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Message: <blockquote data-quote="solitaryVSong" data-source="post: 1907490" data-attributes="member: 77930">I think you'll find a variety of personal experience with art school here as well as a variety of opinions. And as Colleen says there are different types of art schools, so the experience can be really different.My first painting course was at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. I hated it and it was almost enough for me to give up on art. But then I happened to sign up for some courses at City College of San Francisco and loved them, particularly because of a painting teacher, who made his living as an illustrator, who just loved painting. His enthusiasm for painting was infectious.More than anything else it has been teachers who loved what they were teaching that influenced me. But almost none of them made a living from their art. That's why they taught. So that's another question to consider. What is more important: becoming a good artist, or making a living as an artist? It's probably good to know right off that they don't always mesh. On the other hand there are a number of artists here who do make at least part of their living from their art. Since I never have I don't feel I'm the best one to say anything about it.But I can say that I've always loved doing art and that art school has encouraged that love and has also taught me discipline and persistence, two very valuable things. Once you get out of school you no longer have the daily feedback that you got in school, though there are places like here that give you feedback today. When I got out of school that wasn't the case though so it was really important that I'd learned discipline and persistence. You need that if you're going to keep working with little personal contact with other artists. There's no guarantee at all that you'll learn that in school but I did and so for me art school was definitely worth it.I also know there are all sorts of successful self-taught artists. My guess is that it reading about better known bird artists I've found that the split was about even. So it really depends on the individual. All you can do is consider what others have to say about it and then make your own decision. And of course you can always change your mind. Try art school and drop out if you don't like it. But do some research about the school and find one that you like before signing up.Good luck!</blockquote>

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