15 Essential Artist/Illustrator Skills For Your Resume And Career

October 31,2023

What Does an Illustrator Do (Skills + Career Choice)

An illustrator produces original creative visuals for publications like newspapers, children’s books, and of course, for advertisement. You can also be a fashion designer/illustrator if you are good at sketching clothing and accessories.

I love Illustrations. I took a creative Illustration class in IED Barcelona in 2017. I got to explore a little bit of everything from fashion illustration to watercolor paintings. Today I always add a little bit of illustration to my design, because it really gives a more original and lively feel.

Actually, it’s a pretty fun job if you love diverse creative work. You can work freelance for different companies designing children’s books, restaurant walls, product packaging, and other fun stuff.

Like what? Keep reading to find out.

What is an Illustrator?

An illustrator is an artist who creates original designs for commercials using multiple mediums including traditional media such as pen, pencil, brushes, and digital programs. Being an illustrator, you will be drawing and sketching a lot on both paper and computers.

On a regular basis, you will be working with the marketing team, sometimes editors and designers to promote a business.

What Does an Illustrator Do?

We see illustrations on children’s books, comic books, newspapers, and magazines all the time, right? Some of you may think that an illustrator just sits there and draws all day. But the fact is, you can do so many things other than just drawing.

Many of you will be working as a graphic designer specializing in illustration. Some of you might be working as a medical illustrator creating images of the human body, 3D modeling, and so on. Others could work in a more creative area like branding.

Really, there are so many different things you can do as an illustrator.

Job Options for an Illustrator

You can work in several different industries as an illustrator such as advertising, graphic design, fashion, publishing, or the science and medical field.

Advertising Illustrators

You will be working on either product illustration, packaging, animation, storyboard, or other creative illustrations for advertising purposes. Most likely you will be working a lot with the digital programs in this field.

Publishing Illustrators

Working as a publishing illustrator, you will be creating art for books, editorial cartoons for newspapers and online news, magazines, children’s books, and other publications.

Fashion Illustrators

Fashion Illustrators are like the graphic designers in the fashion industry. As a fashion illustrator, you will show your creative ideas of clothes, jewelry, and accessories through your sketches. You will work closely with fashion designers to produce fashion products.

Medical Illustrators

This field requires knowledge of biology, and you will need to complete some training programs that combine medical studies and art training. After that, you are free to go. Jobs like creating illustrations for medical journals and books and help us improve our health.

Are You a Good Illustrator?

If you love drawing, you are already 50% there. For the rest, let’s do a checklist.

1. Have an eye for colors

You will need to be sensitive about colors because it’s one of the most important elements of art and design.

2. Creative and love creating original art

You have to love it to make it your career. The truth is, it’s hard to force creativity. When you don’t have passion for it, it’s even harder. And companies love original good ideas.

3. Good communication skill

Being an illustrator, you are not working alone. Often time you have to communicate with your clients and negotiate.

4. Show personality in your art (have your unique style)

In the illustration world, you don’t want to just be a copycat. Especially as an illustrator, it’s important to have your own style that distinguishes you from others. If not, why are you special?

5. Self-disciplined and deadline-driven

Many of you will probably work as freelance illustrators. I know how hard it is to stay focus sometimes when the couch and TV are just there. Well, I hope you can overcome the temptations.

What Skills Do Illustrators Need?

It's that time of the year again when students are overcrowded with different choices to choose their specialization and career field. So, what better than starting your career as an illustrator?

For those who are still not aware of what an illustrator is, it is someone who creates still drawings for different mediums, including books, newspapers, greeting cards, online ads, and magazines. Illustrators need to be great artists and storytellers at the same time.

Moreover, long gone are the days when the market relied on print mediums only. Instead, today electronic mediums and channels are leading the way forward.

The Internet has changed the way most people think of illustration. Many companies hire professional illustrators to work on marketing material, logos, social media ads, and the list goes on.

Moreover, there are dozens of non-traditional ways to use your illustration skills - becoming a fashion illustrator, stationery designer, forensic artist, tattoo artist, to name a few.

So read on as we delve further into the skills you will need as a top illustrator:

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What Makes Illustration So Lucrative As A Career?

There is a constant increase in the demand for eBooks, accounting for approximately 17% of total revenue for a publishing company.

Ultimately, publishers and writers are searching for talented illustrators capable of bringing their stories to life.

