Money please?

Best suggestion I can give, is make up a porfolio of all your work, and some extra work... and send it to the gaming companies... with your resume... They would be the best place to need graphic artists with your talents.

No problem.. alot of them are willing to pay your way to work for them... By the way.. just a thought... the words "Starving Artist" comes to mind. Of course that is a thing of the past, since artists today can make some real nice money off of their work. I hope you find something that you can work at, and enjoy. We all deserve to find something.

Gaming art is an option. You could monitor this forum on RPGNet for potential jobs.

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Hishgraphics: A View From The Tenth Freaking Floor

Mercy,

Being in NZ has its upsides and its downs. On the down side, the way most of "us" (and I'm not part of "us" yet but I try) get jobs in the biz is by going to gaming cons and getting face to face with the people doing the hiring. This is often a multi-year process before anything starts to pay off. This is in the realm of RPG gaming. If you want to just do art in general, then you should look locally for anyone who does what you want to do. (The esteemed and legendary WETA workshop comes to mind in your area... one of our guild members even works there) But that's a long shot no matter how good you are. Still, just by being part of SWAG you've taken that first step into that world. Many here can give you some direction on where to go and what to do. Jeff Carlisle (Lupis the Bold) who's so busy he hardly visits the site has been living the dream for a while now. Daniel Falconer (who works for WETA) not only has done that, but has also worked on SW RPG and numerous other game related art "things". Hisham illustrates children's books (right Hish?). Scarecrow works for a gaming company in Britain... Daz works for the same company... the list goes on and on. Tons of SWAGgers are doing it. So stick around, make some friends and see if you can't get a hold of someone else's ear. Most artists are happy to help you if they can. :-)

Eclipse

I'd say that as any good job seeker.. just get your resume and portfolio out there.. and see if anyone bites...

I'd suggest.. EA games, SOE, Flying Labs, LucasArts, Lucasfilm ((link below)) even the smaller gaming companies ((like Flying Labs)) would get you the recognition you'd need to go up in the business.. Just a thought... but it never hurts to get your name and art into the hands of the big and little business...

http://lucasfilm.com/employment/

Eclipse is right. The best way to get jobs is through connections. Almost every job I've ever gotten has been through someone recommending me. So keeping active with SWAG is a great way to cultivate those connections. Xanamiar is also right that you have to have a good portfoilio. Also keep in mind that you want to tailor your portfolio to the company you are applying to. If it's a gaming company, then you want to show concept stuff, a comic book company then you want to show sequential pages, for advertising you want to show a diversity of styles and compositional skills.

I work at an illustration company that speacializes in key art for video game and toy covers. I get to look through our files of portfolios when we're hiring freelancers because they're usually being hired to help me out. The first thing I look for is sketches. Nine times out of ten we need sketch help, so if there's no sketches, then I move on. I've found that just because a person can paint doesn't mean that they can draw well, so I need to see that skill. Second, I look for diversity of style. Since I'm in advertising, we have to be able to create anything from Disney style to comic book style to photo-realistic. If it looks to me that an artist is only comfortable in one style or might get bored doing a different type, then I'll be hesitant to hire him or her. I think this is probably true of the gaming industry as well since many games have a certain look they're going for. Third, an online portfolio is good, but make sure that it is easy and quick to load. If I can't load the page, then I move on. Also, it's nice to have at least a one-sheet of a hard copy that we can put in our filing cabinet.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

And I have to say, as quick as you are with your sketches.. you shouldn't have a problem making up a portfolio that is customized for each kind of job you are going for. Travis hit all the points I could possible ever come up with, probably because he's really close to the business.

Work up a sketch book.. online and hard copy.. and get your work out there.. Sounds like Travis' company may be a perfect place to get a portfolio together for... and then send it to everyone.

