What You Need to Know to Be an Illustrator in Jackson, Mississippi

Quite a few talented visual artists residing in the city of Jackson, Mississippi maintain careers in the creative, high tech field of illustration design.  Commercial companies in Jackson maintain a fast-evolving demand for local graphic artists, especially talented illustrators.  Illustrators draw everything from corporate logos to complex technical diagrams to wallpaper patterns and more.

Jackson Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Jackson, Mississippi is easily accessible to several colleges and innumerable fine arts studios offering commercial illustration classes and degree programs.  Jackson area colleges with graphic arts divisions include University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University and Antonelli College in Jackson, as well as Mississippi College in Clinton. 

Nevertheless, many artists residing in Jackson prefer to acquire professional skills online.  Successful accredited online fine arts colleges include the Academy of Art University, Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes and ITT Tech.  Often, internet-based colleges also feature local campuses and testing facilities.  University of Phoenix has a campus in Flowood.  ITT Tech has a campus in Madison.  Both cities are a breezy commute from Jackson.

Working as an Illustrator in Jackson

Businesses in Jackson, Mississippi that hire professional (usually freelance) illustration artists include real estate agents, sign companies, videographers, educational media producers and mobile service providers.  Many Jackson-based illustrators work for major local graphic design firms like Dew-By-Design, Prism-Tree, Profiles-Video, Signs-First and Space-Age-Graphics, for example.  Other local artists create technical illustrations for Jackson engineering firms like Maxwell-T-Huff, Neel-Schaffer, Reynolds-Engineering, Southeast-Engineering and Spencer-Engineers, among others. 

The mean yearly income for an illustration professional employed full time in the city of Jackson, Mississippi is roughly $39,260, with a reported mean hourly rate of around $18.90.  These figures do not reflect the unreported incomes of part time illustrators, freelance professionals or Jackson artists employed with offshore companies.     

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Illustrators are exceedingly good at drawing, coloring and shading.  Professional illustrators consistently produce clean, precise, highly detailed professional artwork for businesses and corporations, as well as compelling images for comic novels and video games.  Illustration professionals are versatile artists, able to work in many different creative environments.  Most illustrators are fully familiar with traditional illustration techniques as well as with digital art.  Popular digital illustration design software programs include Real Draw Pro, Xara, Creature House, Microsoft Expression Design and Sothink Logo Maker, to name only a handful.