What You Need to Know to Be an Illustrator in Maine

Commercial graphics is probably the most sensible career option in the field of visual arts.  Many graphic artists in Maine, especially illustrators, successfully pursue employment in this creative, high tech field.  Much of today's professional illustration work is done through the internet.  Nevertheless, numerous local businesses still need talented, on-site illustration professionals.

Maine Schools and Training Programs for Illustrators

The state of Maine is dotted here and there with graphic arts colleges offering degree programs related to commercial illustration.  Featuring a large community of local visual artists, Maine also offers innumerable educational alternatives.  Aspiring commercial illustrators in Maine often attend local colleges like Maine-Maritime-Academy in Castine, University of Maine at Augusta, Maine College of Art in Portland and Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.

Meanwhile, many illustration artists residing in Maine obtain skills and degrees online.  Accredited internet schools of graphic arts include National University, Post University, Full Sail University, Stratford Career Institute, University of Phoenix, The Art Institutes, ITT Tech and DeVry, to name only a few. 
 
Working as an Illustrator in Maine

Companies in the state of Maine in need of professional illustrators include local authors, book publishers, game designers, software developers and animation studios.  Many Maine illustration professionals do commercial artwork for local graphic design firms like About-Time-Graphics in Bridgton, Kayco in Biddeford, Decrepit-Industries in Otisfield, Artforms in Westbrook and Screen-Scene in Norridgewock, for instance. 

Other local artists draw technical illustrations for major Maine engineering firms such as Acorn-Engineering in Portland, Olver-Associates in Winterport, Taylor-Engineering in Auburn, Ames-Hewett-Gifford in Winthrop and Swiftcurrent-Engineering in Yarmouth, among others.  Some illustrators work for local medical illustration companies like Spectrum-Medical in South Portland, Bedard-Medical in Lewiston or The-Medical-Group in Kennebunk. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average reported annual income for full time illustrators employed in Maine is about $95,830, with reported mean hourly take of roughly $46.10.  Why so high?  Assuming this was not a misprint, one plausible explanation is that Maine has many architectural and structural engineering firms.  Technical illustrators tend to earn considerably higher incomes than creative commercial artists.  Also, Maine illustrators earn much of their income online.  Corporations in Maine employ approximately 30 full time illustration artists.  However, none of these figures reflect the employment statistics of local freelancers.

Skills of a Professional Illustrator

Professional illustrators are adept at consistently drawing and coloring cleverly detailed images in a flexible variation of styles and visual media.  Illustrators produce realism, abstract, whimsical, emotional and conceptual hand-drawn artwork for picture books, nature studies, fashion sketches, technical drafting and more.  Professional illustration artists are typically fully familiar with digital illustration software packages such as Visio, Quark Xpress, Photo-to-Cartoon, Simply 3D and Real Draw Pro.