Hello, tis sunday.
I went down to Portsmouth University yesterday for an open day and it added more to my ability to consider where I'm going to be next year.
The area was great. Soon after exiting the station you emerge onto a massive open courtyard thing with a ridiculously amazing piece of architecture right there in the form of a rather large building (the "guildhall" or something?) Like you know one of those sights where you attempt to force everything to imprint on your mind.
I take that and compare it to Durrington Tesco.
The uni is really nicely hooked up. It's a proper, proper uni ver si ty.
The buildings where you would go to class or lectures or what have you are nicely intermingled with at least 2 subway outlets, relaxed cafes, not shit coffee-shop-look-at-my-macbook-ooo-ahh places (although you will find those outlets and their inhabitants everywhere if you look).
We first hit up the "introduction to Portsmouth University" talk, and that was cool in the sense that the speaker was a normal person. There was no sense of "yeah well you should damn well be falling over each other to be here" like with some establishments you may find.
First we went to a subject talk on illustration and then graphic design. I also spoke to staff from both afterwards to ask some questions because I have a lot of those. I often wonder how much of what I say is understandable.
Anyway what I like doing would best be expressed if I write it down, so;
Creative retouching of photographs
Digital painting
General tablet stuff
combining photographs with each other and artwork of various media
and then at every university I've looked at, there is the course selection of
graphic design
illustration
photography
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Why?
An awareness of all makes you a better artist. I don't even think graphic design is art in all cases nowadays, some people make it so cold. Dead cold.
Also I'm sad because if I was into fashion photography, or book illustrations, or a recognised area such as these, then I could go and learn from an expert in the field, a rolemodel if you will, who I could imagine myself becoming similar to. The artists in this field of whatever it is, I'll call it creative retouching and digital art, are mostly young-ish people who you find on the internet.
And the standard is so high.
Also there is an attitude of "oh so it was made on a computer...ah well...thats nice but..."
because many people cannot see that a piece of art created with SLR's and tablets and computers can require the same degree of skill as the Sistine Chapel paintings, anything you'll find in a gallery or a sculpture from a well renowned and highly skilled genius.
It's not just being "tech savvy" and manipulating technology to create work for you (I get very much the sense this is what many artists imply), it's practicing a craft and putting years into a process of improvement.
I learn most things about digital art and improving my work from the internet but I think it would be a good thing to be able to go somewhere and learn from a real life master of it.
I really like Portsmouth and I may end up applying to the illustration course and really getting a lot out of it. I could progress a wide range of illustration skills and be able to incorporate these into the digital medium that I love. But I know I will definitely not find one of these masters of the "creative retouching and photomanipulation photography editing design graphic art illustration" thing down there, because they're all on the internet.
The halls were nice, like somebody had planted happy caravans next to buildings and they grew up as part of the family.
Will
