150+ Art Careers The Ultimate List

Where can studying Art or Design take you? What kinds of careers
exist for those who study creative subjects at high school? This article
contains a list of over 150+ awesome careers, with 25 individuals
showcased in detail.
While you might have heard that becoming an architect, fine artist, sculptor or
gallery assistant is an option for those who study Art or Design, there are many
other careers available for those who are able to envision, design and create
beautiful things. This article highlights a selection of these and illustrates the range
of exciting art-related careers that are possible.

A growing list of art careers

Whether you love photography, graphic design, painting or any other art-related
speciality, career options are limited only by your imagination. Art education propels
people towards creative and unexpected destinations many of which have not even
been discovered yet. As noted in Need a Job? Invent It, in the New York Times:

knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you

know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The
capacity to innovate the ability to solve problems creatively or bring
new possibilities to life and skills like critical thinking,
communication and collaboration are far more important than
academic knowledge.
It is hoped that the 25 hand-picked, creative, inspirational people below will awaken
your imagination and remind you that the world needs (and appreciates) those with
artistic skill.

Movie Set / Costume / Special Effects Designer Sir Richard

Taylor
Sir Richard Taylor is the co-founder of the Weta Workshop, a New Zealand company
that provides digital and physical special effects for film and television, producing
costumes, props, make-up effects, prosthetics, models, miniatures, vehicles, armour
and weaponry. Weta Workshop has won five Oscars, four BAFTAs and many other
awards for their work on a range of well known film and television projects, including
Peter Jacksons The Lord of the Rings. Sir Richard Taylor studied at the Wellington
School of Design and attended the Dick Smith makeup training programme. Some of
the work completed by Weta Workshop can be seen in the video below.

Upcycled Jewellery Designer Cat Ivins

Cat Ivins found a collection of blackened auto plugs in her husbands truck repair
shop and began designing jewellery using these and other recycled materials. After
10 years of working in a bank, she had no prior experience and attended a welding
class so that she was able to create the jewellery she desired. She began selling
these through Etsy, an online marketplace for creative people.
She describes her experience in the Etsy Quit Your Day Job series:

I started a business selling from mall carts during the holidays I also
sold things I made at craft shows during the year. After a while, I
thought it was time to go back to school, when my niece showed me
Etsy and I just fell in love with it. People making things with their own
hands and making a living by sharing those makings with other people

 it was exactly the way the world was evolving and I knew I wanted
to be a part of it.
With two Etsy shops (Polarity and Uncorked), sales from her own website, doing
shows and wholesale, Cat has a sustainable, full time income. She credits part of her
growth to creative tithing giving a percentage of her profits back to the
community.

A selection of the original, hand-crafted jewellery created by Cat Ivins using recycled
materials.

Web Based Curator Christopher Jobson

Christopher Jobson finds, discovers and shares artwork via his website Colossal.
Colossal has more than 350,000 Facebook followers, 76,000 Twitter followers and
33,000 Pinterest followers and has almost 5,000,000 monthly page views. Work that
is featured on Colossal often turns into a viral internet sensation.
In an interview with the National Endowment for the Arts Christopher explains:

Colossal was born from a lack of creativity and inspiration in my own

life. I had been working for years as a web designer in a role that was
personally unfulfilling and was unsure of what to do about it. As a way
to expose myself to new ideas in art and design, I started the blog as

a way to catalogue and share the interesting things I encountered

around the web. Three years later its still going and has completely
taken over my life Christopher Jobson

Christopher Jobson creator of Colossal

Game Designer Stephen Harris

Stephen Harris co-founded the game company Ninja Kiwi with his brother Chris.
Ninja Kiwis most popular game, Bloons, involves monkeys popping balloons with a
dart. After attending Western Springs College, Stephen gained a degree in
geophysics and, later, a Post Graduate Diploma in Game Development from
the Media Design School. It was here that he learnt programming, design and use of
Adobe Photoshop and was surrounded by others who lived and breathed game
design.
Ninja Kiwi makes close to $10 million NZD in revenue a year and has about 40
employees. They earn money by selling advertising on their website, virtual currency
and smart phone apps.

