The PROBLEMS with an ART CAREER

so for today's video I wanted to talk about some of the harsh realities brutal truths honest truths about being a full-time Artist as your main career so if you're familiar with my channel you probably already know I'm all about empowering people to pursue art as a career and validate it as a financially stable one like any other industry out there there are still going to be downsides to being a full-time artist so for those of you who are new to my channel hello my name is Michelle and I am currently a full-time artist working in the animation industry primarily as a storyboard artist and I also have my first graphic novel Mich to bat demon coming out in March of this year so you can check it out in the links below if you would like to pre-order it and also I post my comics on Instagram and videos on YouTube where I kind of just talk about my life as a full-time artist living in Los Angeles so the way I'm gonna structure this video is kind of gonna be like in different categories of different places where where you might be experiencing these cons or harsh realities whatever you want to call it of being a full-time artist honestly these different topics are going to differ from person to person and these are just simply based off of my experience so the areas that I'm gonna primarily Focus the topics around would be for your students life your working life financially and creatively and if you're still deciding on art as a potential career pack because at the end of the day you're going to have pros and cons in any field you decide to go in and it's just more about choosing the pros and cons you are specifically willing to deal with so the first topic I will be covering is as a student what are the common downfalls or problems that you might be facing as a student and the first one I personally realize is realizing that you're not special there are a lot of talented folks around you when you first enter art school and you are are most likely coming from a world where you were the only artist in your world like at your school you were probably known as the art kid in your neighborhood you might have maybe gotten some of your artwork published in your local newspaper or something like that and that is great and that is amazing I feel like everybody should experience this in their life where they are the star of their community and then once you enter art school though you then realize you're surrounded by so many amazing artists which is a good thing in the broad scheme of things because you will be able to learn from your peers and your classmates and challenge yourself when you're surrounded by them however I will say that the feelings of inadequacy and feeling like you're not good enough is going to be a very prominent feeling when you first enter art school because you're going to be surrounded by people of different skill levels and different art style tastes that it's going to make you eventually question your own style and when you do start to feel insecure you might have moments of not even wanting to create art or feel paralyzed about creating art for me personally the way that I dealt with this in school was yes I had to go through that hurdle to realize that hey I may not be special anymore but the challenge within this is to find out what about my art makes me have a specific voice that is different from other people sure we all have artistic skills and abilities but we're all still going to have different backgrounds stories and voices to share and that is the thing that is going to further specify you as an artist and that's going to be the challenge you're going to have to face throughout art school so I would say one of the ways you can cope with this feeling initially is to just remember that even though you're surrounded by all of these other amazing artists in your class just know that other people have their own flaws and their own skill levels and everybody is where they're at because of many different things that occurred in their life that's why people are going to be in different positions but what you can do is learn from each other become friends with each other learn about the people around you and befriending your classmates and just realizing that hey we're more than our artworks we're all humans going through our own personal struggles in life and I feel like creating a community where you're willing to help each other rather than compete with each other in a toxic way is better than isolating yourself and letting your insecurities eat you up so the next biggest issue you might be dealing with as an art student is that you will probably face a lot of rejection not because you are bad it's most likely going to be because nobody really knows you yet and the best way that you can kind of let people know who you are is by starting a social media platform primarily on Instagram because for me that's where the animation industry mostly lives or just joining many of these events that might primarily be in the Los Angeles area such as lightbox Expo CTN or any other conventions that bring people together and allow you to have a presence amongst the world you want to be a part of I would say that the main main real reason why a lot of newly graduated students don't land jobs when they first graduate is because you have to remember that when you graduate that has to also align with when entry job level positions are going to be available usually if you're a student that hasn't had work experience in a specific field before people aren't going to just immediately hire you into senior or mid-senior level positions if that's what the studio is looking for usually entry level positions might be a little bit more limited and come out in small pools and if your graduation time period does not align with that entry job level position opening then you're not really going to be able to have many chances of Landing an entry-level jobs so my piece of advice again is for if you graduated and you can't seem to land a job