Illustration for education

[Chantal Goetheer]

Hi all,
Was wondering if any of you are active in illustrating for education purposes and how your path getting there looked, what you like about it and what the downsides of it are?
Many thanks,
Chantal

[Anaid J.]

@Chantal-Goetheer Well, I haven't worked on that field in a while, but I started my design career as an in-house text book designer, and since I had a background doing art, my coworkers constantly asked me for illustrations that they needed on their text book projects, mostly spot illustrations and some half page ones. I studied Graphic Communication Design, and from the beginning my idea was to work on editorial, so I looked for job positions with that idea in mind. What helped me was that I spent my career drawing for fun. I was active on Deviant Art, participating on roleplay groups (like tabletop RP but via chat/messenger) that had a big focus on art (we used to draw our rp characters doing stuff). That's how I became good at drawing. It was just for fun. And because I already loved drawing, I decided to give a try doing illustrations for my day job as well. I had the knowledge already, my skill was decent and even when there was an in-house illustrator, my coworkers liked my style better. That helped me a lot.

The downfall was that I had to do design stuff AND illustration stuff at the same time, so it was kinda hard but I enjoyed it a lot. Saddly, I had to leave that job because my boss was awful, but in general I loved drawing for textbooks! I had almost total control on the art direction part, just got some specifications from my coworkers but in general, I was the one deciding what to draw and how. I think I was very lucky on that regard.

Unfortunately, here in my country, illustration works are not the best paid ones. I had a decent salary due my graphic design background, but I know some other illustrators that struggled to get a job. That's why I decided to keep focusing on design for now, mostly. I miss drawing for books, honestly. Hopefully, I'd be able to do it again one day! I hope my long post helps you with that!

[Chantal Goetheer]

@Anaid-J thanks for your elaborate reply! It's very insightful. Also how you grew into it. I don't think I want to rely solely on illustration for an income. Maybe after my pension as a supplement, still have 25+ years to go. I now work in higher education but want to switch to parttime primary education and then as a side do illustration. That's why i'm so drawn to the education part.

[Anaid J.]

@Chantal-Goetheer Well, working on education it's a huge advantage because you know the concepts very well. Maybe you could try to do illustrations for your own work, to illustrate things that are hard to understand. And yeah having a back-up plan is always good indeed! So I think is a great idea. Even on higher education there are things that need to be illustrated (of course the style you need to that may be a bit more realistic) so, maybe you could give it a shot.

It was a pleasure!

[MimiHecher]

Hi Chantal, how are you doing, did you start illustrating for education purposes?

I could not answer earlier as I'm new to the forum.

I am working regularly for a school book publisher since May 2021.
I got there because I'm printing an advertisement desk calendary with illustrations from me and my beloved sister, every year and send it to German speaking publishers (as there are few, I only have to send out somewhat 100 calendaries). First we only aimed at trade book publishers, but December 2020 we also looked for educational publishers and then, some months later, we got an offer.
We were very lucky that a former regularly hired illustrator retired, that's why they needed to look for someone new.

Downsides:

• Everything is work for hire. You get paid once and that's it.
• Sometimes they need some last illustrations very quickly, because someone forgot somewhere that the design changed or anything else ... so many people are working on ONE and the same book, there is always some chaos.
• Sometimes it takes a year or longer after you submitted your last work until you get your free copies - because maybe they have to change a lot of the layout or the texts and of course they don't print it soon because they only need the books in fall when school starts.

Why I like it:

• Requirements on quality is not as high (we hardly put in any shadows, they said that's simply not needed), so the illustrations are finished faster.
• They describe very detailled what they need you to draw. I like that as it saves a lot of time. We hardly ever have to change a sketch because of the detailled descriptions.
• SO many different topics to draw is a lot of fun!
• Hardly any backgrounds needed - this saves sooo much time!

[Chantal Goetheer]

@MimiHecher thanks so much for your reply!! It offers great insights in the ups and downs. Im a real beginner and I often feel frozen when it comes to start an illustration. Especially being inbetween such amazing artists here. What's in my head never comes out on paper. My life is also so busy. My kids are still small (almost 3 and 4,5). I work as a teacher in a university of applied sciences with a times huge peak workloads and am considering changing to teaching primary education. That means a discovery and assessment trajectory and when that pulls off being a student again next to working as a teacher. Im still nowhere near professional in looks nor speed so I'm making this my long term goal. But stories, education and environment are where my heart is, so want to use stories to reach kids and make them think. Going into primary education will also put me much more in touch with my target audience and the books that are out there in schools. When money will follow doesn't really matter. Since teaching is and will remain my first source of income. Whenever I feel Im up for it I can research into the Dutch educational market, where I am based. Thanks again!!