A graphic artist is a commercial artist who produces visuals that communicate an idea, concept, story or a litany of emotions to an audience. In essence, they create the artwork that will be used in a graphic project, for example, a book jacket cover or a commercial advertisement. Distinguished for producing innovative images that range from illustrations for movie boards, anime characters, cartoon figures, comic books and graphic novels, a graphic artist creates work for a broad range of purposes that can cover multifarious subject matters depending on the context and requirements. In fact, most graphic artists have a particular style, and are hired when that style is required for a specific project. To create ther work, a graphic artist employs various media and design principles that are often unorthodox. They might incorporate different stylistic elements, activity and dialogue within their compositions in order to engage their viewers.

A graphic artist can draft their work on a computer or manually, and the publication of their art may be in digital form or in print. These decisions are creative hence rely on their personal preferences, experience, skill, capacity and ability. For example, if a graphic artist has a flare for fine art and experience with painting and collage, he might choose to work by hand and incorporate several textural elements that resemble his fine arts background.