What Does Becoming An Artist Really Take?
First to become an artist you need to get your education. For the young aspiring person this is our present modern reality.
There is a reason behind this. It applies to what it takes to make it as an artist within a digital age.
The art market has undergone some radical changes through time. Industry has also changed. Let me suggest here that online art courses are now a viable way to achieve education at low cost.
If you have dreams of stepping out on your own and becoming successful with your name and brand, yeah it is possible. Yet know statistically that the odds are not in your favor.
I do not want to rain on anyone’s dreams. Yet if you know the truth to what this world has waiting for you the better prepared you are. Also the better decisions you can make especially when considering art majors.
What Education Offers You To Become An Artist
The biggest advantage an art education offers you is a safety net. A job that is not in that linked list which has grown exponentially is working in Concept Art.
People today push math, science, or a fine arts degree. In many cases these degrees can be looked at like a useless piece of paper.
You need to expand that horizon. Becoming an artist requires more than what education offers, yet it is a launching pad.
I have detailed in another article about what art jobs are available for artists. Most involve requiring degrees.
Yet due to technology there is more opportunity today for artists seeking jobs than ever before. It just may be in a field you never anticipated.
With your degree you will need multiple skills including knowing how to use graphic design.
The world of video games is just one example of an exploding market. Yet your skills can be applied to many other avenues.
An education opens doors to other opportunities which before were not available. I say this due to what technology can do today as compared to a mere ten years ago.
The truth is that education standards have not kept up with where the market is presently at.
These emerging job opportunities blend digital, art, and design into a role where a team comes together.
There was a time when design and art existed in two different worlds. These different roles are becoming more interdependent upon each other as we move into the future.
To Become An Artist Requires More Than A Job
Indeed, a job feeds you. That is a success. It may not be the art you want to do, I get it. Yet that can come with time.
The only job in the world where you start at the top is being a well digger as you work your way down. You don’t want that.
The opening position you find is just that, the first open door. It does not mean you will forever reside there.
It is a stepping stone to getting the next credential that you need. That is real experience in a real marketplace and workforce. To become an artist requires years of work.
The fact is that after you get your degree the education is not over. You will need to continue expanding your education into other areas which support the direction you choose to go.
Where Fine Arts Education Fails
As I stated before the education systems have not kept pace with the reality of markets. While it is absolutely possible to work in graphic design holding a fine arts degree, you will need the technical skills.
You may find it more beneficial to have a degree focused on design more than art.
Depending on what school you go to will matter in terms of what they offer. There are still many schools which teach the visual arts in a more traditional way.
Digital arts and graphic design may not always be a component they offer in the classes.
Allow me to rephrase that statement. It may not be taught in a way that is practically beneficial or useful in real world terms if it is offered at all.
This is very true of a college near me which is known for fine arts. The digital component is minimal at best.
I will link to a major university with a description of their art classes. There are optional components depending on how you tailor your degree.
Notice the line “sculpture or new media, with complementary coursework in animation, graphic design and new media.”
All things digital should be a core requirement in preparation for every student. New Media Art is the future within every place of the market.
Educators in fine arts typically use graphic design to teach students how to create art. Yet when working for an employer they will want work tailored to their purposes to publish your work for them.
The demands of each are different in terms of practical application in skills and expectations.
This problem stems from an argument that is quite old. Art and Design are traditionally two different worlds.
Our issue today is that these two are still treated so differently. In our present world of technology they are coming to be forged together more as one with each year that passes.
What Is The Best Path To Become An Artist?
If you really are serious about the fine arts degree then there is an option. Check with your school first to see options and pricing for adding components you may need or want.
This is at least the most seamless route in accommodating you. If they have those courses most likely they are already offered to art students or are required in some capacity.
If they offer solid options at a value then take it there. If they do not have them, or the pricing it outside of what you can afford, know that you are not trapped.
Consider an online Associates degree with a focus on graphic art and design. The pricing options may be more accommodating.
These additional courses you take should mirror the software and application for a workforce. In other words you are looking for real world job skills.
Technical colleges specialize in this. You do not need to spend a ton of time in a design program.
We are taking what some consider to be a useless fine arts degree and turning it into a guaranteed job. This will allow you to move forward in life quickly.
What Is The Degree Worth 5 Years?
Once you have the degrees and technical skills, the degree is a formality. Job performance is more important.
Yet as you transition up the ladder or to a lateral field, the formality of having that degree needs to be there.
Starting out it may seem like a lot. In terms of money spent on a university it is a lot.
Yet if you want to stand out from your peers and move to somewhere doing bigger things, the more firepower you have the better. It will help you.
