Earning Six Figures As A fashion Illustrator

If you have always wanted to draw fashion sketches or simply want to make a new career by drawing creative fashion designs and did not know who to approach. The information you will need are here. I understand you have been through several searches online and it all ended up with you having to buy books or software because no one is giving free information. So i wouldn't waste more of your time as I list to you all you will get as information at the end of this hub.

1. Income sources of fashion illustrators

2. What you need to be a fashion illustrator

3. Basics of fashion illustration

4. Fashion illustration materials

5. How you will freelance your illustrations

6. Web links for fashion illustrators

1. Summary of income sources of fashion illustrators

There are absolutely lots of ways you can break into this creative and highly demanded profession.

As employee/ a staff of a company: this way you will be able to work for any creative team in a company be it fashion designing or fashion apparels companies. Mostly, big fashion houses do hire fashion illustrators as staff/ employee in other to keep their creative business running for long and also with newer ideas of fashion.

As a self-employed/ Freelancer: this way you will get to freelance on project basis and also through assignments introduced by artist agencies & consultation work. Through this way, you will make allot of income as you will be able to work with several people and fashion house at a time compared to when you are employed.

Teaching: of course you will need to be well experienced before you can get teaching opportunity and when you are experienced, you will be receiving professional fees or salary by teaching fashion skills and knowledge to students.

Licensing Intellectual property right: you can also earn money through retaining ownership of you fashion art works (intellectual ownership right) which your corporate client can use subsequently.

Endorsements of products and other accessories

Have your brand name: run your own fashion business with fashion apparels and accessories. I know that it's a great task starting up a fashion line but most established fashion designers today started very small especially as a fashion illustrator.

2. What you need to be a Successful fashion illustrator

To become successful in Fashion illustration there are 4 skill set you must have.

Talent: to be able to express your fashion illustration ideas more effectively, you must have an instinctive ability to use your good judgment in managing visual communication through colours, patterns, scale and creativity.

Technical Skill: you will need the mastery of current tools that are necessary to produce and implement your ideas. It could be free hand fashion sketch drawing or the use of computer software like (Adobe illustrator) to assist the presentation of your creative solutions.

People's Skill: Good interpersonal skill is also important for a fashion illustrator. This means being a good verbal communicator and a good listener who is able to maintain positive relationship with others. You should know that as a fashion illustrator, your clients and colleagues remain within the set of creative people also like photographers, models, and established designers e.t.c. So it will be easier to build your career as a designer if all this important people of the industry are happy to work with you.

Business Skill: As not only in fashion illustration, business acumen is really important if you want to succeed in any aspect of your career. Identifying changing trends and marketing opportunities will be a great advantage. Must be able to meet client’s expectations in terms of efficiency and creativity. You also need to be wise in managing your own business as that is important if you want to grow.

3. Basics of fashion illustration

as a newbie who want to catch up with the fashion design drawing skills in the early stages, figure template and poses will help you express your ideas.

First, you create the figure next by adding the sketches of fabrics, adding colours and accessories to your figure template. The ultimate goal of your sketch is to provide you and the people you want to share with the feel of how the garment will look like when won. this gives the visual impact.

4. Fashion illustration materials

Pencils (wood cased)

The degree of hardness is printed on each pencil. (2B, 3B etc)

F and HB medium, EX is extremely soft

Charcoal Pencils

The effect is like using real charcoal sticks. It comes in hard, medium or soft.

Carbon Pencils

It can be used to provide a dull matt finish to a sketch

Black Pencils

Heavy large leads for bold drawings with a matt finish

Colour Pencils

A good range of colours are available in the market. It gives good control in colour depth. Easy to use.

Watercolour Pencils

Soft water soluble pencils. You can use dry or use a brush to wash over to achieve a watercolour effects

Other colour materials

Watercolours

Inks can be mixed with one another or diluted with water. A wide range of colours is available.

Acrylic colours

Can be diluted with water, but become waterproof when dry. Can be used with a variety of techniques.

Pastels

Quality of the pastels is important.

Colour inks

Some are waterproof. A wide selection is available.

Papers

Document Paper

White paper with a smooth surface. Suitable for pencil, crayon and colours. This type of paper is made in varying thicknesses and qualities.

Drawing Paper/ Sketch Book Paper

The surface has slightly rough texture. Suitable for colours work like watercolour and pastels

Ingres Paper

This type of paper is suitable for pastel and tempera work.

Tracing Paper

Come in sheets of different sizes. Translucent.

Carbon Paper

Coated on one side with a layer of a loosely bound dry ink or pigmented coating. It is used for making one or more copies simultaneous with the creation of an original document

Boards

Fashion boards

Very good quality thick board that will take charcoal, crayon, and watercolour paints etc.

Pasteboard

A white for general use and or paste up usage.

Other Art Materials

Brushes

Come in many sizes and qualities (hairs types)

5. How to freelance your fashion illustrations

If you are not convenient with working with fashion/apparels companies as an employee then you can freelance your sketches in this following ways.

Personal freelance: this way you go from fashion house to fashion houses to showcase your creative work. This way you will be earning direct and multiple streams of income as a fashion artist but will require more of your time and dedication.

Fashion agents: or you can simply contract with fashion agents who will help you get your work to the people he knows in the industry. This is also good as fashion agents already knows those you want to know but the only cut down is the little service percentage they get to charge on every deal they close for you. You can have as many agents as your finances can carry and one better thing is you will have more time to do the work while they take care of the business side of it.

Also these days when internet and one day carrier service has made almost everything possible, you can freelance your work internationally and get paid for it.