I had an interview for Swindon College on Thursday, it went well enough for me to bag a place there. So I am just waiting for them to update my UCAS so I can accept the offer.

The interview itself was really interesting. The course I applied for hire's people who work in the art industry to come in for a few days to teach. So in my interview I had the head of the course (who works in the gaming industry as a concept artist) and then we was joined by a random tutor who teaches twice a week and is a Graphic Novelist.

What I was told in the interview was a repeat of what I was told in my foundation course and A-level days and that was....

"TO STOP DRAWING MANGA!" I have been trying to avoid this for such a long time as I consider it my style but it really aint lol After speaking to the tutors they made so much sense that I think everyone should follow it haha.

It's kind of hard to explain but it was one of those things that you had to be there at the time to get the idea of where they was coming from. Also I have never had it explained to me like that before and it made lots of sense.

What they said was is that as an artists we should read and read as much as we can in order to get out imagination going... Kind of like exercise for an artist. Also when it comes to drawing manga I should stop doing it really.... Not permanently just for the time being really. As the tutors said that Asian people (not just the japanese in my opinion) have the knack to draw manga and do it well. Those who draw manga outside are basically copying a style and its not original at all. Which is true I believe (now lol) they said its an art form that has been done so much that it cannot go forward anymore. The Japanese have had the experiences and the knowledge to draw manga and add their mark to it but we do not as we have completely different way of living and a different way of looking at things so us drawing manga would only mean copying.

In a way if we was to put our own experiences that we have gained and knowledge we can find our own mark and create an individual style.

What I kind of got from what they were saying was that the whole idea of being an artist is to create a visual stamp of your self in the form of art. So that people can see what you are all about through your art work and maybe even tell what kind of person you are.

They also said that instead of jumping on the band wagon and drawing manga, we as artist's (maybe more so those who work in illustration) should be creating art work that will make people want to copy our style rather than us copying theirs. Which is true and is one of the reasons why I have decided to go and take this BA. I want to create a form of art that will make people want to copy my work and think "Wow! I wish I could draw like that!" I also want people to look at my work and automatically know that it was me who drew it.

THE tutors also said that after the course I can go back to drawing manga style if I wanted, but I would have the knowledge and experience to have created my own stamp on the Manga style that will make people look at it and know it was me who drew it. So its kind of me taking the manga style add my spin on it from what I have learnt and then sell it back lmao

It really does make a lot of sense at the end of the day so I can only try and hopefully it will all turn out good at the end of the 3 years.