Is my tutor a tit?

[darkartminiatures]

I\'ll get straight to the point. Today i had my last private tutorial of my three year Fine Arts (intergrated media) course. In this final year i have been learning how to sculpt on a small scale 28,32mm and i have completed 13 sculpts under the working title of \'The impact of reducing the scale of an artwork\'. These have been backed up with pen drawings, wips, and lots of photos of the finished pieces plus designs of the stands they will be placed on for the exibition next month.
My tutorial soon became a heated discussion on how much work i had actually done. Though i have been open-minded for the last three years of studying art i couldn\'t belive that my tutor failed to realise that big doesn\'t mean more. Because all my sculpts could fit in a 4x4 inch area he thinks i haven\'t done alot of work. He even admitted to me that if i had brought in 13 paintings he wouldn\'t of had this notion and would of been over the moon. I find this lack of open-mindedness disturbing as he is a tutor. Most of the other students haven\'t done as much has me but because they are in the studio 5 days a week (talking, drinking and eating) that somehow makes up for the amount of work they have done while I\'m at home working. On top of this he wants me to paint all my beautiful greens sculpts WHITE!!!! Even though the stands and surrounding environment will be white also. Question is, do you think he is a tit? Rant over....thanks for listening to a frustrated Cmoner

 

[supervike]

No he\'s not a tit at all....

more of a twat.

 

[darkartminiatures]

LOL Thanks for that supervike hehe thats made me ease off abit But if folk think that my tutor is right feel free to post....but beware of the dog Grrrrrrrrrr

 

[frenchkid]

well I can see how sculpts might seem like not so much work for people who aren\'t into it. It\'s up to you to convince him otherwise. Getting him some links from articles, famouse sculptors detailing the time tey took to sculpt a particular mini, ect...
As for the white part, Seem sreally dumb to me considering white isn\'t a good way to enhance 3D perception. I\'d go with light grey or some kind of off white ( bleached bone or somthing like that).

 

[green stuff]

Maybe you should tell your tutor (if you have not already) that there is a whole industry out there with people getting payed for sculpting and painting these minis, contests are organised, and the art works are published in magazines (I\'m not thinking of WD or Cry Havok type mags, but more in line of what Andrea and Ravage (the special edition ones) do.

Have you produced only fantasy/sci-fi sculpts? If so, maybe that is what is blocking your tutor.

You might also want to look up small paintings or Fabergé eggs to give other examples of art on a small scale.

The hobby is easily misconcieved .

PS : Resin cast your greens to show them white and still keep the original greens

 

[darkartminiatures]

frenchkid: Thanks for your advice. To tell you the truth anything with a fantasy reference is a no go so i couldn\'t show them a miniature sculptors work. In my dissertation i did a study on Chapmans \'disasters of war\' pieces and others who have worked in small scale...like raymond mason so i have already tried creating that link with the arty world. They have been trying to beat it out of me for three years and i have put my fantasy thoughts aside whilst doing coursework. As for the paintjob well personally I\'d prefer its green look rather than give it a primer.

greenstuff edited. no these sculpts are portraits of class members and my family with no fantasy sci fi reference what so ever they are just small. i thought about getting them cast but some would need cutting and other might be uncastable due to some really thin areas like shoelaces.

 

[finn17]

Tell him he\'s being sizeist!

If you have to paint your greens white, make sure you give them an ink wash to show the detail...

Alternatively, get 10x8 photos done to show them off at their best and post them above your actual greens.

 

[darkartminiatures]

Yeah I\'m displaying some large photos near the pieces. I just can\'t believe that this is something so easily overlooked by a tutor of art. I just hope the examiner doesn\'t think this way. I find it all abit disheartening really...they get you thinking the way they want you to and anything different is pushed aside. I\'ve held my tongue for the last two of the three years but no more. It feels like if you want a good grade do what they say which is rubbish. I\'m in my final year (months) and i can still think for myself which is something i can\'t say for most of the class. Have i learned anything from this course? yeah but most of it has still been self taught and the course if anything has allowed me time to discover things like sculpting. My sculpting tutor (another tit) once told me to paint over a technical drawing of a precise, measured sculpture before i had actually built it and he knew this fact. Bright idea eh. I\'m just glad its nearly over.

 

[Sand Rat]

Yes.

Edit -

I was going to just leave it at that, but I thought some more about it, so here we go.

Artists portray themselves, as do art teachers and professors, as great free thinkers, but they are not. They really are uncomfortable with things that push the envelope or make them think, in my experience. I was planning on going back to school one more time when I got home and get a Master of Fine Arts in Photography - the problem now is that I realize that 1. My style is journalistic not artistic, and 2. I really do not want to put up with art major posers.

 

[wiccanpony]

??? I don’t know if he is a tit, but he is pretty closed minded....I would ask him to try his hand at making a group of small miniatures and see how much work it really is, could be a learning experience for him.

 

[Trevor]

Art is all opinions, which are like arseholes, everybody has them and they often stink...

I think there was a point there somewhere...

Clearly you should have stuck to painting 20m canvases shit brown, then have one with a red stripe down it, that apparently is art, at least it was last time I was in the Tate...
It would have taken at most 3 days then you could have \'wasted\' the rest of your 3 years painting minis.

