SmArt School

Firstly, I'd like to say that this post is as much a story of my own experience as a review of my time in SmArt school. When I was doing research on the program, I didn't find much information about it outside of the website itself, which is a little unnerving if you're about to spend money on something. Because of this I wanted to offer an unabridged account of my experience for any prospective students. Note that I was only able to attend two classes, one directly mentored by Todd Lockwood and the other which involved monitoring Donato Giancola's sessions.

I've wanted to attend SmArt School for a long time. I live in Mississippi and thus interactions with others in the fantasy art genre are rare, especially when you're just getting started, so the opportunity to meet and be taught by my heroes was a dream come true, if unimaginable. Every year I'd watch as students came away with extraordinary work, and attending SFAL last year found me meeting some of those students who had nothing but praise for the program. Like SFAL before it, SmArt school became to me one of those mystical places where things happened and people were changed from regular person to illustrator. I just never had the money. It's not something that was feasible. However, in January of this year the call rang out for enrollment to the spring semester, and Flaming Crab Games had just hired me for a large project. On a whim, I called and asked how they felt about giving me a forward on payment, and suddenly found myself with enough to finally make the move. I'll be eternally grateful to Alex Abel, director of FCG and friend, for that.

So I was in. The only thing left to do was start. I already knew what class I wanted to take- Todd Lockwood. To me, it just made sense. In the past few years I made the change to working digitally and Todd is a renowned digital painter. Besides that, he's someone I've admired for years, the painter that got me into drawing fantasy in the first place. Todd and I had bounced some e-mails back and forth from time to time, as well, and I'd learned a thing or two from the processes he'd share. Now, I learned to paint from Donato; not directly, but I absorbed his DVDs and online posts with the same ferocity I had when studying in the studio at school under my professors. I adapted much of what I learned from him over to my digital mindset. But if these were going to be online classes I was betting I'd get more out of Todd's actions and Donato's words.

Todd Lockwood and Donato Giancola

It took time to start. There was some orientation information and communication from Rebecca Guay, and some supplementary emails from Marc Scheff. Both, you could tell, worked pretty tirelessly to keep everything running smoothly. All a student has to do is download the plugin for GoToMeeting and sign into the class for things to happen, which you check beforehand. The file sharing is handled in a dropbox folder for your class. It's an excellent system that allows teachers to share files with students. Besides that, group emails help everyone keep in touch even if you're monitoring a class.

Before the class began in March, Todd contacted us with information about what to read and thumbnails to start working on. Along with that, we all got to introduce ourselves over email and share portfolios. It was a good way to gauge everyone and test the water before jumping in. It also made me a little nervous. We were all at different skill levels- and I wondered how much I would learn from someone else's critique- would we talk about something I already knew? Looking back; now, it was a silly worry, like being the new kid at the first day of school. But if you're not nervous after an investment in your career then maybe you're not in the right career anyway. Even after the first hour of talking in class together you could feel a sense of community. Everyone there was excited to learn just like I was and the familiar atmosphere helped the nerves to vanish. The next day, I got to monitor Donato's first class as well, and was glad to see and hear that same joy from Donato and his students.

Clicking this, you can see Rebecca Guay doing a demo during her class

At this point it would be hard to give a play-by-play of the classes so I won't attempt it. This is a mentorship more than an instructor/student program at it's heart- so each person handles their class differently, and I think one of the best parts of SmArt school is that the artists in charge are given that freedom. It's not just a drawing class or a painting class or a class on anatomy but all three rolled into one and one hundred more possibilities.

A painting before SmArt School.

Todd handled his class on a case-by-case basis. Each week we'd do work on a project and come back into it for a critique- patiently waiting our turn as Todd spoke individually to an artist while painting over their piece. This worked wonderfully, as there were often problems or thoughts that Todd would address in a particular painting or area that everyone would learn from. If you wanted to know the "secrets" to painting water or foliage, tips on advanced perspective, how to make a figure pop more against a particular scene, all you had to do was watch and listen. It was these little gems of information that ended up making it all worth it to me. At the same time, you got to see the workflow and progress of others as they moved along, and I know we were all feeding off each other at times like we were eagerly eating up the information Todd presented us. It reminded me of the stories I've read of the old art ateliers where students might paint feverishly for a week in the same room as a master just to hear the drop of some bit of information they could grab onto. In the same vein, Todd was a fountain of information- not lecturing so much as inquiring and informing. Often times we were greeted with a process of a piece he had done that matched our situation, and once I even got to see him draw a dragon (something I'd wanted since I was 12)! Along with the time in class, you could email Todd through the school email for midweek feedback which was just as informative as the time spent in class. Todd, I fully believe, was just as invested in our work as we were and constantly showed it.

