Tips on Becoming an Illustrator in Fresno, California

Fresno features more than half a million residents, making it California's fifth largest city.  Many dozen gifted visual artists throughout the city of Fresno have very little trouble landing freelance gigs and permanent positions at any of Fresno's nearly fifty thousand commercial businesses.  Fresno is filled with educational and employment opportunities for talented local illustrators.

Fresno Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Universities, colleges and numerous private art schools in Fresno, California offer a wide selection of illustration courses and degree programs.  Accredited Fresno art colleges include Fresno City College, Maric College and Cal State Fresno.  Highly regarded non-degree illustration schools in Fresno include the Gurnick Academy of Medical Art.

Still, ever-increasing swarms of Fresno artists are nowadays earning design degrees or acquiring technical skills online.  Accredited internet colleges of illustrative design include Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, National University, The Art Institutes, DeVry and ITT Tech, among others.  Conveniently, many virtual design colleges supplement their educational offerings with local facilities.  University of Phoenix, ITT Tech and DeVry all maintain campuses in or near Fresno. 

Working as an Illustrator in Fresno, California

Corporations and private businesses in Fresno that employ local (mostly freelance) professional illustrators include website designers, book publishers, interior decorators, product manufacturers and IT corporations.  Some Fresno-based illustrators work for local engineering firms like Allred-Engineering, Envirocon, Parret-Engineering, Prism-Engineering and Victory-Engineers, for example.  Other local artists create commercial illustrations for Fresno-based graphic design firms such as California-Graphic-Design, Fresno-Repro-Graphics, Hillside-Graphics, Nothing-Less-Graphics and Sun-Burst-Graphics, among others.

Full time illustrators employed at corporations in the city of Fresno, California report an average annual salary of about $45,220 and a mean hourly rate of around $21.75.  Businesses in Fresno currently employ about 190 full time illustration artists, not including part timers and local freelance professionals.

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Professional illustration artists are experts at rendering believable images by way of various mechanical design implements like pencils, pens, chalk, pastels, charcoal, paint and anything else that marks a page.  Their exceptional communication skills allow them to create visual forms from verbalized concepts.  Illustrators are also fully adept with digital illustration design programs.  Popular illustration software applications include Serif Draw, Corel Draw, iDraw, Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, among numerous others.  Potential employers select applicants based mainly their visual creativity.  Speed and proficiency improve with practice, but genuine talent knows no substitute.