Sketch Artist Career
Sketch Artist Career
The Real Poop
Be honest, now. How often do the people you know describe you as, "sketchy?" Relevant follow-up question: do you like to draw? If your answers were something like, "a lot," and, "yes," then you might be cut out for the freewheeling life of the professional sketch artist. If your answers were something like, "a lot," and, "no," then you probably need to work on those social skills.
Sketch artist is one of those careers that doesn't mean all that much when you say the title without context.
Are you a lowly street urchin with a penchant for trading caricatures for scraps of food, or a suit-wearing cop contractor busy creating the first known image of the Star Harbor Stabber from witness accounts? If you've been doing this for long enough, maybe both? And perhaps a hundred other things, too. Sketch artists tend to get around.
Most sketch artists are "freelancers," which is to say, "people who don't have a boss, get to set their own hours, and have 100% control of their career." Of course, it's also to say, "people who are constantly terrified that they won't find extra work before the rent check is due this Thursday, OMG Mom, please send help." Depending on how consistent fresh gigs are, you can expect to pull anywhere from a lowly $19,200 to a respectable $93,000 (about $44,380 on average) (source). Too wide a range to be helpful? Yeah, well, better get used to it, freelancer.
Wondering why there aren't more salaried (read: stable) positions out there demanding a daily dose of your pen and ink? Unfortunately, there just aren't many companies that need original sketches eight hours a day, five days a week.
Even drawing suspects for the police, the bread-and-butter work for most professional sketchers, doesn't command a permanent desk at the dispatch. You come when you're called, do what you can, and (hopefully) figure out a way to pay the bills. C'est la sketching.
That's the hard part. Here's the easy part: being able to draw well is basically the only real requirement for the job. Sure, not everyone can draw well—good thing, too, because if they could, you'd definitely be out of work—but we're sort of comfortable assuming that you actually can if this sort of work is appealing to you.
Now, that's not to say there isn't some stuff you can do to make things easier on yourself. Practice is important (duh), but how you practice is equally important to turning your strange hobby of making shapes that look like stuff on paper into a full-blown career.
Courtroom art, for example, can take a sharp memory; often, artists are only offered a quick peek at the room before being shuffled back to the parking lot. Why not roll up to a public hearing and see how well you can capture the scene? Sure, the guy arguing his $8 parking ticket is going to be mighty confused by your presence, but he's clearly a criminal, so who cares what he thinks.
And speaking of criminals, how about trying to draw someone you don't know based on a friend's description? Get good, and it could land you some steady police work some day. Even if it doesn't—cool party trick, right?
We know it's easy to hole yourself away as an artist, spending hours upon hours a day alone in your art-cave, honing your craft and singing songs about fish—just don't forget to make a point of interacting with others sometimes. Believe it or not, sketch artists need some pretty sharp social skills to succeed.
If you've spent years crafting a stunning portfolio, things will be easier for you, sure. But working as a freelancer means selling yourself, and that means learning to communicate with others.
Drawing suspects in a police station often means speaking with the bereaved—those who've been abused, violated, or hurt by the person you're trying to make them remember. Getting the details you need without inflicting further pain takes a very special touch.
Sounds sort of tough, right? We know. What, did you think you were going to do a quick charcoal drawing of some tree you saw yesterday, sit back, and watch non-stop waves of money roll into your bank account? Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but even when you do what you love for a living, a job's still a job.