Most artists I run into are self taught because they start at a really young age. Do you guys think being self taught is better than being academically taught, or even vice versa? I think that both are equally just as good. Self taught artists usually have to learn the hard stuff themselves like fundamentals. While academically taught artists have it a little easier because well..they're taught how to do it. Stylistically though, I think self taught artists have an advantage.
I am a self-taught artist. I did have some instruction in the form of art class, but that wasn't as much instruction as a way to keep us from going nuts.
I'm a bit of both. I started self-taught as my kindergarten and grade school lacked funds for proper art classes, but come high school I attended art for all 4 years, and even went to some public art groups after I graduated. For the years I was self-teaching, I wasn't able to explore various mediums or learn some advanced stuff, but I did get a passion, a strong imagination, and tried to experiment with what I had. I didn't develop much of a style, rather it was similar to 'poorly copy a drawing' at some points- later on my art did start to form a bad '80s-90s kid anime' style, copying Yugioh and Pokémon's art. I was also affected by others' comments much easier- I remember a time I nearly broke down and scrapped a drawing of Riolu because a 5 year old told me she didn't like it. I was over 10 years old at that point, and something a child told me nearly left me in tears. When I started to attend classes, I learned things I didn't know existed/couldn't fully understand on my own- such as perspective and color theory. My (good) teacher pointed out my flaws and aided me on the right track. Her teaching toughened my self esteem on my art, and helped me on handling comments (still didn't help when dad called a drawing I did over the course of 3 days 'stupid' in front of me ;n;.) My style developed more as I learned new techniques and studied other art mediums/famous artists. However, I have to note that around this time, I stopped really experimenting with my tools. I've started to toy with messing with my supplies again, though. Now that I'm not in any art classes, I'm self-teaching again, but I can definitely tell that I'm doing better on it now that I know what I need to improve and study thanks to my time in school.
I’m pretty much mostly self-taught, but I occasionally watch one or two tutorials. I’ve also asked a few of my friends for advice for creating digital art.
I'm self-taught. Never had a drawing lesson in my life. I'll occasionally look at online tutorials, but that's only for inspiration. I never actually follow them word for word.
I'm self taught too, didn't exactly learn how to draw pokeymanz in school. I believe everyone can draw, but taking classes on it can help you get better at it. I don't think one is better than the other, but taking classes should build on what you can do on your own and make that better.
I'm mostly self-taught, but I did take a drawing class last spring that I learned a lot in. Moving on, I'm probably going to try and combine what I learned in class which my own self-taught 'lessons' so I guess that would make me a bit of both.
I would be self-taught as well, although when it comes to digital art it ain't really saying much yet.
Self-taught here! I did take a semester of my high school's art class a few years back but it was total garbage to me because they only taught things like perspective and realism which doesn't help my situation of being stuck in an eternal hell of drawing cartoony bishounen idol boys. not that im complaining though To OP's point: I also believe self-taught artists have a stylistic advantage because we're given the freedom to make our own styles instead of copying a strict set of steps to draw a "style" an instructor wants. I bet there are schools who allow that freedom but I'm not planning to spend my entire life doing art so I wouldn't know.
yes!! i feel like in school you're taught to draw a certain way (realism, pointilism, really the big big art genres of classic art). being self taught grants so much freedom.
