An actual problem I could get help with

[Quigleyer]

I was told today (and am quite concerned) about the business side of what I want to do for a career. I wanted to be a science fiction and fantasy artist... hopefully doing book covers, card illustration, and slight concept work and stuff like that. I was basically told that it doesn't even pay half as well as say... concept art or editorial illustration, per job.

Could I get a little clarification on some of this? For those of you who would know (this isn't something easily researched, I just learned), I'd really appreciate to know if this is any kind of right.

[el coro]

it all depends. i wouldnt say thats necessarily true. no matter what small niche you want to work in, as long as theres demand for your work, and you can turn stuff out in a fairly expedient manner, you can do well.
my advice, take what comes, and play it by ear. be open to what comes your way and dont rule anything out. i know i sure as hell didnt want to make video games when i was going to art school... oh, and dont do it for the pay. it takes years to get really paid in this field and thats only if you are really good and lucky... you wanna make a bunch of money become a lawyer or something. :)
do it for the love dude, or trust me man, its not worth it.


good luck man

c36

[Mirana]

dont do it for the pay.

Amen. Question answered. If you are only doing this for the money, you will be burned. You have to love what you do and work your ass off for a long time to make "good" money at it (or many things).

I was not under the impression that editorial illustration was a huge money-maker either (espeically with the decline of print newspapers).

[Vertrucio]

On top of that, remember this: When you train yourself to be an artist, that artistic abilities carries across all sorts of artistic discplines.

As such, you may want to do just scifi or fantasy book covers, and that's fine. But in the process of training yourself to be an excellent cover artist, what if someone likes your work enough that he comissions you for a historical painting, or perhaps a family portrait? Or, what if someone wants to hire you to be an environment or character designer for a video game company? It's not a stretch that you can apply your artistic skill to those, so long as you have your fundamentals.

However, you still do have to specialize, but since the contents of fantasy and scifi illustrations tend to range far and wide, that specialization has applications everywhere.

Also, don't limit yourself. You may feel like you only want to do one thing, but as you age and your life situation and feelings changes, you may want to try different things. My illustration instructor did stints as a freelance illustrator, a background artist at Nick, video games, animation, etc... Now he's teaching and doing freelance on the side.

[Quigleyer]

Yeah, that really made it sound like I wanted only to do this for the money. That wasn't my intention... at all.

It's just incredibly scary planning this out, getting excited about my future, dealing with the uncertainties, doubting yourself in tremendous ways at least once a semester, and all that shit that comes with it. I'm SO SCARED that I will have to go back to working in kitchens if I can't make it in art... I can't go back to kitchens and that keeps me motivated.

I'm not so concerned with what happens if I make it into this field, I'm more concerned about the start-up. I appreciate it guys. It's all about promotion anyway, right?

Editorial. Um. Actually- I'm not entirely sure. We have some professors here who have done well for themselves- Sterling Hundley, Robert Meganck, Tin Salamunic, formerly george pratt, etc. This always makes me think that this is the norm for how illustrators work in that field, and I think that's probably skewed.

Again, thanks guys.

[J Wilson]

For every illustrator that makes it and is able to make a living at it, there are undeniably more who cannot. Some never had the chops. Some may be good, but aren't dedicated enough, or give up too early. Some may be great, but don't have the knack for making connections or business. Some may lack something else and end up just doing illustration part time and working a regular boring job as well. There's a whole wide spectrum.

Odds are if you are good, keep working at it, and really don't give up, you'll get some measure of success. There's no guarentees though, and there is every probability of really needing to struggle for a while.