Craft artist essential career information:
- 2012 median pay: $29,600
- 2012, number of jobs: 4,810
- Employment growth forecast, 2010-2020: 5 percent
- Entry-level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
Fine artist essential career information:
- 2012 median pay: $44,850
- 2012, number of jobs: 12,480
- Employment growth forecast, 2010-2020: 5 percent
- Entry-level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
Craft and fine artists; what they do:
Everyone can learn to appreciate art, but not everyone has the talent to become a successful craft artist or fine artist.
Craft artists create handmade art, including items like glassware, pottery, and textiles. Fine artists create original works of art intended for aesthetic enjoyment rather than functional use. Fine artists may include painters, sculptors, and illustrators.
Craft artists and fine artists engage in a variety of artistic expressions, including knitting, weaving, sewing, glass blowing, painting, drawing, sculpting, or inventing new forms of artistic expression or creation. Craft artists and fine artists create professional portfolios of their work, as it displays their best pieces of art and helps them obtain jobs in the art field.
The work of craft artists or fine artists may be displayed in places such as museums, commercial or non-profit art galleries, outdoors, corporate collections, or private homes.
People seeking a career as an illustrating artist have a variety of specialties to choose from such as:
- Cartoonist: A cartoonist may create political, advertising, comic or sports cartoons for a variety of publications.
- General illustrator: Creates pictures for books, magazines, greeting cards, commercial products, textiles, wrapping paper, and calendars.
- Sketch artist: Work in law enforcement agencies, drawing suspects based on verbal descriptions. They may also draw in courtrooms.
- Medical and scientific illustrator: Usually has additional medical or scientific degrees or knowledge and draw subjects such as human anatomy, surgeries, planets, atomic and molecular structures, and plant and wildlife.
Other artists specialize in bending, molding, or shaping different materials. For example, ceramic artists create art from clay and hand tools; glass artists blow, shape, and join glass; jewelry artists use a variety of metals, stones, beads, and other materials in their jewelry creation; and furniture makers cut, sand, join, and finish a variety of woods and other materials to create original furniture.
Craft and fine artists job titles:
- Fine Art Artist
- Abstract Artist
- Modern Artist
- Designer
- Glass Artist
- Fiber Artist
- Artist Blacksmith
- Illustrator
- Sculptor
- Painter
Craft and Fine Artists Education, Certification and License Requirements
A fine artist career does not require formal schooling, although many artists still obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree or Master of Fine Arts degree. People with an art degree may more easily create a professional portfolio.
Craft and fine artist programs cover subjects such as:
- Studio art
- Art history
- English
- Natural sciences
- Social sciences
Craft artists or fine artists who desire to teach art at public elementary or secondary schools must earn a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate.
Career Advancement Opportunities
Most artists begin their artist career as a freelancer while they also have a full time job, and may get to the point where they can financial survive just on their art and focus on it full-time.
Craft and Fine Artists Job Outlook
Forecast: Five percent employment growth from 2010 to 2020 for craft artists and fine artists, slower than the average for all occupations.
The employment growth or decline of craft artists and fine artists greatly depends on the economy’s health; when the economy is doing well, there are more successful artists job available. Charitable donations for the arts, which has decreased in recent years, also effects overall employment for craft artists and fine artists.
Artists working as illustrators and cartoonists are expected to see the highest employment improvement due to the increasing use of electronic magazines and other Internet-based publications.
Craft Artists Salary
- 2012 median annual wage: $29,600
- 2012, workers at the 75th percentile annual wage: $44,470
- 2012, workers at the 25% percentile annual wage: $21,060
Fine Artists Salary
- 2012 median annual wage: $44,850
- 2012, workers at the 75th percentile annual wage: $64,810
- 2012, workers at the 25th percentile annual wage: $30,220
Craft and Fine Artists Employers
- Performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries
- Federal government
- Motion picture and video industries
- Manufacturers
- State, local, and private educational services
