Info on Working as an Illustrator in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The stunning city of Santa Fe, New Mexico is famous for its local arts culture and numerous visual media-related corporations.  Santa Fe also supports a lush community of talented resident artists landing lucrative full time positions (as well as freelance gigs) in the field of commercial illustration.

Santa Fe Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Several colleges and numerous private art schools in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico offer technical training and degree courses in commercial illustration.  Aspiring local illustrators study communications design in addition to traditional and digital visual arts.  Successful Santa Fe colleges featuring fine arts programs include College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Community College, Letterman Association University of Houston and the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture.

However, just as many serious Santa Fe illustrators acquire professional skills via virtual design schools.  Accredited online colleges of commercial arts include Stratford Career Institute, Post University, Full Sail University, DeVry, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes and ITT Tech.  Internet-based educational programs are increasing in popularity, and often feature physical campus locations.  University of Phoenix has a campus in Santa Fe.

Working as an Illustrator in Santa Fe, New Mexico

A great number of professional illustrators in Santa Fe create commercial artwork for local graphic design firms like Stax-Graphic-Design, FW-Graphic-Designs, Anne-Lowe, Graphic-Sky and Graphic-Edge, for instance.  Others draw intricate technical diagrams for leading local engineering firms like Holliday Engineering, PSB Engineering, Randall Engineering, Cottonwood Engineering and Incline Engineering.  Some Santa Fe artists create colorful anatomical charts for medical illustration services such as Important Medical, Broadway Medical or Dilys Evans Fine Illustration.  Other Santa Fe corporations hiring illustrators include book publishers, music producers, software developers, film makers and educational media providers, among others. 

Based on data recently collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, professional illustrators working full time at businesses in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico report an average annual salary of about $40,420, with a reported mean hourly wage of roughly $19.45.  Santa Fe companies employ roughly seventy full time graphic designers (illustrators are included in this group).  However, these estimates do not reflect the unreported incomes of local freelance illustrators.

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Professional illustrators utilize a combination of art, technology and communication skills to produce professional, innovative designs that visually showcase a company, organization or any personal endeavor.  Illustrators are proficient with most traditional media forms and also experienced with relevant digital design software.  Currently popular illustration software packages include Auto Trace, Sketsa SVG, Corel Draw, Adobe Dimensions and Ulead-Photo-Impact, to name only a few.