Hello there! I've had an rather rough last day of freshman year, so I wanted to wrap things up here on Steem. This is my first post on here and I'm not sure what to expect, but I've heard that it is an absurdly positive community as far as social media goes. I'm looking forward to learning more about it.
Today I took my final exams for Ceramics and Modern World History. Now, it usually baffles people when I tell them that I take Ceramics. I'm somewhat notorious in my grade for my drawings, so why am I not in Drawing I?
Let me let you in on a little secret. I took Drawing I for about six days. Then I dropped out.
I still haven't answered the question. Why? What was so bad about a HIGH SCHOOL drawing class that you had to drop out?
Pssst. It's because the drawing teachers. Hate. Anime. They think the anime/manga style is cliche.
You'd think they would grade all art styles fairly, but if they don't like yours, you're in for a rough class. I hear about it from my art club friends all the time.
A friend of mine has amazing line art that's heavily inspired by the comics he's read.
Once, this friend got the comment "Nope... you have to do something different" back with his artwork, along with a 0/5 for a homework grade. Here, the word "different" means "normal". Basically, his teacher was restricting his creativity and ability to think outside of the box.
Nowhere in the class description for Drawing I does it say that only "normal" artwork, or more specifically, realism, is acceptable.
Honestly, I could've taken that class, sucked it up, drew everything in a realistic style, and waltzed out with an A. It would have been so easy.
I guess I should mention that I made a great first impression on my teacher; she praised my self portrait in the first few days. But her praise wasn't something I could be too proud of. Actually, I was a little ashamed.
Before learning how to draw anime, everything I drew tried to mimic real life, because I didn't expect other styles to be any harder. I didn't know that drawing anime had its own quirks and challenges. I used to think hyperrealism was the ultimate end-goal. I really looked up to things like that.
But I didn't want to scrap my style for a good grade in Drawing I. In the end I chose the class that would give me more experience; the class that I'd actually enjoy. Here's the inside of a bowl I made a month ago.
I'm happy to announce that I have no regrets at all, and will be taking Ceramics II next year.
But for now, since the school year is over, I will focus on getting my artwork out there. I'm currently chasing after a dream job in animation, and have a long way to go.