One thing that I'm wrestling with right now is what field I want to go into once I step out into the real world. There are a ton of options, and they can often blur together.
Concept art for characters, props, or environments, visual development, story boarding, animation, illustration, fine art, comic art, each presents its own unique challenges. Concept art for science fiction props will be totally different illustrating fantasy characters, and both of those are nothing like story boarding for an animated tv series.
And, as if the sheer amount of options wasn't enough to make the choice difficult, you have to factor in your current style, skill level, speed, and preferences for genres and subject matter. You also have to choose between working for a salary, and working freelance.
Right now, I do mostly environment work that would fit more into the concept art category, but I also want to do incredibly detailed work, or try characters, or tell stories through my own comic. The one consistent part of all my random interests, is world-building. I want to create things that people will get lost in, and that make them leave their real life behind, if only for a few seconds. That sense of wonder and immersion is what I'm after. For me personally, this means I would prefer creating my own intellectual property, something like Sin of Man by Noah Bradley, or Angelarium by Peter Mohrbacher.
That's not super specific though, so since I want a solution as much as you do, let's read through this short list that I've conveniently included in the script.
1. Talk to a professional
- Find somebody who does the job you're thinking of, and ask them about it, or find a video or article that talks about what it's like. There are plenty of videos that give details about the day to day life of whatever type of artist. Or just search, "do you have what it takes to be an *insert your potential job here*"
2. Try it yourself
- If you're not already, try doing the type of art you think you'd be interested in. If you are, take it a step forward by imitating the process as well as you can. If you want to become a concept artist, give yourself a fake assignment, practice turning words into visual ideas and designs. If you want to be an illustrator, do illustrations for your favorite short story, and practice bringing a scene to life. It might be uncomfortable at first, but give it a few tries. If you look forward to stopping, it's probably not the right choice for you.
Whatever and whenever you choose, the deciding factor will probably be your ability to actually do the job you want to do, and second to that, your style. If you're uncertain, the best thing you can do is keep working on the fundamentals, and improve your art in general, but that's a topic for another video.
×