I want to be an artist as a possible proffesional job(I’m a high school student). I’d very much appreciate advice, such as good books, good techniques to study.
Also, a question:
I’ve looked at some professional work, and at some the famous artists; my art doesn’t even begin to approach how good they are. I’m wondering how long it took you before your work began to approach the level of a professional, 'cos I’m worried I might never advance beyond my current level of drawing.
If you’re talking about commericial art, the kind you see on advertisements and such then most any liberal arts college can prepare you for that. It’s not exciting but it’ll pay the bills.
If you’re talking about striking out to become an ‘artist’ and make money selling your art like say, Picasso or some such the best advice I can give you is this:
Create.
Just do art. Draw, paint, sketch. Just do it. All the time. Make it an obsession. You’ll be surprised how you’ll grow. And it’ll allow you to define your own style.
I only have experience with this through music, I admit. But that’s the advice I give kids who tell me ‘I want to play like XXX’ where XXX is some idol type person. Just go out and play. Soon enough you’ll define your own style. That’s what’s important.
And as for you saying ‘my art doesn’t approach how good they are’ let me give you a bit of advice. No one’s art seems as good to themselves as other peoples. You know what you were striving for and see where you went wrong. Other people will see where you went right.
Do be your own harshest critic. But make sure you’re an honest on and see the good as well as the bad.
You know what you were striving for and see where you went wrong. Other people will see where you went right.
You mean that people will only see the good parts in my drawing? I don’t quite understand, because when I look at art, I see the good parts and the bad parts.
Hmmm. I hate to tell you this, but the time is way past when I’d recommend to anyone that he should pursue anything he loves passionately as a career, especially if it involves using artistic creativity or intellect, unless he’s willing to subordinate either his artistic judgment or brains to “superiors,” i.e., employers.
If you’re not willing to do this, you’re gonna need an unrelated day job to both pay your rent and keep you in art supplies. That’s fine, and IMNSHO, greatly preferable. If you ARE willing to do this, then commercial art school and a job with an ad agency or similar firm should probably suffice for you.
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*Originally posted by Yersinia *
**Hmmm. I hate to tell you this, but the time is way past when I’d recommend to anyone that he should pursue anything he loves passionately as a career, especially if it involves using artistic creativity or intellect, unless he’s willing to subordinate either his artistic judgment or brains to “superiors,” i.e., employers. **
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Why? Does this have to do with the current job market?
I’d probably go for option 2, I like as much creative freedom as possible.
Not at all. I think I’m making a point about subjectivity.
You envision a drawing. You draw it.
You can see where what you ended up with isn’t what you originally envisioned.
The viewer can’t. They approach your work without your preconceptions and are therefore capable of appreciating the work without getting hung up with what it might have been.
Many a song has been written that the audience liked and the writer didn’t.
I also call this the ‘R2-D2’ effect. When Lucas first envisioned RS-D2 he had him swinging on his outside legs like crutches. But that proved infeasible so he rolled on wheels. I once caught an interview with Lucas where he admitted that always bothered him that he didn’t get what he envisioned.
But the audience appreciated R2-D2 for what he WAS, not what he was NOT.
Ah.
I get it now.
<Why? Does this have to do with the current job market?>
No. It has to do with how the world of work operates. IOW, talent and brains are virtually of no consequences. It’s not how good you are at something which is your key to success, it’s how well you play the game. That means not only following rules others lay out for you with little or no question, but being willing to dumb your work down to appeal to the least common denominator, i.e., the “formula” that those who pay you are targeting their marketing to in order to make money. And public taste is on the whole pretty bad. Exceptions exist of course, but not enough of them.
<I’d probably go for option 2, I like as much creative freedom as possible.>
That’s your call, of course, but if you think that’s the road to creative freedom – unless you ARE one of those people whose tastes run to the lowest common denominator – gee, are you ever in for a, ummmm, let’s call it a “learning experience.”
Aslan2, maybe you can try talking to jinwicked. She’s an artist and has her own website. She’s clearly quite talented, and might be able to help you out.
Myself, I’ve been trying to become a professional artist for about 10 years. 
Yersinia, I think you’re putting a ‘glass half empty’ perspective on one of the more exciting parts of being an artist (at least IMO).
The key to being successful is, as Johathan Chance says, to just do the art you want to, and don’t let up. There’s no better way to improve than constant work and repetition.
Not only that, but doing your art in a professional capacity is also important. It’s one thing to be taking classes, but if you’re just doing work for class, you’re not going to be able to know what aspects of what you do are going to be successful in the market place.
As a musician who’d like to ‘make it big’ some day, I consider half of my job learning and playing music for people. The other half (or even more than half), is selling myself. Meeting people who might want to hire me and trying to come off as a friendly and fun guy to work with is something that I’ve pretty much incorporated into a full time attitude. I don’t always get to play the music I’d choose if I were in complete control, but I still have fun playing for people.