Character design sketches and a screenshot of Bloon Tower Defense 5 by Ninja Kiwi

Firebowl Sculptor John T. Unger

John T. Unger creates sculptural firebowls that are hand-cut from recycled industrial
steel tanks using a plasma torch. Providing light and warmth, the firebowls create a
dramatic centre point in an outdoor environment.

Although I did attend the writing program at Interlochen Arts

Academy in my senior year of high school, I dropped out of college the
first year to pursue my art. I got my education by buying books, tools
and materials, by making work, by looking at art in galleries and
museums and by occasionally working for more established artists as a
studio assistant. The upside of this approach for me was that I had no
loans to pay off, was able to focus solely on learning about the art that
resonated for me (which is quite a broad area), and my practice was
hands-on and built a body of work. So many of the friends I have who
went to art school eventually abandoned their art to take jobs that
would pay off their loans. John T. Unger
John reaches a worldwide audience using his own website and online network, and
has so far shipped over a thousand firebowls (typically selling for between $1,000
$3,000 US each) to twelve different countries.

Hand-cut Sculptural Firebowls: photography by John T. Unger

Upcycled Furniture Designers Jason and Adam Podlaski

Jason and Adam Podlaski design unique, upcycled furniture made from broken
skateboards for their business Deckstool. The scraped marks on the skateboards
become featured surface decoration, with every piece of furniture one-of-a-kind.
Deckstool have recycling programmes in place to collect broken boards and produce
furniture that combines modern construction techniques, fine craftsmanship and an
artistic aesthetic.

A sample of the dramatic upcycled furniture pieces available from Deckstool

Digital Portrait Artist Cliff Roth

Cliff Roth paints digital portraits using the Google+ Hangouts on Air feature,
creating the works live on video the equivalent of a modern day street caricature
artist. His subjects include a number of famous people, including Guy Kawasaki.
While it is free to attend one of Cliffs Hangouts and potentially be painted, $40
guarantees you will get one. The portraits are completed in 10 60 minutes using
Adobe Photoshop CS5 and a Wacom Cintiq 21UX (digital pen and screen).
Cliff studied Art, Photography and 3D Design (Sculpture) at Hopatcong High School,
taking as many classes as he could, followed by introductory courses at Country
College of Morris. He also completed The Art of Caricature, an online course by
Jason Seiler.
Live speed-painting has allowed Cliff to amass a huge Google+ following, with
almost 300,000 in his circles. It has also boosted the number of paid commissions
he gets (for more detailed, fully rendered digital paintings, as in the examples
below).

Detailed digital caricatures of Tim Jones and Noam Chomsky by Cliff Roth

Magazine Art Director, Graphic Designer, Photographer

Adrienne Pitts
Adrienne Pitts discovered a passion for photography at age 16, when Kristin
School first introduced the subject. Adrienne studied both Photography and Design
in her senior high school years and, after a year-long student exchange in Chile,
completed a Bachelor of Design from Massey University, achieving First Class
Honours. Although majoring in photography, Adrienne ensured that all of her
elective papers had a graphic design focus, allowing her to get the best out of her
four year degree.

I found my degree set me up for my career as I essentially did my

own little double major. I came out of University able to find work as
both a designer and photographer and I still do both. These are
added strings to my bow, and the quality of education I received from
lecturers who were passionate and leaders in the field really made a
huge difference to how I approached finding work in the real world.
A degree in a creative field can be a funny thing. I think much of it can
be learned in real life, on the job, however internships and
apprenticeships in things like photography and design didnt really

exist when I was at University in NZ, and I knew I wanted to get the
best grounding and education possible. Adrienne Pitts
Adrienne is currently an award-winning Art Director for the Jamie Oliver magazine in
London.

