Art colleges do not offer academic art, classical realism drawing and painting. Where should I study?

Question

Art colleges and Liberal Arts Colleges with Art Departments teach theory and modern art without good basic training in drawing and painting. My main interest is in Classical Realism, Contemporaray Realism, Academic Art,Still Lifes, and Portraits. Where can I get the skills needed to become a succesful painter ?

Answer 1

You should try an "atelier" school. They are popping up more and more. A good web site to see "approved" ateliers is artrenewal.org. Its the Art Renewal Center. I know of one in Rhode Island named The New School of Classical Art. Web site- danalevin.com. It is a very focused education, you will work hard and get results in painting and drawing that there is no way you could get in a regular art school. In ateliers you get individual attention from you instructor, you get to see how they work and run their studio. For someone who wants to be a painter- in my opinion- it is the only way to go.

Answer 2

I went to California College of Arts and Crafts, too, but now it's called California College of the Arts.

They, and many other art schools, have foundation classes you have to go through first. In these classes you'll draw and paint from models and still lifes; you'll also get basic design principals and Art History classes and begin to become familiar with the contemporary art world. After your first year or two you can decide whether you want to declare or change your major to something like sculpture, photography, graphic design, interiors, or fashion, to name a few (MOST students do change majors at some point, make sure you go to a school that makes it easy to change after the foundation, and that offers a lot of interdisciplinary/cross-program classes - the Academy of Art in San Francisco makes it very difficult to do this - don't go there for this and other reasons!). You will at this point also see how restrictive classical painting/realism can be for many students - I thought I loved it at first, but once you get better you see it's can be boring. Some painters go abstract completely, some just start to evolve their style into something unique, while still painting realism - if you look at the best schools you will see almost none of the graduating painters are still interested in strict classicism - So don't get the idea that this means the school doesn't teach it. Also, most schools let you evolve your own style - there is only so much training you can have in "painting what you see," so if that is what you would want to keep doing, you would not be kept from it for any reason.

Answer 3

Actually, many colleges do teach broader subjects in art. Have you tried looking beyond your immediate area?

Both USC and UCLA in LA offer classes in figurative drawing (life drawing), as well as Cal State. These also all three offer painting classes. My old alma mater, TCU, offered many such classes and offered scholarships to promising artists (like the Norton scholarship). My ex-girlfriend teaches painting at Cal State Northridge.

The problem with many schools of higher education is that they assume you already have had the basic training. It's like a college offering High School Freshman English. Most colleges wouldn't offer such a course because they figure you wouldn't even be in college if you haven't already learned basic English.

Many Junior Colleges offer beginner classes in both drawing and painting and offer adult classes in both subjects.

As to being a 'succesful painter', my friend, most of the world's best know artists never learned their craft at a university. The craft skill levels they learned either came through their own trail and error learning process or from studying under other artists.

Hope I've been of some help. And if being an artist is in your blood never give it up, never stop trying to be as good as you can be.

Answer 4

Painting Colleges

Answer 5

They don`t offer that. If your a good realist your probably better than your teachers who are failed artists and 3/4 of your fellow students shouldn`t even be there. Just accept this and don`t piss everybody off by being arrogant. Be humble. Try to develop your own degree program under an accomplished artist, someone who`s work you admire locally. Try to recreate works of masters you see in the Art museum. Actually go there and look close and try to figure out how they did what they did.

Answer 6

Eastern Kentucky University.
I know what you're thinking, oh, god, the land of the rednecks isn't going to know anything about art, but they have a BFA program in painting (as well as other stuff) and their drawing classes start at the beginning without assuming you know anything. I've been quite happy, and pretty much all of the instructors are practicing artists themselves.

Answer 7

Go to a university, major in art, then do 2 years at an art school for painting mastery.

Answer 8

California College of Arts and Crafts;
they teach 'everything'. I graduated
from there and my artwork is very much
advanced as a result. They are in Oakland
and San Francisco, California.

Answer 9

San Francisco Academey of Art Teaches EVERYTHING. They are an amazing school. Including a year and a half of basics, then your art major in whatever field.

Answer 10

Well if you want to paint houses you need to go talk to Pablo n Nem down on the corner of you street. They'll let you start the next day for $8 an hour to start based on your past experience. Now if you want to learn how to paint paintings then you need to join my school of Doctor J@e arts and crafts..................Doctor J@e