getting out of school just work on your portfolio enhance your discoverability share your work online so that you can even be considered for a future entry level position and then lastly for the art student world this is the money question I always get asked in every video I've talked about it a lot already so I'll try to keep this one short but the main question about art school in general is is it even worth it is it worth going to art school and my simple answer to this is that if it's going to leave you in financial debt don't go the only time I will say you should go to art school is if you are an international student and you need to go to an art school so that you can get a job then yes that's probably going to be more mandatory for your situation but if you are a US resident and you want to break into the animation industry but you or your family might not have the financial means of going to a specific school I don't think it's worth it to go to a well-known school just to then have to be able to pay off that debt afterwards in a way that it might hinder you so I would just say that my best recommendation based off of what I have heard from my own friends who went this similar path is to just go to either a more affordable school or even at your community college if they have some film and animation program go for that and then supplement it with classes at concept Design Academy brainstorm schoolism or any online schools that have somebody specifically currently working in the animation industry teaching classes there which will then allow you to enter a classroom either of other animation industry professionals or other people with similar goals as you because I think that that is a better way of breaking in and guaranteeing some sort of financial stability afterwards instead of just spending so much money on an art school that you know might teach you just as much of the same things that you might learn at one of those online schools I mention only for you to have to also face a debt that you have to pay off after you start working so once you enter the world of working which we're going to be discussing now you're going to also be facing maybe things that you did not originally expect when first entering the art world or more specifically in this video that I'm talking about the animation world so if you are working an animation job don't expect it to be a job that is going to let you do whatever you want draw whatever you want and you know Life is Peachy the truth about if you are working in animation is that honestly it's a corporate job so animation while it is technically a corporate job it is not really going to give off the corporate Vibes which is what I will say kind of differentiates it from a regular office job where you are just having to dress in a suit and tie and carry a briefcase and I know there are corporate jobs out there that are not all stereotypically like this too so at the end of the day animation is still pretty much a nine to six job or sometimes ten to seven depending on the studio that you're at and you still have to submit weekly time cards you still have to worry about your benefits retirement plan and investment and so that is something you might not be initially be thinking about as a student but I think it's important to just know that this is the type of Lifestyle you're going to be getting at because a lot of people who are in Art Fields might be thinking oh I want to just kind of do my own thing I want to run my own project someday which might mean yes maybe starting off in the animation industry could be a good first step but then later on you might realize that for you to run your own project living in this corporate life is not going to be the way that you're going to be able to get the goals that you want it's not as simple as just working in a studio and going up the ladder and then you'll just automatically run your own project someday there's kind of a little more like random side roads you're going to have to take in order to achieve that and the type of artwork you're going to be creating is going to have to fit within a certain scope of what this project is looking for and you're not there to just create whatever random stuff it is your heart desires you're still there to conform to a specific project needs and some things that some artists who are not used to the Working World might be surprised by is that nobody really cares about your art or how it impresses people anymore once you start working on a project like it's more about aligning with the needs of directors leaders on that project and being good at playing the game of telephone once information gets passed down from the showrunner it's going to be passed down to the director and that's going to be passed on to you and your job is to pretty much be good at understanding what your director or manager wants for this assignment and you have to pretty much make sure whatever you create is not going to be something that is going to throw them off budget it's not going to be out of line with what they originally envisioned that might then require you to reboard it or redraw it five more times hopefully you'll be able to get down what they want within the first one to three attempts but if people feel like you are not aligning with the tone or the vision or are not understanding what this team's needs are there's a chance that they might let you go I think a lot of artists tend to realize hey I want to do my own project I want to run my own show I want to direct my own movie I want to publish my own book whatever it is doing something like that is a lot harder than you think it will be for some people definitely more back in the good old days of cartoons and animation when life was a lot simpler sure that was the case but let's remember we live in 2023 which is kind of like an attention economy kind of situation where people kind of won't really even want you to make a show if it's kind of been proven that a show like yours won't even do well based on