16 Dec 2022, 03:04

@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!