The Alternative Of Not Going To School To Become An Artist
Welcome to my life if you choose to not go to school to become an artist.
Up front let me tell you that there is no way you will come rushing out of the gate of high school to find success. My first job after high school was with the US Marines.
No that is not an art related field unless monochrome is just your thing.
Without an education art becomes a pursuit more than a profession. In other words you will find yourself still most likely working a regular day job while you pursue art on the side.
This will also be true for those with degrees who seek to get noticed for their personal art.
The difference is those with a degree will have more connections and abilities to have their art be seen. Without a degree you are left to your own abilities and the internet.
The statistics are not in your favor.
How Did I Become An Artist?
Well I really have not made it. No one ever really makes it to success, more on that later.
You are always looking to the horizon at where you need to go next.
Reaching a point where your art is supporting your life and income can be considered the first real step in “making it”.
That first step is a big one. Without the online world I would say it is impossible. A personal online gallery is a requirement.
You need to get technical skills due to this online component. You cannot avoid it.
There are thousands of artists who are literally stuck with nowhere to turn. Why?
Because they have no idea how to do anything other than social media.
There the mass herd is collected. The odd part is the herd never realizes to ask the question of why, and also, does an artist need social media?
Art for me happened later in life. It was only after the military and then having a business which I owned, and it was a success supporting me, that I learned how to do this.
The transition to where I presently am is not easy for anyone whether with a degree, or without it.
Schools do not prepare you for being on your own. No professor can teach you what you need to know.
Most of them have never run a business much less know how to tell you how to do it. They can teach you aspects of business, but not the business itself.
First Steps To Become An Artist Without A Degree
The first thing you need to do is put down that social media account. Keep it, but do not rely upon it.
Get real technical skills and develop an online gallery for yourself.
After this begin to learn marketing for that world. I did not say buy advertisement space with your hourly paycheck.
You need to learn real marketing for the online world. Learning marketing means you must understand the Artistic Life.
This area I was deficient in for a long time. My wife though spent her entire career in marketing including as a director for a major corporation.
I had the technical skills. So those worlds eventually and naturally merged into a process.
Today she says I know more than she does. Whether or not that is true I have no idea. Yet I did learn the reason why she says this.
How the technical aspects are applied to the work you do matters in how an algorithm accepts the work. In other words it matters in marketing.
These are just the first baby steps in becoming an artist. Like I stated it is a pursuit not a profession.
Even when it begins to pay, you know that it is a pursuit. It never ends.
Odds Of Survival Becoming An Artist?
With a degree and if you have captured the necessary technical abilities for where you desire to go your odds are good. You will stand out head and shoulders above many peers becoming an artist.
There are more opportunities for you as you begin your own work as well. For your odds to dramatically increase requires the artist to understand who their competition really is.
With a degree you can blend in and out of more worlds applying your trade. There will also be others that can help you push and promote your personal work.
The friends you have are not dead beats. They have technical skills as well.
Without a degree you are in the real trenches of life. The odds drop dramatically.
The reason why artists fail though is not due to a lack of opportunity. Rather the reason most fail is because they quit.
Without a degree what often cannot be seen is that it takes so much more momentum. Gaining that momentum is what typically breaks someone.
The tunnel becomes too long and dark and they give up hope. This assumes they begin with the right tools and path to begin with.
You Cannot Avoid Paying To Become An Artist
It doesn’t matter if you go to school or not. You are still going to pay for an education to become an artist.
Whether that money goes to a university or to life experience, you will pay.
The easier path is definitely the education. It does not mean that the path itself is easy. There just are fewer back end obstacles in time.
Here is the problem. If I could take what I know now and put it into my 18 year old self I would not go to school.
I would do exactly what I am doing now. Yet no one is born with the experience or knowledge they have.
You have to attain that in some capacity at some point to achieve anything. At least with getting a degree you learn how to fight for something and earn it.
It is the first real effort that is placed and focused on with an achievement in life.
What Does It Really Take To Find Success?
Without knowing how to fight for and achieve that dream it becomes a messy and often a disastrous process. Becoming a success to whatever degree in the end is really about you.
It is your character that is measured.
Stepping out on your own you will know what it is like to be alone with no one helping you. Get comfortable with failure and you will fail often.
Success is not measured by a failure. Rather it is measured by whether or not you believe that you are a failure.
There is no part of life where this does not apply. People fail then quit.
The real question is, will you quit? You only truly fail if you quit. Success is a verb, not a noun. You never arrive. You either are in the action of becoming a success or you are not.