If I am good at drawing, what are the career options I can opt for?

You're skilled at drawing and now you want to know how you can make your hobby/passion your career? Well, we've got some information that might be of some use to you.

Drawing is a language. It's a way of communicating ideas visually. It makes things easier to understand. So, of course if you have good drawing, whoever is looking at it, will be able to understand whatever you have wanted to say easily. Who decides though, whether your drawing is good or not? According to me, no individual has the right to judge that. The way to determine would be to see whether it has achieved it's purpose or not, which is to communicate the idea. 

So now lets talk careers. There are multiple career option that require you to be skilled at drawing. We'll be discussing a few of the popular ones.

1. Artist : 

Well, as obvious as it can get. But hey, what do you know this might be the right way for you. You make art, sell it, put up exhibitions and boom there you have it you're an artist. Just kidding, it's not that simple. There's years and years of training to make sure your skills are developed fully.

2. Animator : 

While this isn't directly related to drawing, the fundamentals of animation is built off of drawing. Traditional animation requires you to draw each frame of the movement one by one by hand. it's a time consuming, vigorous process, but very rewarding.

Nowadays of course animation has evolved and merged with technology to make the execution simpler and to leave more remove for the ideation process.

3. Graphic Designer: 

Again, this is something that requires you to have a good understanding of drawing, but not necessarily pro level skills. Graphic design involves designing a wide variety of visuals such as brand identities, posters, album covers, book covers and so many more. Basically most of the 2D visuals you see around you today are the work of graphic designers.

4. Illustrator: 

An illustrator is someone who draws out ideas and gives them life. You could be illustrating your own ideas or someone else's. Things like illustrating books, brochures, instruction manuals and various other mediums that require visuals to make more sense are the thing that illustrators make.

5. Comic Artist: 

This one is super fun. We all grew up reading comics and what better way to give back to what you loved then to help create it? So, it's as obvious as it seems, you illustrate comic books.

Now, there is quite a variety of careers available out there, we have only mentioned a few here to get your brain running. 

Back to the drawing part. Drawing will enhance your ideas and give them life. So, if you are good at it, great! But if you are struggling a bit then do your best to practice and hone those skills. A few basic things you could do would be to start sketching the things and people around you. Do it live, take references, or maybe neither, draw directly from your head! It's all very helpful. Like in school exams, we never know when good handwriting can pay off.

If you are good at drawing, it doesn't mean you should stop there and leave all other means of preparation, there are quite a bit of things you can still do. Work on exercises that will make your brain think creatively. 

By the way, all this while we've been talking about drawing and not sketching. Those two are inter-related, but not the same things. Thought, I'd just step in and clarify things. Drawing is a more refined version of sketching. Or you could say sketching is the initial stage of drawing. the loose and free beginning. this is how drawing and sketching are generally interpreted.

Here are a few ways to get better at drawing:

1. Practice your basics: Make lines, circles, ellipses, cubes, cuboids everyday.

2. Draw Nature: Make animals, plants and landscapes. Study anatomy and movement of things. How the lines flow. It's all about getting the essence right. 

3. Humans: This is essential. Humans are all around you. Learn to draw them right and in interesting ways.

4. Products: Draw man made objects like bottles, dispensers, radios and who knows what else to get a grasp of how more structured and analytical things look.

5: Getting a style: While getting a style does give you an identity, it doesn't mean that's the only thing you should be focusing on. Styles come naturally. Just keep practicing and you'll get it!

6. Consistency: Do it everyday. It's necessary for you to make sure that sketching becomes a part of your daily routine. Do a little bit of it with good quality and full concentration to become a sketching genie!

To delve deeper into such topics, go check out our other blogs!

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Parinita Manchanda

Communication Design/NID Vijayawada

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