Making a Career in Creative Arts and Commercial Arts

‘Creative and Commercial Arts’ is an upcoming and much in demand field today. Those with creative aptitude and good art skills have no lack of job opportunities with a rise in the media, advertising and publishing sectors. To hone the inherent skills, one can avail the formal training which is available for fine arts at the certificate, diploma and degree level at a number of institutions. The course duration could vary from 1-5 years. Those who want to make a career out of it can pursue courses at institutes across India and abroad. To become a successful commercial artist, one must have a creative bent of mind and an eye for detail. Apart from this, one needs perseverance and an indomitable will power to pursue this field of fine arts as a profession.

Commercial fine arts could refer to painting, sculpting, applied art, graphic interior design, ceramic design, mural design, metal craft, pottery design and painting. It is important to get training as a course helps one nurture and align the creative energy and gives the technical edge and finesse required to survive in an industry where competition is ever increasing. There is training available at both degree and diploma level. For doing a Bachelors Degree course in Fine Arts (BFA), one must have successfully cleared the Higher Secondary Examinations or 10+ 2. Subsequently, for acquiring a Post Graduation Degree in Commercial Fine Arts, one must be a graduate in Fine Arts.

There are many premier institutes in India where Commercial Fine Arts is taught as a subject of study. These include Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art (Mumbai), Faculty of Fine Arts (Baroda), Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan, Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi) and College of Art (New Delhi).

Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art is based in Mumbai. It is a state government college that has four departments which offer training for various types of Degree and Diploma courses. The Department Of Painting offers BFA (Painting) 4 years, Post Degree MFA(Painting ) 2 years, MFA (Painting) (by papers) in Portraiture, MFA (Painting) in Graphic Art, MFA (Painting) in Creative Painting. The Department Of Sculpture And Modelling offers BFA (Sculpture) 4 years and Diploma Sculpture and Modelling 4 years. The Department Of Arts And Crafts offers BFA (Craft- Metal Work) 4 years, BFA (Craft - Textile Design) 4 years, BFA (Craft- Interior Decoration) 4 years and BFA (Craft - Ceramics) 4 years. The Department Of Art offers Teacher Training Art Teacher's Diploma ( A.T.D.) 2 years, Diploma in Art Education (Dip. A. ED.) 1 year and Art Master Certificate Course (part-time) 1 year.

Symbiosis Institute of Design based in Pune offers the following degree programs:  Bachelor of Design (B. Des) in Communication Design, Bachelor of Design (B. Des ) in Product Design, Bachelor of Design (B. Des) in Fashion Communication and Bachelor of Design (B. Des) in Fashion Design. The institute tries to offer an optimum mix of traditional skills, new media skills and soft skills.

Other than these, Jamia Milia Islamia, Loyola College, Amity University, University of Calcutta, Rabindra Bharati University, International Institute of Fine Arts, Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Aligrah Muslim University, University of Jammu, Animation and Fine Arts Academy, Anna University and the University of Delhi offer courses on fine arts.

Those who have acquired a degree or diploma in fine arts, commercial arts or creative arts can work as freelancers. This allows for variety and free hand in their projects. There is demand for specialists in drawing in the publishing industry and newspaper houses as illustrators, cartoonists, and designers. Those who are good at applied art have unlimited opportunities in advertising agencies as graphic artists, designers, visualisers, and creative directors. Trained artists have a wide arena of options in front of them, ranging from working in art studios, advertising companies, fashion houses etc. Other related careers are teaching, direction, photography, television, clothing and fashion, as art directors for magazines, on-line services, software companies, manufacturers, promotion and product design.

In the television and media field, one could design the non verbal presentations for television programmes involving trade figure analysis, election results, etc. A commercial artist can also design stamps and letter heads for government organizations. Software firms in India require experts in commercial fine arts as ‘Graphic Equalisers’.

Apart from working in India, one can also explore career options abroad. One can organize exhibitions and auction his creations abroad. Then, there is an option to conduct various workshops on fine arts and its related fields. Other related option is to be art critic and write reviews for various art magazines which are quite popular abroad. Thus, there is no dearth of job options for skilled and trained artists in creative arts, fine arts and commercial arts. After a course from a good institute, one can land a job with either a good company or work on his/her own and earn name, fame and wealth. This field can give one high visibility and recognition with one good piece of art.