Beautiful photographs by Adrienne Pitts from a recent issue of the Jamie magazine

Brian Wood graphic novelist

Brian Wood studied Illustration at Parsons the New School for Design and is a now a
hugely popular writer and illustrator of graphic novels. After working nights and
weekends for six years, Wood is works full time.

Having a career in comics is a lot like being in a band. You have to

start small and play a lot of free shows. But you have complete
creative freedom. Brian Wood
Brian has won several Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards and his books have been
translated into several languages. Some are currently being developed for the big
screen.

Brian Woods latest graphic novel, The Massive, is set in a post-war, post-crash,
post-disaster world

Pet Rock Painter Ernestina Gallina

Ernestina Gallina paints detailed, realistic images of animals onto smooth river
stones. After the cracks on the stones are filled, outlines are sketched with chalk
before the animal is painted using acrylic. Ernestina did not attend art school, but
has refined her craft through endless practise. Based in Italy, Ernestina teaches rock
painting and sells her work via shops, exhibitions and her own website.

The infinitely popular pet rocks painted by Ernestina Gallina on smooth, rounded
river stones

Personalised Sticker Designer Emily Lopez

A huge number of people take monthly photographs of their babies to document
their growth. When Emily Lopez had her own children, she began creating personal,
custom designed baby stickers to help with this process and then selling them via
her Etsy storePurplePossom. Emily has a degree in public relations and graphic
design.
PurplePossom has made over 50,700 sales through Etsy at an average price of $11
$18 NZD (this equates to an approximate average of over $8,700 a month).

The stickers from Purplepossom are designed to be photographic aids worn by

children in photographs as a reminder of their age

Handmade Stamp Maker Susan Walton

Susan Walton runs the Rubber Stamp Tapestry with her family in North Carolina. The
stamps are handmade from wooden pegs and rubber and are used to create frames,
borders, decorations and other artwork on cards, stationery, scrapbook pages and
ceramics. The stamps are sold through the Rubber Stamp Tapestry website or via
anEtsy store, where they are one of the top sellers.

A sample of some of the products from the Rubber Stamp Tapestry

T-Shirt Designer Stephen Harris

Stephen Harris sells T-Shirts and other products through his Redbubble
store Zomboy. Redbubble is a website that allows designers to take advantage of
print-on-demand technology, with products printed and shipped as they are ordered

(all the artist needs to do is upload a design; anyone can sell online without any upfront investment and make profit from the first sale). In a field where there is tough
competition, Zomboy is consistently in the Redbubble Top Seller category.
Stephen designed his first T-shirt when he was twelve years old, using permanent
cotton markers. He studied both Design and Technical Drawing at Auckland
Grammar School and gained a Criminal Justice degree from Griffith University.
Stephen credits his success to his discipline to draw every day, a passion for
concepts and a commitment to trying new art techniques.

A top-selling T-shirt design from Stephens RedBubble print-on-demand store

Upcycled furniture designers Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri

Based in Beirut, Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri run the design and craft studio Bokja,
creating furniture pieces made from recycled textiles and tapestries: harmonious
combinations of pattern, texture and colour. Bokja avoids mass production and
employs only local artists, carpenters and designers.
Maria studied Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut and Journalism
at the Lebanese American University. She cultivated her love for furniture from the
50s and 60s during her time as an antique dealer. Hoda Baroudi has a Bachelor
degree in Business Administration and an MBA from the American University of
Beirut. Following years of experience in finance and banking, her life-long interest in
traditional tapestries, textiles and rugs of the orient lead to the creation of Bokja.

Education can really open doors, but at the end of the day talent is
what really leaves a mark. We are a poster company for this, neither
of us have a formal education in what we are doing. It is that talent
behind this company that has made it what it is. We have an eye and
an instinct for what we do and its not so much the result of our
education, but our passion.

