How to become a successful artist: pros and cons studying art in college and atelier

In this article I’d like to talk about the difference between college and atelier education for visual artists. I also want to explain what parents should consider doing when a child decides to pursue art as a career.

College Education

Advantages:

• You may learn to defend your work and to make it more consistent. Professors like to do critiques about concepts and ideas, not the technique of painting. Some foundational courses may be really good if art instructors show skill in their art. There are more foundational courses available when you study for your BFA, but if you continue studying for your MFA degree you take advanced classes with freedom to do what you want and very little technical instruction. If you study for the BFA you take classes and graduate. If you study for your Master’s degree you learn to present and defend your work in front of a committee. Ideally, you develop a consistent body of work that shows others your artistic personality.
• Diploma gives you a pass to teach art at the college level with a completion of your Master’s degree, not a Bachelor’s one. BA in Graphic design is a very good choice money-wise. However, if you’d like to be a fine artist and be able to teach at a college level, you must get your MFA. (There are circumstances when artists with the BFA degree get teaching jobs in colleges because of their value to the department). Even if you get your MFA degree, getting a teaching job in college is not guaranteed because there are few job openings available. Also, intro salary will be quite low although you’ll get stability and insurance as an artist.
• College offers really good art history classes. In-depth art history classes cover many epochs, countries and movements especially when you study for your Master’s degree. Art instructors could go deep explaining art from various points of view including politics, economy and history.
• College education can be great if you come across knowledgeable and supportive art instructors who can help you with the development of your unique ideas, painting skills, and business strategies. If you’re able to develop this special relationship that I call a mentorship with a professional artist, then a college degree will pay for itself tenfold. In addition, seeking assignment assistance can be particularly useful when navigating challenging course loads, helping you manage your academic responsibilities effectively. You must be proactive and interested in your career as an artist to connect with your mentor.

Disadvantages:

• College education gives little technical skills, especially if you want to study realist painting techniques. Some colleges may offer good foundational drawing classes but oil painting is not taught well in general. In my personal experience I went through several colleges where professors didn’t know how to teach traditional painting techniques, which was incredibly frustrating.
• What you learn in terms of technical art skill depends on your professor’s art portfolio. Look at his/her work to determine if his art is something you’d like to learn.
• Art education in college doesn’t include art marketing or business classes, which is not good no matter how you look at it. Colleges give zero business skills or understanding how to get into galleries or how to write and talk about your art confidently. Personally, I couldn’t even put an effective resume after graduation and went to a college art association conference to do it over 20 years ago.

Tip: So when you pick your college to study art, also consider location, professors’ associations with galleries and their artistic level. When I went to college over twenty years ago, I assumed that I’d get good technical instruction with art history, art marketing and creative development as well. It wasn’t what I expected. If I go to study art in college today, I’ll look at art portfolios of professors to see if their work inspires me to create or I can learn from them. I’ll pick an artistically rich community like New York, LA, maybe Denver or Santa Fe. This will give me proximity to go to receptions, make contacts with curators, gallery people, and learn from professional artists the ins and outs of art business.

Atelier art education

What is it? Atelier is a workshop or studio of an artist. Atelier art education or academic art education means studying art with a few master artists in a tight circle of students. It’s the most direct way of learning the craft of painting, drawing, sculpture, glass-blowing, etc.

Advantages:

• Such schools teach a very structured approach to classical drawing and painting that you must follow to learn realist painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. After a-4 year program you have a very clear understanding how to draw and paint realistically.
• Learning the anatomy by drawing and painting from life informs your painting accuracy. It’s your critical foundation to become a realist artist.
• Art instructors have strong technical skills and most of them are very good, even exceptional realist artists known today.
• When you’re in class you start by drawing from plaster casts. Then you draw and paint objects, which is called still life painting. After that you spend a lot of time mastering human anatomy painting and drawing nude figure from life. You get daily drawing and painting instruction looking at a nude figure and studying proportions, anatomy, composition and so on. You also go out to do plain air sketches/ landscape painting outdoors.
• Ateliers are often located in artistic communities where you can build relationships with other artists..

