I’m going to get my ass into an art class this summer and I’m interested to hear if anyone has had any particularly good and/or particularly bad experiences at any of the institutions in and around San Jose and San Francisco. I’ll be taking the fundamental, Intro to Pencils type class. If you know of teachers with a background in industrial design, concept art, etc, let me know. That’s the direction I’d like to go.
I sat in on a class at Mission College and the teacher seemed pretty rad, but the class was full and I couldn’t get in. Forgot his name. Ah well.
Foothill college has some good classes as well. There are three main teachers there: Ciment, Lum and one other (name escapes me, male). Stop by and watch the classes to figure out which fits your personality. It’s a nice campus as well, but stay away from the “middlefield” campus in Mountain View - it’s a converted high school, and the teachers that are there seem to be… well… lesser quality… Sign up early - everything in the Bay Area fills up quickly. Also, consider that getting on the wait list doesn’t mean you’re not in the class… They usually take at least the first 5 people on the list, and lots of people drop the first two weeks.
If you’re willing to travel and spend some $$, CCA in San Francisco (off of Vermont street) has some great summer and night classes - much higher caliber.
Thanks dnp607. That’s just the kind of info I was looking for. I’m going to check out Foothill for sure. Have you taken classes from any of the instructors you mentioned? Lum is teaching at the Middlefield facility this Summer. I might try that class.
No sweat, glad to help. I’ve taken several classes with all of the instructors, but not drawing. Linda Lum is a very nice lady, and she is quite good. Joe Rogey, though, is the man. If he’s teaching his design drawing class this summer (very applicable to ID) then that’s who you want. If not, Linda will get you there. The Middlefield campus is fine - it works. It’s just not as nice or well equiped as the main campus…
De Anza also has drawing classes, but I can’t comment on the instructors. One nice thing is that I always see the De Anza students outside drawing the fountains. It seems good for getting your chops back… You can call Nancy Canter and ask her some questions about what type of instructors you like and who’s available this summer - she’s the head of the fine art’s department at De Anza.
I use to work across the street at university art years ago,
had a friend who taught there, my parents are artist
and have joined sketch groups at the art league in the past.
If your interested in industrial design its a great place to hang out
with IDEO, stanford and a couple other I.D. firms around the corner.
I’m sure you’ll meet someone around there who could
give you some advise on a good class/ groups / instructor.
I have been to all three community colleges for art classes
like them all. Right now I have Proe , Solidworks and a
machine shop class at De Anza thinking about
the 3-D model making class in the summer.
Yes Gary Lamit techers there can be intimidating more bark than bite, but he’ll help you whenever you need it, plus Gary wrote like how many technical drawing books 20-25. plus half of the Pro/e books on the market
Paul klingmen who teaches both pro/e and
Solidwoks, just started teaching solidwoks at sfsu in the I.D department.
Great teacher .
They’ll both help you on other projects if you get bored with just
Completing the books assignments.
I’ve only sat in on the autocad classes so don’t know much about the instructors
I do have the old autocad teacher Mr. Keith for my GD&T Class pretty nice
Yeah avoid Mr. Krestes who teaches technical drawing for engineers plus I think his
class was canceled anyway.
What a trip. I had Lamit for a CAD class back in the day. I think they were teaching Computervision. It was all 2D. I remember not being impressed with his book but maybe they’re better now. He didn’t seem too intimidating back then.
Thanks for the tip on the CAD classes, but I’m all dialed. I’ve got 5 years experience with Pro/E now and my employer is pretty good about paying for my training from PTC or Rand. I’m trying to figure out how to justify Design-Engine’s 3 week course. Most of what we do can be easily accomplished with straight extruded features.
Any insight into which art teachers to seek out or which to avoid?