Careers in illustration: Learn about the different types of illustrators

Turning a passion into a full-time job is the ideal career path for many. This isn't as easy as it seems, as a career typically requires more planning and consistency than something you simply enjoy doing in your spare time. But when you do it right, it can lead to a strong sense of fulfillment and a healthy work-life balance.

If you're passionate about drawing or painting and feel you have the talent and skill for it, choosing to be an illustrator as a career path may be a great way to do what you love and get paid for it. That's a relatively vague goal, however, so you need to narrow it down and decide on one or more specific illustrator roles to pursue. This article explores the various illustrator careers available and aims to help you make a choice that fits your talents and preferences.

What is an illustrator?

Before diving deeper into the multiple careers in illustration, it helps to define what the role involves and which skills can help you improve your chances of success. An illustrator is a professional artist who creates drawings or paintings that showcase or explain various concepts and ideas. The images you create aim to tell a story, either by themselves or alongside written words.

There are multiple types of illustrators, but many daily tasks are similar. You have to communicate with your clients, come up with ideas regarding how to represent and enhance your concepts and ideas and create meaningful artwork while adhering to specific deadlines. Some of the skills that can help you have a successful career as an illustrator are:

Drawing ability: The number one quality that an illustrator must have is the ability to turn ideas into visually appealing illustrations. Being able to draw well should be the starting point if you're seeking an illustrator career.
Creativity: Besides the ability to create beautiful images, a successful illustrator must also be creative enough to come up with new and interesting ways of transforming ideas and concepts into visual art. Regardless of the type of illustrator job you pursue, your images should be interesting enough to capture the public's attention.
Design: Being familiar with fundamental design principles can help illustrators improve the quality of their work. You should know how to use elements such as color, contrast, proportion, and alignment to create images that instantly resonate with the viewer.
Communication: As an illustrator, you'll likely work as part of a larger team, alongside writers, graphic designers, and other professionals. You'll also probably be communicating directly with clients, so having verbal and written communication skills to get your ideas across and to understand other people's ideas is essential for your success.

"If you're passionate about drawing or painting and feel you have the talent and skill for it, choosing illustrator as a career path may be a great way to do what you love and get paid for it."

What are the different illustration career paths?

You can improve your chances of becoming a successful illustrator by defining your ideal career path and working toward achieving that goal. Focusing on a specific type of illustrator career can help you get an edge over your competition, as you can develop a specific skill set. Since there are dozens of illustration careers, an appropriate way to decide is to divide them into larger categories.

Full-time employment

Being an illustrator can be a traditional full-time job. You'll be working as a full-time employee, with all the perks and limitations that come with it. You'll probably have a strict working schedule, which may not fit your artistic mindset, but you'll also benefit from a regular paycheck and various benefits, such as health insurance and a retirement plan. Some common full-time roles for illustrators include:

Advertising illustrators: These typically work for advertising agencies and help turn advertising concepts into visually appealing images on banners, billboards, magazines, websites, and other suitable media.
Concept art illustrators: These work in entertainment fields, such as movies, TV shows, music video production, animation, and video games. They're responsible for taking written concepts and making faithful visual representations.
Medical illustrators: These work alongside physicians and medical scientists and help make complex information easier to understand by creating visual representations. You can see their work in medical textbooks, scientific journals, and patient instruction materials.
Technical illustrators: These work on creating visual representations of technical concepts. They usually have a solid knowledge of the field they're working in and help create instruction manuals, blueprints, diagrams, installation graphics, and more.
Product packaging illustrators: These work on creating visually appealing images for product packages. They're either part of a company's in-house design team or work for a design agency.

Freelancing

If you find full-time employment too restrictive, working as a freelance illustrator may be more appealing. This involves working for yourself and seeking collaborations with companies on specific projects. The upside is that you have more freedom and flexibility, while the downside is the relative lack of job security compared to full-time employment. Some common types of freelance illustrators are:

Book and magazine illustrators: These create visual representations of the various ideas that writers outline. There are several subspecializations, such as illustrators for newspapers, online publications, children's books, and blogs.
Comic book illustrators: These are usually hired by comic book publishers, and their main role is to illustrate comic book pages based on the stories that writers create. They play an essential role in making comic book stories visually engaging.
Logo illustrators: These work with marketing agencies or individual clients to create various forms of visual identity for organizations. Their role is to take a brand's main characteristics and use them to create logos, icons, mascots, and others to visually identify that specific brand.
Courtroom illustrators: These work in courtrooms that ban video and photography, where the only way for the public to get a visual representation of what occurs during a trial is via illustrations. Courtroom illustrators are particularly useful in high-profile cases, and they usually sell their works to media outlets.

Selling directly to customers

While freelance illustrators typically work with businesses, some prefer to sell their works directly to the public. They do that by opening a physical store or gallery, participating in art conventions, or setting up an online shop. This type of illustration role can provide lots of freedom, as you'll be working purely for yourself, but it also comes with some uncertainty. Some common roles include:

Self-published story illustrators: If you're also a skilled writer, you can create your own books, comics, magazines, and similar media. This usually involves outlining a storyline, writing it, and creating the visual representations for it.
Custom portrait illustrators: As a custom portrait illustrator, you can work directly with clients and create personalized images from descriptions or photos. These can include drawings and portraits of people, pets, or special moments, such as weddings and other celebrations.
Greeting card illustrator: You can use your skills and imagination to create custom greeting cards for your clients. They can be highly personalized based on client preferences and fit certain occasions, such as birthdays and holidays.

These are just some of the potential career paths you can take as an illustrator. You can also be creative about it and pursue more at the same time. Some concept art illustrators also work in advertising, while also designing their own comic book in their spare time as a passion project, for example. Also, many above-mentioned roles can fit into multiple categories. For instance, some medical illustrators work as employees, while others are freelancers.

Given the wide variety of available illustration roles and specializations, each career path is unique. This article can serve as a starting point, but you'll probably need to do more research and experimentation before defining the illustrator career that suits you best.