In the same way, you should just do art. Try to get it out there, in coffee shops in town, libraries, or whatever. Meet and get connected with other artists in your area, who can help to get you leads, and give you advice. One of the quickest routes to success is finding someone else who’s successful who likes you.
So, to sum up, have faith in yourself; remember the key is not to be the best, it’s to be something that people enjoy.
From personal experience, for improving your technical skill, you should take the time do do as many still lifes (and figure drawings if you’re interested in the human figure) as you can bear. Gather a bunch of objects, place them close together, pick a comfortable spot to sit, and draw.
I wanted very much to develop my artistic skill, but I didn’t have the patience for still-lifes. While my artist friends were getting better and better at realizing what real life looks like from their practice, I never improved. I guess another lesson for you: have lots of patience.
Don’t quit the day job. Unless it’s in advertising. Advertising will eat your soul alive.
I’m a painter. I’ve earned money selling in galleries, making illustrations, doing portraits and murals. But I don’t support myself with it. I might do better if I had any entrepreneurial skills. My advice would be, while you’re doing the art thing, get some of those. Find out how the business of art works - fine or commercial (and the distinction is often blurred). You will probably have to do some of both unless you are extremely good and extremely lucky.
I agree with what Jonathan said: if you draw, you will get better. “You gotta put miles on the end of your pencil,” as one of my former teachers put it. “And you’ll make a hundred bad drawings for every good one,” he’d add. Keep at it. I may not be Rembrandt, but I’m a heckuva lot better than I was in high school. I too feel discouraged in the presence of True Greatness. It’s taken me a long time to like my stuff for what it is, instead of what I wish it were. But my stuff doesn’t utterly stink and there’s a place for it. One of the keys is finding where that place is. There’s a balance between selling yourself out to make a buck by catering to the lowest common denominator and ignoring your audience because you believe yourself to be The Great Artiste. If you see your art as communication (as opposed to pure self-expression, which there’s a place for but not necessarily a remunerative one), then both you and your audience are of equal importance. Find your audience.
As far as “books and techniques to study”, that depends on what your natural artistic inclinations are. You might consider a subscription to any of the artists’ magazines. They present a variety of approaches and resources and you can explore outward from there.
I’ve been an artist forever, born into an artist family. Here are my two ideas for this:
get a BA in Bio & one in art & apply for a job doing medical illustration.
heard my Xfiance say, ‘Im going to get married to a rich guy so I can sit around all day doing my art’… (funny thing is, she was just on Oprah, where she bought a photo for 25 cents & got $50,000 for it, way more than she ever got from her art).
This is a great thread, and I am glad that someone started it, as I have been going through the same dillemna.
Artwork has always been a great release for me, and I love doing it, and bettering myself through practice. I have no desire to be Michelangelo, or some famous artist, I just enjoy doing it for myself.
Of course, as I am sure many others have got, most people, when seeing my artwork, will make comments of “Why don’t you go to school for that?” or something along those lines.
As far as actual careers in it go, none of the ones that I have seen are at all appealing to me. I don’t want to have to deal with an employer telling me exactly what they want me to do, I like having freedom to do whatever it is that I want. Like graphic design, for instance. It seemed like a cool idea, but then as I thought about it, doing work like that 8 hours a day would just get old after a while, and I would cease to enjoy it after some time.
Ideally, I would like to just do freelance work on the side, and develop myself to the point that possibly I could support myself with it.
The money isn’t even an issue in it. I’m not a particularly materialistic person, and so long as I have enough money to put a roof over my head, and food in my stomache, I’m a happy person. I’ve been told by many people that I have a gift, and while I am my own worse critic, I have faith in my abilities.
As far as schooling goes, I am open to the idea. My only problem with it is all of the art biased schools I have seen focus on more commercial art, which I am not particularly interested in. Would schooling even really be relevant in my area?
As someone who has looked into this, you are going to need more than two bachelor’s degrees. There are specific MFA programs in Medical Illustration and you are going to need one of those, according to what I was told.
modro, what’s an “art biased school,” as opposed to an art school? Any art school worth the name has a Fine Art curriculum. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts leaps to mind as an extremely kick-butt institution. Formal art training is not the only way to go, but it has merits. If you don’t feel strongly about it, though, it is probably not worth the cost.
Should I email her?
And thanks for all the additional advice.
What happens when you type minus thinking apparently 
Take for instance, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, most all of their programs focus on graphic design, web design, computer animation, etc…
Certainly not programs that I am at all interested in.
I am now looking at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’ website, and it certainly falls more in line with what I would like to see in an art school.
Most of what I have seen, such as the Art Institute, are more technology based than art based.
Yep, The Art Institutes as a whole are mostly geared toward commercial/design work.
Aslan2, I stumbled onto this artist messageboard just now. Have no idea what it’s like, so I can’t recommend it, but it looks interesting and you might find resources and help there.
This thread is better suited for Cafe Society. I’ll move it for you.
Cajun Man ~ SDMB Moderator