Creative call

Though traditionally considered to be an offbeat career option, commercial art has matured into a hot and booming industry. Cara Gupta Sarkar tells more.

Art as a career calls for people who are creative, imaginative and innovative. Though traditionally considered to be an offbeat career option, it has matured into a hot and booming industry.

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With a number of sub-sectors working in tandem, the key requirements for this field are the skills of drawing and illustrating. A good understanding of concepts like dimensions and proportions is also essential. Fine arts, commercial arts, visual and graphic arts are the broad sub-sectors, which further include a number of specialised fields.

With an increasing use for special effects and three-dimensional effects in television and advertisements, the commercial and visual art industry is in great demand. Each visual component in the entertainment industry is striving to become more creative to have an edge over others.

Tracing the development of the industry, 10-12 years back, setting up an intel platform was expensive. However, with the development of new technologies and software, the set up cost has decreased. Consequently, many art studios have mushroomed, demanding a high supply of manpower.

Since the industry is thriving, salaries are more than indulgent. Pay packages for beginners start from Rs. 10,000-12,000. An individual with an experience of a year or two can easily draw Rs. 30,000. Experiences/established professionals draw salaries equal to or more than IT professionals.

The National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), College of Art (Delhi), Kala Bhawan Institute of Fine Arts (Shantiniketan), Faculty of Visual Art (Kolkata University) and Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art (Mumbai) are some well-known institutes offering courses on art. Bachelor and Master's courses in painting, applied and commercial art and sculpture are some of the courses on offer.

There are also many private institutes that guide students in the field of visual, commercial and graphic art. Students with a good sense of drawing and some technical knowledge can also start working and learn on the job.

With the industry in the middle of dynamic growth, options for individuals abound. It is just a matter of grabbing the right deal and painting a pretty picture.