Henceforth, creating a demand for illustrators and opening numerous illustration job opportunities.

But, is illustration a good career? A question asked many times as illustration is one of the most challenging careers.

Undoubtedly, an illustration career can be an amazingly lucrative one, but it is not about the talents and skillset. Instead, it's all about your drive above others to express your ideas creatively.

How Is Illustration Different From Drawing?

Before we delve into the skills needed, it's crucial to clarify how illustration is an art and quite different from drawing.

Even though both are some form of visual representation capable of conveying a particular message, they differ.

For starters, drawing is a self-expressive technique, and on the contrary, illustration uses images, expression, and words to communicate.

Want to know the secret of turning your visual talent into a fulfilling illustration career? Then buckle up your seatbelt as we uncover the skills that will help you take the flight to success in the illustration discipline.

Today, we will not only cater to the skills but also discuss questions such as:

How much money does an illustrator make?

What are the best schools for illustration courses?

Are there any illustration jobs in NYC?

Skills Every Illustrator Must Have

If you dream of becoming an illustrator in the upcoming years, then here are top skills everyone should have to become one:

Love For Creating Art

Students and illustrators who have a love for creating art unquestionably, have the drive to push themselves. Art is great, after all, it gets your blood flowing. So it's a blessing to be able to 'play' in illustration jobs.

Moreover, one needs to love the discipline to turn it into a career. If it's just a hobby, it's perfectly fine to do it a few hours a day. But when it comes to doing it day in day out, love for illustration matters.

According to a children's book illustrator, Raissa Figueroa, it is not a typical 9-5 job. Instead, it requires a lot of inspiration while meeting critical deadlines.

Visual Flair

Needless to say, one needs inborn talent and sensibilities for visual arts. Not only this, one should have advanced levels of:

Drawing

Sketching

Visual communication skills

Illustrators typically need to think in a highly-imaginative manner to capture every essence of the drawing.

An eye for detail and creative problem abilities can surely help you secure a position in the illustration jobs market.

In short, the work of an illustrator encompasses continuous refining of concepts and designs to achieve the final look.

And if you go to college to perfect these skills, you may be in the top 10% of earners in this field.

Sketching Skills

The basics of illustration begin with sketching, hence, its significance can't be overstated. Sketching allows illustrators to explore different concepts, layouts, compositions and develop ideas before investing hours of work.

A Unique Style

Too often, individuals settle and just duplicate somebody's work without putting effort into developing their own style.

If you stick long enough, your unique style will emerge. But if you need a quick tip in discovering your style, specific exercise can help.

It is collecting 5-8 illustrators that you love daily to create a list of different things that define your style.

Ability To Convert Concept Into Graphic

Among all the skills, this is the most crucial, mastering this skill, you can become the client's favorite.

Unfortunately, numerous illustrators working in the industry fail to grasp the initial concept and interpret it into what the client wants.

In other words, illustrators are expected to work within a brief, where the client provides the basic idea, style, and a deadline.

And, one should know how to deliver the client's expectations of the brief within the timeframe.

Good Communication

Alongside your creative talents, illustrators need to have excellent communications skills. One should be willing and bold enough to speak up, ask questions, and call the client for clarification.

Do you think a client would trust an illustrator who isn't communicative about his idea?

Not at all, hence, fluency with your verbal and written communication is a necessary skill to master the art of illustration.

Storytelling

Illustrators need to work in a variety of niches such as advertisements, television series, films, video games, and whatnot, where they are always telling a story through their artworks.

Understanding the basics of storytelling is a part of an illustrator's skillset. Storytelling helps illustrators:

Engage with the audience

Keep them entertained

Immerse them in the illustration presented

Familiarity With IT Software

One might conclude that it isn't that important, but in fact, it is incredibly vital in today's digital world. The familiarity with numerous IT and design tools opens up unforeseen illustration job opportunities.

In addition, mastering the modeling software improves illustration skills by featuring different functionalities. Some famous modeling tools include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Freehand.

Understanding Visual Language

It goes without saying that illustrators are, in fact, visual thinkers. Therefore, they need to be sensitive to the shape, color, proportion, scale, texture, and other features of any drawing or art.

Best Schools For Illustration

Illustrators can come from a variety of training backgrounds such as fine arts, graphic design, animation, web design, or visual communications, to name a few.

