As a professional
scenic artist I have to respectfully disagree with Gafftaper. If you equate scenic art with drops and
theatre only, then perhaps yes, the available of good paying jobs as a freelance artist will be hard to come by. However, the profession of scenic art doesn't begin and end with drops or with
theatre. But lets say for the sake of argument it does; your success as a
scenic artist will greatly depend on where you live. There are plenty of shops in the north east that employ a number of artists to paint drops for operas, ballet, and for Broadway. The same companies that can afford painted drops now will continue to commission painted drops because no printed or projected background can match a well done hand-painted
drop. It's the difference between looking at a Pollack painting in a
book and actually seeing one: there is an artistry that prints can't
beat and like
hand painted portraits, there is something to be said for a theater that can afford a professionally painted
drop. In addition to the painted
drop, there are scrims and translucent drops that can't be recreated through printing nor replaced by a projection. Finally, a
scenic artist isn't just a painter, he or she is a sculptor, fabricator, a master of textures.
As technology advances and becomes more affordable, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of scenic painting as a career. Many of the same professional shops that
build and paint for
theatre also
build and paint for movies, television, theme parts, and trade shows. You'll have to join the union if you want to paint for movies and television, which has it's pros and cons that have been discussed in another forum, but doing so does open you to a much wider range of possible employment. As long as there are sets there will be a need for skill
scenic artist.
Here are a list of a number of scenic shops:
MICHAEL HAGEN INC: scene painting for opera and ballet
Ravenswood
Scenic Art Studios paints for Broadway, Ballet, Opera, and other theatre venues.
Backdrops Backdrop Rentals Scenery
I re-posted Cobalt Studios because it's not just a school, it's a professional shop as well.
As far as schools, I can speak highly of my alma mater North Carolina School of the Arts, and I have heard good things about CalArts.