Being an art major sounds nice and easy. You get to sit in a cozy classroom and do arts and crafts all day and get a degree to do just that. Just make some pretty landscape paintings or some really hot anime catgirls. And before you know it those four years are complete and you have a whole degree.
What it’s really like being an art student
As an illustration major, however, college arts programs are a lot tougher than people make them out to be. Hours upon hours spent on one singular project is the norm and even expected from most teachers.
Often projects will pile up on each other to the point that all-nighters become a familiar yet reluctant friend. Like a guy who won’t stop sending you snaps of their forehead or the sunset but you haven’t blocked them yet because they’re really good at giving you homework answers. It’s a problem that’s pervasive in most art schools where it’s sadly seen as par for the course when earning a degree in art. There are a multitude of issues plaguing art colleges, but one in particular stands out during my daily education and it is one I rarely see addressed, if ever.
The problem with personal opinions and standards in professors
Each professor is going to have their own style, preferences, opinions and emphasis on certain fundamentals. It makes sense as individual artists to have their own unique way of doing things. In fact, it helps artists to gather these varying different perspectives in order to remain unbiased when furthering their work.
However, too many students feel pressured to adjust their own style and voices in order to make a professor more comfortable. In fact, some professors can even encourage this. Some will critique projects based on their own personal opinions and feelings rather than objective rules and facts, yet treat those opinions as if they are the industry standard.
Playing it safe
Style and flair are often thrown out the window in order to uphold rigid standards set up by professors. Instead of going to the extremes and exploring what themes interest them, students often play their art safe in order to follow these principles placed upon them. Art is supposed to push reality beyond what we think is possible, not simply mirror it. Without this encouragement to explore, what point is there to make art? Why make art if it isn’t going to challenge us, inspire us or get us to think? For money, and that’s it? Is that a good enough reason on its own to do something like make art?
The exceptions…
With all of this said, it is important to state that certainly not every professor is like this. Art professors who genuinely encourage their students to explore their own styles and cultivate their own voices are national treasures and should be preserved in a lab for centuries into the future. The only reason I’m able to speak about this issue now is all thanks to my professors.
During one of my classes, I was shown how much I was truly holding back in terms of my art. I’ve been afraid to let loose and get weird. I was just pumping out stuff that I knew a teacher would like, not stuff I was genuinely proud of. I’d hate to see incredibly talented art students lose the ability to experiment just because they want to please a stinky professor.
Now, an art challenge
If you’re an art student reading this, please just stop reading and go draw the most cursed, disgusting, trippiest, weirdest thing you can possibly think of. No restrictions, no limitations and no rules. Just make something that makes you happy, maybe a little uncomfortable but something you’re genuinely proud of. Create something you can see part of yourself in, because pieces like that help you grow a million times more than any still-lifes of jars and apples possibly could.