Eric Chadwick talked a little about his career and gave some advice on ways you can keep doing art in games for decades.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Eric Chadwick. I have about 26 years experience as a digital artist working on 3D computer games. I’ve mostly focused on environment art, but I’ve been a generalist as well. The last few years I’ve moved out of game development to work in visualization, but game art is still near and dear to me, and I keep a foot in the door by staying involved on the Polycount website.

I grew up in California, and after high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do for a living. I had always enjoyed drawing and painting, but couldn’t see how to turn that into a paying job haha! My parents didn’t want me lazing around at home, so they pushed me to find work. I begged my way into a job at a small screen-printing shop and worked there for a year.

I strongly recommend high school graduates work for a year. That first job is so informative! Seeing how boring and soul-crushing it was for the senior artist there, it convinced me to get my grades up and apply to college. I went to a local community college for a couple years and applied to a few art schools. I ended up at the Rhode Island School of Design, where I earned a BFA in Illustration.