How To Make Money as A Fashion Illustrator
As an artist how many times have you heard: “You’ll never make a full-time career out of your art!” or, “There is no future in artwork?”
I am here to reassure you: that is simply not true! Being a professional fashion illustrator is a wildly fulfilling career, full of visionary concepts, interesting clients, and beautiful freedom. Freedom of time, imagination, and ideas. Plus: you can indeed use your creative side for covering bills.
The Work of a Fashion Illustrator
You might be asking yourself, what exactly does a fashion illustrator do?
Normally, fashion illustrators become the architect of a fashion designer's alluring concepts. When a designer needs their ideas to come to life, they would call upon a fashion illustrator to draw and design the concept before prototypes are made. Fashion illustrators may find themselves sketching shoes, bags, dresses, hats, and many other items.
Yet, the work is even more wide-ranging than that. Fashion illustrators can also work in editorial illustration, fashion, beauty packaging, offer live sketching, and sell their work creations online. Fashion illustrators can work freelance, in a fashion boutique, in a magazine, or at a design studio.
Let’s dive into more on how to earn a real living being a fashion illustrator!
Editorial Illustration
Do you regularly flip through the pages of Vogue Magazine, Marie Claire, and Vanity Fair to admire the illustration? I can relate. My dream of being a fashion illustrator started when I was just in middle school. I would save my pocket money (that was supposed to be for lunch!) and buy the latest magazine just to obsess over the creative illustrations.
Even amid our digital age, many fashion houses still prefer illustration as a charming nod to the historic early days, before photography became a popular medium. After all, visionary fashion ideas always begin with a pen to paper.
I should note that it is not just clothing brands that use fashion illustrators but also makeup, interior design and art companies love to feature the sketches of illustrators. It’s not limited to just paper-based magazines either - but many online sources – including social media pages – use them too.
Editorial illustration allows you to work with clients closely to construct their vision, embodying and marrying their ideas. Depending on who you’re working with, the sketches are used for marketing, advertising, and content.
You’ll typically start the process by creating a storyboard that highlights your ideas, in line with a brief. A “brief,” if you are unfamiliar, is an industry term for detailed instructions given to the illustrator by a client explaining the project’s target, theme, and goals. A storyboard is particularly important if you win multiple pages spread to allow for continuity.
You’ll then create draft sketches which you’ll unveil to the client. These don’t need to be perfect, as you’ll most likely need to make some adjustments based on feedback and direction.
Then, it’s time to create the final image(s)! After a few projects, you can begin to build your ever-important portfolio, which will help you land future gigs in the future.
Fashion and Beauty Packaging
A second way to earn big bucks as a fashion illustrator is through fashion and beautiful packaging. Branding and packaging are integral to a company’s success. It is the very first thing that catches customers' eyes and the right packaging can make a product stand out, garnering attention and more sales.
That is where you can come in! As a fashion and beauty packaging illustrator, the opportunities are endless. You get the chance to get to know a product, customers, and branding as you create authentic and desirable marketing material and packaging.
You will get a say in the design, colour scheme and even the text. This role will likely require getting familiar with some online tools such as photoshop and adobe design. If you prefer that pen in hand feeling, many digital pens give you that sensation.
I love fashion and beauty packaging, as there is no greater feeling than walking into a retail shop and seeing your hard work right there on display!
Live Sketching
Do you love to travel, socialize and, of course, make art? Live sketching offers you the opportunity to combine all three! I love getting the chance to live sketch, it’s a super fun outlet and is one of the best ways to get your name out there and market yourself.
Live sketching is really special. As a live sketch artist, you get to capture the mood, spirit, and feeling of an event or party through art. Depending on the affair, you may be asked to draw guests, a ceremony, or the backdrop.
The best part is guests go home with a taste of your artwork or/and it gets hung up in people’s homes as a sentimental reminder of their significant day. If you’ve done a fabulous job – you can generate and forge more work for yourself, through recommendations and word of mouth. The opportunities here are limitless – I’ve even had the privilege of working with celebrities!
Sell Your Work Online
The final way to make money as a fashion illustrator is to sell your original artwork online. I firmly believe this is the very best way to get started if you are new to the industry for several reasons.
