How to become a visual artist

How to become a visual artist

Develop your ideas, hone your practice and start making wonderful things.

“OK, now firstly we tend to use the term artist rather than visual artist,” says Dr. Kristen Sharp, Associate Dean of Art at RMIT. “An artist means so many different things these days. You could be working in a design field. You could be an artist working on a community engagement or partnership project. You could be a studio artist, making your work and selling it through a dealer gallery. Other artists are engaged in sound and new media and immersive experiences.”

How do you become a visual artist?

Technically all you need is talent, a pencil, a bit of paper and an audience… hold on, Kristen is challenging our perceptions again: “Look, we always hammer home to students: it’s 99% sweat and 1% inspiration. Removing that bit of the myth of the talent. It's hard work and networking and constantly putting your work and yourself out there.”

In addition, there are other obvious, concrete benefits to pursuing tertiary study in art. One key element is being immersed in the professional environment, learning skills such as how to create a website, organise professional-quality exhibitions, working with institutions, handling OH&S issues and understanding the mechanisms of the art worlds – from community organisations through to the NGV.

“And why RMIT?” continues Kristen, “Well, look, we’re the best art school in Australia. We have the most diverse range of practices that we offer students in terms of different specialisations. We have incredibly active staff who are all working in the art sector, whether as artists, curators writers… not just academics.”

At RMIT, you receive personal mentoring that challenges you to form your own art practice and style, as well as building connections to what’s happening in the world of art.

Apply to an arts course

Student Olivia Morris painting in art studio

Diploma of Visual Arts

This diploma offers both practical and theoretical subjects, which have been developed in conjunction with the arts industry. Taught by practicing artists in real studio environments, a major focus is the production of a professional folio of work that reflects your personal creativity.

Angela puts together tengucho paper circles stained with foraged pigments and dyes, cotton thread, and wooden beads.

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art)

Guided by high-profile contemporary artists who exhibit locally and internationally, you’ll receive personal mentoring that challenges and encourages you to take creative risks, to experiment with materiality and form, to explore the role of art and political action and develop your own specialised art practice.

Jale enamels charms in the studio.

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours)

At this level of study, you will engage with high-level intensive subjects, deepening and enriching your practice through expertise, knowledge and criticality. You will be guided through personalised mentorship and individual supervision, as you are introduced to practice-led research and research methodologies.

A person with their head and chest covered by a floral arrangement. They have blue fluffy antlers and are wearing a green and pink onesie with red gloves. Yellow tassels are attached to their arms.

Master of Fine Art

With ample room for experimentation, you will be mentored and challenged by academic staff who are professional artists, performers, writers, historians and curators to explore multiple media, conceptual tools and techniques, and narrow your focus down to the core of what you want to create and communicate as an artist.

Create a portfolio and promote yourself

If you want to make a career out of your creative talents, you’ll need to be able to show potential clients and customers what you’re capable of. Building a portfolio is key to success in the art world, and today that portfolio is most likely to live online. 

“All our graduating students have a profile on our website,” says Kristen. “They’re all different, but they’ll have an artist statement and, say, up to six images of their folio. On many of them it links to their social media sites. They’re seen by tens of thousands of people. We also encourage students to set up their own website with news about their works and how to contact them.”

What does a visual artist do?

As Kristen told us at the top of this page, there is a great deal of variation within the art and design industry, whether you’re talking about styles, platforms or even why people decide to make things. “The thing about an artist is they're always pushing the boundaries, so as soon as you say ‘this is an artist’, they will push that,” she explains. “There’s always this constant critique and questioning and pushing that edge so we don't actually spend a lot of time in our courses trying to define art. We just try and support a really extensive range of practices.”

That said, in their professional pursuits, visual artists perform a range of tasks, which include:

  • developing concepts in preparation for creation, through ideation, sketches and other means
  • employing a selected medium or media to communicate ideas
  • staying up to date with developments within their specialisations and the broader art world 
  • marketing through competitions, exhibitions, portfolios and networking
  • liaising with agents, art dealers and gallery owners.
Tamara sits on a window ledge holding her painting of a naked woman taking a selfie in a bath.

What skills does a successful visual artist need?

“They're creators, they're innovators, they’re thinkers,” says Kristen. “They make culture all the time, they're making and forming culture. They're forming social relationships. They're making little ecologies, little worlds all the time, through different materials and media and in different contexts.”

On the business side, artists apply for grants, run their own promotion either solo or in conjunction with institutions such as galleries, liaise with fellow artists to put together exhibitions, and market their work through social media and other platforms.

What's it like to be a visual artist in Australia?

In Australia, the art and design industry continues to grow – both through established institutions like the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), and emerging spaces both in the real world and online. Visual artists work in galleries, museums, publishing, advertising, video, animation and gaming, among other sectors. A lot of students go into teaching, while maintaining their individual art practice on the side.

“Some go into curating, so they might curate their peers,” Kristen explains. “I I remember a very successful student – a person of colour – told me, ‘Look, I couldn't see people like me in the art exhibition, so I decided to go out there and start curating the shows I wanted to see.’ So there's that entrepreneurial element. A lot of our students set up community/adult education, for example our ceramics graduates have gone out and set up ceramics studios, then subsidise their practice and equipment by running short courses for people.”

Learn more about your art study options

Whether you're a Year 12 student weighing up your options, thinking about switching careers or a professional looking to expand your skills, RMIT is ranked #1 in Australia and #18 globally for Art and Design* and has a range of vocational, undergraduate, and postgraduate courses for domestic and international students that give you access to specialist facilities to help develop your identity as an artist.

*Source: QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information