Anonymous asked: hi! i just wanted to let you know that i love your figure drawings, everything you draw is incredibly expressive - and if you don't mind answering, could you offer some tips to get into calarts? and how's the social life there?
ah thank you very much for the compliment! really appreciate it.
when i was applying to CalArts, my greatest teachers, Linda Dorn, Reem Bassous and Yida Wang always encouraged me to create a portfolio that I wanted to make. Linda Dorn scolded me one day when I was looking at some of the accepted students portfolios by saying why i was looking at students work. I was confused and said “because they were accepted!” She sat me down and explained “why do you look at amateur artist and try to be like them? It’s like you are wanting to learn from apprentices and not from the masters.”
she was telling me to study the professionals out in the field and do what YOU want to do. by only looking at what the students have done before, i was only limiting myself for the portfolio. create your own voice, style, and show personality in your work in your own way. draw from life always, see the world the way you want to interpret it. create story with your lines.
If you are struggling with life drawing, find a life drawing class where a pose is an hour or even longer. that’ll really help you to slow down and appreciate every little detail the human figure has to offer and find an instructor who can pinpoint anatomy and help you with it. there’s a famous life drawing instructor Jim Dine (i think that’s his name) and on one of his documentary, he stated that at one point when you study the figure, you begin to see mountains, cliffs, beautiful scenery from the curves and lines the body makes. and when you begin seeing and appreciating those things, you begin to create art with a human figure.
social life here at calarts is amazing!!! i call many of my classmates my ‘ohana (family in hawaiian) and they’re really like my brothers and sisters. I truly feel blessed to be here. there’s only a handful things you can do here but you make it up with the wonderful people you meet.
let me know if these answered your questions and feel free to contact me privately ^^ knocknak@gmail.com
have a great day!
-nak
