"As of 2024, do you feel it's difficult for you to make a full-time income off of editorial illustration?"
An aspiring illustrator recently sent me this question:
“As of 2024, do you feel it's difficult for you to make a full-time income off of editorial illustration? Do you have to supplement your income with a regular job? These sorts of things make me anxious, so I was just wondering what your experience is.”
It's a loaded question whether it's difficult to make a full income from freelance editorial illustration. From 2021 to 2022, I was full-time freelancing and was able to make a decent living in San Francisco. I was working extremely hard, sending out tons of cold emails to find work, constantly drawing, and working on personal projects to improve. Most importantly, I enjoyed this process. I like freelancing and being an entrepreneur, and I have enough savings to account for unpredictable/variable income.
It's personal:
Freelancing isn’t for everyone though; some of my illustrator friends would never want to be full-time freelancers and choose to maintain full-time jobs. This is for various reasons, including working preference, need for stability, and financial needs.
In-house salary:
For the past 1.5 years, I was working in-house at a tech company as a full-time illustrator, so I did have a stable income for a while in addition to freelancing. Tech illustration/design pays really well, but positions are more rare. Working in-house or having a non-illustration full/part-time job can be valuable in so many ways. One major way is that you can put in your hours at your job and then have the freedom to make exactly what you want to make in your free time. If you want to make art rather than constantly be completing commissions, this can be very valuable, as long as said job doesn't suck all your energy, time, and soul. Again, it’s personal; in-house illustration isn’t for everyone.
Freelance editorial illustration salary:
I should be super honest here; editorial illustration alone probably isn’t a sustainable career path. $500 is the typical rate for a header illustration these days. Sounds like a good chunk of change, but let’s say you want to make $100,000 per year. At $500 each, you’d need to complete 200 header illustrations in a year, which is 3-4 per week. This would be incredibly hard work, but also unlikely that anyone could secure this many editorial commissions in a year.
Other types of illustration:
The good news is that there are so many other types of illustration, including commercial and book illustration. Commercial illustration can pay substantially higher than editorial. And chances are that if you are a talented editorial illustrator and conceptual thinker, you have additional skills and talents that can pair with your illustration abilities. This is where I’m currently at, seven years after completing my undergrad; I’m working on expanding my identity beyond “illustrator,” exploring how I can combine my skills and interests in unexpected ways to blaze my path and career.
Difficult in the right way:
I’d say, yes, it is somewhat difficult to make a living from being a full-time artist and illustrator, especially an editorial illustrator. But it’s a type of difficulty that I choose because I love what I do, and I get to do exactly what I want to do every day. I’m excited about all of the potential to create things and see them out in the world. It would be more difficult for me to work any other job because I wouldn't be doing what I want to be doing. It can take a while to get there, but I believe that you can make a good living from freelance illustration if you set your mind to it and treat it like any other business.
Side gigs, day jobs, saving up, paying the bills:
Having a full/part-time day job and diving fully into freelance with an additional day job serve a purpose and are totally valid depending on where you’re at with your skills. I graduated college in 2017 and didn’t start full-time freelancing until 2021. For the first few years of my career, I worked part-time and full-time day jobs while freelancing a bit and making art on the side. My illustration skills grew slowly during this time, and I also saved up as much as I could. After saving up some money so that I could feel safe taking a leap of faith into freelancing, it’s been worth it for me to be all-in as a freelance illustrator and artist because I can devote 100% of my time to my craft. This has been crucial and has allowed me to grow and view my work as a business I am excited about improving and growing, rather than a side gig. I feel like it will work out and be successful because it has to. There’s no fallback or plan B.
Important caveats:
I don't have any debt to pay off like student loans/mortgage, and I keep my lifestyle relatively inexpensive so that I can remain an artist and illustrator. I live in one of the least expensive parts of San Francisco, share rent with my partner, and am on his insurance plan.