My first painting from SmArt School
Forest King. 12" x 18" Digital

Donato's class was different, as I'm certain every class is. I've met Donato a few times in my life, and he's not the kind of painter or instructor that becomes bogged down by the technical aspects of art. In Donato's way, he teaches you to see what you want to say. Donato teaches you to think. Each class might be greeted with a lecture that would take the entire time- or half of it would be lecture and the other critique. Sometimes there were only critiques. In each instance I found myself constantly enthralled by Donato's lessons and, again, hanging on every word for some morsel of information to attach to my own rapidly growing repertoire of food-for-thought. Even when he spoke about the technical aspects of being a painter, Donato was talking about the why or the what of it, rather than just the how. His lecture on painting skin is worth the tuition cost alone. His lectures on business and how to handle yourself professionally are worth more than the treasures under the Lonely Mountain. He handled his critiques with much the same effort, hoping to understand the meanings and thoughts behind the idea in order to better propel the piece forward with his words. I doubt that anyone came out of his class without a feeling of enlightenment about painting. Even though I was only monitoring the class, I tried to be involved in the chat if I could and even reached out to Donato over email for some feedback on my own work- which he took the time to give me.

In each of SmArt School's classes, there is an art director visit. Todd invited Jon Schindehette to ours. The conversation Jon and I had was a good one, where he offered up his professional advice on where I might want to take my career. Like everything else from the semester I took notes with nearly every word. It's an opportunity that might not be a possibility without SmArt School having fashioned it. I'm grateful for Jon's words and time.

I did, however, offer you an honest review. This is something, I feel, that cannot be done without offering some more critical thoughts on the SmArt School program.

• Firstly, the information is a little limited. SmArt School does a good job of advertising itself on it's website, but I wish there were more information out there (like this). The real reason I finally made the commitment was because I met an artist at Spectrum that showed me work before and after SmArt School that blew me away. She told me it was the best investment she ever made. Without that interaction I never would have taken the leap. Hearing from students and seeing work on the site from students would really help. Also, you're not told much about individual classes. It's fine for the site and me to say that everyone works differently, but spending that money on tuition without knowing what you're getting or how an artist teaches is scary. For anyone having difficulty with the decision, Marc Scheff says he welcomes e-mails at smartschoolmarc@gmail.com in order to help prospective students choose the right class for them. 

• Because it's widespread, there's always connection issues that can happen. I think our class was spread across all American time zones and 2 different countries- so you can imagine that there was some lag sometimes. If you're going to take the leap into paying for the program, I advise you do it with a heavy hitting ethernet connection for a rope. Thankfully, Marc Scheff is there with every class to help solve problems if they do arise, and something can always be set up at another time if it's a necessity (but that's not a promise, like any class).

• They say you can't record the class in any way. I found myself constantly wanting to record my classes in some way (and I could have) because there's such a huge amount of information to take in with every session and you can't keep it all. They do this for completely legitimate reasons, but I'd recommend keeping a pen handy for those gems I talked about.

• The commitment and language used when signing up is a bit intimidating. I think it should be because it's an investment, but I don't think it prepares you for the actual atmosphere of the classes and the people you're interacting with- which is friendly and familiar. I wish there were more payment options, opening the doors to more growing artists, or even a cheaper option to monitor. They do offer a plan through PayPal but not everyone may be accepted into that credit option. In my opinion, a scholarship of sorts would be outstanding, one that maybe covered the cost to monitor a class but a student could also put toward a full tuition.  Then again, I'm not looking at the books for the program. I was informed that near all the payment goes to the artists, which should make anyone feel better about what they're paying for, exactly.

• Do your research and be prepared. There's a point when you start your art career where the whole world is open and there's something new to learn every day- and like with any skill the more you learn about it the harder it is to discover and add to your skills. You never peak, that's not what I'm saying. It becomes more of a struggle to grow and find answers, answers to questions you don't even know you have yet. SmArt School offers you the opportunity to ask those questions to the people that came before you, but you've got to work. You've got to find the right questions and there's no way to do that without digging into the program and painting your ass off. You get what you put in.

With that said, I want to talk about what I found to be the heart of SmArt school- you.
SmArt school is a commitment. $2500 is a lot of money, but once you're ready to make that kind of investment in your career and yourself it's like saying, "I can do this. Let me show you." And that's what happens. You push and you push hard once you step over that line, because you're in it and you can't turn back so there's only one way to go. I've never spent this much money on myself, and I've never given this much of myself to something as I have my painting these last few months. I've loved every second of it.

I've talked a lot about money, but here at the end I'd like to point out that the time spent in these classes is priceless. You're paying for 13 classes (15 with the new setup) and that's 39-45 hours or more with a professional. If you're thinking in terms of investment in yourself and your career as an artist then that's a no-brainer.

I highly recommend the SmArt School program to any artist that wants to take their career, and themselves, to the next level. Make an investment in you.

My second painting from SmArt School and most ambitious piece to date
Reclamation/Ruination 24" x 16" Digital

A larger-than-life THANK YOU to Rebecca, Marc, Todd, Donato, and Alex for making this experience possible for me- and to my classmates for their own kind words and suggestions throughout, getting to see such talent come together every week was a real treat and a huge inspiration!

Feel free to post about your own experiences, or contact me to add your own before/after pictures from the semester!

Note: The SmArt School staff is always extremely informative with their responses, from inquiries to handling student information. Don't be afraid to contact them for any information, and thanks to Marc and Rebecca again for fact checking this article.