COMMERCIAL ARTISTS have an exciting image. The field attracts creative people who love to draw or sculpt. In contrast to the fine arts, which concentrate on aesthetics and personal expression, commercial artwork emphasizes expression of specific ideas or concepts for employers and clients. Commercial Artists are classified by the type of work they do.

Commercial Artists typically perform the following tasks:

• Makes products, services, or ideas more appealing to the public by means of designs, illustrations, artwork, and graphic representations.
• Completes work by hand in various media such as oils, acrylics, silk-screen, and clay.
• Uses computers or offset printing presses to complete their jobs.
• Draws sample of finished layout and presents sample to art director for approval.
• Draws and prints charts, graphs, illustrations, and other artwork, using computer.
• Arranges layout based upon available space, knowledge of layout principles, and aesthetic design concepts.
• Produces still and animated graphic formats for on-air and taped portions of television news broadcasts, using electronic video equipment.
• Reviews final layout and suggests improvements as needed.

Fashion Artists create wearing apparel and accessory illustrations for newspapers, magazines, and catalogs.

Graphic Designers

• Design copy-layouts (pictures) for books, magazines, newspapers, television, product packaging, letterheads, brochures, organizational logos, and icons.
• Determine the size and arrangement of graphics to be used based on their knowledge of layout principles in printing and publishing.
• Write instructions for workers who prepare the final layout for printing.
• Design animated graphics for television using electronic video equipment.

Illustrators

• Create rough sketches and finished artwork to clarify, decorate, or substitute for spoken or written messages.
• Create graphics with pen and ink, watercolor, charcoal, oil, or the computer for various media.

Title Artists create lettering or icons for motion picture or television credits.

Medical and Scientific Illustrators

• Create graphics and three-dimensional models to demonstrate medical or biological concepts for fields such as anatomy, pathology, or surgery.
• Devise visual aids such as computer graphics to be used in teaching and Research programs.

Motion Picture Cartoonists (Animation Artists)

• Draw cartoons or create computer generated images for animated films.
• Trace drawings onto clear acetate before they are painted or colored.
• Do conceptual drawings (storyboards) by hand or by computer.

• Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
• Information Organization - Finding ways to structure or classify multiple pieces of information.
• Idea Generation - Generating a number of different approaches to problems.
• Idea Evaluation - Evaluating the likely success of an idea in relation to the demands of the situation.
• Fine Arts - Knowledge of theory and techniques required to produce, compose, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods including alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, principles, tools and instruments involved in the production and use of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
• Visual Color Discrimination - The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.

In most cases, the art department is small, consisting of art directors, perhaps an assistant director, and a small staff of design and production workers.

Work environments are brightly lit and temperature-controlled, with drawing tables and easels arranged for the quick and efficient production of commercial art. Because Commercial Artists work with a variety of people under sometimes stressful situations, they must be resilient, efficient, and able to relate well with people. Much of the design, illustration, layout, and paste-up work is done sitting down, sometimes for extended periods. The work generally requires visual acuity and color vision.

Some Commercial Artists are members of the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union.

The estimated number of job opportunities (for Artists and Related Workers, which includes Commercial Artists) from 1998 through 2008 is expected to total 12,900.

Self-employment as a free-lance Artist is common in the commercial art industry, especially for the experienced worker with a network of contacts. Competition is stiff for both the entrant and the seasoned Artist in the current job market. While the animation concepts (storyboards) are done in this country, much of the routine cell painting in computer graphics is done overseas. This practice further limits job opportunities for beginning Artists.

Artists skilled in the use of computers and other mechanized methods of graphic design are usually hired first. Job openings are more plentiful in the State's large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles or San Francisco since most firms with art departments are concentrated there.