previous data and statistics so getting a show or your own project out there is going to take a lot more random loopholes it's not going to be as simple as just have having an idea putting it in a little pitch Bible and presenting it to a executive and hoping that they green light your project a lot of Executives kind of want to see that a project like yours is something that will eventually be doing well on their platform or if something that is even needed within their scope of projects that they already have there's so many random things that are not necessarily tied to how good or bad your pitch was it's just about what are the needs of this studio what are the needs of this streaming platform and even if you do get your project greenlit there's a chance that it can still get axed canceled Midway without you know any heads up you can just work on a project and already think that you're going to get this show on this platform done only for it to be done like halfway through and for it to be canceled which has unfortunately been the case for many of the projects this past year in 2022 and even after you do have a show come out or a movie of your doors come out you still have to worry about how well it's gonna do either in the box office or in the streaming platform statistics like is it going to hit the top 10 on Netflix if it's not that might not be the greatest sign you might not be able to get the chance to do a season two of your show or you might not be able to direct another project for this platform again for a while and from what I've heard from previous creators that I've worked with for their projects they don't always get all the information that is needed about how well their show is doing and they don't always get their project properly marketed towards audience members so it's like you can work on this show for so many years only for the platform that you have worked on this with to not even spend time or money promoting it whatsoever and then it fails and like I mentioned before a lot of Studios kind of lean in towards IP or pre-existing projects like whether if you have a book game or pre-existing old version of this series or movies people at Studios just seem to want to keep regurgitating pre-existing ideas and if you do ever want to be you know in a leadership position in a creative field there's a chance that you could be running or show running or leading a project that is not even your own idea which could add to more complicated feelings about your job so then lastly again if you are somebody who wants to grow in your career in your art field just know that growth is not always guaranteed especially in a very project driven industry there are many opportunities to get promoted and grow I've experienced it myself on projects but there will be a certain point where you do find yourself potentially plateauing either in your career title or your pay amount because what I noticed is that when you are jumping from Project to project yes you might get a chance of getting a pay raise which is great because people are going to want to to pay you more than what you are previously getting paid at your project assuming you're either at a similar job title or one higher than the previous one but the thing is is that people might not always promote you and want you to be in a leadership position if they don't really know how you work because every time you jump from Project to project you're going to be introduced to a new team and when you're introduced to a new team not everybody on that team is going to know who you are so I feel like it feels like a weird like Groundhog's Day situation where every time you start a new project you have to reintroduce yourself again you have to re-prove yourself again to people you have to do all of the things you did on this previous project just for people on this new project to gain trust in you so it gets really exhausting where you need to reprove yourself just to be able to be trusted to lead or Do Your Own Thing someday and yes the good thing about this though is that sometimes when you do land on other projects you might have overlap with teammates from previous projects because because once you roll off a show you might have people from that show also roll off onto this other news show along with you so those could be the people that advocate for you and support you and everything and that's why it's good to keep good connections and positive relationships with people but in addition to that I will also say that it is also really hard to lead projects especially if you are not creatively aligned with this project idea that exists for example if you want to grow to be a director or if you want to grow to be some sort of story lead let's say you are very used to creating stuff in a serious anime tone style but the only projects out there right now are silly sitcom slapstick humor type of shows but that's not exactly your Vibe but you do have experience in leading and directing you might still not be able to land on certain projects because your artistic tone and your history of types of projects you worked on might not allow line with this silly slapstick humor type of show even though you do have the skill sets required to do your job responsibilities but art is still kind of subjective and if it's something where your tones do not align with this Project's tones then you might still not be able to land on a project like that and maybe you might be better off as a storyboard artist which you know maybe it will save you your time and energy on a project that you personally don't even share the same tastes in but simultaneously I will say that a lot of people who are in leadership positions tend to be people who are starting to raise families and have bigger financial responsibilities to take care of and maybe they really do need that income or pay raise to support their lives and staying at a lower job position is not going to be helping them with that so then let's move on to financial stuff and your personal