Which is better, a final year in “Fine Art”or a final year in “Graphic Design”?
”I’m currently an art student and I’m missing one more year to finish, then I can specialize in whatever i want. The thing is that I’m really interested in illustration, comic strips, anime etc…I know how to draw, but in my school in this year I can either take the last year in fine arts or in graphic design…I’m not sure which one would be better for me if i want to evolve into an illustrator…do you have any advice?”
-Rachel D. Leite
Ming’s answer:
Hi Rachel
Go for fine art, it’s easy to pick up graphic design, and you kind of pick it up as you go. In fact the best way to learn graphic design is on the job. And from friends who’ve developed their own tricks.
But a year spent exploring fine art? That is really a treasure…the kind of thinking you get to explore in fine art, is much more valuable then what you can learn in a design course. That said, make an effort to learn the basics, elements of design etc.
Fine Art, and art history, will give you a very wide range of tools/styles and ideas, that you can later apply to both illustration and design.
All the best!
Ming.
Got an art related question that needs answering? Click on the big round button!
That’s my answer, I invite YOU reader to share your own in the comments.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:25 am
I’ve been doing graphic design, interactive design and fine art for over 15 years. Looking back, I would definitely take graphic design. It helps you get ready for the professional world no matter what direction you decide to go in.
September 28th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Thank you very much for your point of view Kim
November 6th, 2007 at 2:15 am
i think you should end it with fine arts.
graphic design is also art afterall.
but there’s nothing better than just jumping
straight to the pool, or get yr hands dirty,
of doing art.
fine arts.
the most traditional form of expression
inherited since the dawn of time from our
ancestors, dating from caveman days.
you can learn the blah-blah-blah graphic design
fundamentals in symetrical-or whatsoever
theory of mind and visual relation, color,
blah-blah, later on books which you can find
tons of in bookshop nation wide now.
those books is about understanding
other human minds so you can deliver
what they and what they like.
a very psychological thing.
but doing arts, is getting knowing
yrself, first.
like Buddha always remind us,
to able to understand the world,
we first have to understand ourselves.
do fine arts.
get yrself sync with yr free-flow creativity
of mind with yr basic hands, feel the tip.
the brush, the finger, the tip.
the point and joint of control.
we have to master ourselves in being
in-control.
“roman wasn’t build in a day”?
it takes practice and touches
to make a beautiful-smooth plane landing.
“it’s the touch. the touch.”
so go on now! jump straight
to do fine arts, asap!
get yr hands dirtied,
which i always feel in everything in
life, is the basic.
“first you have to graduate from the basics,
in able to go to advanced.”
-chinyew