Bokja is an amalgam of things, it is layers and layers of reactionary

thoughts, it is of the moment and transient. Our designs are never
innocent as they are often references or reinterpretations of something
from our past. Within these objects there is a tangible charm that
takes us back to the way things used to be, when products carried
legacies that transcended time. We have created a cult following
around the world; our designs speak a universal language, while
appealing to people on a personal and emotional level. Bokja Design
Their furniture is available in the US and sells for well over $2,000 USD a chair

Four pieces from Bokjas upcycled furniture range: antique couches and chairs
covered with strips of recycled fabric stunning, functional, abstract art

Font Designer Daniel McQueen

Daniel McQueen is a young, entrepreneurial typographer and owner of Ten Dollar
Fonts a website where selected designers sell font licenses to the world. After
studying both Design and Photography at St Bedes College, Daniel gained a degree
in Visual Communication from CPIT School of Art and Design, with a focus on
typography.
When his fonts began to gain attention on the social media website Tumblr, Daniel
decided to sell licenses to his fonts. Worried that his work would get lost amongst

the crowd on an existing font marketplace, he created his own website. Ten Dollar
Fonts has gone from strength to strength, gaining the attention of several well
known designers and featuring prominently in social media.
Daniel gives advice for new graduates in an interview with Zoe Nash of Design
Assembly:

if youre like me and youre not excited by the idea of working for
someone else, my advice would be as simple as do something for
yourself. Have projects that you enjoy and take it seriously. Be patient
and stick at it, you never know where it could take you. Even if you do
have a full time job, have creative outlets and work hard at them.
Youre young and most likely dont have to support anyone but
yourself right now, so there is no better time to put your ideas to
work. Daniel McQueen

Daniel McQueen in Ten Dollar Fonts Christchurch office

Graphic Artist / Printmaker / Collage artist Matt Dinniman

Matt Dinniman is a graphic artist with over 15 years of experience. He has made a
name for himself selling affordable hand-made prints, using a combination of

photography, digital collage and mixed media. He sells his work via his own
website, Collage-O-Rama, and his Etsy store. His most well known works are
animals printed onto dictionary pages.

We take old books about to be destroyed and upcycle them in order to

give them new life. The aging, slightly-yellowed page is carefully
removed, and the image is printed directly on the recycled
paper. Matt Dinniman
Based in Seattle, Matt has made over 55,100 sales since joining Etsy, with artwork
commonly priced between $8 $24 NZD (this roughly equates, on average, to sales
of over $9,500+ a month).

A collection of some Collage-O-Ramas popular animal prints on upcycled dictionary

pages

Film Concept Artist Dean Sherriff

For many Art students, the notion of creating beautiful, imaginary worlds is the
dream career. Dean Sherriff does this for a living, as a concept artist for Universal
Pictures. He has produced concept designs for popular films such as After Earth, XMen Origins: Wolverine, Day the Earth Stood Still and Night at the Museum. Dean
trained at Ontario College of Art and Design in Canada, gaining an Honours in
Illustration.

Concept art completed by Dean Sherriff for After Earth and 300: Rise of the
Empire copyright Universal Pictures

Cake Decorator Brian Stevens

Celebrity Chef Brian Stevens co-founded the specialty bakery Crazy Cakes with his
wife, Jennifer. Brian has an Art degree, and became a cake artist after a varied
career, including sumo wrestling, digital illustration, sculpting and video game
development. He has starred in the Food Network and TLCs Cake Boss: Next Great
Baker. He is known for producing meticulously hand-crafted sculpted cakes of all
kinds, with detailed textures and realistic painting.

Some of the exciting, sculptural cake designs produced by Brian Stevens of Crazy
Cakes

Soft Toy Maker Wendy Tsao

In a world when things are readily available to everyone, the beautiful, artistic,
handmade items the original works that no one else on the planet has are in
demand. Wendy Tsao makes soft toys that are inspired by young childrens
drawings, taking orders through her website, Childs Own Studio. Her work has
become an internet sensation. She recently opened for orders and in three hours
was booked out for the whole year.

