How I Made 100hr as a Freelance illustrator
As a freelance illustrator, I have achieved very many milestones but making $100/hr, is up there with some of the best moments in my freelancing career. Whenever I tell my friends and peers here at Runrex about my $100/hr gig as an illustrator, almost everyone wants to know how I did it.
In this blog post, I want to take a look at my journey in Illustration and use it to provide you with tips on how to become a good illustrator and potentially earn more than $100/hr working as a freelance illustrator. So, how did I become a $100/hr a freelance illustrator?
Below are some tips and insights on how to grow as an illustrator and how to make $100/hr as a freelance illustrator:
How I made $100/hr as an illustrator
Passion comes first
Before everything, I had to develop an interest and a passion in illustration. Despite the fact that I had a very limited art background, I still was interested in the art of creating beautiful, well-organised illustrations to convey a good message to the target audience.
This passion drove me to learn the basics and fundamentals of illustration. I took a short online course in graphic design and illustration and within 6 months I was able to make simple illustrations.
If you want to learn illustration today, there are very many online courses offering graphic design and illustration at very affordable rates. Alternatively if you can afford it, you can go to college and undertake a degree in graphic design.
Although the former is cheaper, the latter offers more resources and a better learning experience because you are getting direct tutelage from someone with prior knowledge in the field.
Practise! Practise! Practise!
The importance of practise cannot be stressed enough. Practise makes perfect and gives you the expertise required in the job market. Through practise, you will learn to put the things you have learnt in class into use and know how to appropriately use them.
Practise also offers you a chance to experiment with as many things and combinations as possible. This gives you knowledge on the things that you will need to apply in your jobs and those that you won’t need as much.
Mingle with seasoned illustrators
Even after you think that you are good enough an illustrator, you should always consult with seasoned graphic designers and illustrators to earn more knowledge and skills. Working with seasoned illustrators helps you to understand their thinking and their problem solving process.
Working with people who have more experience than you will elevate your thought process and you will become a better professional when the time comes for you to work on your own. Even if it means to sometime volunteer just to learn from the masters.
Start working on small projects and expand your horizon
It is always advisable to start small. Once you are confident about your skills as an illustrator, it is time to dive into the job market and start looking for gigs. Fortunately there are thousands of them online and near you.
All you need to do is to pitch your skills to the right people on platforms such as Upwork and in your neighbourhood in companies looking for artists to help create content for the various media of communication.
Your rates should be decent and affordable for a start as you aim to increase your professional experience. Remember to create a portfolio and update it after every project. You will need a very good portfolio to pitch to better paying clients in future.
It is important to ensure that you do these early tasks to the best of your ability. Observe deadlines and always exceed the expectations of your clients. This way you will get return clients and a very good portfolio to boost your brand.
Increase your rates with time
Once you have successfully handled more than 5 projects and the outcome is impressive, the next step is to start improving your rates and looking at rates such as $100/hr and so on. Just ensure that the services you are rendering are truly worth the amount that you are asking for.
Talk to Tony to find out more about making $100/hr as a freelance illustrator
Want to know more about how I made $100/hr as a freelance illustrator? Then talk to me, Tony Guo on any of the Runrex contacts and I will gladly be of service to you. My experience in the field is unquantifiable and I’ll gladly use it to help you get started in illustration.
Equally, if you are a company looking for the best freelancers in the market for any service ranging from graphic design, web design, PPC services to content creation, look no further than our way here at Runrex. We offer high quality services at very affordable rates and you should take advantage of our services to take your business to the next level.
