

Hey I have a question!

Is the type of drawing you do in the workshop the same drawing as you do in art fundamentals? Which one is better for helping you get into Sheridan animation school?

Thanks!

-STgirl

[Gerard Sternik]

Hi STgirl.

It's nice to be back on the new and improved ConceptArt website....

I think it might take more than one post to respond to your question , but let's start here.

Observational drawing is ( or should be) a fairly neutral set of processes, exercises, etc, that one goes through/ performs, that address basic aspects of visual language that we've been playing around with for thousands of years in various forms of art and in various cultures...for example, when one is studying drawing, one will learn ways of seeing and drawing shape, through a variety of exercises...maybe with line that depicts silhouette shapes, maybe through line that depicts volumetric shape, or with tone to depict the tonal shapes on form, etc, etc...and it goes on and on..you basically want to learn everything you can about the subject that there is to know.

The reason I'm stating this is because when I get asked a question like yours the first thing that I always want to make clear is that , fundamentally, the basic stuff that you need to learn and know about observational drawing in order to practice it, is the same, no matter where you learn it, or by whom your taught it.

Now whether or not you are taught everything that you need to know by someone who is really gifted at teaching it all to you, is an entirely different matter, in other words, we all know that there is a range in the quality of instruction that goes anywhere from downright shabby to absolutely brilliant, depending on who's doing the teaching, etc.

So in effect what I'm saying ( hoping? ) is that, I expect that in most schools and art programs that offer basic drawing courses , like Art Fundamentals, or a Foundation Year at an Art College, the basics of observational drawing get taught.

What I am also sure of is that the type of observational drawing required to make a portfolio to get into an animation school like Sheridan College is a kind of " hybrid" of a series of observational drawing practices combined that one does not get taught in Art Fundamentals, simply because it is not the mandate of Art Fundamentals or Foundation art classes to teach such a hybrid....their mandate is to offer a general approach to the subject that gives the student a taste of a variety of things, in case they wish to specialize and go further into the subject.

Animation Portfolio Workshop is the opposite of that....although we must delve thoroughly into the subject of observational drawing in many of its basic forms, we must teach combinations of various basic approaches so our students can create portfolios that clear the bar for entry into a school like Sheridan Animation.
This sets us apart from general art programs.
Even though we must teach absolutely sound basic observational drawing exercises like a general art program, our students still have to arrive at the "hybrid" of drawing practices required to turn out a really decent animation portfolio...and we make sure they get there.

I think that the "hybrid" of drawing that we teach in the Workshop does fundamentally offer students a better chance at getting into an animation school over a general art program for the very reason that every moment you spend drawing in the Workhop, from the time you walk in the door until the time you exit is devoted to working on exercises or portfolio pieces that will be used for your animation school portfolio...and that focus in and of itself really makes the work generated by our students different from the work of students in general art programs where the goal is to sample a variety of approaches to drawing as a general introduction to the subject.

Hope that helps.

[STgirl1701]

Wow, lots of info. Thanks so much for replying to my question.

Can you tell like sort of, what kind of drawing exercises you do in the workshop? Like, are they really different than what is done in Art fundies?

-STgirl

[Gerard Sternik]

O.k. STgirl

As a quick reply that is brief, I can't tell you exactly what kinds of drawing exercises are done in an Art Fundamentals program, because there are as many types of exercises as there are people teaching them I'm sure, and what the overall goal of the curriculum designer is, etc, are questions that I could only speculate on.

I can tell you what kinds of exercises I HOPE are being taught in Art Fundamentals programs like Sheridan.....based on the fact that it is presenting itself as a general introductory program to a variety of art practices, so that means that the drawing class should generally cover some tried and true concepts and principles of learning how to draw from observation.

Based on that info, I could then show you the differences between what we're doing in the Workshop drawing wise, and what's going on in the Sheridan Art Fundies program.

Would that suffice?


Thanks.

[glass.onion]

Is the Animation Portfolio Workshop useful for students wanting to go into Illustration programs?
Or how about students who are already enrolled in school but just want to learn better observational/life drawing skills?

[Gerard Sternik]

Hi glass.onion.

Thanks for your post.

