The 5 Skills Every Artist Needs

What Most Artists Are Missing

Creating a thriving artistic career requires more than just technical skill. After years of teaching and working with hundreds of artists, I’ve noticed that most of us aren’t taught the essential business, marketing, and productivity concepts that can transform our careers.

These aren’t “nice to have” skills – they’re the missing pieces that determine whether you struggle for years or actually build the creative life you want.

The Five Pillars

Most artists focus exclusively on the first two pillars and wonder why their careers aren’t taking off:

Pillar 1: Craft and Artistic Excellence The actual art you make – your foundation and technical skills.

Pillar 2: Creative Process Having a reliable process that maximizes creativity while being professional and productive.

But it’s the last three pillars that we’re lacking and can make huge impact:

Pillar 3: Productivity Artists are built differently than office workers. When you harness your creative energy toward projects you’re passionate about, you actually have more energy than most people. The key is learning to tame your artistic impulses and understand scheduling from an artist’s perspective.

Pillar 4: Business Understanding Even if you want to stay employed, understanding business helps side projects succeed rather than drain your finances. It’s knowing when to give your art away free versus when not to. Many professional artists use side projects to express their pure creative vision – this often still requires business skills.

Pillar 5: Authorship (The Key to Everything) The identity shift from consumer or dabbler to “I am an artist, I am a creator of things.” You don’t need permission, gatekeepers, or someone else’s approval to make your work. This mindset flip can make all the difference.

Why This Takes Time (And Why That’s Okay)

This isn’t a 30-day quick fix. You know how long it takes to become a good artist – business, marketing, and productivity are the same. They’re learnable skills, but they take time to develop.

The challenge is connecting your deeper creative desires with your business and income goals. This is why most people give up, and why having a plan and community makes such a difference.

Three Tactics You Can Use Right Now

Tactic 1: Understand the Scope and Write Down Your Dream What you’re attempting is genuinely challenging – a combination of mastering artistic craft, figuring out who you are creatively, and understanding how to build a career around that. Most people would be terrified to take this on.

Write down your ideal artistic life in detail. Do you want a big studio with a creative team? A home studio with your own schedule? Running a small creative business? Being on the convention circuit? Having a million followers? Get specific about what you actually want.

Tactic 2: Skip the Intermediary Steps – Go Straight to Your Goal Stop being tentative. Figure out exactly what you want to do, then start trying to do that specific thing. Don’t get caught in tutorial hell or endless preparation for some future goal.

I spent years exploring whether I should be a colorist, cover artist, penciler, or inker when I knew I wanted to write and draw my own fantasy comics. The number one point of leverage is focus – learn by diving in and doing what you actually want.

Tactic 3: Find Other Artists for the Journey This doesn’t have to be through Mighty Artisan, but find people genuinely interested in similar work. Artists are harsh on ourselves and terrible judges of our own progress. Other artists can give you insights about who you really are and advice when you’re stuck.

After 25 years, most of my friends are still artists. Non-artists don’t understand what we do, can’t give meaningful feedback, and can’t provide career insights that matter. Community changes your trajectory more than anything else.

Try This

Step 1: Write down your ideal artistic day in detail – what would you actually be doing?

Step 2: Identify one thing you want to create and start making it instead of preparing to make it

Step 3: Reach out to one artist whose work you admire or whose career path interests you

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What’s Your Artistic Dream?

Share in the comments: What would your ideal artistic life look like? What’s the dream that would fuel you through the challenging years of building your career?

Next up: Watch for the email about the final founding member opportunity for Mighty Artisan – the community where artists master these five pillars together.