An Artist's College Course?

[whitembers]

To land yourself in a career with comic books, what college course do you suggest taking? Or, what courses did you take to get where you are now? I hear graphic design is a good place to start but I'd like some opinions and more importantly college and career advice.

[nayias]

As I've found out through the last five years of college, there really isn't one path that'll get you a degree that helps you be a comic book artist. I've seen some colleges that do offer classes on the subject, but they're electives more often than not.

But to answer your question, I would say any art degree that has to do with illustration will be helpful, I would definitely take at least one graphic design class, since they deal with some of the technical issues you'll face.

Most definitely take a figure drawing or anatomy class, they might even use the same books folks have been promoting here. Those classes have been the most helpful to me on proportion and shading..

Something to keep in mind also is that if you're planning to try and work for a company, they might nod at the fact you have a degree, but that's not what will make or break you getting the job, the editors will be looking at how you draw, how you do sequentials, essentially assessing how strong of an artist you are. (Or at least, so I've heard from various sources, including Breaking the Panel)

So if you're really wanting to be a comic book artist, you definitely need to know the basics of anatomy and proportion and all, but you also need to practice and develop your innate skill and style.

Doodle in the margins of your notebooks, (while paying attention to class, obviously) draw while you're waiting to do something, draw every single day to get the look and feel of your characters better and better. Who do you want to emulate? What styles do you really like, what styles do you dislike? Really look over the comics or anime or manga you own, see who draws in a way that appeals to you and slip some of that influence into your characters.

To be honest, as far as college goes, you might benefit more from getting a marketing degree, or something to help the day job you'll need as you're getting established as an artist. Another aspect of being an artist or writer is networking and basically hustling your product (your name and your work), you should definitely get an account on deviantART or SheezyArt, so you have someplace to point people rather than hauling your portfolio around with you everywhere. (Though you SHOULD have a sketchbook with you at all times, )

One thing I've had difficulty with is getting anything done with my stuff thanks to my college classes taking up so much of my creative energy, but one, that could just be laziness, and two, it may not necessarily be the same for you. You'll get a feel for what you really like doing, whether it's pencils, inks, colors, sequentials or covers, and what bores the crap out of you.

WHEW~! So yeah, there's a few things to think about as far as college classes for prospective comic artists, ^^ Feel free to ask anything I didn't address or might have brought to your attention, I don't get sick of writing long diatribes..

[nikkigraves]

I've heard of a few colleges offering a "Sequential Art Major." though if you ask me which colleges they are, I wouldn't be able to tell you at all......

I know that with colleges and everything you have to still take Gen Eds in most places, but something I always try to do is make sure I have a drawing class EVERY semester. This will help keep you in the habit of drawing even if you get overloaded with classwork for other classes. If you can swing an internship designing book covers for a company or drawing ads, that's also a good thing to try to shoot for.

Otherwise, I think Nayias has pretty much covered everything else I could add. Good luck!

[bigrick]

Joe Kubert school and SCAV are two that train you for a career in comics.