In answer to your first question; "is the Animation Portfolio Workshop useful for students wanting to go into Illustration programs", the answer is yes it is, but there are differences between the portfolio requirements for an illustration program, and the portfolio requirements for an animation program.
If you were attending the Workshop to help you get into an illustration program, I would strongly urge you to study in the area of observational painting ( use of colour / tone ) and 2-dimensional design so that you augment your knowledge and demonstrate a command of skills related to these areas (an illustration program will want to see examples of work with tone and colour) in the portfolio that you make with us.

We take care of the observational drawing parts of the Illustration portfolio requirements quite well, and with a little tweaking here and there, the drawing for animation course that we teach students is quite successful at giving students most of the required pieces for the Illustration portfolio.

We cover visualization and sketching, 2 point perspective of interiors / exteriors, object rendering ( still life) , drawing animals, hands, heads, full nude and clothed figures, as well as all the rest of the drawing requirements for an animation portfolio, etc...all the basic requirements of any program that wants to see good observational drawing methods as the basis for entry to their programs.

I know that our students get into Illustration programs out of the Workshop, because we've had students go into Sheridan Illustration, OCAD's program , BioMed Communication at U of T, etc, with a portfolio full of work from our course.

But as I said before, we would press you to augment the work your doing with us with some other stuff to make sure that your capable of meeting the requirements of the illustration portfolio that we don't cover in the Workshop.

Answer to second question; yes, without a doubt, the range of observational drawing work we do in the Workshop is great for teaching students how to improve their drawing skills regardless of what level they're at.

[Gerard Sternik]

This is an open invitation to take a challenge - starting on Monday November 19th 2012, we'll be uploading a new gesture drawing each day for 14 days. The challenge is to take each day's gesture drawing and use it as an inspirational starting point to design a character.

14 days, 14 gesture drawings, 14 character designs. From Mon. Nov. 19 to Mon. Dec. 3 a new gesture drawing at 9am each morning.




For the facebook users - you can find each day's gesture drawing on the APW facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Animat...=wall&filter=1





Or, you can find the daily gesture drawing uploaded on this blog post the APW website

http://www.animationportfolioworksho...racter-designs









Share your drawings on our facebook page or email them to:

[email protected]


We'll try to post as many as we can on our blog.

[Raymond Luk]

Ehh, guys, take the cheaper program, whatever that may be. x_x I'm in Art fundies, and sure, you get x life drawing/painting like 6 days of the week, but everything is a major drain of time. >...> You'll find that with all the homework (though they may be portfolio pieces) you'll end up with very little time to do any other drawing. > Not to mention you'll have to have an english course, which is pointless if you're not even in illustration or animation. = = Or better yet, don't take either. @_@ There are enough successful applicants on this forum, that if you ask for help preparing for either program, they'll likely be able to provide information, all for free. Like honestly man, just ask around. All you need to understand is perspective, observation, drafting/storyboarding. Done. They really like seeing things that are perspectively accurate, especially the character rotation

[Gerard Sternik]

....interesting advice Raymond.....

Thank you

It's funny, when I developed this Workshop in 1999, I had been teaching Life Drawing and Physical Anatomy in the Classical Animation Program at Sheridan College to the first year students for 4 years, and the biggest issues that a lot of my year 1 students talked about was their struggle in trying to prepare thoroughly enough to make a winning portfolio to get into the program, and then to survive the first year of the program itself and matriculate, by building on their pre-animation school training.

The amount of knowledge and prep work involved on the part of someone trying to get into the program and matriculate at the top of their class each year was, well, considerable to say the least, and of course, once they were in the program, they still had a ton of stuff to learn in the observational drawing dept....

I haven't really met a lot of students in the 13 years of teaching the Workshop who could figure the whole thing out on their own sucessfully without some serious help ( although I have no doubt that this is possible with plenty of sweat on the part of anyone willing to do it).

But, I'm not so sure that a lot of the people just starting out on the path of their training in the discipline of observational drawing wouldn't benefit from some very intense and focussed, hands on practical instruction in the practices and ideas related to learing how to draw from nature.

Being really good at teaching drawing is as difficult an art to master as the art of drawing itself.

I don't think that tips from newly forming animation students can really replace an in-depth and comprehensive study of the subject of observational drawing from someone who can draw well and teach well......

