DIGITAL PAINTING

JOBS & PROJECTS

47 Creative Career Paths

For Digital Artists
- 2020 Edition -
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ILLUSTRATION
A V E R A G E S A L A R Y: $ 4 1 , 8 9 7 [ S O U R C E ]

An illustrator is an artist who specialises in creating art for (usually) commercial purposes,
often to enhance stories in one way or another. The most common illustration jobs
including editorial, media illustrations, books & stories, and fashion - though as you can
see below there are many, many other commissions you can get as an illustrator!

Though the average salary may be slightly lower than other fields, illustration is by far
the easiest field to break into (in part because of the huge amount of projects & types of
illustration to pick from), especially for new artists. It’s also the easiest to do on a freelance
or even part-time basis.

This makes it a great starting point even if you eventually want to move into other fields, as
you quickly begin freelancing and start getting paid to earn experience.

E X A M P L E S O F I L L U S T R AT I O N P R OJ E C T S I N C L U D E :

… Portraiture … Editorial & magazines … Illustrations for children

… Illustration for Media (Music, … Textile illustration … Packaging illustration

Movies, Games)
… Greeting cards … T-Shirt Illustration
… Marketing illustration
… Fashion illustration … Postage stamp illustration
… Advertising illustrations
… Tattoos illustration … Illustrated logos
… Medical illustration
… Religious illustrations … Card games
… Technical illustration
… Educational … Printed Murals

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CONCEPT & CHARACTER

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y: $ 5 9 , 5 2 3 [ S O U R C E ]

As a concept artist, your job is to bring ideas and fantasy worlds to life. The two most
common forms of concept art include character design and environment/world design,
though there are many other specialisations as well. You will most commonly work for
movie or game studies, visualising ideas and preparing them for animators.

E X A M P L E S O F C O N C E P T A R T P R OJ E C T S I N C L U D E :

… Character design for games … Preparing character … Environment design

and movies model sheets for 3D
animation … Matte painting
… Creature design
… Texture design … Weapon design
… Vehicle design

BOOKS & COMICS

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y: $ 5 7 , 4 0 0 [ S O U R C E ]

Do you love the idea of having your artwork published and printed on a tangible book?
This might be the career path for you! Whether freelance or in-house, editorial or comics -
the range of jobs here is incredibly broad, and regardless of what you want to paint, you’ll
be sure to find something that excites you!.

E X A M P L E S O F B O O K & C O M I C P R OJ E C T S I N C L U D E :

… Graphic novels … Editorial … Self-published books

and comics
… Children books … Textbook diagrams
… Web comics
… Coloring books … Comic art
… Political comics

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STORYBOARD & ANIMATION

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y: $ 6 9 , 1 6 8 [ S O U R C E ]

As a storyboard artist, your job is to “visually plan” animated features, films, television
commercials and other ad campaigns, music videos, and video games. You’ll need to
sketch and paint key moments, camera angles, scene switches, and other action elements,
panel by panel.

E X A M P L E S O F C O N C E P T S TO R Y B O A R D & A N I M AT I O N I N C L U D E :

… 2D/3D animation … Preparing 2D characters,

designs or environments
… Storyboarding for 3D animators

OTHER PROJECTS
A V E R A G E S A L A R Y: V A R I E S

Though we’ve done our best to categorise as many of the jobs as we could, art is an
incredibly broad field - and there are countless other creative examples of how you could e
arn an income as an artist. We’ve attempted to list just a few of them below:

OT H E R :

… Architectural visualization … Calligraphy/ … Asset creation for video

handlettering games/mobile games
… Technical illustration
… Printed Murals … Selling brushes or other
… Courtroom sketch artist resources
… Fine art

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