Disadvantages:

• No art history classes or any other ‘general education’ classes. The focus is classical painting and drawing only.
• May not offer a diploma qualifying you to teach in college.
• Give no business education either but working artists many become invaluable to understand their daily practice and how they approach art marketing and networking. Mentorship is crucial to your success.
• Some people complain that when they see works of students coming out of the ateliers, they all look the same. I think this is totally normal because this type of education is about getting your skill going first. It takes a lot more time and practice to develop artistically. The atelier school takes care of the technique and the artist takes that knowledge and applies it to his vision. If you study art in college, you’re almost guaranteed not to acquire the skill and it really depends on college to see the development of vision in students.

Great atelier schools are:

• Nelson Shanks’ school in Philadelphia called Studio Incamminati ( web: https://www.studioincamminati.org/ ),
• The Grand Central academy of art in New York with Jacob Collins the founder of the school and realist movement here in the US (web: https://grandcentralatelier.org/ ),
• The Art students League of New York (web: https://theartstudentsleague.org/ ),
• Anthony Ryder’s school in Santa Fe (web: http://www.theryderstudio.com/ ).
• You can also get similar education studying with artists in their studios such as at Adrian Gottlieb’s studio in California. A number of prominent realist artists who studied under Jacob Collins include Michael Grimaldi, Colleen Barry, Ed Minoff, Joshua LaRock . They all teach academic painting at their studios.

Tip: Decide what your goal is and pick the school in accordance with your goal. Do you want to know how to paint realistically or you’re more interested in art theory and teaching opportunities at college level? Or say if you want to work at an art auction house like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, I think it’s a good idea to research their education system that prepares you to work at these institutions. In other words, your goal must be specific to determine the educational venue. I also want to say that college-level art education is not enough to become an artist with unique voice. It takes a lot more time to nurture and develop this voice visually through art. That’s why any kind of school is just a school to get the basics going and build connections but becoming the artist with your unique vision takes a lot more time, work and passion.
Your personality and willingness to work through challenges will determine your creative and business success.

For parents:

As parents, we want our children to receive prestigious degrees from established universities. We may think that studying art in prestigious university will help the child succeed. It may, in terms of networking building relationships in the right circles but few college art departments in the US give artists structured education in realist painting and drawing (if that’s the goal). Some classes and instructors could be great but the approach to teaching art in college resembles the art education in high school. There is some ‘do what you like’ attitude and studio classes could be a hit or miss. It really depends who the professor is.

If your son or daughter wants to become an artist showing talent and desire to learn, you shouldn’t stop him or her from doing this. Instead, help your child with your positive and meaningful support. Artists become successful when they go to the right school, receive great art education, and have positive mindset and a mentor.

Don’t let your negative thinking with a ‘starving artist’ mentality interfere with your child’s desire to become one. If you don’t believe in your child, he or she will internalize it studying in college for any other profession, arriving at a job he hates having low-self-esteem. There are a number of accomplished artists out there who are making a living with their art. It’s a disservice to derail a teenager from art to go and get a different degree. What happens is that precious time is lost, mistakes are made and the adult feels unhappy and unfulfilled. Teach your child to communicate well with people and to get out and learn art with passion. If a person is gifted, he has a passion and will succeed. Give her the tools to do that, not the limiting beliefs about artists or even yourself.

Usually artists have a second gift or personality trait that often becomes a money-making opportunity to rely on while making artistic strides. For example, I’m a gifted teacher and I’ve been teaching art in organizations, my studio and online for many years. I know many artists who are super entrepreneurial and this is a great combination to explore so many possibilities being an artist and a businessman. I also know artists who love to work at the museums because they enjoy administrative work. Most importantly, if the goal is to become a really good artist knowing how to paint, academic education is a lot more fulfilling than going to college wasting precious resources such as time, money and opportunities. If you pursue atelier art education full time, you’re on your way to have a real career as an artist you want to be.
Finally if you follow certain artists and you love their work, figure out where they studied art. Listen to their interviews on podcasts. Ask them about their experience directly. This will help you decide if college or academic art education is right for you.

If you find this information helpful, share it with those people who really need to understand their options studying art today.

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