It's true, one doesn't need a degree to be a professional illustrator, yet formal training and a degree can help master the fundamentals of illustration.

If you have decided on illustration as your career, then advanced courses and certifications could make a difference.

It helps gain familiarity with professional standards and create professionally polished art for video games, films, and comic books.

The USA is filled with schools and colleges offering various traditional and digital classroom learning courses on illustration.

But, undoubtedly, the best of the lot is Superprof – providing a platform for the younger artist to polish their illustration skills.

After the individual develops their visual skills, their mind tends to work differently. They tend to think cinematically – understanding lighting, mood, action, and cinematography. In short, they tell a visual story through their illustrations.

Without a doubt, being an illustrator is very demanding as it involves drawing a scene or character, which takes a long time.

Artists invest a lot of time, artistic capabilities, and efforts to present a final polished look.

The Illustration Job Market In NYC

Creativity and art might look easy, but the reality is far from true.

The illustration industry within the United States of America definitely is shining bright – providing numerous opportunities to the illustrators.

Primarily the commercial world relies heavily on illustrators to sell their products. Hence, a constant need for creative means of communication.

Fortunately, illustrators are the best at communicating creatively.

To begin with, the illustration industry is concentrated in California, NY, estimating approximately 28 thousand jobs for illustrators.

Furthermore, it is expected that the illustration career will get a boost of 6.8% in the upcoming years.

Moreover, the wider illustration industry is divided into numerous varied roles, including but not limited to,

Comic book illustrator

One of the most highly sought-after jobs on the list and the most competitive one. A web comic illustrator creates artwork for eBooks, cartoons, and comic strips.

Web designers

They plan, design, and code various websites and landing pages, many of which combine images, text, sounds, and videos.

Courtroom illustrators

Courtroom artists are responsible for recording and reporting trials using visual illustrations.

Forensic artists

They support a criminal's conviction and solve crimes by providing visual aspects of a case.

Film storyboarding

It provides a graphical depiction of how the story will unfold, shot by shot. In addition, it has a series of illustrations representing each shot and notes representing the file scene.

Medical illustrator

These are professional artists with extensive training in:

Science

Medicine

Media technology

Communication

The visual experts are responsible for creating models of medical subjects for training, research, consultations, and many other purposes.

Illustrator Job Salary In USA

According to research conducted by Glassdoor, data from 540 illustrators from across the USA were analyzed.

So, to answer the question: "how much money does an illustrator make?" here's a glimpse of the average salary earned by an illustrator in the United States:

The average yearly salary of an illustrator in the USA typically includes transport, housing, and other benefits.

Furthermore, their salaries vary drastically based on skillset, experience, location, and other characteristics.

Amongst them, the most critical factor affecting the pay scale is experience. Generally, the more years spent as an illustrator will land you a higher wage.

The hourly rates fall between $9 to $23/ hr., equivalent to $555,234 per year. And as one can guess, more experience and specialization can bring in a higher salary rate.

15 Essential Artist/Illustrator Skills For Your Resume And Career

Eugene Woods Artist/Illustrator Contact Info New York, NY (660) 555-3287 Skills Classroom Management Faculty Meetings Art Program Special Events PDF K-6 Personal Website NYC Language Arts Clear Objectives Employment History Artist/Illustrator 2017 - Present Subway New York, NY Provided clear speech to assure communication was not taking out of context in order to give the customer exactlywhat they want.

Can establish individual and group rapport Effective open communication.

Interacted with patrons in preparing food to specific customer orders.

Designed and layout various types of projects from forms to brochures. Artist 2007 - 2017 Subway New York, NY Provided the best customer service Created excellent sandwiches for the customers Familiarized myself with the customers

Greeted and served guests, prepared sub sandwiches, maintained food safety and sanitation standards, and completed daily tasks.

Provide customer service and handling of food and money. Art Educator 2002 - 2007 Baltimore Schools Baltimore, MD Increased nationalSales through makeup technique and product knowledge classes.Makeup for educational dvd's, editorial, competitions and classes.

Developed digital materials, documents, PowerPoint presentations, lectures, and laboratory activities daily.

Advanced Placement Art History: the history, values, and aesthetics of Western Art.

Provide lessons in visual art from the basic elements and principles to advanced portfolio development. Education Master's Degree Graphic Design 2001 - 2002 Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, GA Bachelor's Degree Fine Arts 1998 - 2001 Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, GA