Tips are good, don't get me wrong, and every bit of sound knowledge helps, but when someone is starting out from zero...relying on tips to learn a whole subject is akin to thumbing through a book , browsing through a variety of spots quickly, and expecting to have fully comprehended the subject of the book in depth, no?

I think a lack of continuity in the teaching methodology, which in turn will reflect in a lack of continuity in the areas of practice that the individual student exercises will prove to be the greatest limitation in your suggested method of study.

Your thoughts on this would be welcomed

Gerard

[Vince Peets]

....interesting advice Raymond.....

Thank you

It's funny, when I developed this Workshop in 1999, I had been teaching Life Drawing and Physical Anatomy in the Classical Animation Program at Sheridan College to the first year students for 4 years, and the biggest issues that a lot of my year 1 students talked about was their struggle in trying to prepare thoroughly enough to make a winning portfolio to get into the program, and then to survive the first year of the program itself and matriculate, by building on their pre-animation school training.

The amount of knowledge and prep work involved on the part of someone trying to get into the program and matriculate at the top of their class each year was, well, considerable to say the least, and of course, once they were in the program, they still had a ton of stuff to learn in the observational drawing dept....

I haven't really met a lot of students in the 13 years of teaching the Workshop who could figure the whole thing out on their own sucessfully without some serious help ( although I have no doubt that this is possible with plenty of sweat on the part of anyone willing to do it).

But, I'm not so sure that a lot of the people just starting out on the path of their training in the discipline of observational drawing wouldn't benefit from some very intense and focussed, hands on practical instruction in the practices and ideas related to learing how to draw from nature.

Being really good at teaching drawing is as difficult an art to master as the art of drawing itself.

I don't think that tips from newly forming animation students can really replace an in-depth and comprehensive study of the subject of observational drawing from someone who can draw well and teach well......

Tips are good, don't get me wrong, and every bit of sound knowledge helps, but when someone is starting out from zero...relying on tips to learn a whole subject is akin to thumbing through a book , browsing through a variety of spots quickly, and expecting to have fully comprehended the subject of the book in depth, no?

I think a lack of continuity in the teaching methodology, which in turn will reflect in a lack of continuity in the areas of practice that the individual student exercises will prove to be the greatest limitation in your suggested method of study.

Your thoughts on this would be welcomed

Gerard

Like Gerard I'm coming at this from the perspective of having taught students how to prepare for animation school for 13 years in addition to having taught animation students for 5 years and my experience suggests strongly to me that instruction from an artist (teacher) in a class gives a student the benefit of experience. A wise person has said that learning how to draw is like learning how to learn how to draw. It's all about context. I believe that tips from other students can add to that experience of learning but they can't replace it.
Raymond's suggested approach does highlight an important truth - the key for the student is taking ownership of the learning process and knowing why the failures and successes happen when he or she is drawing. This is where having the experience of a team of instructors will provide the kind of over view that helps a student clearly identify their objectives and suggest practical ways to accomplish them. In short - what to focus on and why.
We all are so different in our understanding and in the ways we learn. I've found that the classroom setting makes it possible for me as an instructor to see how each student learns and this allows me to explain/demonstrate in a way that connects to each student. In my opinion, this is a whole lot different than getting tips from a fellow student at school.

It's true that you can learn from anyone. I believe that if you side-step instruction from an artist you can place yourself at a disadvantage.

I agree with Gerard's point that using tips from other students instead of a classroon setting is like thumbing though a thick book on science in hopes of comprehending it fully.

What do you think?

Cheers!

Vince

[kamikazel33t]

Do you have any setup which is more suited towards prospective animation students coming in internationally? I am moving to Canada at the end of the school year and was considering taking the Animation Workshop if I don't get accepted to Sheridan College this year, but I've noticed that your program starts in may so I was wondering if it was possible to drop in by around June which is a month after may(perhaps I might come in late may).

For the character design competition, one of the conditions to be eligible requires you to be a Canadian Citizen, what classifies a person as a Canadian Citizen? does this mean that I can participate without residency?

I was also wondering how many hours of homework do you offer? I've noticed that meetups are only few times a week so I assume there is some sort of homework to compensate.

How much life drawing access do we have as well?

[Gerard Sternik]

Hey Kamikazel33t

Here are answers to your questions:

1. It is not a problem for you to show up in June depending on two factors......

The first is when exactly in June do you intend on coming?

