We were lucky to catch up with Houston Sharp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Houston , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I have been able to earn a consistent and comfortable full-time living from my creative work, and im very grateful for that. The thought of needing to do something menial and non creative in order to support my desire to create things is not compatible with what I’d want my days to consist of; I want all of my valuable time and effort to be dedicated to creative work, which I am proud to say I have been able to maintain (so far, at least. My lucky streak might get interrupted as AI gets widely adopted by non-creative studio heads who don’t see the value of human artists)

Getting to this point was a long, straight road, however, with a lot of different factors stacking on top of each other to get me to where I currently am. The hackneyed trope of the “starving artist” persists because the path to sucess as an artist is notoriously arcane and difficult.

For me, it was a mix of plenty lucky “right time, right place” opportunities, mixed with making sure I’m as prepared as i can be for when those opportunities arise.

I started by job hunting and ultimately got hired at a small (and very low paying) VFX/Design studio that had a reputation of abusing artists. But it was my only prospect. I was living paycheck to paycheck, while working on some of the biggest films at that time, sometimes not even getting credited for the work. I felt stuck, and treated unfairly.

One of the projects that eventually came into the studio was the “history painting” scene for Wonder Woman (2017), a task that I was uniquely qualified for, having spent most of my early twenties studying traditional baroque painting methods. The opportunity came, and I was in the right place at the right time to take it.

The scene in the finished film gave me a bit of notoriety as a creative individual. People were starting to know my name.

That project and others at the studio allowed me to forge relationships with clients, and the art I produced for them stood out from others, which led me to feel safe enough to leave the crappy low-paying VFX studio. My name was starting to be associated with specific content and a specific quality, which were the two key factors that I think kept the offers coming in over the years. That quality bar and a desire for me specifically permitted the rise of my rate over the years that prevented me from living paycheck to paycheck, even during times where no offers were coming in.

Forging yourself a reputation of good ideas and quality execution is, I think, the arcane path to creative success.

I guess it’s pretty straightforward when you break it down.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a few different things professionally, but “concept artist” is probably what I’m most widely known as.

I visualize movies, tv shows, and videogames, defining their characters, environments, creatures, and sometimes even the overall look and feel of the project. I dabble in many facets within design, but I specialize in Keyframe Illustration (painting images of important moments within a script to show what the final movie/show/game will look like) and Character/Creature Design.

In a field dominated by 3D software so often used as a crutch in creating artwork, I think what sets me apart is that I still maintain traditional methods of drawing and painting as part of my repertoire (alongside tools like 3D software), which means I’m not beholden to whichever tool is trending. It’s a very liberating way to work. That flexibility is vital to exploring ideas and being a good concept artist, in my opinion.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In business, being pleasant to work with is separate from letting people walk over you.

Being pleasant to work with is important for maintaining jobs and getting offers for new ones.
But I’m under the impression that many artists are too afraid of scaring away a client, and allow themselves to be taken advantage of as a result.

I’ve been in many situations where I give suspicious clients the benefit of the doubt, waive late invoice fees, forgo down-payments, agree when clients want to skip tedious paperwork in favor of getting an exciting job started, etc. To my surprise, and against what I had been taught about people, being nice in that way resulted in getting wages stolen, extra unpaid work, unpaid invoices, good ideas being abandoned, and lack of legal power in lawsuits.

Absolutely be pleasant to work with while on the job. But don’t be afraid to protect yourself from a business point of view.

As cynical as it sounds, everyone in business has the potential to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Prepare for that.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

This is kind of an abstract one, but the most valuable resource for learning and growth is other people whose work you admire and respect.

As hesitant as you might be to send an email or a DM on social media, forming connections with those people are valuable not just as an opportunity to learn something, but as a potential source for jobs and creative collaboration.

Artists sometimes tend to be shut-ins (I certainly was, and to some extent still am), and this is a great harm to their abilities and careers.

Contact Info:

• Website: Artstation.com/houstonsharp
• Instagram: @houstonsharp