What kinds of jobs have you had in the art field? [Update!]

[Albino Sea Monkey]

[ kind of long story ]
This morning I woke up to my phone vibrating on my pillow. I tried to compose myself, and I answered the phone. The nice lady on the other end asked if I was still looking for a job (she had seem my craigslist resume) because her clothing company was looking for a designers assistant, and I said "I definitely am!". The extremely casual and shy way she was speaking made me think it was a low-end kind of place, you know... tee shirts and junk. But, seeing as how I'm so desperate for a job, I didn't care what I was doing as long as I was getting paid. She said she'd email me directions for an interview tomorrow and a link to her website to see what she did.

A couple minutes later I get an email directing me to an artists loft and a link to a website of a lady who makes AMAZING clothes. Simply BEAUTIFUL wedding gowns, formal dresses, beautiful accessories, and stunning flowy modern kimonos.

emotion_jawdrop

But now I'm kind of freaking out because when I looked up "what does a fashion designer's assistant do?" it gave me all of these things I know how to do, but have never done remotely professionally. And I'm all "Why did she even choose my resume!?! I was looking for a silly little cashier job and offhandedly mentioned that I went to art school and loved jewelry and sewing!" It's like... I REALLY want this job, but with only a year of schooling I feel so ill-equipped! I even told her "I only went to school for a little while, but I still do a lot of art-related work." and she was like "That's great!". But I'm sitting here like "I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOOOOUUUU."
[/ end of long story ]

So now I'm sitting here, wondering what kind of jobs all my lovely ADers have had in the art field. Actually getting and having a job in art/design is one thing I know very little about, and thus try not to get involved in discussion about on here. I know that it's rough, but potentially rewarding and that's about it.

AD, tell me your experiences in jobs in art. Weather it be freelancing, interning, being a big-shot project leader, whatever. Did you like it? Was it hard? Did it make your brain melt? Did you meet any fun/interesting people? Did you ever get to sleep? Things like that.

And if you've never had a job in art, tell me if you'd ever like to, and what you expect from it. Tell me your hopes and dreams with unicorns and rainbows and glitter!

And if you have any more information on being an assistant, fashion or not, I'd love to hear it. My brain is currently in "omg this is so awesome" mode, and "omg I'm too stupid to do anything" mode at the same time.

I need to go find my big-girl pants and stop whining. I have an interview at 4:15 tomorrow so I need to start acting like the adult I'm supposed to be. T__T


Update: I was pretty much hired as soon as I walked in the door. We only talked for like 10 minutes and she was like "So I'll e-mail you this weekend about hours. The second person I might hire may need more specific hours than you, so I'll let you know!". Apparently the other three girls that work there are kind of crazy and "alternative" and eclectic so she thought I'd fit right in. (And I agree!).

$10 an hour for ironing interfacing and minor sewing seems pretty fantastic to me! hahaha. It's a foot in the door at least.

[Aureilias]

I get what you mean about the ill-equipped thing. I feel I'm not qualified to do anything even though I have good grades. Unfortuantly book smart doesn't translate into common sense. emotion_facepalm

I'm also getting really worried that I won't be good enough at art by the time I leave education to get a job.

I've not had a professional art job but I'm looking forward to the replies. For anyone who's done illustration jobs or commission's, is there a lot of paper work involved with projects? I don't mind researching but I'm not very clued up on the day-to day runnings of a professional artist.

[Nathaniel Mea]

I have done professional comics and illustrations for various people and various publishers here in Sweden.

It is hard to network, but it is fun.

Any contracts needs to be read through properly so the small text don't screw you over. I have always had a legal person read through it and explain any strange formulations. Also make sure to ALWAYS write a contract so you won't be ******** over.

When I got my first professional comic job I had issues with the writer and researcher. I ended up with doing all the research on my own and had to wait half a year for chapters. Ending up getting them 2 weeks before deadline. I mean really? I had the script for 5 pages out of 38, and I had to sketch, ink and colour ALL of those pages.

I told them it was impossible, so they moved the deadline up two months. Thank the gods.

But yeah, that was a hard time. And I didn't get much pay either.

[ViSual HeART]

My job is an art job in name only. I am "technically" a graphic designer. I was so excited when I got the job. Within the first week, my boss was like, "Hon, you're spending way too much time on these projects. Just find some clip art and make it cute." That's pretty much the gist of what I do now (that and make office documents). What's worse, I found out they'd also hired a professional company to design some ads recently and then asked ME to copy them exactly and change some wording instead of designing my own. It's ten bucks an hour and I know I could do better. However, I need the money and it doesn't look bad on a resume, so I'm clinging to it.

