I've been an artist my whole life, which has lasted 40 years so far. I also have let my fears of everything from being homeless to letting down my wife convince me to stay in a comfortable, well paying bubble that is killing me. I know I know old cliche story. <BR><BR>I want to transition to a full time career in art. I REALLY enjoy telling stories with art. This motivated me to get to one class away froma Bachelor's in Graphic Design because graphic communication is sort of storytelling. My work is at a professional level, but I need to get better. My wife and I are also Jonesing to move back to California, specifically the bay area. Any suggestions or guidance would be really appreciated. Mid life crisis is probably a factor but I am really freaking out. I fell like just quitting today and bailing, but I also know that would be a colossal mistake, and really unfair to burden my wife with. Honestly I think I am looking for some hope that I can actually do this. If this is too loungy please move. I am just frazzled.
YACCT Career Change to Art
- Thread starter AlreadyDead
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The bay area is 3x more expensive than Cincinatti.<BR><BR>"art" pays 1/2 what you're making now, if not less.<BR><BR>You're going to need to come up with a lot of money.<BR><BR>You can quit your job and focus on "art", just have a plan first.
Nights and weekends. Do your art work then. After you become famous or at least well commissioned you can lose the day job. Seriously, do it on nights and weekends to relieve stress. Set aside specific time for it.<BR><BR>Art is in the eye of the beholder. You aren't "professional" at it until you can pay the bills on a regular basis. A recession is not the time to try and make and sell art for a living. If you wanted to garden that would be different.
I was reading into this area a little as I have always been a doodler and into cartoons. It seems that the cartoonist market is moving away from syndicated newspapers to online. It's pretty much a level playing field and if you get enough viewers you can maybe even start to quit your job. I'm not fully versed in all this, but it's something I have looked into a little. Maybe something to consider.(If anyone else has knowledge of this I'm sure it would be very beneficial to the OP and to me too!)
moving is one thing. <BR><BR>making a business of art is something else. <BR><BR>both are incredibly stressful and require a lot of effort and risk. <BR><BR>if you're ever going to do this, you need to be more concrete.. what are the hurdles in your way and how can you remove them? <BR><BR>so, have you ever gotten money for your art? how long does it take you to create a piece and how much would you want to sell it for? what do you think people would be willing to pay? <BR><BR>what sort of art? <BR><BR>ideas for art business models: would you want to sell/show in galleries or sell online(etsy?) or have a regular job doing book illustrations or advertising or sets for theatre or ?? (note, i really have no idea how this works, if book publishers/ad companies have staff illustrators or commission freelance or if you can sell into an image bank or what) <BR><BR>do you have a network in the artist community? ask several you admire how they built a business and start to make a plan. <BR><BR>you're missing *ONE* class?? why not finish? did you ever work in graphic design?
I've been doing the job search thing here in Cincy and although I'm looking for a PM/BA position I have actually seen quite a few graphic artist positions around, they have been jumping out at me since I have a friend looking in columbus (where it is sparser) and have been trying to convince her to look here as well.<BR><BR>Good Luck with whatever your choice is!
we have a graphic design dude that makes things for powerpoints and posters as well as the usual webpage and advertisement stuff
For more specific advice you'll need to be more specific about what medium you work in. Making a living as a fine artist going through galleries or the Etsy route is different than doing commissioned work for clients which is different than making stock photos or illustrations which is different than freelance design.<BR><BR>To reiterate Bright Wire's advice: unless you already have a list of paying clients, don't quit your day job.
How much money do you make now at art?<BR><BR>Who do you work for? What is your plan?<BR><BR>There's a lot of good artists that don't make what they should.<BR><BR>I have a relative that has made a good living as an artist for a long time. I have several other relatives that have basically made nothing. The artist that's "making it" and making it well does it on more than his day job, too (e.g. teaches art part time). The income, while good, is fairly variable. Can you live with that?<BR><BR>IMHO, there is nothing more competitive than a career in fine art. Especially if you're going the gallery route, which is probably the hardest.<BR><BR>And, moving back to the bay area will screw up your costs.<BR><BR>Be very, very realistic is the only advise I will give here.
