I can only answer for my experience in animation, but to be honest going to art college isn’t necessary for getting a job.  That’s not to say art school isn’t valuable, or worthwhile if you can afford it and know you will make the best out of your time there (actually learning and making stuff).

I wanted to go to art school, but I failed to get into my school of choice and couldn’t afford it anyway.  So instead I moved to LA after highschool and got a job as the lowest rung on the ladder at an animation studio, making photocopies and scanning drawings.  Over the next decade I moved up to inking, then to layout, then finally design and storyboards, and that served as my education.

These days I think potential hirers value good work ethics and a willingness to grow and learn just as much (or possibly more) than a degree (a good portfolio and the ability to network helps too, of course).

Nope!  See above.  :]

Laura Palmer watercolor/marker drawing for The Twin Peaks art show tonight

Someone asked me who the two new girls in my Skadi comic are, and if they were from her clan. It’s not super relevant to the storyline, but I do have a little backstory made up for them if anyone’s interested. They’re both teenage runaways/wannabe mercenaries but are from separate clans.  If they look familiar at all, it’s because one is from the Amazon tribe that Skadi will later fight as an adult. The other is from Nit’s village.

A comic about mornings.

I had a mishap with my blog a couple years ago and managed to lose all of my old posts, and a lot of the art I once had up there might be a bit difficult to dig up to repost.  I’ve had a few people ask me about my old tutorial style blog posts like the one on drawing mouths, but to be honest I now feel like I shouldn’t have been attempting to teach anyone about construction and things like that.  The drawings I posted certainly didn’t illustrate what I was preaching about, and now I feel a bit bad about that.  :<

Thanks you, I’m glad you liked Skadi!  Lessee…this is a tough one, there are a lot of mangas I really like a lot.  I love anything by Ai Yazawa, who’s Gokinjo Monogatari really influenced how I drew as a teenager.  I like a lot of Tezuka’s more lighthearted stuff…and some other favorites would be Ranma, Dragonball, Dr. Slump, What’s Michael, Happy Mania, Peach Girl…there are a lot.  :]

Hello!  These are some of my favorites:In case you can’t read it, that’s Kerascoet’s Beaute and Miss Don’t Touch Me, Lewis Trondheim’s Ralph Azham, Chris Blain’s Gus and his Gang and Isaac the Pirate, Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat, and my absolute FAVORITE comic series ever, Dungeon, which has many different contributing artists.

jordanmello:

Here is a higher resolution version of a guest comic I did for Katie Rice’s Skadi comic.  It was a cool opportunity to do a guest comic for her and think it came out pretty good.

mikelaughead:

lindblut:

mikelaughead:

From Anthony Holden!

anthonyholden:

What are studios looking for? How can I get into a good animation school? What should I be studying?

I get a lot of these types of questions now and again, and I never know how to answer them. I can’t be sure of what studios are looking for, I don’t control admissions policies to schools, and I have little idea what makes for a current and relevant curriculum. There are a lot of variables in your bid for a career in animation, and it’s kind of impossible to control most of them. You must be crazy to want this job!

I find it helpful to focus on the things I can control. Among those things are your study habits and how you spend your personal time. It’s good to work hard and have goals—without them we would get nowhere. Study hard and make decisive strides towards achieving your art goals. But in the heat of that pursuit, don’t forget to go out and live your life!

If you spend any amount of time looking at artists online, you’ve probably figured out by now that there are about a million dudes and dudettes in internetville who draw better than you (I relive this realization daily). Once your have done your best to rise to their level, the only tool you have to compete with these crazy talents is your background, your personal character—is you!

Consider developing your whole self with the same raw focus and intensity that you develop a particular skill set. Get focused. Go out, have adventures. Run, jump, skin your knee, fall in love, root loudly for the away team at a baseball game, barely escape a crash of stampeding rhinos, live to see another day. Experience things big and small. Go for a walk. The world is full of wonders.

I know this advice is not particularly animation-specific, but maybe that’s for the best. At any rate, it is something I feel strongly about. Animation is great, and there are few things that I enjoy doing more than drawing and storytelling. But in order to have stories to tell, first you have to live them.

Be good, and see you soon!

PS, if you were looking for advice on draftsmanship you should probably be reading this.

This is the best advice for any student or hopeful student. Having lived your life watching cartoons and drawing in your room won’t help you to make stories that involve doing much. I’m a total homebody, but doing things that force you to experience life in different ways is key. So just go to a new place, talk to the weird guy on the street, try a new food, whatever. It will enrich your life and the stories you tell.

I wished I could go around the world but I’m trapped in a loan.
So here is a personal advice: DO NOT TAKE A CREDIT/LOAN UNLESS YOU HAVE LIVED LIFE TO IT’S FULLEST AT LEAST ONCE.

You’ll regret.

But yeah sharing this because it’s awfully beautiful and true.

I don’t think Anthony is saying to tour the world, he is saying go and do stuff. Don’t just draw and sit at home. Even things as simple as getting a minimum wage job somewhere teaches you about dealing with people. I too was a missionary like Anthony (except I was in Argentina) but the job I had as a security guard for a summer gave me a lot of experiences as well, so did visiting my brother when he was in the army and volunteering at a Boy Scout camp last summer was crazy. So go and do, meet some people, volunteer at something, find a place to fish, eat a bug, whatever. Those are the things that make great stories.