Is a degree from an art school or being self-taught the best career path for a visual artist?
I'd like to talk to you today about this idea that you can be a successful artist by teaching yourself. As a 13 year visual art teacher and professional artist I have a few insights .
Let's examine art schools and universities first. In order to go to four-year universities or art schools the first thing that you're gonna need to do is apply and get accepted. You do this by submitting an application and a portfolio of current art work. Once you get accepted you work towards your major and then you graduate and usually go to work.
What are the benefits of going to a four-year university/ art school? There are several advantages for going down this road. Number one you are learning from individuals who have been in the actual environment and have experienced all the ups and downs of working in the art genre that you're interested in. The second advantage is that you are not going through this in a vacuum; you have many individuals who are going along with you. The advantage of that is that you will always have more perspectives to learn from than just your own. The third advantage is that, if you have done your research beforehand and you have chosen the right school, the majority of schools will help you in getting into the actual job of your art genre. The fourth advantage is you are creating a network of individuals to relate to, to understand where you are coming from and your perspective, you will have an advantage in developing ideas. This comes from being exposed to more people and their ideas. Creativity does not flourish without a lot of input. The fifth advantage is that you will have more resources available to you. Schools and universities have shops, computer labs, studios and facilities for creating. The only disadvantage to going to an art school or university that I can think of is the financial burden that is associated with it. Schools have costs and some are not cheap, but most have scholarships and financial aid though. Think about it this way, you need to invest in yourself, this will provide you with the opportunities to make the living you want.
Now let's look at the advantages of being self-taught. The advantage is that you are doing things your own way, you are giving yourself projects to learn from and you are guiding your own direction. When it comes to understanding specific skills and processes within visual art you will be responsible for finding these and learning them. Going down the road of being self-taught has a lot of disadvantages though. The number one disadvantage is you have to literally do everything yourself. You will have to find new ideas, new perspectives, new techniques, new processes. All of these you will have to discover on your own and instead of practicing technique or process, you're gonna have to split your time between discovering these processes and techniques and learning and practicing them. This will limit your ability to stay relevant and current. You will also have to foster your own network in order to build relationships that will help you become a successful career artist. Being self-taught has its freedoms but with those freedoms there are a lot more burdens involved with being successful.
The goal of visualartcareerguide.com is to help visual artists become successful career artists. I can't recommend trying to be a self-taught artist. I highly encourage you to look at art schools/ universities in order to help you become a successful artist. I talk about this process in my tutorial for applying to visual art schools. This tutorial is available in my shop.
You can be a successful independent self-taught artist. It's just one of the hardest ways to do it and I truly believe in the philosophy of working smarter not harder.
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