How to Become a Freelance Illustrator

Many illustrators start off doing a little freelance work in their spare time whilst still holding onto a full time job. If you’re doing this or thinking of doing this it’s probably a good idea to have a chat with an accountant as there may be tax implications you should be considering and maybe also allowances you aren’t taking advantage of.

There are numerous benefits to freelancing, for example the freedom and flexibility to work for as many different types of client as you like as well as the obvious benefit of increasing your take home pay. In fact our freelancer take home pay calculator shows you how much you can expect to take home as a freelancer.

Usually as an illustrator you have an area of expertise these can include:

Advertising or Commercial Illustration – Selling a product or service
Editorial Illustration – Used in editorial articles in newspapers, magazines etc
Medical Illustration – Anything from medical products to physical anatomy
Fashion Illustration – Usually used in magazines and to promote fashion
Portraits
Caricatures
Children’s Book Illustration
Book jacket illustration – a single image used on the front cover of a book/novel

What qualifications do you need?

Most importantly you need to have the ability to illustrate. A degree isn’t always necessary in this profession though further education in design is desirable. Examples of courses are:

Fashion illustration http://www.cityandguilds.com/9733.html

Digital illustration http://www.city.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/digital-illustration-with-adobe-illustrator

As a fair amount of design is done through computer programs, you IT skills should be up to date. It would be disheartening if you had to turn down a position because it’s a digital project.

Finding work as a freelance Illustrator

As you become more established most of clients will come through word of mouth, usually as someone sees you’ve done something similar to what they would like. Your first few contracts will be the hardest to secure. Fortunately with the World Wide Web, it’s not as complicated as it used to be. Websites such as:

http://www.freelanceuk.com/find-a-freelancer/

http://www.guru.com

Make it much easier to secure your first contract. You may find you have to sell your skills rather cheaply for your first few projects but as your expertise grows you’ll be able to increase your rates and in turn be able to choose which projects to work.

Top tips to being a successful freelance Illustrator

Have a strong portfolio to show potential clients. Your portfolio should show you have artistic potential and can develop an idea from research through to the final design. You should keep you portfolio current and full of sketches it’s not uncommon to have over a hundred sketches in your portfolio.

Once you have secured your clients, they should give you a brief and usually will have a very strong idea of what they would like. It’s important you produce illustrations to the brief as they probably won’t pay you for anything that isn’t to the brief and they definitely won’t recommend you.

You need to be flexible and open to ideas. You may find yourself doing an illustration with wood, leather and Perspex. Clients will thrive on illustrators that are willing to do something different and even sometimes wacky! As it will make your piece of work really stand out for the client.

Before finalising any sketches, you should send the client a couple of ideas get them agreed and then complete the artwork. This should ensure the client is getting exactly what they want, and save you wasting your valuable time on an idea the client won’t accept.

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Easy Accountancy

Easy Accountancy is the UK’s only national specialist accountancy firm for freelancers, sole traders and small businesses

If you’ve just started out as a freelancer or run a small business, you’ll definitely need a small accountant and there are plenty of options out there! However, most accountants will charge you every time you get in touch with them; for every phone call, email or meeting.

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice. It's even more important when you first start out as you really need to set your business up in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.

Our low cost, all-inclusive fixed-fee accountancy service includes unlimited access to your own accountant throughout the year, so you never need to worry about picking up the phone and then receiving a bill afterwards for the privilege, and covers all your business and personal tax affairs needs. All clients additionally receive:

Help to run your business in the most tax efficient way possible
Help so you can understand the taxes you need to pay
Advice on the best ways to manage your business
Updates and reminders so you'll never miss a deadline
Help to ensure you maximise your tax allowances
Provide proactive tax advice throughout the year

We’ve saved our clients up to half on their accountancy bills – if you’d like a quote, click on the quote me button to the right of this page. Alternatively, call us on 0500 234111 / 01442 275767 or email jessica@easyaccountancy.co.uk

We also have a money-back service guarantee - all of your telephone calls and emails will be answered on the same day, or we will refund your monthly fee (another first within the accountancy world).

To appoint us as your accountants, please fill in our Client Agreement Form online.

If you are a contractor working through a limited company then visit SJD Accountancy (our sister company) who specialise in providing tax advice and accountancy services for Limited Company contractors. You can also keep up to date by following the SJD Accountancy Twitter

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