How To Find Freelance Illustration Jobs

Many illustrators start out with a simple interest in drawing and painting and they may specialize at an early age in what they may be interested in creating and early on in their artistic life, family members may have said, I know they've often said to me that you could sell some of your art and that to me was a mystical thing that I used to dream of and thought I had no real art qualifications, so I thought I would fail, but I had the talent and there are many who do have the talent and do nothing with it, which is a shame.

Suddenly dropping everything and saying you are going to start a career in art is quite risky, especially when a typical illustrator may have to supplement their income with a part time job for at least 5 to 10 years or maybe longer to enjoy the process of creating art for clients, so stick with your current job if you have one as a back up, but always gear yourself towards your illustration career goal and do everything you can to steer yourself in the right direction.

Degrees or good qualifications aren't important in this field as it's more about the work you can show based on your art portfolio or art samples, this is what makes you viable for the job and indeed in the running for a chance at further work if not at the present time but also in the future.

You may have thought about illustration as a career choice in the past, but dismissed the idea as you are really not sure how to approach it at this stage of your life, but it all comes down to making things happen in life and everyone's got to start somewhere..

A place online, a web page could be just the type of online portfolio you could use to show potential clients your work and all you could do is get a domain name with your name on it, that will be your brand and that will keep it focused on you, and you might consider getting a professional web designed web page that will stand out from the crowd of many other illustrators out there.

But you don't want to stop there, you want to create multiple pages online to promote your work, a Myspace profile, Facebook profile with a group and a few facebook pages, a few hubpages, a couple of Squidoo lenses and quite possibly an online journal or blog that will go through your daily artistic routine which could interest others in your art.

It's all about exposing yourself to different networks who combined will make up a larger network of contacts, most of these will be hobbyists in the illustration field, but that doesn't matter if they know something you don't, that's the power of networking within multiple sites.

The same can be said of online discussion boards or forums with which other illustrators chat and discuss art techniques and where to find illustration work, this is essential as you need to look around and find job boards that have this type of work listed and linked to, you never know what little job nugget you might find.

A word of warning about finding a job though on job boards, if anyone asks for a fee for obtaining a freelance illustrators job, just don't bother applying, as you shouldn't have to pay to get a job, think about it, if someone was desperate to hire, why would they ask you for money? They would want someone to do work for them and that's it!

People swear by Craigslist for job opportunities, although you do have to scan the craigslist jobs every single day for new freelance opportunities and this can become tedious, trust me I know, just give it a shot!

Illustration jobs are out there, but as illustration is very popular as there are lots of talented people out there you've got be quick with your application, always have a quick email template in draft saved on your computer that you can quickly edit to apply for any jobs that arise, as some you just have to email and probably provide links to any places online that hold your best artwork.

I myself haven't been actively looking for illustration work, but since I've started up in a few places on Youtube and with my many blogs, I have had people and some companies contact me for one off illustrations and concept drawings lately, which is good, especially as I didn't contact them first.

Freelance illustration is a job that requires motivation and determination to sift through the time wasters in the job boards and get to the illustration jobs that have your name in mind.

Some sites for freelancing work

Ifreelance.com - This is perhaps one of the best out there for freelancing work of any kind, but you can pick up some freelance illustration work here too.

Elance.com - Elance is a very popular freelance site that you can bid on projects to be completed, such as writing and any design and illustration work.

Guru.com - Guru is sort of like elance and is very uaseful to find new job leads too.