The purpose of this tutorial is to help prospective Calarts animation students prepare their portfolios. I didn't get it right the first time probably because I didn't understand exactly what the review board wanted. Hopefully I can help others get it right their first time.

December 4, 2003

I got a chance to chat with Mike Mitchell today after Life Drawing class. I'm starting to kick butt with my drawing all of the sudden and Mike took notice. He told me that's why the class is structured the way it was. At first, the class was pretty experimental. Everyone was drawing crazy stuff to basically loosen up.
At this point of the semester, Mike has switched over to a more traditional focus. We've been working on form and more observational drawing instead of creative stuff. He told me that the main reason he does that is to loosen the students up so once they get back into traditional drawing, they won't be tight and try to draw like other people.
In the beginning of the semester, I was confused and frusterated. I drew like crap because I didn't know what the heck I was supposed to do but it really did make me try new things and I loosened up because of it. My drawings were really tight before because I would worry too much about proportions and rendering. Now, I focus more about the expression in my drawings and as a result, EVERYTHING has improved.
So I urge everyone who will be coming aboard next year to be open-minded and never quit because these teachers know what they're doing. A lot of them have opposing views but in a way, that's what makes the program even stronger. You're exposed to all angles which is great. You need it all.

October 11, 2003


There are two completely opposite viewpoints on life drawing at Calarts. On one side ("the morning staff"), we have a very expressive/experimental instruction on life drawing which is taught by Cornie Cole or Mike Mitchell. They don't really care if a drawing is representative of the figure at all as long as it's expressive and looks unique. They're all about trying to find the next new thing in animation. When you walk down the halls of the character animation department, you'll notice many strange drawings. Well, they might seem that way at first glance because a lot of them are not completely representative of the model. Take a look at them again and notice their expressive and very experimental qualities. Some of them are really awesome.

On the other side, ("the night staff"), there is a more traditional style of teaching. The night staff teaches mechanics and focuses on establishing a foundation of skills before their students go wild on experimentation. "They're not tools, just rules" as Vilppu would say. Once you master the mechanics of animation or in Vilppu's case, the anatomy and gesture of the figure, you'll be more prepared for experimentation. In order to get a job after graduation, you have to be able to draw and you must know the mechanics of animation! It sounds obvious doesn't it?

The night staff can't stand how the morning staff teaches and the morning staff can't stand how the night staff teaches. In all, we have a very happy bunch of teachers!

Ok, it sounds confusing and it is especially for the first couple of weeks. Trust me...I KNOW!! You just don't know who to trust and which way to go! But I try to take the best out of the situation. I really want to learn how to draw the figure representational but at the same time, I feel like I need to loosen up and push the boundaries. So, I use half of my life drawing class studying the figure in the classical approach. I also do a lot of gesture drawings outside of school from stock images or from everyday people. The other half of the class is spent on experimentation. I try to use different mediums, different paper and different approaches to see what I can discover. You can either go crazy like I almost did or make a compromise. In the end, you need to take advantage of both styles of teaching to become a well rounded artist. It's important to come here with an open mind because every teacher is highly qualified and has a lot to offer.
Ultimately, it'll be your choice as an artist to make a decision on what you want to focus on. On the first day of animation class, Mike Disa told us to decide right now what kind of artist we wanted to be. It didn't make sense at first but it does now. Who inspires you? What kind of art do you like? Define questions like these to figure out your direction.

By the way, Vilppu isn't a teacher at Calarts, but Mike Disa brought him in for a lecture one day. Vilppu used to be the Director for the character animation department in the 90's.

Ok, so how does this information help you with getting accepted? Well, you need to show both your knowledge of the figure and your experimental/expressive work in your portfolio. The review committee needs to know that you can draw well but at the same time willing to take risks. They want innovators here, not duplicates of what is already out there. Get it?


My Story

I applied to Calarts for the 2002-2003 school year but was rejected. I found out that my portfolio was lifeless. I concentrated so much on making the proportions and rendering so good on the drawings that it actually backfired on me. Hopefully, you won't do the same. Be expressive and experimental. Include a lot of loose work.

I applied again for the 2003-2004 school and barely got accepted. I ended up going to Portfolio Day in Washington DC and met Leo Hobaica. He saved my butt! He's part of the review committee and he told me that my portfolio wouldn't make the cut. I didn't really understand what I needed to do until I actually visited the Calarts campus a week later. Leo told me to do this to see first hand what I needed to do. I just barely made it in right before Christmas break. I was lucky.

Below, I included my old portfolio which was too rigid for Calarts. As you can see, the proportions and all of that are OK but it's not good enough. These drawings have no life.
I also included some of the drawings that were in my acceptance portfolio. Hopefully, this will help you out but I recommend sitting in on a figure drawing class if you want to increase your chances of getting accepted. I booked a flight to LA from Chicago in a week so I'm sure you can make that same commitment if you really want to get in!


Old Portfolio






About a week and a half later, I was sitting in on one of the life drawing classes with a completely new portfolio to show the instructors. Before the trip, I dedicated all the time I could to draw figures, animals......and self portraits. I received some good comments from the figure drawing teacher. whoohoo!

The figure drawing teacher especially liked these three drawings because as you can see, they're three completely different approaches to the same subject matter. They like to see experimentation. Don't be afraid of doing something different from what you're used to.



Here are some more drawings that I submitted. I played around with different techniques and different types of charcoal. For example, sometimes I would draw with the side of the charcoal stick and "block" in the values.


These are some of the drawings I did at Calarts. The models went all out! They put on some really funky gear.


Other artwork included....
-cd rom which included my animations
-sketchbook (animals, sketches of people from life, character designs)
- Sequential art
-Dragon Tears print outs
-Animatedbuzz.com web site and forum print outs.
- one full slide sheet of my traditional work (oil paintings primarily)