how much money would i make starting off as artist?

Hi Zakariya,

It's great to see that you're looking forward and trying to plan for your future. Unfortunately you've asked a very broad and difficult question. There are many kinds of artists: fine art painters, concept artists in tv, movies, video games, comic book artists, children's book artists, 3D artists, animators, etc. And each of those jobs in each of those industries can have a pretty wide range of starting salaries.

Many artists begin getting freelance jobs working on one project or one piece at a time and then you would only be making money on how much you could sell per piece or by setting an hourly rate. As a relative unknown artist you might not make much per piece. If you go to comic book conventions, anime conventions, etc. and wander up and down the artist alleys you'll see artists of various styles, reputation, and quality charging different prices for their work, anything from $15-$100.

Starting salaries in the video game industry range anywhere from $30k-$60k depending on portfolio and location. Bigger cities with higher costs of living would generally translate to a higher base salary.

Use sites like glassdoor.com or linkedin.com to search for jobs and salaries in various areas. University and college career centers will generally be better equipped to help you narrow down and refine your search.

Good luck with your search and your path forward.

Sincerely,

Andy Wang

Hey Zakariya, its definitely hard to say how much you would make without some specifics. But i saw design as one of the topics in yoru question and I thin the best youtube channel ive seen that has some videos related to pricing your design work is thefutur with Chris Do. Hes got a bunch of resources on the site thefutur.com and also videos on pricing and dealing with clients so you should definitely check it out.