<p>I know I said the illustration and art education are very different things but I say that because I don’t believe a student can major on the education side especially at a liberal arts school and crossover well to the professional illustrator side.</p>
<p>I have seen kids go into art education that wanted to be artist but found out too late that their liberal arts colleges focus on therapy and education not professional art development. The result is good artist, some very good but not ingenious artists. I always use my S as an example but his art instructor said to me when he was 13 that she couldn’t teach him anymore and gave me a list of places to go train that could take him to the next level.</p>
<p>I had to learn that art is so much more than being able to draw so that what you draw looks good. Great art can capture an emotion or feeling or moment or thought. It transcends what is on paper or canvass and stirs up something inside. I’m a layman but I studied to figure out what makes one work exceptional versus others that are really, really good.</p>
<p>A career can be had either way but, using my S as an example again, my S says he eats, breathes and sleeps art. He wants money but money is not why he does it. I just pray he does so he can have a family and house of his own one day.</p>