Dilemma

[Mohzart]

Hey guys,

This is quite a serious issue I've been thinking about recently. It's kind of a long story, but I'll cut it short so I wont bore you to death.

Where do I start, I'm currently a 2D vector artist in the games company, Playdemic, where we make Facebook games. So as you can imagine all in-game graphical assets are created using vectors. So think Adobe Illustrator or Xara. Anyway, I've been doing this for two years now.
I can say that vector art was quite interesting at the start, wanted to try it, got this job, tried it, and now I mastered it.

And before all this I used to be part of a great art community, updating my Conceptart.org's Sketchbook frequently, entering awesome competitions and contests on GameArtisans such as Dominance War. I loved it. but I've been out of action for 2 years, and in that time I havent sketched, painted or even drew anything outside of work. So now I have become quite rusty, in terms of skills / techniques, methods and workflows. I forgot how to start painting! haha.

Anyway, in the past couple of months I've started to get back into it seriously. But what does that mean for my career? My salary is great and have a stable income. But I feel like I'm wasting away in that office creating tiny little cute graphics that nobody gives a crap about.

So, I dont know what to do. Should I stay there? and continue working outside of work hours on my own stuff; no social life, no gf etc etc?

Im about to rip my hair out lol HELP!

Moh

[Cj_marsh]

Hey man I know what your going through I myself work at a crap job I feel is eating away at my soul and driving me insane, but something you will have to ask yourself is how bad do you want it? I work a 40+ hour job a week and spend every minute I have on my art, you have to almost go at it manically however make sure you do make some time for yourself so you dont get cabin fever and feel like jack nicholson from the shining, but make time to work on your art. I myself am not on the same level as yourself, but something I heard from bobby chuis stream he has now and again is to ease yourself into it. Make a good progression into it and dont just straight up quit and dive into it. I would stay at your job just a little while longer or take less hours if possible and slowly take a job here and there, as you improve take on more or what you need to survive when you feel confident enough in the amount of work your getting and able to get then only then probably then would be a good time, but this isnt me telling you what to do. I myself am going through the same issues of what I need and want to do and sometimes we just need to take a step back breathe and focus on one thing at a time. What I did to help me is I took out a piece of paper and wrote down all my goals I want to achieve, then start narrowing it down, whats the main priority, what is the one thing on that list you feel like is most important to you then focus on it. I hope this helps I feel your pain hang in there but your skill is pretty good and your style is awesome, you could improve on giving a little more form to your characters, but other than that you should be able to get some jobs

[trosh4d]

My advice is to do what ever you think you should do.But meanwhile don't let panic and fear influence your judgements, usually that is how people rush in making tons of bad decisions.In my opinion you already decided to quit.Just be wise,give yourself time to think, and be prepared for the hard times you probably will go through while changing careers.May be its good to start it slow,start networking ,do 1-2 freelance jobs to see if you are ready and when you know you are ... :)
On the other hand think what your main priorities are, because that is really the answer to your question.
Have in mind that your next job may also bore you after a while.
Good luck :)

[Mohzart]

Thanks guys. It is a good job dont get me wrong. The people are great and have many friends here. And I dont mean to be so insensitive to those who are working so hard to get into the games industry. I do appreciate what I have right now, but as an artist I have the urge to do something huge. To become someone looked up to.

I will be staying at this job and dont see why I cant spend my spare time working on my own thing. The only problem is there isnt enough time in an evening to create something special. But I can manage it. For now.

Thanks for your inputs. I do appreciate it. Will take things easy and slow, and see what happens in the next year :)