<p>I can identify with your situation as far as funding goes since i’m an international with relatively limited financial resources and am largely self taught. I will try to share with you what i have learned so far. Though keep in mind i’m not in college just yet.</p>
<p>I would advise, if you are serious about your chosen study, to still aim for some of the best/better schools but keep in mind that because of your limited financial resources or perhaps greater “need” you can not just be as good as the competition. You will have to be better. If your work is mediocre-bad no admissions/fin aid officer is going to care that you had limited resources but if it is good-great they will be all the more impressed.</p>
<p>You should use your lack of “training” to your advantage. I attended two NPD’s recently and some of the most common criticisms I’d hear kids getting was that their work was very limited, they didn’t push themselves or their work outside of the class room, that their work lacked personal imput, direction, thought, exploration etc. I can explain what this means in very literal terms but i don’t want to come across as a snob. Basically, a portfolio full of still lives, portraits and figure drawings, may get you in somewhere but will hardly get you much scholarship money from an art school unless they are breath taking. Like high renaissance breath taking. Furthermore, If you are applying direct entry to a specific program (like CalArts animation) you will be expected to demonstrate some level of ability, or at least interest, in your chosen area. I will reiterate, a portfolio composed SOLELY of still lives, observational drawings etc will not be helpful unless you have approached and executed them in a technically and/or conceptually sophisticated way.</p>
<p>I would recommend either taking a gap year to work on your art or taking a reduced course load in high school to give yourself time to work. This is only advisable if you are SERIOUS about your goals. Unless you have the motivation (and discipline) to work independently you might end up wasting your time.</p>
<p>You should get a copy of either “The Natural Way to Draw” by Kimon Nicolaides or “Drawing on The Right Side of Brain” by Betty Edwards. Both are great educational drawing books although The Natural Way to Draw will take you a lot further and is a lot more intensive than Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain. Whatever direction you want to take in art, even photography, you will be expected to draw. For animation it is a MUST. You should also find artists/animators/graphic novelists etc whose work you admire, then study them exhaustively. Not just in terms of their particular styles but the ideas and personal influences that shape their work as well. The internet is infinite, find articles on their work, interviews and personal commentary by the artists themselves. I had some friends who were very interested in Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and Art Spiegelman. All the while you should be producing as much work of your own as you possibly can and though i have advised against portfolios consisting only of traditional HS level type work, it is important that you don’t go TOO far in the other direction (though that is relative to your school of choice).</p>
<p>PS. Cooper will not be a good place to go specifically for animation unless you intend to approach it in a very conceptual and contemporary way. At the moment there are only two or four animation courses being offered. The rest are film and video. If you were however, set on going there you should be able (in theory) to take some animation courses at parsons.</p>