5 Types of Illustrator Jobs You Should Know About

Doing creative jobs is a dream for many, and nowadays, you can fulfil it by staying committed to the passion and creativity within you. But before you start a career in any field, you need to research thoroughly and then choose the one that fits your skills. For instance, as an illustrator, you will need to take your technical and artistic skills and create a portfolio of designs and artwork that you own.

This career field spans a vast range of jobs, which can often leave you confused. Hence, in this article, we have described five types of illustrator jobs that you should know about. You will come to know about what each type of job entails and whether it might be relevant to your skills and artwork.

1. Comic Book Illustrator:

A comic book illustrator must create designs relevant to the novel’s story and incline it with the specific literature. This job is one of the highly popular and competitive jobs in the market as you need to have some excellent skills to describe the written story into art. When it comes to a salaried position, the competition rises as you have to look for print work, commissions, web comics, and many more.

If you want to test your illustrative skills, you can start searching for small commissions or gain experience by taking freelance illustrator jobs at Dormzi. There’s a significant amount of enjoyment in this type of work but don’t forget that there’s enough competition as well. If you want to work on your own, then there’s no requirement for a special degree, but you would require an illustration degree if you want to get hired full-time.

2. Medical Illustrator:

A medical illustrator is responsible for depicting the body parts and the importance of their operation to aid medical professionals and researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, personal injury lawyers, and the marketing agencies. This career field dates back to the 16th century and requires you to have immense interest and knowledge of both the arts and science fields.

As a medical illustrator, you will have to represent visual images by magnifying and dissecting them, which would otherwise make it impossible to understand any living creature’s body. There are various ways to become a medical illustrator, where most of them require an extreme amount of science and/or medical training.

3. Fashion Illustrator:

A fashion illustrator has to work on depicting the fashion concepts through drawings, paintings, or sketches either in a design or advertising setting. Like the film storyboarding, the fashion illustrator’s skills and experience are observed through their exceptional work in the field. Thus, it will be essential for you to relocate to a developed or large city to find a regular income source in this field.

You will have to create illustrations to visualize a garment before it is produced. These illustrations are also used for marketing a brand or product line in the industry. You can use either traditional tools like ink, marker, and watercolour or digital tools like editing software applications for creating the illustrations.

4. Forensic Artists:

As a forensic illustrator, you will require an extreme amount of discipline and skill but with a little difference. Sometimes, you will have to work from the courtroom to the crime scene and sometimes one-on-one with a victim to produce the perfect facial sketch with a vague description of the scene and people.

The forensic illustrator or artists are also known as criminal sketch artists who hold a background in law enforcement, so you will at least require an endorsement by a law enforcement agency. You will find various workshops that give training in this area. If you are keen on depicting scenes and actively finding crime solutions, this would be a perfect job for you. Remember that sometimes it can become harrowing, so you have to be ready to deal with all such situations.

5. Film Storyboard Illustrator:

Most movies and commercials are created using a storyboard, which helps to plan out the entire shots before the production starts. This applies to even those with a tiny budget. For that, the filming team requires a storyboard illustrator who puts all the scenes on the paper through his/her skills and creativity.

To become a successful film storyboard illustrator, you will have to go through a lot of work and create a strong portfolio to showcase your worth. You will require not only good illustration skills but also great knowledge in the 3D modelling software. Sometimes the work environment can be challenging and pressurized as several team members will come to you for showing different angles. But you will never find two projects to be similar, which makes it a great way to gain experience.

Conclusion:

We think that now you are clear about the different types of illustrator jobs available in the market. Hopefully, you will be able to decide on a field of your choice and excel at it soon.