I dropped out of University to pursue my passion: digital art! Here's my latest piece; Agent 47!

Okay, I won't stomp on anyone's dreams but when I was in 8th grade, my teacher gave our class one of the most valuable lessons I've ever received in life. Basically, "who are you up against?"

He basically told us that while we have the power to choose our paths in life, we should never feel "hey, I think I'm good at this so I'm probably in the top tier!" It was basically his way of telling us that the real world doesn't hand out participation medals. So with your art, who are you up against? Making it as an artist is already an incredibly arduous task with wildly talented people having a hard time making a living.

I think this thread is a good taste of reality for you. You're going to art school so that's a good thing. You have a foundation but in order to make it a living, you better be prepared to work hard. Yes, art is subjective and if you're proud of what you can do, then continue pursuing it. But I implore you to think about that question: "who are you up against?

If you're aspirations are to do concept art, animation, background design, etc etc... Don't even look at the big names in the industry... Look at the nameless artists that are part of the larger machine. Because every cog of a wheel in the video game, animation, and movie industry... The guys you have never heard of... Their quality of work and what you've put here today is in a completely different league.

I think the fact that you're responses in this thread have been so defensive and lacking any sort of humility is going to be a major detriment to this career path you're thinking about pursuing. You have to realize you have a long, long way to go in order to make this passion a career... And you need to be humble when taking criticism.

Yes, anonymous people on the Internet are prone to vitriol, but if you truly display a panache and talent for something, the support can be fairly unanimous.

One last story:

Back when I finished college, I roomed with two people attending the art institute. One guy was renowned in the school for being absurdly talented... The other guy was just another student. Even among friends his stuff was just mediocre. Well, it's been 10 years now and I can say the "mediocre" artist is now a concept artist for a major company. The other guy? The one everyone thought was insanely talented? He's jobless right now. The other guy knew he was nowhere near the caliber of the top students in his class. So he busted his ass to be top of the class. But he knew that just being the top of class wasn't a guarantee for a post-school career, so he asked questions and looked for advice at every avenue he could get. Now? His art is AMAZING. Dudes killing it. And you know why? He asked himself, "who am I up against?"

/r/gaming Thread Link - i.imgur.com