All great advice! Sorry to be so lame in the OP.<BR><BR>I have been paid for art, everything from pen and ink drawings to CGI and animation. The CGI and animation was pretty elementary technical stuff (safe lifting zones, respirator funtioning) with the exception of some identity bumpers (think the "Walt Disney Presents" bits at the start of thier films). I am moving on to character animation and getting my reel together. My goal is to get a job as a "story artist." The story artists works with a writer and a director to create storyboards for an animated film. These boards are where the film is actually "made" in the sense that the timing and camera movements are configured in great detail. I know I could get paying jobs right now, as I have been offered them. I have turned them down because of fear. Fear of overcommitting myself, fear of failing at freelancing among others. What has changed is my desire has finally surpassed the fear. The fear is still there, just caged.<BR><BR>I am comfortable in the major animation packages as well as (anymore) al the apps in the Adobe Master Collection. I've used others programs, but Adobe has it locked for most of the industry these days. I am also experienced with most natural media used in the visualization industry.<BR><BR>As far as a plan, I intend to stay where I am until my reel is complete. Two years at the outside, and save all the bucks I can. My wife want s to move to Cali as well, so she is on board. I grew up in Cali and have relatives out there so I will not be completely without support, but I don't want to need it.<BR><BR>I was thinking to bring about 50k with me. I think this would allow us to rent an apartment and continue the search if neccessary. Of course we both will be looking for jobs starting now, but unless Pixar calls me (lol) we are going to do our best to time it right. <BR><BR>As far as college goes, I am going, the "one class" is one that is only offered once a year so I had to wait. I painted the wrong picture with my angsty whining.<BR><BR>I have no art network outside of my current school.<BR><BR>Here is a more specific question. How would you recommend a body break into the animation field in the San Franciso Bay Area?<BR><BR>FXWizard, you out there?<BR><BR>Thanks again for all the responses to such a lame OP!
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AlreadyDead:<BR>I know I could get paying jobs right now, as I have been offered them.<BR><BR>...<BR><BR>I have no art network outside of my current school. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>These don't seem to match. Can you clarify?
Sure Sliver7. Several comission offers have come from folks at the school, and those I work with have asked me to do work for them, and the organization I work for wanted me to do some work for them off the clock. I turned that down due to a conflict of interest. The others I have turned down were pretty much just laziness. I did some art for a coworker and he really loved it and gifted me $100 on iTunes (I know, I know). At the end of each semester I have brought in my portfolio to show to interested persons. I have work published in New Witch magazine, and my digital illustrations are all over the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Web site.<BR><BR>http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/dentistry/<BR><BR>http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/msd/<BR><BR>and many other pages linked from<BR><BR>http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/<BR><BR>So I do and have created art professionally. I want to transition to that full time. Any input you have is appreciated!
Is it just me, or are most people in this thread drastically underestimating the number of careers available to artists while focusing too narrowly on fine art? Sure, many of the careers aren't great money, but an artist can certainly make a comfortable living if he or she is realistic. I notice that AlreadyDead did not mention making a career in fine art specifically in the first post, but merely a career in art. There is a huge difference and the latter is much more realistic and practical than the former.<BR><BR>Even the best of the best may not make it in fine art, and knowing something about marketing plus knowing the right people can be a big help in that area.
TheR - In the case of my perceptions, it was less about fine art and more about a career switch in which the professional experience is pretty low for the OP and the economy is not as open and inviting. Ad sales are down, Print is drying up, Packaging is down, Marketing in general is getting beaten on, and so on. A lot of things use professional art, but a lot of things are down right now. This means he is going to be fighting a lot of other people with much lower costs of living and just as much professional experience (ie recent art grads). This isn't good if he is also trying to support a household that is not willing to go down to that level of lifestyle again.<BR><BR>If he was thinking of a career change into something on the upswing, such as green tech research or deployment, then I would say make the jump. In the meantime he needs to focus on getting the professional network and professional work done during after hours in order to boost his experience and line him up for consistent work in this industry for the future.
Obviously you have a good point Bright Wire. My household is on board and I have been honest in that I will be cutting my pay in half at best. I DO need to develop a network and actually made some calls last night. As I said in my second, less nutty post, I am not going to actually move for about another year, year and a half. I have a plan now, one that I think is realistic, and that has made me feel so much better. I feel like I am on the path I always wanted but was too scared to take, because it is hard.<BR><BR>Anyway, this thread might have run it's course. Although if anyone has any more advice or questions please let me know.<BR><BR>I also am open for comissions should anyone need some images! I will post my portfolio site (still building!) when it is up but see my previous post for examples of digital illustration and here for a little pen and ink self portrait:<BR><BR>http://www.current.net/cauley/art/joe2.jpg<BR><BR>and a pencil of Wonder Woman:<BR><BR>http://www.current.net/cauley/...derWoman12-07web.jpg
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AlreadyDead:<BR>Sure Sliver7. Several comission offers have come from folks at the school, and those I work with have asked me to do work for them, and the organization I work for wanted me to do some work for them off the clock. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>OK, so by "I know I could get paying jobs right now, as I have been offered them.", you meant more along the lines of commissions, rather than full time employment. You'd, of course, prefer something that leads to full time employment, then. Of course, you never know when a small commission turns into a good contact for more consistent work. I'd still recommend milking any potential pipeline you have.<BR><BR>Hmm...<BR><BR>By chance, do/can you do sports-oriented design? Any professional teams in your area, or perhaps amateur leagues that might need identities fleshed out for multiple teams? (I don't know if this is attainable/reasonable or not; just an idea I'm throwing out)
And it is a GREAT one! Sports is HUGE is Cincinnati! High school football is almost as much of a religion here as in Texas. Thanks!
you can also do images for charities.<BR><BR>Wonder woman's back leg looks a little off
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