If You’re Going to Art School Listen to This - Draftsmen S2E09
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Gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store
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Hi Guys! I’m a huge fan of theDraftsmen Podcast – and like the new YT channel for it! I’ve learned SO MUCH from you already, and am very much looking forward to what you create in the future. Composition episode – YES!!!!! I’ve done everything actionable from what I’ve heard on previous podcasts, picked up actionable items from Marshall’s website, too. Waiting with baited breath for his online accessible Composition Course to appear here on Proko 2.0 or his website.
I’d now like to play devil’s advocate for a moment on two points that you mentioned here and in earlier episodes. I haven’t been commenting on YT because it’s so huge and you’re usually inundated with comments – but this seems like a good chance. Thank you for indulging me.
1. Taking a large number of units in college isn’t always bad. I wasn’t an art student in uni, but I was a music student, and I think it shares enough commonality to be relevant. I was so thrilled when I received my first uni course catalog! I wanted to take at least half of the courses offered, and the catalog was the size of a small phone book back in the day.
Also, I had very little formal training in music, and made it into the department, and the top performance group by the skin of my teeth. (Seriously, I tied with another student for the fifth chair of five. We were conditionally accepted on probation, and we had to perform difficult passages in front of the entire ensemble at every single rehearsal twice a week, for an entire school year.) In order to acquire the knowledge I was missing, I took on extra classes to fill in the gaps as rapidly as possible. Most semesters I took 18 units (once I did 19, but you have to get the dean’s permission, and that involved paperwork), and I worked 20+ hours a week doing freelance teaching and performing.
@Marshall, you’re a fantastic teacher, and I have enormous respect for your work and approach to teaching and art – and you’ve been a wonderful influence on me in my teaching in the short time I’ve been part of the Proko community. For some students, and maybe even the majority, I’m sure going slower and really savoring classes is great advice. I was (who am I kidding, I still am) wired a bit differently, and really need that additional stimulation and information that the extra classes gave me. There may be some among the listeners who share this trait?
2. About learning as an older student…apologizes in advance – this may sound a bit preachy. Your podcasts may have initially been intended mainly for young adults, but your listenership demographic is probably a bit different I would imagine, especially considering your global reach?
Regardless of what is or isn’t scientifically proven thus far, it’s not resourceful to believe that we don’t learn as well as we get older; and that whole thing about one’s ability to produce as much myelin diminishes after age 50 as discussed in the book The Talent Code that you all recommended just gives us older folks reasons not to believe in ourselves. It’s not helpful. It’s not resourceful. It’s not inspiring. Let’s stop that 🙏 - we’re hopefully going to be seeing that shifting in the not so distant future anyway, so it’s better to ignore it or chose not to believe.
Believing you have limitations on your ability to learn can too easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and train people into learned helplessness. I’m sure that’s the last thing you intend. So, reasons not to believe in yourself including aging brain, NG. Reasons to believe and information on how to grow your brain, increase myelin, etc. VERY GOOD.
As a reminder, some advantages you might have as an older student who loves learning are:
- a broader base of info and neural connections to help you more rapidly learn and assimilate new info
- more thorough knowledge of yourself, including strengths and weaknesses
- better strategies for learning
- better strategies for managing, or better yet releasing unwanted emotions
- being able to benefit from constructive criticism
- a lifetime of practical experience on developing new skills
No matter what age, we all need reasons to believe in ourselves when tackling new challenges.
If you made it this far, thank you! Big love and gratitude to you both!!!
LESSON NOTES
After wrapping up the DIY art school series, we cap things off with an episode entirely devoted to getting the most value if you decide to attend a traditional art school. Marshall and I cover how to choose an art school that’s worth your time and money, how big of a workload you should take on, the mentality you should have when attending class, personal life stories and insights from our time attending art schools, and what you can expect after graduating (post grad depression/debt-pression).
References and books
(some contain affiliate links)
The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program
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After wrapping up the Recreating Art School series, we cap things off with an episode entirely devoted to getting the most value if you decide to attend art school.
At timestamp 52:00 the phenomenon Marshal is referring to is studied in economics. It's called the Sunk Cost Fallacy.