Natalie Haines Q&A, Year 5 Art Scholarship Winner
Natalie Haines was our year 5 2018 Zinggia Ohio Art Scholarship Winner! We followed up with Natalie to see how much she was loving art school. No surprise, she loves it! Checkout some of her latest artwork below and on her Instagram.
Q: What art school did you decide to attend and why?
A: My mother graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1986, so I’ve always known about the school and visited it many times for the end of the year shows and galleries. I had nothing but good memories about the school and met a lot of great people that were highly encouraging to me as an artist and person. Overall, I felt at home every time I visited and that alone was an opportunity I could not pass up on. (They also have great animation and illustration programs!!)
Q: Have you learned of any new directions that you can take your artistic talents that you didn’t know about or consider in high school?
A: I had a professor that worked freelance doing medical illustrations, and that field was new to me, or at least I never really thought about it before now. Though I don’t see myself taking that route professionally, I would really love to take a few classes on it while I’m here. I don’t believe I learned any new drastic directions to take my art, but I have learned how to work with new mediums that I’ve never used and old mediums that I haven’t touched in years. That discovery/rediscovery has really encouraged my artistic drive and has pushed me to experiment a lot with my art and style, which I am extremely grateful for.
Q: Is there anything you dislike so far with your schooling?
A: Unfortunately the first year dorms here are well aged, and it’s become pretty common for the heat/AC to stop working. Besides that, I haven’t found much to dislike about my schooling itself. A lot of the required freshman classes are fairly basic and seem like busy work, but they have all proven to definitely be a necessity in the long run, and it’s easy to have fun and be creative with them.
Q: What classes are you taking this semester, and how is your school work load?
I have taken an Intro to Animation course, as well as the required freshman CORE courses. The CORE classes range from teamworking/collaborative classes to Visual Literacy (aka digital art programs basics) to a fundamental drawing class with figure models, graphite, and perspective. You are also required to take liberal arts courses like math, science, and history, etc. The workload really depends on your schedule, but rest assured, you will always be busy. There’s some weeks with only two or three assignments due, and some weeks with 15 assignments due. You quickly learn your working pace and adapt, I don’t think never missed a deadline yet..
Q: Are you working with digital illustration & animation yet or is it mostly traditional mediums so far?
A: If you go in to CCAD with a decided major, you start your first semester in an Intro to Major class, so yes, I took the Animation intro course! Unfortunately I don’t take anymore until next year. We also heavily work with digital medias and illustration across a lot of classes, but each one is different. The drawing fundamentals classes are entirely graphite, charcoal, chalk, and pencil, while the Visual Literacy class/programs basics is entirely digital. Other classes give you the option to use whatever medium you’d like so long as the project is completed and turned in on time. Even in animation, we made both traditional and digital pieces, some being completely hand drawn directly on a computer monitor and others being made through a claymation or “experimental” process.
Q: What’s been the most challenging school project you’ve worked on so far?
A: We had a 3D cut paper project a while ago that took me the majority of the month to make. It was just a lot of tiny details and X-acto knife cuts that had to be very precise and neatly put together. I had fun with it and have done cut paper pieces before, so the process itself wasn’t too stressful for me, but because I decided to challenge myself and make my piece freestanding, it became a bit of a challenge. Attached picture) The animation projects were also a bit daunting, only because I had never worked with professional animation software before. Everyone seemed to get comfortable with it early on, though.
Q: How long do you normally have to complete a class project?
A: It depends on the project and class, but most of the projects that I’ve had have are usually assigned 2-3 weeks before the due date. The beginning of the semester syllabus will list all of the projects of the course and have a due date on it, but the professors frequently change things around. Some projects, I was only given 1-2 days (drawing class), and others, we were given 8 weeks (animation class)
Q: Does your school require you to take any financial or business classes later on to help you navigate a more profitable art career?
A: You are required to take a Business Math class that focuses on markups, invoices, and investments, but there are more advanced elective classes that focus on pricing artwork, opening a business, and creating contracts, etc. In our required collaborative class though, we did have a few projects and lectures about self branding and promotion, as well as a mini lecture on contracts and what they should include for artists. We had several projects that required us to network with our class and professors, and make business cards and websites. I’m not sure what kind of future classes are required for business, but I know there are at least electives. CCAD does have a business minor though, which is nice!
Q: Are you sick of Ramen Noodles yet?
A: Not really?! My roommates and I have discovered the perfect way to make Ramen in a microwave so it tastes like it was made on a stove (because we all know that it tastes different). I believe that alone is the only reason I’m not tired of it yet.
Read all of the Q&A Artist Interviews with our past Zinggia Ohio Art Scholarship Winners.