That's why SWAG's still around Mercy. A site like this wouldn't normally have had any following after being down for nearly 2 years, but swag just picks up right were it left off, and that has everything to do with a community that loves what the site is doing, and loves helping each other out. I can tell you that some of the most influential people in my life over the last 5 years have been people I met because of SWAG, and my skillset is REALLY different from most of the other artists here, so someone with something a little more traditional... They could be really doing it already. I've had to wait for the industry to catch up, and I think in maybe the next year that will actually happen. But there will ALWAYS be demand for a good artist, and swag is a great place to practice your craft. We don't care if you play with new styles. We just want to see good art. That's the great thing about there being no real pre-conceived notions. Some folks are here for the requests, others are just here cause they love Star Wars. I'm here (as an artist) to make art that people aren't going to find just anywhere. Sometimes that's from the request area... sometimes it's from the EU, sometimes it's just from my head. Whatever the case, I seldom have any criteria that I didn't set as a boundary for what I do. And I think that makes SWAG a really great community of artists for all ages.

Eclipse

I think you're very talented. And I highly recommend the game industry as a step into the broader illustration market. Many of my friends (Jeff Carlisle and Joe Corroney as examples) live in Columbus Ohio - away from most of the industry types who tend to be on either US coast... but both have made a decent stab at full-time illustration work by getting their start in the gaming industry. Joe did Star Wars for WEG. Jeff does D&D and SW for Piazo/WoTC/Dragon, etc. Both have now worked on SW cards for Topps and Joe is becoming very successful in the comic book industry as a cover artist for Buffy, Star Trek, etc. by IDW & Dark Horse. I'd recommend Green Ronin, Aberrant (whom I work for), and Privateer Press among others. If you need referrals, feel free to drop my name: Bryan "Stratos" Borgman.

Expand your style and abilities. Draw/design things that are a bit out of the norm for yourself and do your best with them.

I'm not an artist myself, but I do know people who have hired artists to illustrate books they've made. The one thing they both told me is that they hired artists who weren't 100% familiar with their genre. The LARP that I used to help run had a rulebook that had some line art in it. The guy who put it together paid for all of the art. He found the artist as a school, but the artist wasn't a gamer, nor was he exceptionally familiar with "Fantasy Art".
He did a fantastic job. Part of his skill was that he could do a good job with just about any request you threw at him. That's a sure way to make yourself valuable.

On a somewhat related side-note, I run a gaming website. I plan on adding a link to the SWAG site to the wiki (http://caernest.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). There's people there who write up characters for various games who could certainly be interested in character portraits. They won't all be Star Wars related, but it's exposure.

"There's people there who write up characters for various games who could certainly be interested in character portraits. They won't all be Star Wars related, but it's exposure."

If I were to get any spare time, I could be tempted to do fantasy character illustration by commission. I do it for free here on SWAG because, well, that's what SWAG is about!

I have done D&D character pics for my own players when we've played D&D in the past.

Don't forget! CCR does album artwork!!! ;)

A friend of mine had some similar questions.

Took some classes. Showed his art to "industry" people.

In both cases, his art was picked apart like...something easily picked apart. (It's late, bear with me.)

Two points being this:

1) Draw. Draw. Draw. Do it until your fingers fall off. Besides building a portfolio, you want to hone your skills and style. You should always be learning about your art.
2) Because, particularly when you show it to "insider" types, or certain teachers, work you hold in high regard will be broken down and ruthlessly analyzed. This may seem discouraging, but if you can swallow the bitter pills it may really help you see your art in a new way.
3) Learn everything there is to know about your art. Take classes. Read books. Pick brains. (BRAIIINS!!) Sorry, I like zombies...

And that was three points.

Like I said, it's late.

They say "don't quit your day job", but for those of us going after self made creative careers, that's exactly what you have to do. Any time you're giving to a boss is time you're NOT giving to your art.

Am I saying quit your job right now?

No. I mean, you could if you really want. But its probably not a good idea.

People I know who have made the transition have either phased out the "job" job, or placed enough in savings to cover expenses while they get their career off the ground.

I am currently doing a combination of the two. By the end of this summer I'll be working part time while I get my whole public speaking/writing/theater/film thing going, using my savings to plug up financial holes as they occur.

Oh, and it helps to be versatile. :-P

Keep working. It is all, as they say in Shawshank, "pressure and time". And "The Biz" is much friendlier than they say. People want to help you. It's just knowing where to find them.

CCR is short for ChurchClimbnRyan. Just like I put LC for Lord Crumb

I just call him "that Piscitelli guy".

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Hishgraphics: A View From The Tenth Freaking Floor