life but this one is more specifically for animation people so the most stable way to get health insurance in the animation industry is by joining the animation Union anytime you are in a union eye Studio which is listed on the animation Union's website you will eventually get health insurance after working a certain number of hours but just know that you don't just automatically get health insurance the moment you start at the studio if you had zero experience in a unionized Animation Studio prior to this so I would say that the animation Union's health insurance is honestly great it's fine it actually offers a lot of options out here in Los Angeles however I will just say that the act of obtaining it and maintaining it is the part that is difficult especially with animation being so project driven every time a project ends then it's like you're on this Race Against Time to make sure you land on another unionized animation job afterwards so that you can continue gaining your health insurance hours because what happens is once you stop working you stop collecting hours that will contribute to your health insurance and your health insurance will eventually expire if you do not find a job within maybe like a year so another thing you should know is that when you're working at an animation studio that is unionized even if you're working at that job and you still take vacation days and sick days which the studio will pay you for most likely those hours that you did not work though will affect your health insurance because yeah your studio will still pay you for your time off but because you didn't work those hours that's going to affect how many hours goes into your eligibility for health insurance so it's like kind of sucky because you should have rightfully taken those days off for your vacation and you're sick which you should be allowed to have but still that lack of worked hour is going to affect your health insurance eligibility so it's like you have to keep getting yourself to continue working consistently need to guarantee yourself this stable health insurance which again is going to be very tough for if you're on a project that just randomly gets canceled and then it's like now you're placed in this position where you have to desperately find the next job to be able to continue your eligibility for health insurance then next is financial stability Financial stability is going to be different from person to person because it depends on your own financial situation like have you had debt that was from your art school or college that you're still paying off or are you still just working in entry level position even though you've been working in the industry for years that's something that can affect your ability to support your own personal life and your housing and I will say that from my experience if I only worked a storyboard artist job without any side projects like my book or Instagram or any side things and I only worked my storyboard animation job I feel like I could live in a decent apartment in Los Angeles without a partner or roommate but if I lived somewhere else in a more Rural America maybe I could probably be able to afford a home but living in Los Angeles is somewhat mandatory for most people who want to work a unionized animation job I would say that home ownership of a single family home in Los Angeles could be tight as a single person but that could differ depending on if you have a partner roommate or other jobs or forms of income so at the end of the day what I'm trying to say is that animation as your only job could most likely support you to just be able to live a life in Los Angeles basically if you want the ability to kind of have more and have a large home with a yard and have a nice car and be able to travel and do a lot of these extra things you might have to lump your job along with some other other side projects or forms of income to support that sort of Lifestyle then lastly I'm going to cover the creative struggles of being an artist as drawing art stuff becomes more a part of your job the less you're gonna enjoy it as your hobby and this is kind of a Bittersweet thing because you're kind of parting ways with this hobby that once brought you so much joy and happiness as a child but it's also somewhat satisfying to know that you're getting over this hobby you once obsessed with so that you can make room for other hobbies in your life so depending on who you are some people might be saddened by the idea that they don't really enjoy art as much as they used to but some other people might find it liberating to be able to now explore other parts of their life I personally feel like I lean more towards the latter where I actually don't really mind that art is not as much of my hobby anymore I personally like being able to explore other parts of my life but that's just me other people might want to find ways to lean more back into their artistic and creative self as their Hobby and that's totally fine it's just knowing that this is a potential outcome of making art as your career then next is having to choose between projects that will satisfy you financially versus creatively because once art does become your career there's going to be that balance between creative satisfaction and financial satisfaction and usually the most preferred outcome is when both can be balanced however that's not always going to be the reality when I hear about like directors or creators talking about their projects they would be like Jaded by the fact that this movie that they did did not do well in the box office or this author did not do well in sales for their books and that something like that could really upset them or affect them and the way that they view their art and that used to be something that I was just like but your story was still so good like how could you be affected by money because you should just be so proud that you were able to just create something so beautiful and blah blah but you know now as an adult when you have bills to pay