How to Become an Illustrator in Boise, Idaho

The city of Boise, Idaho features well over 30,000 local businesses, which represents around twenty percent of all business in the state of Idaho.  Boise is also home to many talented visual artists who consistently find local employment as illustrators.  Commercial illustrators are needed to create text illustrations, medical charts, fictional characters, scenery and many other highly detailed graphic effects.

Boise Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Several accredited Boise area colleges, as well as many independent fine arts schools, provide workshops, certificates and degree programs in illustration arts.  Aspiring Boise illustrators typically major in communications design.  Popular local colleges with graphic arts divisions include Boise State University in Boise and Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa.

Alternatively, many visual artists residing in Boise, Idaho acquire professional illustration skills online.  Prolific accredited online design schools include Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, ITT Tech and DeVry.  Some illustrators prefer the convenience that online schools have to offer, in many cases featuring supplemental local campuses.  University of Phoenix is located in Meridian.  ITT Tech has a campus in Boise. 

Working as an Illustrator in Boise, Idaho

Employers in Boise, Idaho who regularly hire professional illustration artists include video game developers, website designers, local newspapers, info tech firms and art schools.  Some Boise illustrators create innovative designs for local graphic arts firms like AAA Signs & Designs, Carpenter Illustrations, Elements Design Group, Graphics Emporium and Inkfish Designs, for example.  Other local artists design technical illustrations for major engineering firms like Aardvark Innovations, Blue Wolf Engineering, Eagle Aerospace Services, Lindco and Earl Reynolds, among others.

Professional illustrators working full time in the city of Boise, Idaho claim an average salary of about $38,930 per year, with a reported mean hourly rate of around $18.70.  Boise corporations support roughly 480 full time professional graphic designers, a statistical group which includes digital artists as well as illustrators.  These figures do not reflect the employment stats of local freelance professionals. 

Professional illustration artists are experts at drawing and coloring intricate pictures and patterns on surfaces of varying physical quality, using any of dozens of different drawing implements.  Today's professional illustrators also use sophisticated design software packages like Harvard Draw, Creature House, Corel Draw, Xara and Serif Draw.  Employers expect professional illustrators to show stylistic versatility and total dedication to the finished piece.  Among the most essential tools of an illustrator's trade are good, old-fashioned clay-graphite pencils of varying size and blackness levels, along with a pink pearl eraser.  It's easy.  Just add paper.