An artist is a person who creates products of visual arts for a living. They can work in various categories, such as sculpting or painting, while some artists tend to combine elements of various arts to create their own style. An artist’s job is generally more independent and unrestricted, as artists are frequently found unassociated with any higher entity. Artists can come from a variety of backgrounds and even ages, as some recognized modern artists remained largely idle until their later years.
There are no strict employment terms when it comes to being an artist. It depends greatly on the particular style of art and environment – for example, some find success selling their own work for private clients and earn substantial amounts of money that way. Others contribute to larger projects lead by someone else and generally receive a far smaller compensation. To become an artist, one must generally practice the particular type of art very strongly, usually from early childhood. People and agencies who recruit artists professionally usually require seeing some form of portfolio to demonstrate the artist’s abilities and individual style.
Some artists earn a very good salary while others find themselves struggling – again, it highly depends on the specific field the artist works in and how established they are. Networking in various communities is very important for artists to build a customer base. Artists who’re employed on a contract basis generally earn between $40,000 – $70,000 annually, with graphic designers being better compensated as a whole.