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my boss, who also went to SVA thirty years before me, just told me he had the same frustration upon graduating: "they taught me how to draw, but not how to find a job in my industry." thirty years and STILL no one has figured out how to teach this. why do we go, then?
"to get better at drawing?" true, but i was going to get better anyway. i was drawing every day, for hours and hours, for 4 years. my professors barely helped me with technique and mostly critiqued final products.
"to develop a critical eye?" sure, and i did, and some of my professors helped me with that. but not all. many were quick to enforce THEIR tastes as what was "good" and what wasn't, which was confused me in the development of my style and my voice.
only two of my professors ever gave me insight as to HOW they made it in illustration, and their stories were NOT what i thought was expected of me. it took them years of working jobs they didn't want to do & portfolio development post-graduating to find their success.
WHY are we not teaching this? WHY are students still in the dark about how to get paid for their work, 30 years later? WHO is going to shine the light and help future artists find their way in these industries that are already so tough, and even tougher to navigate alone?
so many of my peers who were such incredible artists did not pursue careers in illustration after graduating. because we didn't know HOW. because we weren't finding success with the archaic methods of job-finding that were supposed to help us in this modern world.
a career goal for me is to go back to SVA & teach a course on this exact thing. even if i'm not an expert, or the most successful of my peers, it's something more than the giant question mark most of the students graduating will leave with. someone has to turn the light on.
