Is a studio art minor the right choice for me?

#1

Hello everyone!

I’m a computer science and electrical engineering double major with a minor in mathematics. I love what I do. I like the idea of working on hard to solve problems and I like the idea of developing products to solve real world issues.

I love what I’ve done in my 3D modeling program of choice, Blender 3D, but I have not done any 2D artwork in the past two decades. I’ve hit a wall in my 3D work. I need to learn how to draw - to sketch at least, but at this point I don’t even doodle on paper.

What I’ve done in Blender 3D has already proven itself useful. Knowing how to work Blender’s GUI translated over into Altium Designer very readily. Additionally I was able to do a 3D sketch of an idea for a product with the mechanical and electrical engineers nearby and it seemed to be a skill that not many of them had.

I’m very interested in physics simulations engines (ray tracing, kinematics, etc) and additive manufacturing (3D printing, laser sintering/laser melting). I’d not mind going to work in the game industry working on the actual engines. Any way I look at it, being able to work in 3D mediums is directly applicable to my career.

I also find it a lot of fun.

The art minor I’m looking at requires two semesters of design classes, a semester of drawing class, then two electives (another semester of drawing, then a semester of sculpting).

This is my 3D portfolio, I am currently 100% self taught:
This is the first project I ever took to completion, with the goal of animating fire (2009)
This is the second project, learning how to work with Arbaro and particle systems. (2010)
This is a piece from my latest work-in-progress, the compass for a steampunk-styled nautical cartography desk, (2013) (Uses the Blender 3D Materials VX and Online Material Library)

I have no 2D portfolio. I can do stick figures. I also have a disadvantage in that I have a cervical disk injury impinging on my carpal and cubital nerve roots and dysgraphia/dyslexia. The latter of which strongly discouraged me from attempting drawing since I couldn’t write clearly.

However, dysgraphia and dyslexia should not prevent me from learning how to draw, as an adult I’ve learned this is a separate part of the brain and I should have been drawing since I was 12!

Taking the studio art minor does not increase my cost of attending school. Tuition is at about $34,000/year for 24-36 credit hours/year and my course rotation locks me at 26-28 credits a year applicable to my major. Per-credit-hour cost is $1221/hour. My concern is the minor is focused on traditional mediums. When I came in with my very basic 3D modeling portfolio it excited a few people.

I want the regimentation of a college class. I need something to hold my feet to the fire regarding art while my feet are being held to the fire regarding math, science, circuitry and programming or my attention to art will drop off. I’m lacking the discipline to pursue something that’s ‘just a hobby’ while I’m in school.

Should I go with this studio art minor or should I look at other regimented venues?

I’m willing to consider applying for permission to dual-enroll since the digital art program at my university is non-extant. Are there any online schools you all would recommend for digital art that will meet me at ‘step -12 - remedial doodling’ and take me through ‘step x - epicness’? Are there any art schools in Oklahoma (Tulsa area to be specific) that are paying attention to these forums?

Thank you all very much for your time, I really appreciate your guidance and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

#2

What level of drawing do you want to reach by the time you graduate college? Do you just want to make decent/solid sketches, or do you want to achieve ‘epicness?’ And in your mind, what do you consider epic?

Because from an education/learning standpoint, it’s night and day.

#3

You have good timing - I just finished the first homework assignment in the ‘drawing I’ course and when I went to write down a few numbers and noticed a reversal, which hasn’t happened in years! Dyslexia is weird, that’s all I can say.

I care that I can see as an artist and that what I sketch helps me work on 3D models. Learning to draw will primarily be a side effect of learning to model/sculpt.

I consider this: http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/steampunk_results pretty epic.

Let’s say I want to get to the point where I could model/sculpt triple A movie grade props with about 2.5 to 3 times as much time into the work as an entry level professional artist and that I’d like to be able to model and animate characters that would fit into an animated children’s movie, Wall-E, Shrek, Finding Nemo, etc or a decently funded video game at the same rate.

#4

I just went through and crunched the numbers on my course rotation. I cannot take the studio art minor without pushing my graduation to Spring 2018, which is far too long for me to stay an undergrad.

I do have summers, though.

It’s looking like I’m going to have to do things the hard way, isn’t it?

I’d really prefer regimentation and guidance like what I’d get in an online course to pure experimental experiential learning. Are there any online digital art programs worth mentioning?

#5

I was a studio art major at a fairly pricey private school and I honestly didn’t learn a whole heck of a lot, outside of my specialty classes of graphic design and photography. At least nothing that stuck with me 15 years after the fact. (And I took drawing, painting and all the other basics.) Your mileage may very, obviously.

If anything, I’ve learned far more on my own in 4 months on my own than I ever did in a proper college class. (You can see my pitiful portfolio under my name, along with a drawing progression showing what I learned in just 4 months.)

I mostly learned from this guy , Neil Fontaine. Both his tutorials on YouTube as well as his 'Painting Comics ’ class (and others) on Udemy.com. This class offers form, lighting, perspective in the first chunk, then human figure drawing/heads, etc. There’s so much content in that one course, I’m only about 1/2 way through it all.

Andrew Loomis also has a great series of books out that a lot of artists swear by. I own a few myself, and have gotten great insights from them, but alas, I tend to learn more from videos.

The key is not just watching the videos or reading the books, but practicing over and over and getting decent feedback (like what you can find here on the forums under art techniques) every so often. I work about 50 hours a week, and I still dedicate a minimum of 1-2 hours a night to draw and paint, even when I don’t feel like it. And on the nights I do feel like it, I’ll spend up to 5 hours just drawing because I enjoy it so much.

And the practice ends up training your brain to remember things like how the human body is 8 heads tall, where deltoids go, how far down a person’s arms go, how to shade objects based on how much light, and where, light hits them, etc. It’s creepy (and cool) that even when I’m ‘playing’ around, all of this still influences what I draw, even if I think I’m doing stupid stuff.

Anyway, I, personally, don’t really see the need for a regimented class or minor for you to just learn the basics and draw those cool mechs in your posted example. Because even after the class ends, you’ll still need to practice and continue learning anyway. (And really, I’m betting you can just start sketching out pretty neat stuff in less than 6 months.)

Oh, and here’s another thought – I don’t know if cost would be an issue, but to save some wear and tear on your hands, you should think about picking up a small Wacom drawing tablet. You can get one for about $100. And then sketching and drawing in Photoshop or something like this (which I own and love more than Photoshop) Manga Studio 5/Clip Studio Paint … Simply because you’ll be able to do a lot of things with a mouse (circles, squares, perspective lines) and save the actual ‘by hand’ drawing for things like form shading and more organic lines and faces.

Just a thought. Or a dozen. :slight_smile: