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I get that anime is probably one of the worst offense to ever commit in an art class/school, but are other forms of animation like television cartoons get the same negative treatment about exaggerated styles? A better question would be: If anime is not considered art, does it count for all other forms of 2D animation in movies and television as of today? I got a gentle "smack on the hands" over clearly drawing anime characters in art class, especially when I had a portfolio to make. I didn't intend to go to art school and art was just a hobby, so I shamefully cut corners by making characters with silhouette bodies (proportions still obvious) in order to make myself "stand out". Meanwhile, I held a small distaste for this one girl in high school who clearly drew Hetalia characters in a "western flair" with no extreme exaggerations, just with pointed nose, very thin facial frame, thin body frames, and copied color palettes from existing Deviantart fanart. This was in senior year of high school so I give my word that I don't think like this anymore in college, because there is no reason to think that way anymore.

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Though many parents may disagree with me saying so,
I believe an art school is the only type of school –apart from home– where education is done more or less properly.

Artistic freedom should be encouraged – not limited.
While most well-known artists have walked the stairway of fame on their own,
I still think an art school would make a formidable guide for you.

By all means, go for it!

Walked the stairway of fame on their own?! Most of the artists the public can name off the top of their head had years of schooling and apprenticeship to a master artist or school before branching out on their own. Truly self-taught artists - those with no outside instruction, teaching, or influence are so super rare they cause a sensation when discovered. Henry Darger is one of the most well-known of these. (And his is truly a heart-breaking story - you should look it up some time.)


Anime is not hated for itself. It is hated due to the overwhelming number of art students that can't draw anything BUT anime, and the weeaboo attitude of some of them. You try and teach them proper anatomy and they are likely to resist - "[Name of an anime] doesn't draw anatomy like that and it is professional and popular!" Anime style was basically ruined for future students because the anime style focused students in the past were annoying, immature, and horrible students. Now all art instructors assume any anime student is going to be hard to teach, won't be able to draw anything but anime, and will annoy them the whole time they are trapped in a studio together by incessantly blathering about how magical Japan is and how they are going to go there and be famous drawing anime.

I'm sure if a gazillion students came in drawing nothing but art in Hannah-Barbara or South Park style those would soon be looked down on as well. Again, it is not so much the style itself, as it is all the other baggage that seems to accompany it most of the time.

Hah, you make a good point, I believe I was being a bit too general here.

What if we limit ourselves to the internet public? After all, here is the domain where your background is as much of importance as your nickname.
The downside being that so much merely decent works get uploaded that it's strange to say on what criteria you can get famous on the net.

Fame is a fickle b*#$h. Van Gogh only sold one painting in his life (to his brother in law) and despaired that no one liked his art. He was often laughed out of cafes when he showed his work. Fame only found him after death, because fame is cruel. Michelangelo only became famous because he carved a forgery for a criminal, and when the noble being swindled showed up with the guards he was impressed enough with Michelangelo's work that he sponsored him and displayed his works. So luck brought a noble and fame to Michelangelo's tiny studio beneath the stairs.

Fame is being in the right place at the right time and wearing the right clothes.

It reminds me again that most artist only get famous AFTER s/he dead. Of course most artist surely wants to get famous BEFORE their death...

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Steps to Becoming a Famous Artist in Your Lifetime
1. Suffer
2. Make art
3. Fake own death
4. PROFIT

Anyway, to bring this thread back around to the original topic of art school, I've been hearing some negative things about the Art Institutes lately - mainly that they have a generally poor quality of education, are very expensive, and are essentially "degree mills". I was surprised to hear this because my high school art teacher and counselor recommended that I go to one. I visited the Chicago campus ONCE on their open-house day and was first of all annoyed that they were pressuring attendees to enroll there THAT DAY. I said I would like more information about the college, gave them my contact info, and that was that. Well, after that, their enrollment advisers kept calling me and pestering me to ask if I would be coming to their school in whatever the next semester was. I at first tried to be polite "I've decided to get my Associate's at my local community college" which disappointed them but apparently didn't dissuade them from calling back. Eventually I just had to be frank and say "I do not have the money to come here right now." My adviser that day (every time it was a different one) seemed sympathetic and asked if I would like to be taken off the calling list. I said I would like that very much. A few weeks later.... ANOTHER CALL. And to this day, I receive promotional "open house" material from TWO of their campuses near me.

The pushy "sales" routine already makes me suspicious, but I've researched them on the internet and the general consensus is that artists should avoid going there. However, I've seen a few current or former students claim that the problem with the college is not the college itself, but lazy students who do not do their work, learn nothing, and then go around talking about how terrible the school is.

If anyone has any advice for me, that would be great...

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It depends almost entirely on the individual campuses. With 50 something campuses of course some are going to be awful. That is why I recommended researching the faculty and out-going students.

The fact is, the Art Institute really only has 2 well established and old campuses - Pittsburgh and Atlanta, both over 50 years old. The other campuses vary wildly in quality, and the bad ones, since they share the same name as the good ones, taint the word of mouth quite a bit.

The only ones I saw bad mouth the campus in Atlanta were generally poor artists and students. Truthfully, the school should have failed them, but took their money anyway. But there were also a lot of great students that came out of it, and a lot of outstanding professors. But yeah, you get out what you put in. SCAD is generally considered more prestigious, but it is even more expensive. At the studio I worked at, we had a joking rivalry between the AI alumni and the SCAD alumni, as most of the artists broke down along those lines. The work from both was of the same high quality, but we had more AI alumni kept on board than SCAD alumni when the studio started making cuts, for whatever that is worth. (Probably coincidence.) The point is, the studio didn't care where we went to school. They cared about our portfolios and the quality of our work on the in-house project.

EDIT: I should also mention the proximity of SCAD to AI of Atlanta keeps that AI campus on its toes, as you can almost throw a rock and hit the other school. The two are constantly being compared to each other and the quality of the Atlanta campus benefits from this other prestigious art school being on its doorstep as a rival. Several of our instructors were SCAD alumni of years past.

Don't attend an Art Institute that doesn't require a portfolio for admission. That is a big red flag if they don't. Do your research. Are there better art schools than AI out there. Yes. Definitely. They are also even more expensive. All art schools are private universities, so they will run 2-3 times the cost of a public university. Do your research and be very picky.

EDIT: I don't want to sound like I'm endorsing AI schools - I just had a positive experience with AI of Atlanta. Some of the best art schools are actually in Southern California. I'll repeat - do research. Lot's of it.

Has anyone been to Art Center in Pasadena? My aunt once raved about it being prestigious but I never checked it out because I wasn't that serious to make art my career. I just want to know if it's what it's cracked up to be.

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