Secondly, we ALWAYS have a regimen of " pre start up homework" that we give to all of our students, that is quite extensive , so that they have already been working on specific drawing exercises before they start into the Workshop...this way they " hit the ground running"
If you do everything I ask you to do well in advance of the course startup date, you'll have no problem starting the course later...BUT we have to have a firm idea of how much later before we can take this part of the conversation any further.

2. APW win a free tuition contest.

The only reason that we have made the contest rules state that only Canadian citizens qualify for this year is quite frankly because after we dreamed up the free tuition contest, and set he dates so there was enough time for interested participants to join in, the actual date of adjudication of the character designs submitted was so close to the startup date of the course, that we realized that if a person like yourself from outside the country won the free tuition, which is great, you wouldn't have enough time to get the study visa to come and enjoy your prize...in other words the end of the contest and the start of the course are so close that I think it would take nothing short of a miracle to get your visa from Immigration Canada on time...and I'm really sorry about that, because I would have loved to open it up to everyone interested...next year, we will not make the same mistake, I assure you.

3. We meet on the weekends only , and pardon my language, you are expected to " draw your ass off" in between classes, repeating all the exercises from class relentlessly from a model, environment , objects etc....sheer brute repetition is what does it, once you actually know what to do properly, and have some good guidance....so is there homework? Yup....as much as you can stand.
That's why we have a break of 5 days between the classes....so that you have time to digest, and absorb the material you've done the previous weekend.
It works.....

Please continue to ask questions...I'm happy to answer them all.

...and, we'll get it right with the timing of the Free Tuition Contest next year.

[Gerard Sternik]

I forgot to ask Kamikazel33t...do you hold Canadian citizenship already!

[kamikazel33t]

Yes I do(but no residency), and the "draw your ass off" part makes it sound like my type of school because people actually ask when I don't draw. My graduation is around June so perhaps I might be at Canada late in the month of June and at the worst some time early July.

[Gerard Sternik]

O.k....so that means you can get a Canadian passport correct?

[kamikazel33t]

I actually do have one.

[Gerard Sternik]

O.k...good.

So that means that you are a Canadian citizen, and that you will not need a visa to study here...so, yes, you are welcome to enter the APW Free Tuition Contest for the 2013 / 2014 session.

Hurray!

[kamikazel33t]

Do I have to mail in originals and is there any alternative for someone who is giving in the drawings from abroad? I would also like to ask if most of the judgement weight is on technicality or mostly creativity and should I treat it like how I would with a college portfolio character(similar to Sheridan animation portfolio requirements).

[Gerard Sternik]

Kamikazel33t, I'll answer some of your questions about the free tuition contest, and I'll get Vince Peets my Co Director to log in here and address your questions about the nature of the character designs that you would enter for the contest.......


First of all, here is the link to the APW Free Tuition Contest rules:

http://www.animationportfolioworksho...ulesguidelines

Go on and download the PDF.

Now, according to rule #6, to qualify you have to MAIL IN YOUR ORIGINAL "HAND DRAWN ON PAPER " ARTWORK, not a print or facsimile.......

The obvious reason for this, is to discourage anyone from using someone else's work to win the prize , as is the drawing test that the winner takes ......it's really a precautionary measure...plus you'll be doing all hand drawn work in the Workshop if you win, so we wanted the character designs to have some relevance to the course work itself.

I'll get Vince to chime in here in regards to the character design question.

Thanks for asking..

[Vince Peets]

Hi Kamikazel33t,

Thanks for your interest in the contest. I think a lot of aspiring character designers like yourself will submit some fantastic drawings.

You're question is about what the criterion for judging will be. This is a straight cut/paste from the contest rules/regulations on our site:
11. Character Designs are evaluated on the basis of creativity, imagination, originality, 3-
dimensional structure, “life-like” quality to the poses and expressions.

Contestants are required to submit 4 views of a standing pose, 3 different action poses and 4 facial expressions.

I hope this helps - let me know if I can explain anything further for you.

We have a 14 Days - 14 Characters character design challenge on at the moment where people design one character a day for 14 days based on a gesture drawing that is uploaded to our Facebok page and our website every morning. Feel free to take part in this...

Here are a few drawings from that event...