and you have a career to continue on and you have a life you want to live to be able to financially support money does kind of become a bigger player in your life when you choose art as your career even if your movie was critically acclaimed and did well in terms of an artistic Viewpoint if it does not do well financially that could maybe affect you not being able to do more projects in the future that could maybe affect the way that Studios or Publishers might feel about working with you I feel like unfortunate things that artists have to deal with when creating their art is you could still create this most Beauty full piece of art but if people don't want to buy it people are not going to really want to work with you because you're not going to be making their Studio or company money and it can just be very frustrating to see how something that did not do well on a critical level might still do amazing on a financial level to put it into simple terms it kind of reminds me of how Netflix has been canceling a lot of great amazing animated projects that have a lot of heart and story behind it but still continue to give a platform to these like trash TV reality shows and they continue to exist on their platform and get so many more seasons and I just feel like we're living in a day and age where people are constantly pressuring others to quit your job and pursue the thing that you love to do and then people quit their jobs but then are left in this position where they can no longer support themselves financially and that starts to affect them and distract them from even being able to focus on the thing they originally wanted creative satisfaction in so I feel like with the whole like fire movement and financial Independence talk that's all over the Internet nowadays it makes so many people especially artists and creators think that hey I should just quit my job and go run my own business and do my own thing and for some people that works perfectly fine for them however I feel like just because you are exposed to people who say these things doesn't mean that you are someone who should do that as well if you don't know who you are really yet as an artist and person I think from my personal experience I've had a lot of people ask me why don't I just quit my animation job and just run my YouTube or Instagram and yeah that does sound great on a romanticized level but I want to remember that what I want to focus my time and energy on is not really necessarily running a business or managing businesses on a tech medical level I want to remember the thing that got me into this career path in general is I genuinely just enjoy creating and telling stories and being known for that so I feel like a lot of artists kind of run into this problem where they're like all right yeah sure I'm gonna quit my job and just do my own thing and then they might eventually realize that they spend so much time focusing on things they originally did not want to spend their time doing things on so if you know managing your business and making sure your business is continuing to do well financially is a stress that you don't want to be dealing with then maybe that might not be your thing at this moment in time but who knows maybe in the future that could be more of interest to you but it's just one of those things where just because you have a job that might not be fulfilling you creatively doesn't always mean it's something that needs to be quit because personally I enjoy living a financially stable life with a cushy animation job and and being able to also do my own thing on the side without having to worry about this thing that gives me creative fulfillment to eventually be my financial supporter in a way it kind of feels like I'm protecting my side projects from becoming another form of additional stress when it comes to the money aspect and that's just what I personally chose to do with my life but it's going to be different for everyone who is in a similar tug of war it's not always about choosing between the two and sometimes you just have to learn with being okay with letting the two exist at least for this time being anyway that's pretty much my rant I guess for this video I'm sorry if some of it came off a bit too ranty but I kind of wanted to make a video that's a little bit more honest and talks about some of the darker aspects about becoming an artist and how it's not always the greatest thing in the world just because I feel like yes we should Empower people to become artists this and feel like this is a valid career path but at the same time I feel like empowering those people also comes with letting them know what are the potential negative aspects so that when you get into this career path you're aware of them for me when I was just a naive little art student I did not have videos like this out there in the world telling me about what life is going to be like when you work as a full-time artist but now that I've been through it I feel like I'm starting to find more peace with these issues because I'm in a place where I've experienced enough and let it marinate in my brain for a while everybody is going to have their personal struggles in life but that's why I feel like it's great that we're in a place nowadays where people are able to share their stories for others to hear online and with that I will say thank you for watching this video and I will see you all in the next one so peace out and goodbye foreign [Music]

Channel: mewTripled

Views: 56,124

Keywords: animation, art, artists, money, finances, business, book, publishing, graphic novel, anime, manga, cartoon, artist, illustrator, freelance, income, how much i make, full time artist, art career, career, animation industry, storyboard artist, storyboard, los angeles, california, directing, director, tutorial, art tips, art trips and tricks, art tutorial, improvement, improve your art, drawing prompt, art prompt, social media

Id: 7rOFNle0BgE

Length: 30min 4sec (1804 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023