What You Need to Know to Be an Illustrator in Las Vegas, Nevada

The city of Las Vegas, Nevada is known for its colorful casinos, vivid live stage shows, accessible local media and other forms of visual entertainment.  Las Vegas also features a thriving community of resident visual artists.  Many of them consistently find employment as graphic illustrators among the city's many thousand local commercial businesses.

Las Vegas Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

Las Vegas features quite a few accredited colleges and independent art studios that offer instruction and degree programs in commercial illustration technique.  Aspiring Las Vegas illustrators earning degrees can study computer science and communications design in addition to visual arts.  Easily accessible Las Vegas area colleges with fine arts departments include Community College of Southern Nevada and Greenspun College in Las Vegas, along with International Academy of Design and Technology in Henderson. 

Meanwhile, other Las Vegas illustrators acquire professional training from online colleges.  Successful accredited internet-based schools of fine arts include National University, Academy of Art University, Post University, DeVry, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes and ITT Tech.  Many accredited online schools maintain physical campuses as well.  University of Phoenix and ITT Tech both have campuses in Las Vegas.  The Art Institutes and DeVry are both located in Henderson.

Working as an Illustrator in Las Vegas, Nevada

Loads of Las Vegas illustrators do creative commercial artwork for leading local graphic design  firms like Grackle Graphics, Veho Graphics, Ad Graphics, Latoni Graphics and Vegas Graphics, to mention only a few.  Other local artists illustrate technical works for Las Vegas engineering firms like Southwest Engineering, Stantec Consulting, VTN Nevada, Converse Consultants and Washington Infrastructure Services, among others.  Some Las Vegas artists draw biological images for medical illustration companies like Cathedral Medical, John Chapman or Ruby Illustration.  Other local companies in need of professional illustrators include real estate developers, sign manufacturers, educational media providers, toy makers and architects, for instance. 

Professional illustration artists who work full time at companies in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada claim an average annual salary of about $48,190, with a reported mean hourly rate of roughly $23.15.  Corporations in Las Vegas support approximately sixty full time commercial illustrators.  This data does not reflect the salaries of part time illustrators, freelance professionals or local artists employed by businesses outside the USA. 

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Aside from drawing and coloring expertise, professional illustration skills include photography, animation, written content, web design and internet marketing.  Illustrators are also typically familiar with mainstream digital illustration design software.  Popular packages include Adobe Dimensions, Quark Xpress, Macromedia Freehand, Flash Animation and Celedy Draw.