Laguna College of the Arts vs Saturday High at Art Center College of Design

<p>Hi,
We have a freshman in high school who is an excellent artist, specializing in drawing and painting. She is going to apply for California School for the Arts in Valencia, but we are considering Laguna College of Art and Design or Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for a summer art program. The Design 360 at the Art Center, while classical drawing and sculpting skills would be her choice at LCAD. Has anyone done either of these precollege programs and have feedback? Thank you!!!</p>

<p>Son did a summer program at LCAD, but it was their portfolio development workshop. It was excellent. LCAD is known to be very strong in representational art, classic figure drawing, etc. (Can’t speak to Art Center’s program, but it’s probably good, too.)</p>

<p>As an aside, DS ended up transferring into LCAD later as an animation major. They work the kids very hard to ensure that they learn the skills to a high standard. </p>

<p>DS has taken classes at Art Center in Environment Design, Character Design and Figure Drawing. He’s taken classes at Otis in Animation and Intermediate Drawing. He prefers Otis more. He had a great time there! He liked the teachers and the kids there better.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for the replies. She loves classical drawing, but we also we thinking the Art Center Design 360 class would give her some ideas as to how to use her art in the future. It’s a tough choice!!</p>

<p>Another vote here for Otis. My son took advanced figure drawing at both Otis and Art Center when he was in high school, and it was really no contest at all. His instructor at Otis was a real faculty member, not an adjunct or a recent grad, and he treated the kids as if they were college students. That meant an intensive study of drawing–no nonsense whatsoever. My son, who got into every art school he applied to, is now a freshman at MICA, where he received a generous merit scholarship. He recently told me that the class he took at Otis was by far the most helpful training he had until he got to college. The Art Center class–and keep in mind that we love Art Center; the quality of the work that comes out of there is amazing–was a waste of time by comparison.</p>