5 skills for a CG artist that will increase income by 20-30%

Let's imagine a situation: you are an artist, and you draw not only for yourself but also earn money with your creativity. It doesn't matter if it's freelance, working on projects, office work, or just a hobby job. Drawing brings you some income. It would be great if this income could increase, wouldn't it? Let's expand the topic and talk about the skills of a CG artist that will allow you to increase the income from your favorite hobby.  

1) Curiosity and willingness to learn new things (constantly)

The world of CG is very changeable and constantly evolving: new programs, updates, techniques, and tricks appear all the time. Therefore, even if you have honed your skills in one area, it's worth paying attention to other fields as well. For example, if you're great at creating character concepts, you can learn to make UI. Or if you're working on creating 3D models, you can also learn to work with textures. 2D artists should know 3D, and vice versa. There are quite a few universal specialists, and naturally, they are valued.  

2) Following the pipeline

Every creative profession is often associated with chaos and disorder. But it is following a clear pipeline (sequence of tasks) that makes an artist's work much easier. Firstly, you understand what you need to do at this stage and what action will follow next. And secondly, it saves a lot of time. Following a plan does not kill spontaneity and creativity: on the contrary, it becomes easier for you to work, because you do not waste energy trying to understand what to do next, but free your mind for cool ideas. As a result, the quality of work improves, time is saved, and the portfolio is replenished with cool projects.  

3) The ability to present work круто

Portfolio is your calling card, a personal exhibition, and one of the ways to interact with the world. Therefore, it is important that your works are designed "tastefully". Often, even if the work is average in terms of execution level, but it is designed into an effective project, it will arouse interest, draw attention, and collect more "likes" (and this is primarily a tool for promoting your works). And vice versa, a work of high quality can be spoiled by a bad presentation – it simply will not be noticed! So before you upload projects to different platforms, it's important to turn on the designer mode and work on the design.  

4) Activity

Yes, yes, it so happened that most artists are introverts. Although now it's a time when this statement is becoming a stereotype. In the era of social networks, you can contact almost any artist from anywhere in the world. You upload a work while in Russia, and it's noticed, for example, by the Japanese. And that's cool! It's important to forget about shyness, to be active on the Internet. And not only to upload your works and wait for likes, but also to be interested in what's going on among "colleagues": to look for new interesting artists, communicate with them, find your community, tell fascinating stories about your work – in general, to be active. This can bring both useful acquaintances and offers of cooperation.  

5) The ability to objectively assess your work

It's important not to overestimate the cost of your works and not to be overly modest. Find the golden mean. Do not agree to work for pennies (unless it's just projects for fun), but at the same time, do not set a high price when your artistic skills are at a basic level. If you are in doubt, find a specialist in your field to whom you can show your portfolio and consult. And, of course, the most important thing is to keep going, continue to draw, replenish your portfolio, participate in challenges, and constantly practice. Any practice leads to improving skills, and skills always work in a positive way. Including in the matter of increasing income. Keep going, continue to draw, replenish your portfolio, participate in challenges, and constantly practice. Any practice leads to improving skills, and skills always work in a positive way. Including in the matter of increasing income.