The situation in Art today hasn't much changed in the last couple of years. Though the community seems to have grown exponentially thanks to the Internet, it is still a closed, marginalized one.
The problem here, is how do you get in, when the field is too often demeanished to the image of the ‘Starving Artist’ ? Which is still a strong one even within the Art community itself.
Maybe have you heard affirmations such as when your relatives ask you to get a degree and a more “viable path” for your future and keep art as a side hobby or when teachers and faceless people laugh at you, look upon you ? “Maybe should you opt for a plan B other than drawing/painting/photography/[insert art field] ?” “It is a very difficult field, there are no opportunities !”
Even at school, you can’t draw during classes and the Art class is kept as a detail compared to other “important” ones as Languages or Maths. (Less impressive to have an A+/score 20 on an art test than on a Math test).
To be honest, I understand (at least for close relatives) they want to protect you and help provide the best for you. So why would you follow a path already marginalized and despised by your whole social group ?
Well, sometimes you can have a different vision for yourself than the commonly held consensus. Your calling, your heart whatever it is that drives you toward this path is stronger than their reason and their arguments. Your art makes you happy, why would you want to quit such comfort state ?
Picasso had a great line :
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
One thing people are right : It is difficult. When you have to study your anatomy for the thousand time while working part-time (or full time), or after your homework from school and have to get up early tomorrow again. Or listening the small talks about you wanting to work on the next Assassin’s Creed. And when you don’t see any improvements in your drawings for months of practice. Yep, it’s emotionally taxing.
It is true the field is different. We don’t judge an artist by his resume nor his degrees. We don’t care at all ! (The resume is more to give us a quick idea of who you are, and degrees only helps a bit with forms if you want to work abroad). The art field is driven by personality and skills. Which is the beauty of the jobs. Most fellow artists know the struggle of the second eye. We all made the same mistakes more or less. In that, you will learn more than a job. It affects your perception of life, you as a whole.
"We don’t judge an artist by his resume nor his degrees."
Now, maybe you need more than this wou-wou hippie stuff. And let me tell you : The art field is as rich in job opportunities than any other field. The video-game market alone is worth 82 billion dollar and still booming. Whether you choose to be freelance or in-house, there is a infinite panel of possibilities to pay your bills.
Here are a few :
- Art Galleries : yes you can display your art in galleries, if you are proficient enough, make a living as well.
- Art teacher : You can teach people how to draw or paint, set up your own studio and organize nude and model sessions
- Designer : All these shoes, cars, everyday objects surrounding you, where do they come from ? Yup ! From a blank sheet of paper.
- Stylist : If designing clothes is your thing, go for it ! There is an industry for every kind (haute couture, bras, streetwear, shoes, underwears, sportswear….)
- Technical drawing : if you like to measure things out =)
- Ad designer : Ads on tv needed some drawings as well ! (well ok, there’s a lot of different jobs but it’s a specific field)
- Storyboarder : If you like creating stories and tell them the best graphical way possible
- Colorist : Painting day in day out cartoons
- Cartoonist : creating cartoons
- Mangaka : creating cartoons in a masochist way with a team ala japanese
- Illustrator
- Concept Artist
- 3D artist
- 2D artist
- UI artist
- Webdesigner
- Graphic designer
- Animator
- Motion animator
- VFX artist
- Environment artists
- Urban sketching (if you want to travel a lot and depict every cities, you can get sponsored for drawing and traveling the world)
- Etc.
Even if you pick 3D artists, you have a lot of highly specialized position within that title. Be it Character artist, 3D animator, Environment artist, Level Designer, Compositing, VFX artist etc. For Kung Fu Panda, you can bet they have a whole department dedicated to Po’s fur.
The possibilities are endless. And through mondialisation and the growth of VR and high-end quality of the graphics, you can be sure the industry will need more and more artists, more and more specialized to hire.
So Fear not : Opportunities are growing.
But what about the salary ? Artists must starve to death ! Mmmmh…. Yes and no ! Actually it depends of your way of life. But for the video game field, the average wage in 2014 for every artists and animators was around 74000$/year. Far from starving I’d say.
"But the competition is fierce !" Yes it is, and you can’t blame it. And you have to stand out from the noise. But hey. You have hundreds of different jobs at drawing. Some are less crowded than others ! Animators and Technical artists are rare breed in the industry (and what is rare is expensive, I guess you already know that). But Concept artists are common sheeps haha. And as Beekart said in his interview, you don’t have to stay in one position for the rest of your life, when you know how to draw, you can shift fairly easily between fields. So. Do you still think you can’t do anything by drawing at school ?
I’d like to know, did you struggled because of your choice to do art ?
I hope you enjoyed this post ! If you know a cousin, a brother, a friend struggling with that matter, feel free to share it with him !
And also please tell me if I forgot anything about that matter, I’d like to make this post as good as possible so parents, tutors, teachers and everyone thinking ‘drawings blablabla can’t achieve anything blablabal” can have another point of view maybe =)
I’d just end on that quote from Bruce Lee :
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it.”
Source : statista.com
Gamasutra 2014 survey