I am inspired by the childs drawing, a wonderful expression of

childhood. Typically, a drawing is sent to me, and I decide if I can
work with it. (I normally work only with childrens drawings, handdrawn and coloured). There may be notes included with the drawing. I
may ask for clarification about some details. And then I get to work, in
my Vancouver studio. The machine whirs, scissors snip, needles zip,
and everything gets covered in fibrefill fluff. Wendy Tsao

Wendy Tsao makes adorable soft toys inspired by the drawings of young children

Illustrator Ryan Berkley

After working in a small Arts college for ten years, Ryan Berkley and his wife Lucy
set upBerkley Illustration an Etsy shop where they sell Ryans prints often
animals wearing suits. The illustrations are drawn using markers and coloured
pencil, sometimes with digital blocks of colour added in the background. A self
taught artist, Ryan speaks about his regret about not attending Art school in
the Etsy Quit Your Day Job Series:

And I am regretful for many reasons. I feel like I could have learned
how to properly draw the human figure, rather than learning from
comic books. I also feel I could have an actual understanding of colour
theory, which would be nice. I would have loved to learn some
painting techniques. I was always jealous of my friends being in
college in general, and in other cities, living on their own. I think that
would have been fun. Especially with a bunch of talented art kids.
With over 41,000 sales made in Etsy, and items commonly priced between $12 24
NZD, Berkley Illustration generates approximately $7,000 per month in sales on
average. This income is supplemented with wholesale orders, gallery shows and
commercial commissions, including large clients like Nike, The Discovery Channel
and Spoon.

Two popular prints from Berkley Illustration: formally posed animals wearing
traditional (human) attire

Online Art Gallery Creator, Artist and Technology

Entrepreneur Amanda Lane
As people move towards the display of artwork online, many opportunities arise.
After completing her high school education at Rangitoto College and studying Film

Animation as part of her Graphic Design degree from Auckland University of

Technology, Amanda began a rich and varied career, working as a traditional
animator, theatre and film scenic artist, art director and set designer. She now coowns Exhibbit, a software development company that sells virtual Art galleries to
students, artists and traditional galleries. This means that people are able to embed
their own virtual gallery within their website (see the image below).

I have had a number of jobs within the creative industries there is

huge scope for creatives in business, especially now the internet plays
such a big role. Amanda Lane.

Exhibbit contains simple, elegant gallery spaces for users to display their art. With
the ability to move around the gallery, website visitors simulate viewing the works in
real life

Pet Portrait Artist Ron Burns

Focusing on a particular niche (pet portraiture) and combining artistic skill with
generosity and business knowledge has helped Ron Burns turn painting into a
lucrative career. Ron has adapted a style that sets him apart from the ordinary (the
market is flooded dull, realistic pet portraits) and produces vibrant paintings that are
rich with emotion-filled colour. Ron began painting dogs in animal shelters (giving a
percentage from sales back to the shelters) and, after 9/11, documenting dogs that
have lost their lives in tragedy or were involved in bomb detection, disaster relief, or
search and rescue. Focusing upon heroic or disadvantaged animals, Ron has
supported spay and neuter programmes, anti dog-fighting legislation and helped to
generate significant funds for non-profit organisations. Ron has received several
awards, television and media publicity and public commendations for his efforts
exposure that has helped to cement Ron as one of the leading dog portrait artists.

Through his own website, Ron sells prints and ready-to-hang, commissioned acrylic
paintings of pets to their owners.

The appeal of Rons pet portraits lies in his intuitive understanding of colour: the
selection of warm reds and oranges, contrasted with cools blues and greens,
creating an image of hope and emotion in the dogs. Backgrounds have simplified
flat, decorative areas, creating emphasis on the dogs alone.