First, selling online is relatively easy and affordable. You should start by creating a free social page on Instagram or Pinterest and then creating a Shopify or Etsy store, which does require a nominal fee. The second reason is that when you sell your work online, you will have 100% control of what you do. You will be working for yourself, so you do not need to adhere to any strict briefs or guidelines from art directors. I think that makes it super fun as you can design fashion-based artwork for multiple products from prints to coffee mugs. The third reason is that you can get your artwork out in the world and start to build a fan base and carve out a strong name for yourself.
To get started with selling your work, you only need 5-10 original pieces of artwork and decide what medium to sell them as – prints are always a great starting place as people love to hang artwork in their homes and offices.
I’ll let you in on a little secret of mine - selling work online is the top way to make money in this field and the majority of my earnings come from my shop!
How To Build a Brand as a Fashion Illustrator
I will keep it real with you and tell you that building your brand takes patience and dedication - but it’s worth it. Below are some of the top ways to build your brand as an emerging fashion illustrator
1. Know your stuff
It’s important to walk the talk – and being an artist simply cannot be faked. The majority of top fashion illustrators hold a degree from an art or design school and have dedicated thousands of hours to their passion. That’s not to say you need a degree, many have gone on to be a hit without a formal degree, but you need plenty of experience and practice to make your art stand out. Online courses, workshops, and training in new styles or mediums can be a great way to stay on top of your craft!
2. Find your niche
Understanding what makes your art yours is the best way to carve out a niche and captivate an audience. You must narrow your focus and find a niche to tailor your message. You can do this by looking into your art and asking yourself, what do I love creating? Why am I creating? What makes me, me? What colours, shapes, and textures am I drawn to?
3. Create Regular Content
This is an important step in our social media-heavy world. You will want a variety of social media pages including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest that are creating interesting and fresh content daily. Content every day is especially important at the start, as social media algorithms favour active pages. Make sure it's content that you are proud and excited about. You can check out my Instagram page here!
4. Collaborate with other fashion illustrators and designers
Never miss a chance to collaborate with others - this step is hugely important for accessing a new audience. You can do this in many ways such as sharing a “post for a post” with another illustrator on Instagram or designing something in tandem with another creative. You also can work with fashion designers and collaborate on various projects.
5. Create an engaged community
What good are followers if they are not interacting with your work?! You want to create content that invites your fan base and followers to comment, re-post and click on your website regularly. You can do this by going live on social media, hosting contests/giving aways, and prompting questions. You can join my Facebook group HERE
6. Be kind and courteous
While this step may be a little bit obvious, it is hugely important. Nobody is going to want to work or collaborate with you if you are unkind and unaccommodating, regardless of your talent. It’s important to always be on time for meetings, and be respectful, and kind.
Tips and Tricks
I think many artists will agree with me that one of the most important things to do is to carve out your niche– even if it’s just subtle – so that your work is recognizable and timeless. Many editorial illustrators will discover their influences from fashion trends, travelling, and nature where they pursue new colour pallets and themes.
If you find yourself lacking inspiration when creating, here are some little tricks I use to think of new ideas:
● Get outside: I suggest a stroll in nature, the forest, or a community garden. Or instead, try people watching to look for new fashion trends and colours. While outside, invite all your senses and notice colours, smells, temperatures, sound, and light.
● Appreciate the artwork of others: This is like breathing for us artists! Visit a local gallery, art museum, library or even browse art online.
● Inspiration Wall/Board: As a visual person, it helps to create a set place to put your ideas when they come to you. When you’re feeling blocked, you can revisit this space and get inspired.
● Watch videos of fashion week: Trends are ever-changing, and it can be very uplifting to watch videos of fashion weeks around the world or high traffic events such as the Oscars, the MET Gala, and other big festivals.
● Read a book: Find a book you have yet to read and after learning about the characters and the setting, draw how you imagine them – including their outfits. Draw them in a few different looks to see what they’d wear in different scenarios.
I encourage you to practice honing your artistic skills every chance you get. Nobody is too good, too experienced, or too old to keep learning. It’s vital to stay relevant and to continue growing. You can take classes, challenge yourself or try different mediums.
One of my biggest pieces of advice for emerging fashion illustrators is to never plagiarize, copy, or include a famous brand’s logo/name in your work. You may think it’s no big deal but it could lead to getting sued.
Get started today as a fashion illustrator and make a full time living asap
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