On Saturday 16th April, I had the privilege to attend a Schoolism live event being hosted finally in London! 

For those who aren’t aware of Schoolism- Schoolism is a division of Imaginism Studios. An illustration collective of top-end artists who work for the likes of Disney, Ubisoft, dreamworks and many more. Schoolism, its school is a platform for aspiring illustrators, concept artists, character designers and everyone inbetween to learn from the pros in a detailed 6 week video plan, using on a particular area of illustration or art.

Last summer, I had participated in one of their online courses and it was an insightful experience; so there was no doubt that I would even dare to turn away a face to face experience with not 1 but 3 other artists who are doing well in their respective industries. 

We were joined for the day by artist Christophe Lautrette and his topic of discussion from script to screen, and how the visual development of  production design plays a major role within film.

After was Wesley Burt and his discussion on character design and  video games.

And last but not least was Karla Oritz, who was really the life of the party with her inspiring story of how she overcame shortcomings and developed in concept art.

Now to mention the pros and cons of my day. 

Pros

1. Portfolio Review

 I had my portofolio reviewed by a representative of the popular gaming studio- King. I think the feedback I received was both encouraging but a wake up call at the same time. 

2. This also doubles up as a networking event. 

You meet people from all walks of life. Some are already within industry others just starting out and it was really good getting to know a couple of people.

Cons

1. It wasn’t a workshop

The thing I was most disappointed by was that I was really hoping for it to be more enganging and more of a hands on experience, as a workshop should be. But it was really more of a lecture. I was completely caught off guard by this (due to me being 30 minutes late) And didn’t really get time to realign my expectations of the event and I have to admit it is what let me down the most on top of the technical difficulties that persisted through the duration of the event.

2. Value for money 

It was my first ever industry workshop that I was paying for, and I arrived excited and left feeling that if they had scrapped £70 of the price of the event that would have been a more accurate value of the day. For a londoner you wouldn’t necessarily feel £150 leaving your pocket-That amount is easily spent on a month of public transportation. But for the poor artist or someone travelling long and far; putting myself in those shoes I’d expect more than what we got.

Despite the free goodies, the portfolio reviews and the swanky location. I can’t help but feel more disappointed by the day, now that I have time to reflect through this blog. This would have very easily been a stellar day if it had lived up to the word “workshop”, even if for just a couple of quid less it was hosted in a grotty basement studio in shoreditch.

I will be sharing in another post all the nuggets of wisdom and the number one thing that will guarantee that you do succeed as an artist.