How to Become an Illustrator in Australia

Qualified illustrators are in low supply throughout Australia, according to the nation's Visa Bureau. The job requirements for illustrators from Sydney to Perth have expanded beyond technical drawings and pictures for novels. Your career as an illustrator in Australia can take you from the world of politics into the rigors of civil engineering. You need to get the right education and build an impressive portfolio to take advantage of the abundant supply of Australian illustrating jobs.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Drawing kit
• Sketch pad
• Portfolio folder

1. Register at an Australia college devoted to visual arts to start your illustration career. Schools like Sydney College of the Arts and the Queensland College of Art have positive reputations among Australian employers looking to fill illustration jobs.

2. Apply with the Australian General Skilled Migration Program if you are moving from the United States to Australia permanently. This program expedites visas and other identification for foreigners who are moving to Australia to fill high-demand industries like illustration.

3. Lend your artistic skills to political parties ahead of campaign season. You can add cartoons to campaign literature and format signage for local candidates while earning a temporary wage. Your illustration and design work will get more attention if you work with the Liberal Party or the Labor Party ahead of national elections.

4. Create sketches of clothing ideas and help designers with big presentations by illustrating for an Australian fashion firm. Designers like Alice McCall and Cohen et Sabine look for illustrators to bring rough sketches to life for investors.

5. Test your illustration skills and earn a solid salary by working with one of Australia's major engineering firms. Employers like Burns and Roe ask illustrators to create blueprints, draw sketches for presentations and place handdrawn diagrams into design software for easy retrieval.

6. Break into publishing for fiction and non-fiction books by working with an Australian publishing house. Larger firms like New Holland and Peppinot employ illustrators to draw pictures for children's books, make diagrams for educational publications, and produce marketing materials for upcoming releases.

Tips & Warnings

• Seek design internships at major Australian newspapers to get some experience early in your career. Choose newspapers like the Australian Financial Review and the Australian to get experience with day-to-day deadlines.
• Create an online portfolio to generate interest in freelance and temporary work between full-time gigs. Your portfolio should feature animations, stills and multimedia projects from past employment that show your full skill set.
• Update your design portfolio regularly to give future employers the best representation of your skills. Your post-graduate portfolio should be updated with each illustration job you accept until class projects are removed completely. School projects and amateur illustrations can do more harm than good in future interviews.

Resources

• Australia Visa Bureau
• Sydney College of the Arts
• Queensland College of Art