Also, it’s not a problem sending A4 or A3 sizes of portfolios. Every damn sprites were large as big as desktop. It is a matter of technology that shrink them to bits.

But it is not about portfolio anyway. There are a large number of grads from IT field who do know how to use the said software or nerd enough to create various applications of software. Even you know how to use Photoshop. Though when being told to do some basic drawing of arts, there’s certainly a lacking there for digital content.

It is ‘a lack’, not necessarily none of existence. For example, MMU has the facilities for creating digital art professionals. To take a degree of graphic arts there, you’re required to take the foundation of graphic arts and your hard-earn diploma of IT is useless as it was happened to me when I tried to apply there. There’s also The One Academy. I can give more examples but those are private institutions which means only a small number of people would trying to achieve it.

I am not saying that all public institutions to have such art schools. Rather a college or two should have such field. The problem I saw with Malaysian universities is that every one of them trying to have every field of studies in their hands so that they can compete with each other. That’s why IT or engineering courses can be found in every damn public uni in this country. Perhaps they couldn’t take the risk of being an institution of expert for a certain field, rather they have to provide other fields to compensate for that uncertain future.

Another thing is, we need a secondary school level of arts institution. We already have technical schools that have provided some early technicians for various fields. Why not a general art school for that? Not only about graphical arts, we do lack of child actors/actresses as well. Do you think those loli in Japanese movies were those simply blessed with talents so the directors just picked them up from playgrounds?

Then again perhaps sending in a portfolio of ‘blown up/magnified’ A4 to A3 sizes of 64 x 64 pixel or smaller of sprites would probably NEVER impress potential employers. A portfolio full of anime drawings would almost guarantee a non-hiring of that artist as well.

Either way, I think the matter is that most art schools tend to generate artists that are mostly geared towards the advertising market than the generation of digital or mobile content. Alarming? I don’t think so. It’s the prospective employers that decide what kind of artist they want anyway.

But I don’t think it’s the lack of art talents la, Steno.
It’s more like Malaysian artists don’t usually diverge from the normal mediums.

People in woodworking don’t try to break new ground.
People in visual arts keep sticking to watercolours, and oils and ignore other forms such as sculpting and such.

Since I did do Arts as my minor subject, I don’t think the lack of Art talents is the reason, but more like specifically, the number of art talents in the ‘digital medium’ is quite lacking, rather than the masses in general.

During my art appreciation lecture, I could see how religious extremists could probably devaluate any art form into some form of blasphemeous product of western/alien culture. Like Stan Murmur for instance. I think he did, in a way glorify the least glamorous part of our body to produce art. Or Salvador Dali.

Don’t get me started on nude art.

Glorifying god’s creations can be turned into blasphemous tool of corrupting young minds, given the tendencies of some Malaysians.

Looking at wood carvings down in Terengganu by the local artists, or looking at oil and water paintings down at CM.. I think the topic should be on “the lack of competent digital artists in Malaysia.” There are few, like Mahathir Buang aka Milx, or even Billy Tan Mung Khoy, who is currently (I think) working for Marvel.

Then again, digital artist get paid a pittance here compared to what they can earn elsewhere, so can you blame them?