But on a more cheerful note, your opportunity sounds legit. I would be totally psyched. Go for it, do your best, and come back and brag about it.

[Albino Sea Monkey]

Souta says Shuddup

My job is an art job in name only. I am "technically" a graphic designer. I was so excited when I got the job. Within the first week, my boss was like, "Hon, you're spending way too much time on these projects. Just find some clip art and make it cute." That's pretty much the gist of what I do now (that and make office documents). What's worse, I found out they'd also hired a professional company to design some ads recently and then asked ME to copy them exactly and change some wording instead of designing my own. It's ten bucks an hour and I know I could do better. However, I need the money and it doesn't look bad on a resume, so I'm clinging to it.

But on a more cheerful note, your opportunity sounds legit. I would be totally psyched. Go for it, do your best, and come back and brag about it.

Aw, that doesn't sound like much fun. It actually sounds like what I was expecting this job to be like before I saw the designer's website. "Oh, they're just going to want me to make quick, crappy designs instead of something I take my time on and am proud of.".

[ViSual HeART]

Albino Sea Monkey

Aw, that doesn't sound like much fun. It actually sounds like what I was expecting this job to be like before I saw the designer's website. "Oh, they're just going to want me to make quick, crappy designs instead of something I take my time on and am proud of.".

The person who trained me made it seem like a grand job, but I think he was just happy to pass it on to someone else.
I hope your experience goes much smoother. The only thing I can say is get to know the company and what the job entails as best you can, which it seems like you're already doing. Fashion is supposed to be an exciting career, so enjoy yourself. :>

Btw this is Souta says Shuddup, if you hadn't figured that out. I just changed my name.

[Glowstick Overdose]

I've had bad luck with the few art selling things I've done. So I've had a good few offers and only one successful sale.

The one I feel worst about was a teacher at the school I was going to wanted to buy a painting I did. The paining was to be displayed in a gallery and she said she was willing to wait because it was worth showing. I ended up getting kicked out by my mother, moving across country wile the painting was still in the gallery. I tried to at least get the picture to the teacher, even if I couldn't get payment for it, because there was no way for me to be there. I don't know if it made it too her or not.

Right now I'm waiting on payment for a stuffed animal but it seems like something has happened to the letter. (I'm thinking it got delivered to the wrong house, which seems to happen, or my parents with held it. I would not be shocked by that.)

The only thing I have sold was a stuffed animal horse.

[God-the-almighty]

About the closest I came to an art job was helping a client set up craft sales for charity. I helped set up craft parties where people came in and made the crafts and even helped make some. That was a fun job.

[Annie Felis]

I've only done freelance commissions. I'm really not that great of an artist so I can't make any money being an illustrator, unless I decide to publish a "how to draw manga" book just like the other droves of shitty artists out there.

[Valtiel the Watcher]

currently working for peanuts at some teeshirt company as a graphic designer.

[ninitan]

I've done work in illustration and some work in animation (storyboards for tv commercials, nothing glamorous). I personally just really didn't like working as an artist. I tried working at a studio, then as a freelancer, but it just wasn't working out for me -- it turns out I just hate drawing for other people, especially when the pay is s**t. So I quit. There were other reasons too, but that was one of the big ones.

[Arvehz]

First worked as a freelancer, but it was stupid and I hated it.
Then I had a very short episode as an art teacher, and while it was really awesome I quickly realized that I am simply too vulgar to work with kids not really cut for a job like this.
Now I am making first silly shaky steps in the game design or this is what I would be doing if I didn't need to put all CG-related activities on hold for personal reasons.

So uh yeah.

[purdoy25]

loads of RL commissions... and game character design.

[Albino Sea Monkey]

Legal bump.
Fell off the first page and I've still got four hours until my interview. Tell me more stories!

[dakki-dono]

Fake it til you make it! And good luck. I have that "I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGHHHHH" problem but I've come to realize that you have to start somewhere and no one knows everything right away. Chances are, she'll realize that you're rather new to it. Just don't let that turn into her shortchanging you to save a few bucks later on.

Excited for you! As someone who wants to just make a living doing art in some form, I can't help but feel good for people finding that. The jobs are out there.

Personally, I'm dabbling in starting my own business. I've never been fantastic at working under someone. I was going to go into tattooing but I can't afford an apprenticeship by any means.