Printable Wedding Invitation Designer Eleanor Mayrhofer

Eleanor Mayrhofer designs downloadable wedding stationary, invitations, greeting
cards and other paper items. With quality printers now at an affordable price,
Eleanor creates and sells PDF templates with editable text via her Etsy
shop e.m.papers, allowing people to print their own invitations at home. After
graduating from Art school as a graphic designer, Eleanor worked in a consulting
firm. She now works full time on e.m.papers. Her products have been consistently
featured in the media, appearing in magazines such as Marth Stewart Weddings and
BRIDES.

An example of two of the contemporary printable wedding invitation sets designed

by Eleanor Mayrhofer of e.m.papers

Ceramic Artist Karolina Grudniewska

After gaining a Bachelor of Arts, Karolina Grudniewska worked as an English teacher
and then a florist, returning to college at last to study interior architecture. After a
varied career, Karolina has become a self-taught ceramist. She sells work from
Ireland via her Etsy store KaroArt, and her work is available locally through stores
and craft shows. She is full time Etsy seller, with an online shop filled with functional
items with beautiful, organic form. As she commented in the Etsy Quit Your Day
Job series:

I find working with clay very intuitive. Once you get the basics, theres
a world of possibilities in front of you. It takes hours and hours of
practice, with many trials and many failures, but each broken piece
teaches you a lesson. Practice and repetition brought me to
proficiency, but I feel like Im learning a new thing almost every day,
and theres still so much Id like to discover and learn.

Most Etsy sellers know that quality photographs help to sell a product. The
photographs of Karolina Grudniewskas ceramic pieces are almost as beautiful as the
hand-crafted ceramic pieces themselves.

Repurposed Furniture Designer Rupert Blanchard

Rupert Blanchard takes mundane, discarded pieces of furniture, reclaimed plywood,
used wooden fruit crates and other donated or discarded items and reassembles

these to create stunning, contemporary furniture pieces. Working with an

assortment of styles, techniques, surfaces, patterns and materials, Rupert creates
dressers and furniture items that are reminiscent of abstract art: functional
installation pieces for the modern home.
As described by the gentle author:

Rupert has developed a trained eye for the beauty of the disregarded
and, as a consequence, lives at the mercy of his compulsion to hoard
it, taking him to at least three car boot sales a week and connecting
him to an elaborate network of scavengers, junk dealers, house
clearance people, skip raiders and demolition workers. Time will run
out before the rubbish does, he pronounced, pulling a long quizzical
face, shaking his head and crossing his arms in bewilderment at his
crazy hoarding instinct. Yet everything here is wonderful in its way,
and Rupert has found means to give new life these artifacts once their
original incarnation is defunct. Most of his furniture is one-off pieces,
however some have a more streamlined production process.

Upcycled Furniture: Repurposing material that is destined for a landfill, Rupert

Blanchard creates an assortment of sought after, hand-made pieces

Final words
The examples of Art, Design and Photography careers illustrated above are just a
handful of the exciting career paths that are possible for high school Art students. It
is clear that the journey to a creative career is not always clear cut. A Fine Art
degree is not always necessary. Related degrees (Graphic Design, Animation,
Computer Science, Web Design, Architecture, Marketing, Business) and/or skillbased courses among many others also lead to successful outcomes.

Skill is practised and refined ultimately by the doing. Combine your artistic skill with
ambition, generosity, persistence, hard work and business sensibility. If you want a
creative career, embrace it. Carve out a little space in the world where you can
become an expert: hone your craft and make something that people love. Build a
website and show off your talent. Let your work spiral out through social media and
be discovered by the world.
And remember: if you are one of those lucky enough to be good at Art and other
thingsbe prepared for people to try and convince you that Art is a swift and certain
route to poverty (its not: read 9 Reasons to Study Art in High School). If this
happens to you, keep in mind that those who are good at Art and other things are
in the best position of all to succeed.