How to become Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator in 2024

Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator Create original artwork using any of a wide variety of media and techniques.

Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator is Also Know as

In different settings, Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator is titled as

  • Artist
  • Automotive Artist
  • Blacksmith
  • Fine Artist
  • Ice Carver
  • Illustrator
  • Muralist
  • Painter
  • Portrait Artist
  • Sculptor

Education and Training of Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

Training Required for Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator in different industries are

What Do Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator do?

  • Use materials such as pens and ink, watercolors, charcoal, oil, or computer software to create artwork.
  • Integrate and develop visual elements, such as line, space, mass, color, and perspective, to produce desired effects, such as the illustration of ideas, emotions, or moods.
  • Confer with clients, editors, writers, art directors, and other interested parties regarding the nature and content of artwork to be produced.
  • Submit preliminary or finished artwork or project plans to clients for approval, incorporating changes as necessary.
  • Maintain portfolios of artistic work to demonstrate styles, interests, and abilities.
  • Create finished art work as decoration, or to elucidate or substitute for spoken or written messages.
  • Cut, bend, laminate, arrange, and fasten individual or mixed raw and manufactured materials and products to form works of art.
  • Monitor events, trends, and other circumstances, research specific subject areas, attend art exhibitions, and read art publications to develop ideas and keep current on art world activities.
  • Study different techniques to learn how to apply them to artistic endeavors.
  • Render drawings, illustrations, and sketches of buildings, manufactured products, or models, working from sketches, blueprints, memory, models, or reference materials.
  • Create sketches, profiles, or likenesses of posed subjects or photographs, using any combination of freehand drawing, mechanical assembly kits, and computer imaging.
  • Create sculptures, statues, and other three-dimensional artwork by using abrasives and tools to shape, carve, and fabricate materials such as clay, stone, wood, or metal.
  • Study styles, techniques, colors, textures, and materials used in works undergoing restoration to ensure consistency during the restoration process.
  • Develop project budgets for approval, estimating time lines and material costs.
  • Shade and fill in sketch outlines and backgrounds, using a variety of media such as water colors, markers, and transparent washes, labeling designated colors when necessary.
  • Collaborate with engineers, mechanics, and other technical experts as necessary to build and install creations.
  • Create and prepare sketches and model drawings of cartoon characters, providing details from memory, live models, manufactured products, or reference materials.
  • Examine and test paintings in need of restoration or cleaning to determine techniques and materials to be used.
  • Create graphics, illustrations, and three-dimensional models to be used in research or in teaching, such as in demonstrating anatomy, pathology, or surgical procedures.
  • Brush or spray protective or decorative finishes on completed background panels, informational legends, exhibit accessories, or finished paintings.
  • Trace drawings onto clear acetate for painting or coloring, or trace them with ink to make final copies.
  • Apply solvents and cleaning agents to clean surfaces of paintings, and to remove accretions, discolorations, and deteriorated varnish.
  • Model substances such as clay or wax, using fingers and small hand tools to form objects.
  • Collaborate with writers who create ideas, stories, or captions that are combined with artists' work.
  • Provide entertainment at special events by performing activities such as drawing cartoons.
  • Render sequential drawings that can be turned into animated films or advertisements.
  • Market artwork through brochures, mailings, or Web sites.
  • Photograph objects, places, or scenes for reference material.
  • Set up exhibitions of artwork for display or sale.
  • Frame and mat artwork for display or sale.
  • Submit artwork to shows or galleries.
  • Teach artistic techniques to children or adults.

Qualities of Good Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.

Tools Used by Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

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  • Acrylic paintbrushes
  • Alcohol lamps
  • Angle grinders
  • Artists' fountain pens
  • Artists' palette knives
  • Artists' palettes
  • Ball mills
  • Bevel tools
  • Brazing tools
  • Bush hammers
  • Bust armatures
  • Camera lenses
  • Ceramic bead bars
  • Clay cutters
  • Clay mixers
  • Computer data input scanners
  • Detail carving tools
  • Die grinders
  • Digital calipers
  • Digital hydrometers
  • Digital pyrometers
  • Digital scales
  • Digital thermometers
  • Digital viscosometers
  • Dipping tongs
  • Drying cabinets
  • Dust masks
  • Edging tools
  • Electric kilns
  • Electric potters wheels
  • Electric saws
  • Encaustic scrapers
  • Encaustic spatulas
  • Enlarger timers
  • Extruder dies
  • Fettling knives
  • Figure armature systems
  • Gas kilns
  • Glass kilns
  • Graduated measuring cylinders
  • Hand chisels
  • Hand glaze mixers
  • Handheld clay extruders
  • Handlemaker tools
  • Head armatures
  • Heat resistant gloves
  • Kick wheels
  • Kiln carts
  • Kiln oxygen probes
  • Kiln ventilation hoods
  • Laptop computers
  • Lens filters
  • Linoleum cutters
  • Loop tools
  • Mat cutters
  • Metal inert gas MIG welders
  • Mold knives
  • Oil paintbrushes
  • Oxyacetylene torches
  • Paint spray guns
  • Personal computers
  • Photo enlargers
  • Photo quality computer printers
  • Photography tripods
  • Plasma cutters
  • Pneumatic chisels
  • Pot lifts
  • Potter's ribs
  • Pottery cleanup tools
  • Pottery duster brushes
  • Pottery kilns
  • Power sanders
  • Print squeegees
  • Printing tongs
  • Processing trays
  • Protective safety glasses
  • Pugmills
  • Raku kilns
  • Raku tongs
  • Remote firing flashes
  • Riffler rasps
  • Round hole punches
  • Saber saws
  • Sandblasting guns
  • Sculpting thumbs
  • Sgraffito tools
  • Shielded arc welders
  • Single lens reflex SLR cameras
  • Slab mats
  • Slab rollers
  • Square hole cutters
  • Stationary lighting systems
  • Steel rasps
  • Stone carving chisels
  • Stone carving knives
  • Stone saws
  • Strobe flashes
  • Sumi paintbrushes
  • Tablet computers
  • Theromcouples
  • Thin line sculpting tools
  • Tile cutters
  • Tile presses
  • Tool sharpening stones
  • Triple beam scales
  • Utility knives
  • Watercolor paintbrushes
  • Welding facial shields
  • Wood carving chisels
  • Wood carving gouges
  • Wood carving skews

Technology Skills required for Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrator

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe ActionScript
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Creative Cloud software
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • Adobe FrameMaker
  • Adobe FreeHand MX
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe ImageReady
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • ArtScope.net eArtist
  • Autodesk 3D Studio Design
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Autodesk Maya
  • C#
  • C++
  • Camp Software Art Licensing Manager
  • ClassDojo
  • Code Line Art Files
  • Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
  • Corel Paint Shop Pro
  • Corel Painter
  • Corel Photo-Paint
  • Credit card processing software
  • Dassault Systemes CATIA
  • Email software
  • Extensible markup language XML
  • Facebook
  • FileMaker Bento
  • GroupMe
  • GYST
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • Inkscape
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • JavaScript
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Paint
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Paintbrush
  • Perforce Helix software
  • Pixologic Zbrush
  • Python
  • Serif DrawPlus
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Trimble SketchUp Pro
  • Twitter
  • Unity Technologies Unity
  • Unreal Technology Unreal Engine
  • Web browser software
  • WorkingArtist Systems WorkingArtist
  • Xara Designer Pro X