10 Art Jobs You Wish You Had

Artists get a bad rap for joblessness. Before you use your fine arts degree to choke the next business school graduate who makes a reference to you being a "starving artist," check out this list of Art Jobs You Wish You Had. It's totally possible to make a great living in the creative field, and to enjoy it, too. These jobs may be just what you're looking for, or they may provide the steady income from a day job that you need in order to revolutionize the art world by night. Whatever floats your boat. These are the jobs you wish you had today, but they could be the job you have tomorrow. (Or in a few weeks or months or years or when you're reincarnated as Picasso's great-great-great-grandson.)

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Salary estimate: $20-60K

Do you have nightmares about the art on the walls of the hotel room you stayed in when your family visited Disney World back when you were five? Do the memories of those curvy pink, green, and blue designs still offend your artistic sensibilities? Do you like to laugh at the still-life paintings of bagels and cheese that certain chain restaurants use to adorn their walls? If so, maybe you should be an art consultant.

Clients hire you to use your knowledge of the art world, your connections with artists and galleries, and your refined taste to help them decorate the walls of their home or business. You set the mood of their space, make their family, friends, and customers feel comfortable and happy, and help out artists along the way by selling their art.

Salary estimate: $45K

Would you like to make a living drawing sketchy characters? (Couldn't resist the pun.) To be a criminal sketch artist (also known as a forensic artist), you must be a talented artist and also a talented interviewer. The challenge here is that unlike a portrait artist, you have no photograph or model to work off of. Instead, you talk to witnesses in order to create the likeness of a suspect or a missing person so that law enforcement can find them.

Salary estimate: $50-$80K

To be a successful video game designer, you must have many abilities—storytelling, artistic talent, design work, and the technical ability to use software to make your vision come to life. You are responsible for building a world, one that will entice players and keep them glued to the game until the end. (And then they'll want to play it again to explore alternate paths.) You create strong frameworks, but the details are equally important to make your world believable and interesting. If you have the IT ability and the creative powers to make it in this industry, you will be well-rewarded with a big salary and many adoring fans.

Salary estimate: $63-77K

While this profession may not allow you to push the boundaries of art or create abstract masterpieces, it is an industry with an excellent outlook and high salaries. There is a shortage of medical illustrators on the market, so if you have a talent for drawing and the correct training, it won't be as difficult to get a job in this industry. However, you do need medical and scientific knowledge to understand what it is you are drawing and to convey the information visually. Your drawings adorn the pages of text books, journals, the Internet, museum exhibitions, and interactive media. Eventually, you can even develop a field of specialization within medical illustration—cellular or surgical, for instance.

Salary estimate: $50-100K

When you hear "make-up artist," you might picture a lady behind the counter at Macy's or a runway model having her make-up done before a show. In reality, though, there are many more possibilities for a make-up artist. There are two main fields within the profession: cosmetic or fashion make-up artists can do anything from performing make-overs at a spa to preparing models for a runway show, while film or theatrical make-up artists work to alter an actor or actress' appearance for their role in a production.

Film and theatrical make-up artists execute dramatic transformations—anything from making someone appear older or younger than they are, to making an actor appear to be disfigured or an alien. The industry is dynamic and fun, presenting great opportunities for artists with excellent people skills. Plus, the profession typically pays very well.

Salary estimate: $43-63K

What better artistic aspiration is there than to beautify the concrete jungle? Being a commercial muralist is a perfect career alternative for aspiring street artists who have qualms with working illegally and without pay. Muralists specifically work with clients to create large paintings on walls.

Before diving into this profession, you have to take some time to build up your portfolio, your personal style, and your reputation to really get going. But once you do, the possibilities are endless. You might work inside or outside homes, restaurants, parks, and other public and private spaces. It's not a career path for the shy artist, though, since one's paintings are usually in highly visible locations and used for promotional purposes.

Salary estimate: $30-40K

This profession is not for the faint of heart, and it isn't just a form of arts and crafts. Glassblowers, also known as gaffers or glassmiths, use fire to create hand-blown decorative pieces, bottles, tableware, pipes, and scientific equipment. They first mix their ingredients—sand, quartz, and any additives for color—before melting the mixture and using a long, thin metal pipe to blow air pockets into the molten glob. They use a variety of tools to shape the vessel, often with the help of assistants. Extra precautions must be taken to cool the glass so that it doesn't shatter.

Salary estimate: $20-60K

Tattoos are more and more common these days, as society comes to more fully accept body art as a means of self-expression with artistic merit. Tattoo artists have the advantages of doing what they love to do, forming meaningful relationships with their clients, and being on the cutting edge of a cultural phenomenon. To get started in this industry, you will need to have artistic talent, a steady hand, a portfolio full of impressive work, and a 1-3 year apprenticeship under your belt.

Salary estimate: $83K

If you've been to a movie theater or used a computer in the past 10 years, you might know that CGI, computer-generated imagery, is an ever-increasingly important part of all media: commercials, movies, advertisements, web graphics, video games, and more use this technology. As you can imagine, this is a field that's ever-growing, so with the right combination of talent and training, you should have no trouble finding a great-paying gig.

Salary estimate: $80-90K

As an art director, you are a manager of artistic activity in a way that few people are truly qualified to be. You coordinate various creatives and typically hone ideas to benefit everyone from advertisers to marketers, brands, and the artists themselves. The tasks you are in charge of include commissioning artists, presenting creative ideas to clients, and producing ideas for an advertising campaign. You possess time management skills, organization, and a laser-focused work ethic to make it in this profession, but if you do, there's a nice salary waiting for you. The highest paid work for art directors in the US is in San Francisco, New York, and Richmond.