What is visual arts?

Help with labeling what kind of visual arts I want?

• Not sure how else to title it.. heh. I have around 2 more years before I decide on a college, but I would like to refine my searches into finding what kind of program I should be looking for. I'd like to major in visual arts and minor in performing arts. Performing arts is easy to generalize, but the visual arts is.. tough. What I'd be interested in is things in general like illustration. I also like photoshopping things and photography as a hobby. What I'm really interested in is working on stuff in 2D animated films, like the different jobs on animation (key animator, assistant animator, in-betweener, ect.) and more importantly an inker. Storyboard art and concept sketches are also big for me. My problem is I'm not sure what I should generalize. It seems like animation is separate from all the other arts and I don't want to do specific all-through animation, you know what I mean? I'd like to do several different arts and very behind-the-scenes processes instead of what people commonly look at. Can anyone think of a label to call what I'm looking for? Something that I can search for with colleges?

• Answer:

  Here is a page from my alma-mater where I graduated from: www.siue.edu/artsandsciences/art/ The first 2 yrs. are pretty much general in drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, etc. , then you begin to get an idea of what you really want from an art degree and what area/medium you choose. You do have a little time to get your feet wet into all the generals. Then talk to your counselor to get a better view of what area you want to major in. They are the best people to give you that info.