 

[Marmoset]

Art is even taught similarly in secondary school.We\'re supposed to be doing our own work and making our own art, but all we ever do is copy the work of artists, most of whom are long dead. If I painted a mini for my homework, my warty and deep-voiced female teacher would throw it at me

 

[darkartminiatures]

@ Trevor. exactly

Well folks it good to know that I wasn\'t in the wrong to be mad at him. I know you might think this was all a little one sided but its the truth and I\'ve calmed down now and i can say that none of this was exaggerated in any way. I see it as more of a disappointment now.

Good point Steelcult

Marmoset: Yes its strange how they say we want you to be an individual but really they are trying to make clones of themselves and of artists that THEY like. I tried showing my tutor my website and he quickly dismissed it because it was fantasy miniatures. You could almost see the disgust in his face. Once i got better feedback from my first year sculpting tutor when i created a sculpture that consisted of a torn piece of paper with scribbles on it that was glued together. He prefered that over a clay sculpture i did which, in my opinion was really cool with good proportions and a nice texture to it. The cleaners threw my paper sculpture away that night..mistaking it for rubbish I\'m not trying to get at tutors here....just the ones on my course....they can\'t all be like that i hear you say...well....they are

 

[Legacy Account]

Fine art courses are a heap of shit and good for f*** all.

Unless you count enhanced Rizla skills....

Seriously kids, stay away fom fine art courses. Do something arty you might stand a (very small) chance of getting a job doing!

 

[darkartminiatures]

Though i would hate to admit it your right Munkie It has helped me in various ways though...life-drawing and being more openminded towards all kinds of art...more openminded than some of my tutors it seams Anyway I\'ve nearly finished yipheeeeeeeeeee

 

[GreenOne]

This sucks, and I totally understand your frustration.
I studied music, which ruined music for me.
Art cannot be rationalised and trapped in books and taught the way they do, and there is probably no such thing as a good art tutor, or very few anyway.
It\'s good for people who want to say \" You know, I studied fine art, pffuu\"
Like any other course of this type, the good of it, you have to make it out yourself.

Miniature art been around for a long time and deserves as much respect as any other form of art, he should not be allowed to get away with that.

 

[Legacy Account]

Of course there\'s such a thing as a good art tutor. It\'s someone who encourages an individual\'s expression, is knowledgeable about art/design history and are themselves a good practitioner who can pass on their technical expertise. A good tutor\'s students will enjoy what they do.

I\'ve met plenty.

 

[Dragonsreach]

No, he\'s not a tit!

Tit\'s are beautiful and fulfil a needed niche in our world.
This guy (I\'m assuming it\'s a guy ) is a blinkered narrow minded waste of breath.

 

[dauber22]

Originally posted by steelcult

Artists portray themselves, as do art teachers and professors, as great free thinkers, but they are not. They really are uncomfortable with things that push the envelope or make them think, in my experience.

WEll, this pretty much sums up my opinion as well. Yes, DAM, your tutor is being a tit - in the negative sense, not in DR\'s sense.

Had a similar encounter back when I was in school. Second year. Taking a second level painting course. My prof came up to me and explained that he felt my subject matter was totally inappropriate for his class. I explained to him that I thought that the idea of \"inappropriate subject matter\" was disposed of back at the end of the \"academe\" era in France in the late 1800\'s and that a large part of the basis of 20th century art was that NO subject matter was inappropriate. He told me not to be a smart ass and try and show him up in front of the class. I told him not to be such a dick head. HE told me to shut the f**k up. I told him to go F**k himself. Those were the last words we exchanged for the remainder of the semester. I was too stubborn to drop out of his class, so we spent the next two months completely ignoring each other. To his credit, however, he did give me a \"C\" for the class. I\'d fully anticipated failing miserably. He was probably jsut afraid I\'d end up back in his class again next time around.

Oh, and for the record, the subject matter of the painting in question was a hard-edged acrylic of the sun setting behind a large industrial air conditioning unit that sat behind the library near the lakeshore. I\'d not even considered it to be the least bit controversial prior to the incident.

 

[Evil Dave]

Offended by being called an Artist

Quite a few years ago when I was stationed in San Diego I was dating this girl in the \"Art\" crowd. Her buddies basically treated me as an uneducated savage (as I was from Louisiana), she scoffed at my mini painting and invited me to go see her friends \"Art\" exhibit. When we went to the exhibit, her friends were oohing and ahhing over a canvas , spouting things like \"You can feel the intensity\"....

It was a white canvas with a blue line down the center.

They all looked at me. \"What do you think, Dave?\" asked one of her friends with that \"lets see the barbarians reaction to true art\" look on her face.
\"How much is he charging for it?\" I asked.
\"$500\"
\"Well,\" I replied \" for \"$500 dollars I can paint you any color line you want. Hell, I\'ll paint two.\"
My girlfriend sighed.\"You just don\'t get it.\"
My girlfriend came home later that week to an empty apartment except for a \"Dear Jane\" Letter painted in citadels ultramarine blue. How\'s that for art.

Just recently I have seen a guy who claims himself to be an \"Artist\". He strings up vials of his own semen on a mobile of some sort and calls it \"Creation\"

Even more recently I have seen a guy who swallows dyes or paints and vomits onto a canvas...People consider him an \"Artist\".

And just yesterday...I saw where a woman gives herself an colored enema and squatted over the canvas...and this is \"Art\".

Is it just me or am I the only one who gets
offended when my mini\'s get classified as \"Art\" and this crap(no pun intended) does too.

No I will be proud to be known as a Mini Painter and not an \"Artist\"