Illustrator

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the vector-based drawing program by Adobe Systems, see Adobe Illustrator.

An illustration by Konstantin Somov (1909).

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, or the illustration may be intended for entertainment, as in greeting cards, or cover art or interior art for books and magazines, or for advertisement, as on posters.

Most contemporary illustrators make their living creating artwork for use in children's books, advertising, newspapers and magazines. Pen and ink and airbrush artists traditionally dominated this realm.

Computers dramatically changed the industry, and today computers are used to produce most of the commercial illustrations.

However, traditional illustration techniques are still popular, particularly in the field of book illustration. Watercolor, oil painting, pastels, wood-engraving, linoleum cuts, and pen and ink are some of the techniques used by successful exponents of the art.

There are no formal qualifications needed to become an illustrator. However, many established illustrators attended an art school or college of some sort and were trained in different painting and drawing techniques. Art Colleges and Universities now offer specific courses in illustration ( for example in the UK, a BA (Hons) Degree) so this has become a new avenue into the profession.

Many illustrators are freelance, commissioned by publishers (of newspapers, books or magazines) or advertising agencies for a specific job, rather than employed full time. Computer game companies also use illustrators for the initial stages of computer game design and they may also be involved in the conceptual stages of a movie.

[edit] Specialized Illustrators

Scientific illustrators create illustrations that represent visually scientific concepts. They can, for example, create illustrations from bones and fossils found by palentologists, or works showing animals that are difficult to photograph. Some of these illustrations are used by museums to spark the interest of little children. Most of the scientific illustrations are part of a larger field known as information graphics.
Medical illustrators create information graphics about human anatomy. Their work is the result of many years of artistic and medical training.