How to Become an Illustrator in Cincinnati, Ohio

The city of Cincinnati, Ohio is liberally coated with product manufacturers, web developers, interactive game designers and countless other image-oriented commercial businesses.  Cincinnati is also home to a talented assortment of visual artists pursuing exciting careers in commercial graphics.  Local employers especially favor artists with strong illustrative technique.

Cincinnati Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Quite a few colleges and countless independent art studios in Cincinnati, Ohio offer workshops and degree programs in commercial illustration.  Aspiring local illustrators often major in communications design.  Cincinnati colleges with distinguished graphic arts departments include University of Cincinnati, Interfaith Arts Consortium, College of Mount Saint Joseph, Nia University Communications School and Brown-Mackie College. 

Meanwhile, just as many more Cincinnati illustration artists sharpen their technical skills and earn degrees online.  Successful accredited online fine arts colleges include the Academy of Art University, National University, Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, DeVry and ITT Tech.  Competitive accredited online schools also provide local campus facilities.  The Art Institutes and DeVry both have convenient Cincinnati locations.  University of Phoenix has a campus in West Chester, not far from Cincinnati.  ITT Tech maintains a facility in Norwood, also near Cincinnati. 
 
Working as an Illustrator in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati illustrators with conceptual creativity are often recruited by local graphic design firms like Clark-Graphic-Design, JSH-Graphic-Design, As-Graphic-Design, Christina-Wald and Pagliaro-Graphic-Design, to name a few.  Local artists of a low-rider aesthetic can sometimes work for Cincinnati tattoo houses such as Roadhouse Tattoos, Westside Tattoo, Aloha Tattoos or Monkeyman Club. 

Precise local illustrators frequently create intricate technical drawings for Cincinnati engineering companies like  Baumann-Engineering, JT-King, Savage-Walker-&-Associates, BHE-Environmental and Smith-Stevens-Young.  Illustrators with a keen sense of realism sometimes design colorful anatomical images for local medical illustration firms such as Steve Meek, Ryan Ostrander or Stautberg Design Illustration. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, professional illustration artists employed full time in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio claim an average annual pay of about $57,590, with a reported mean hourly rate of roughly $27.70.  Cincinnati businesses support approximately forty full time professional illustrators, not including part time artists or local freelancers. 

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Professional illustrators are creative, versatile visual artists who most often do freelance work.  Illustrators are known for their ability to consistently produce compelling, detailed, hand-drawn images in a variety of styles.  Illustrators often specialize in character design for projects that include comic books, animated films, video games, corporate identities and product representation.  Illustrators are also fully familiar with digital illustration design software.  Popular varieties include Freehand, Ulead-Photo-Impact, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver and Toon-Boom-Digital-Pro.