A Day in the Life of a Digital Artist
A digital artist makes art using the computer as his or her primary tool. This art can beintended for a CD-ROM, video game, or website; but almost as often, it is printed out andhung on a wall.Individuals who crave stability, please note: Change in this field is constant. Whether you’rean illustrator, graphic designer, animator, or game designer, the software you use is constantlyevolving. Depending on the company they work for, digital artists may wear many different hatsand contribute to five or six projects at one time. Most oftheir day is spent developing an interface for a project,drawing pictures, assembling the art, and making buttonsfor users to click on. “The work atmosphere is like abig clubhouse, and we can easily be there until midnight or two in the morning, particularlywhen working on a deadline. We easily can put in a 12-hour day, and 10-hour days are the average.That’s because we’re in the hot seat and clients want things yesterday,” says one artist at astartup company.
Paying Your Dues
A general art education is a good first step, especially for networking, as so much of thisindustry involves working with creative people in other fields. While a job with a print magazinewas once the best way to break into commercial art, the Internet now allows youngartists to land jobs as a junior/assistant designer, website designer, art director, illustrator, animator,or game designer. Today there aren’t any steadfast rules or traditional channels to payingyour dues. You may be relegated to the toilet paper account as a junior art director at anad agency, but if you’re stuck in the same role at an interactive agency, you can make the toiletpaper talk, dance, and sing. You’re not going to be making complicated video games in thebeginning. There is much to learn about how to manipulate the software; it takes time to beable to grasp the intricacies of its usability and understand a language that’s not totally developed.If you can say that you are not only an illustrator and graphic designer, but also knowtypography, understand color and page layout, and know how to optimize graphics for useon the Web, you will be an extremely valuable commodity. Right now, the demand for creativetalent is immense, largely because the Internet is comprised of a world of technicians andengineers, and the people who start companies and develop software generally don’t have anunderstanding of how to create art.Because every project involves teamwork, communication is as important as artisticskills. In Web companies where technology often breaks inexplicably (particularly around adeadline), being calm, practical, and logical is an asset. While creativity and imagination arethe most important attributes, understanding what makes things work and an analytical abilityto think like a programmer is often very helpful. In the Internet arena, an artist’s unbridledcreativity should be balanced with logic and analytical skills.
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Present and Future
Commercial art began with the advent of modern advertising, and graphic design andtypography were the world’s original interfaces; it is from these interfaces that all modernforms of graphical information are delivered. Internet art has already evolved from havingentertainment value to commercial value as an integral part of demonstrating and sellingproducts. “The people in this industry are taking part in creating a language just like filmmakersdid in the 1920s. In the future, the Internet will be regarded as an ‘age’ just like theindustrial revolution,” believes one digital artist.How will the role of the artist evolve along with new technologies and forms of communication?Many people are trying to predict its future, but all we know is that change is constant,and it’s proceeding so fast that keeping up is no longer even an option. You just have toride the wave. Managing information, whether it is financial data or cartoons, is always goingto be essential. However, the world will always need artists. Whether we watch televisionthrough virtual-reality glasses or ditch modern technology and go back to using paper tocommunicate, someone is still going to have to draw the pictures.
Quality of Life
PRESENT AND FUTURE
Starting salaries depend on how many programs you know and the extent of yourexperience. Knowledge of just the baseline illustrator programs will garner the lowestwage. Competition is toughest for animators and illustrators; 3-D artists are themost sought after.
FIVE YEARS OUT
On average, salary jumps about five dollars an hour for every two or three years ofexperience. The further away you move from making art and the closer you get tomaking software, the higher the pay—especially if you are adept at doing both. Abrilliant artist and programmer could earn as much as $100 an hour.
TEN YEARS OUT
Digital artists and their software have scarcely been around this long. Check back ina few years to see what the next Internet revolution brings.
