When a fine artist becomes a master at their trade and wants to make a living using their art, they are generally known as the “starving artist”. This stereotype came about because artists significantly struggle to make ends meet when selling their art and trying to live off the proceeds. They are often depicted as eating ramen noodles every day in a shabby, barely livable apartment because they can’t afford anything else. While this stereotype may still be true for some artists who are happy to live this way, it doesn’t have to be like this for all artists.

Thankfully, art has dramatically evolved over the last 20 years for the betterment of both the artist and the commissioner. Digital art has grown in popularity as technology has progressed and advanced. This gives an opportunity for creatives to use their one-of-a-kind abilities in a way that is valuable and useful to companies, giving artists a means of sustainable living. It gave creatives a way to use their artistic ability on a digital platform. As digital art also progressed the need for those artists to have a fine art background became less important. It seemed as though fine art would eventually disappear since the “struggling artist” lifestyle could be avoided by becoming a graphic designer. 

Colleges and universities were offering more courses for artists to become graphic designers, creating huge growth for that career. However, the fine art department didn’t develop more courses, and in fact, alternated which courses to offer per semester. The demand for fine artists no longer existed because it was not required for a degree in graphic design. Anyone could now become a digital artist without ever taking one course in the fine arts. While many graphic designers have an impressive eye for design, color use, and composition, it’s still not the same as also having a background in fine arts. 

While many creatives are pursuing the graphic designer path, there are still quite a few artists that don’t want to be restricted to solely creating visuals on a digital device. For these artists, I strongly encourage you to look into a graphic illustrator career which not only gives you an advantage as a graphic designer, but lets you enjoy the benefits of both worlds. And since the art world is constantly changing, a graphic illustrator may eventually become the new and improved graphic designer.