Would you recommend going to art college?
Never. Never ever ever. Art college never gave anyone talent. And you can attain skill for free by practice.
Ask any professional comic artist who went to art school to show you their work right before art school, it’s probably not too much different from their work after school, they probably acquired more skill, which I think they could have gotten without school with their own personal determination and scouring the internet for techniques. The only advantage school has over learning on your own is you are surrounded by your kind, your in-group, and you have a teacher giving you assignments that you will take seriously because you payed so much money to be there. Which might be the only thing that can get some people to do the work. But to me, is not worth the debt you will accrue from going to an art school and not being able to pay back anytime soon because getting a job in comics is rare and getting even an average pay comic job is even more rare.
So no, I would never recommend art college. Learn to take your practice seriously alone. Find a group of local artists to draw with so you don’t feel so alone, practice obsessively, give yourself assignments. There is even small workshops I’ve seen artists do who divulge lots of cool skill over a short period of time and for MUCH less than a college. Get art books, study Andrew Loomis obsessively. Study layouts of any artist with dynamic layouts, study different artists styles, never just be influenced by one artist, have an arsenal of artists you love and pull skill from. Fill up sketchbooks, one for learning anatomy, one for faces, just make a bunch of specific art books for different practices, get hungry, you can do this without paying a high price to a school to keep you on task. It can be done and has been done for centuries by the hungriest artists with a desire to improve and a love for this crazy ass profession in the arts.
Sorry if I offend anyone with my opinion, if you went to school and it was the best decision you made, then good for you, you are the exception. Most graduates do not make it into this profession. A few do, but I stand with what I said earlier, they had talent before they went in. They just needed a kick in the pants and to be surrounded by other like minded individuals so they can feel normal and have tasks to complete. Ask any art school alumni that is a professional comic artist now how many fellow students were terrible and didn’t stand a chance. They will say “most of them.” Many people don’t know if they are any good or not. And they find out in school. If you think you are great at something you won’t try as hard to get better. I recommend you find out what you don’t know and work on that. Humility, integrity, and practice will make you better. Just my rambling opinion.
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