If you doubt the value of becoming a digital artist, this will change your mind.

Becoming a professional artist is a difficult journey. Whether you choose to use traditional tools like pencils, pens, and paper or go the route of digital art and use drawing tablets with special software, you still require time and effort to gain the skills you require. There is no shortcut. It’s overwhelming. And it can cause you to question if the journey is worth it.

 In five minutes, I can convince you why it is.

The value of digital art

The online art market has exploded over the past two years. From $4.8 billion in 2019 to nearly $13.6 billion in 2021. That’s a 64.7% growth! The two years before that only yielded a 12.4% increase (2017-2019).

 We can attribute a good portion of that to the pandemic. When you’re trapped inside for hours on end, it’s not surprising that you need something visually pleasing to stimulate your senses. But that can’t be the only reason why we see such a huge increase in online art sales.

There is value in art beyond releasing you from visual tedium. These numbers don’t even include things like video games or movies, all of which require a vast team of concept artists, matte painters, visual effects artists, and a variety of creative professionals to bring these visual adventures to life. These experiences influence the rise of all kinds of merchandise to celebrate the adventure you took part in.

• When you play Elden Ring, you want a shirt that celebrates that adventure.
• When you watch Moon Knight, you want a figure to add to your Marvel collection.
• When you watch Bad Guys, you want the art book to get a look inside the process.

It’s hard to quantify the impact of art when everything you see and the experience was designed by an artist. And when those things you experience are celebrated by even more digital art in a variety of forms, it goes into numbers that are unfathomable.

 The art market didn’t explode because everyone wanted a new poster to look at, it grew exponentially due to the rise in experiences that digital artists have created.   

The gift that keeps on giving

Learning to draw well may be a hard journey but it is well worth the investment. There are few careers that give you skills to secure a job and sell services in a myriad of ways. Artists have a wealth of career opportunities, but they can also sell their work in many different forms:

• Books
• Pins
• Posters
• Stickers
• Figures
• Plushies
• Mugs
• Shirts
• Blankets
• Pillows
• Backpacks

You could continue this list forever if you wanted. The best part about this list is one piece of artwork could attribute to many different pieces of merchandise. The same design you made for an illustration could be a shirt, a sticker, and a backpack. One good design can mean dozens of product iterations across millions of sellable products.

 If you’re a digital artist with quality marketing skills, you’re sitting on a literal goldmine. TikTok especially has shown us that you don’t even need a following. If the right video goes viral, you’re looking at sales over six figures in virtually an instant.

It’s not just a push for digital art we’re seeing, it’s a rapid consumption of media that can give you, as an artist, an extremely lucky advantage.

Even the garbage sparkles

I don’t really want to get into NFTs. There is a laundry list of reasons why you should steer clear of this scam, but you can’t deny, looking at it objectively, that there was something positive for artists. You didn’t have to be a master of art to find success, you just needed something that people would resonate with.

NFTs may have encouraged a ton of art theft but they also showed us the demand for unique art. Something only you can provide.

Have you ever wondered why sketches seem to generate more traffic and attention than your finished work? People love to see the gritty nature of behind-the-scenes work. It’s relatable. Your audience sees all the possibilities of what the sketch can become. You invite them to collaborate with their eyes and imagination. You don’t have to have incredible skill to draw in an audience. Though it certainly won’t hurt you in the long run!

Your unique ideas generate an audience, and your growth promotes excitement. The sketches and illustrations you look at unfavorably might be your ticket to success, and at the very least, your continued growth sparks interest. Digital art is the best vehicle to see that through.

How digital art gives you an advantage

The push for digital art comes from a world that is becoming more and more digital by the day. Forget about Mark Zuckerberg’s obtuse metaverse fantasy and the scam that is NFTs for a moment to imagine a brighter future. The kind you see in science fiction media. The digital world is growing rapidly in a positive direction. The more you see it grow, the greater the need for designers and creative thinkers to nourish it.

There is quite literally a whole new world to design. As a digital artist, you are a pioneer of the future. Without you, those theoretical digital trees, mountains, and rivers don’t exist. Not only are you designing a new world, but you are prominently featured in it.

It’s time for you to get lucky

Becoming a digital artist is not an easy journey but it is a worthwhile one. The investment made in yourself creates a value that no other career can boast about in the same way.

Art is a creative outlet but it’s also a tool of connection. We share our unique experiences with one another only to find that our unique qualities are quite relatable. Digital art makes it easier and faster to create those connections. As a digital artist, you can explore and design entire worlds you never thought possible. And you can share and celebrate those experiences with the world.

Being a digital artist will tip the advantage in your favor as the demand for this career path intensifies. Your skill turns to luck and that luck turns inevitable. Carve out your journey to success with your digital tablet pen in hand and enjoy the luckiest career path of the future.

About James Joyce