There was a time when an aspiring painter would be told not to pursue a degree or career in art because the field seemed to be disappearing. It was still a great hobby, but not great for making money. Well, those days are now, and careers in art are once again feasible. Careers in art have changed a bit now. In order for an aspiring painter to find a job, he or she will have to first become a digital painter.
Businesses are always looking for web designers to make their websites as pretty as possible. Part of web design involves coding, but web developers need art assets to make a web page truly eye-popping. A digital artist can create a heading, a company logo, a background, and various other art assets used in web design. If an aspiring artist can also learn the coding side of building websites, they will make themselves even more appealing to an employer.
There are a lot of artists needed for a video game. First, they need concept artists to create the overall art direction for the game. Second, they need 3d artists to create 3d models of characters, buildings, and various other objects that will appear in the game. Third, they need texture artists, whose sole job it is to draw and create textures for other objects. Painting a character on a sheet of paper won't help a game studio much until that character is converted to a digital image.
Almost every cartoonist or animator uses digital tools these days. Drawing a still image of a cartoon may seem simple, but it is still significantly easier to create and alter a cartoon on a computer. As for animation, it is not so simple a process. There are software tools that make animation much easier.
Don't worry, the skills a painter develops are easily transferable into the digital domain. A drawing tablet or other input device is used to imitate traditional painting, so all that's left to do is master the software. If you can create art on paper, then you have what it takes to create art on a computer.
Learning digital painting isn't too difficult, but it is time consuming and takes real effort. You can learn a program simply by experimenting and spending time with it. If you need help, you can hop online where there are various art communities that will offer help. Because of the high price of software, it can be wise to enroll in classes at a nearby college where you can have instructors as well as student licenses of the software. If you're a Louisville painter looking for career opportunities, once you master digital art, you'll have plenty of options.