lsstrout & Aldaron,
I am an illustrator/graphic designer working primarily in the print industry, and I say 'look into it!". It's a fact that you end up doing mountains of grunt work that isn't the least bit satisfying from an artistic point of view, but every once in a while you get carte blanche from a client to "use your own creativity, you're the artist not me" and create something fantastic...and you get paid for it! When I come home 'artistically unfulfilled' I can always be self-indulgent and create whatever my imagination dictates. There are few greater joys for a creative person than getting paid to create, and it sure beats the hell out of working in a plastics factory, selling furniture, telemarketing, hanging sheetrock or working as a restaurant cook (all jobs my Art Degree helped me obtain).