Congratulations! You’ve just graduated from your college/university program with a diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, etc. You are ready to hit the ground running and kick-start your career! You send out your portfolio to anyone hiring and you apply to absolutely everything. But nothing happens. No one reaches out, and you don’t get called for any interviews. What’s going on? You have the credentials, so there must be something else at play.
And there is.
Unfortunately, many post-secondary digital arts programs are a scam. Yes, I really mean it. They do not teach foundational skills and do not guide students on how to create a competitive portfolio. Most students are unaware of this until after they graduate and realize that they don’t have the skills to compete for these coveted dream jobs in the entertainment industry. This is exactly what happened to me, and many of our students recount having the same experience. They spend tens of thousands on post-secondary programs full of classes that are pointless and teachers that are less skilled than their students. Of course, there are exceptions. There are at least 5 or 6 excellent accredited art schools with fantastic teachers and curriculum—but these are the exception, not the rule.
I am by no means trying to minimize the accomplishments of hard-working, committed college students. Completing a post-secondary program is no small feat! Having a degree can be an advantage in many lines of work and it shows a commitment to investing in yourself and finishing what you start, but in the art industry it simply is not that important and does not guarantee you a job. In this world, skills are everything.
So what do you do now? How can you get your career going?
Pick a lane.
Ok, so you’re lacking something in the skills department. Your college teachers didn’t teach any fundamentals and you don’t know how to fix this. You don’t need to study everything at the same time. The best thing to do is pick a direction. What is it you want to do? Is it animation? Character design for games? Environment design? Fantasy illustration? Vehicle concept design? Choose the area you enjoy most, list out all the skills needed for that role and make a study plan to build those skills.
Realize that you might need to invest more money.
I know that may feel like a kick in the teeth after spending large sums on college/university tuition, but if you are lacking core skills that you didn’t get in college, you may need to take more classes because learning some of these things on your own might be too slow or confusing. Fortunately, there are a lot of affordable and high quality online classes and teachers available to you (something many of us older artists didn’t have access to). Obviously, I’m tremendously proud of our classes and curriculum here at Swatches Academy, but there are also classes at other online schools that are fantastic options, as well as a lot of great YouTube channels, Gumroad tutorials, and private mentorships. Whichever option you choose, whether it is online classes or self-study on your own, you need to fill in those gaps in your skillset and that might require more financial investment.
Put in the work.
Once you have a study plan in place, it’s time to commit. If you are serious about doing this for a living, then take it seriously. That means less gaming and less Netflix. It means putting your heart and soul into your work and pushing yourself towards excellence. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have any time off, but be aware that the more effort you put in, the faster you will reach your goal of being able to support yourself with your art. This might mean an eventual 9-5 or becoming an independent artist selling directly to the public, either way, the marketplace wants quality. You don’t need to become an expert on everything, but you need to become an expert on something. Expertise = value.
Have a strategy for your portfolio.
Don’t be random with it. Building a portfolio is a serious investment of time. Now that you have the skills, examine the area you are trying to enter, and analyze the artists that are dominating that space. Look at their portfolios and pull them up side by side. Look for characteristics they have in common: is it style, presentation, subject matter, themes, handling of colors, design or rendering? Do they produce a large volume of work? Who are their clients? What sort of work do those clients like and need? Make notes and use that information to plan out your portfolio and each piece in it. This does not mean that you should copy other artists, again this should be an area that you enjoy and are compatible with as an artist to begin with. If you really need help building a portfolio, a mentorship is an appropriate choice. Choose a mentor that has experience in the space you are trying to enter. At Swatches, we currently have 2 mentors available, you can find out more about that here.
Establish an online presence.
This can be a “light touch”, just posting your work and connecting with friends and peers, or it can be an all out business, posting relentlessly and building a following for the purpose of selling merch, classes, tutorials, whatever. There are obviously a lot of platforms out there to share your work, but for better or for worse, Artstation is still the main site used by recruiters to look for artists, so if you are looking to get hired, it is advantageous to have your work posted there.
Diversify.
In point 1, I mentioned “picking a lane” and increasing your progress and gaining expertise by focusing your efforts in one area. Some students misunderstand this as meaning “only do this one super niche thing”, however this isn’t what was intended. Over-niching yourself is a bad strategy, because it severely limits the number of clients who would potentially be interested in your work. We especially see this with horror artists or artists that exclusively make fan art based on one specific property. Make sure you diversify your portfolio (within your area of expertise) by adding work that will appeal to more than one client. Example: If you are a character designer, design different types of characters. Don’t just design the same pretty girl over and over.
Act like a Pro.
Artistic maturity manifests in everything from how the work is laid out and presented to which themes are being chosen to taste level and utility. In the beginning it is important to communicate to your prospective clients that you take the job seriously and care about the quality of everything you put out there. Looking like a fan boy/girl by creating an excess of fan art, art with low appeal, poor layouts, silly themes, or of sloppy quality will immediately cause recruiters to mentally put you in a “non-pro” category.
This extends to how you behave on social media and at industry events and conventions. If you act like a fan, you will be treated like a fan.
Realize that there is no Magic Pill.
Students often come to us after not only college/university, but also having attended many other online schools and online art classes. As much as we’d like to think that this is because we are giving them better instruction than all those other great artists (and we believe we are), we can’t help but notice that many students do not spend time practicing things that were taught in those classes after the class is over. The same goes with not implementing feedback received in class or in portfolio reviews. A new, fancier, more famous teacher cannot make you awesome, only you can do that. If you take a great class, don’t let it go to waste - practice and actually repeat and implement the things that you were taught in it and you will be ahead of 80% of your peers.
If you are a recent graduate from art school and would like guidance and direction on how to best kick-start your art career, you can schedule a private 1-on-1 consultation with a Swatches Academy Instructor here: https://www.swatchesacademy.com/book-online
You can get more in-depth information on all these topics in our Career and Portfolio Kit: https://www.swatchesacademy.com/career-kit Note that all courses include free access to the Career and Portfolio Kit, so if you sign up for a class, there is no need to purchase the Kit.
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