A lead artist's primary responsibility is to guide the artists on a project in order to maintain the vision and quality set by the art director during pre-production.
Lead artists handle the technical aspects of the art team such as art processes, tools, geometric budgets, texture budgets, task definitions, and scheduling of tasks. They also communicate with the lead programmer and the producer to identify risk in the production pipeline. The lead takes the burden of artist management and protects the art team from counter-productivity. Qualifications for the position include a high school diploma or a GED along with experience in a related field. However, individuals with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in fine arts or a related field may be given preference. Essential skills include interpersonal, organizational, creativity, and communication.
The average hourly salary for the position is $53.34, which equates to $110,940 annually. The career is expected to grow in the near future and create new job opportunities across the United States.
Lead Artist Overview
Working as a Lead Artist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead artist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $53.34 an hour? That's $110,940 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 3,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Lead Artist Do
There are certain skills that many lead artists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed artistic talent, communication skills and computer skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lead artist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.4% of lead artists included maya, while 9.9% of resumes included portfolio, and 8.4% of resumes included art direction. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the lead artist job title. But what industry to start with? Most lead artists actually find jobs in the technology and retail industries.
How To Become a Lead Artist
If you're interested in becoming a lead artist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.0% of lead artists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.7% of lead artists have master's degrees. Even though most lead artists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a lead artist. When we researched the most common majors for a lead artist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead artist resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead artist. In fact, many lead artist jobs require experience in a role such as artist. Meanwhile, many lead artists also have previous career experience in roles such as 3d artist or senior artist.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Lead Artist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a lead artist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as art director, progress to a title such as creative director and then eventually end up with the title creative director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Lead Artist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Lead Character Artist Lead Character Artist | Randstad Randstad | 09/03/2020 09/03/2020 | $100,00009/03/2020 $100,000 |
2K Games, Inc. Lead Character Artist Lead Character Artist | 2K Games, Inc. 2K Games, Inc. | 03/20/2019 03/20/2019 | $121,97503/20/2019 $121,975 |
Activision Publishing, Inc. Lead VFX Artist Lead VFX Artist | Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision Publishing, Inc. | 02/27/2019 02/27/2019 | $126,39002/27/2019 $126,390 |
Activision Publishing, Inc. Lead Character Artist Lead Character Artist | Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision Publishing, Inc. | 02/27/2019 02/27/2019 | $147,50002/27/2019 $147,500 |
Activision Publishing, Inc. Lead Props Artist Lead Props Artist | Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision Publishing, Inc. | 11/09/2018 11/09/2018 | $111,42511/09/2018 $111,425 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Top Colleges for Lead Artists
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
4. New York University
New York, NY • Private
5. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
6. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
7. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
8. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
9. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
10. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Top Skills For a Lead Artist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.4% of lead artists listed maya on their resume, but soft skills such as artistic talent and communication skills are important as well.
- Maya, 14.4%
- Portfolio, 9.9%
- Art Direction, 8.4%
- Zbrush, 6.9%
- Texture, 5.3%
- Other Skills, 55.1% See All Lead Artist Skills
Best States For a Lead Artist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead artist. The best states for people in this position are Nevada, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. Lead artists make the most in Nevada with an average salary of $136,451. Whereas in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, they would average $133,755 and $132,973, respectively. While lead artists would only make an average of $132,838 in Maine, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$136,451
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$127,453
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$132,973
Avg. Salary
How Do Lead Artist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Lead Artist Employers
Lead Artist Videos
