Technical Illustrators.org Forum

Hello! My name is Veronica, I want to say that I am excited to be a member of this site. I started taking courses for design at a community college about 2 years ago in Chicago. I recently moved to San Francisco with my boyfriend, without finishing my last year and getting a degree. I learn more looking at tutorials, speaking with professionals and I don't really believe you NEED a degree in order to gain business. I'm kind of a rookie, but I managed getting hooked up with a gig doing freelance technical Illustrations in January. I have already done 3 projects. A line drawing of elbow pipes, coupling, nipples; an isometric ground and rooftop solar panels; a large isometric cutaway of a data center and the products that the company sells. I have experienced some obstacles so far such as me not having the basic knowledge of technical illustrations in the first place, me not asking the client the right questions, lacking enough experience in illustrator. Luckily I love being thrown into challenges, and I have learned a lot. There is still room for improvement, though. This is why I came here. I want to know tips such as how to save time and different techniques and tools I can use to make my illustrations more accurate and appealing. I want to try other programs other than adobe illustrator and photoshop.


-V

Hi Veronica. You will definitely find good advice and information here on this forum and on the website. Sounds like you have had some good luck right off the bat with some gigs. I wish I was as lucky.

I agree that you don't need a degree or diploma in art to do technical illustration. I strongly believe that if you are dedicated to it, you get more out of it if you give 100% and have your whole heart in it, and work and study like crazy. Personally, I have a degree and two college diplomas and wish I never did any of it, opting to do the independent study thing with technical illustration - I would be wayyy further ahead than I am now. I do have to suggest that you get yourself into other areas where you can pick up "technical" experience. I was a draftsperson for a rack manufacturer and learned a lot about doing assembly diagrams, mfg drawings and iso's in CAD.

Check out Sketchup as an alternative to illustrator/photoshop. I am surprised at how little people use it in TI work, opting instead for Illustrator.

All the best,
Lyle

Hi Veronica,

Lots of full time designers do not have diplomas in design or anything else for that matter and stay busy nonetheless. I think you have to have a creative bent (but you probably wouldn't travel this road if you weren't creative by nature) and be willing to put in the time to learn all that you can and put that into practice by practicing daily. This might include scouring the Internet for inspiration - seeing what the masters do and trying to replicate that. Also trying tutorial after tutorial (of which there are plenty) to try and master some of the techniques that will be required to create good work.

Three Photoshop books that I found particularly helpful with layouts and technique over the years were by Scott Kelby. His Photoshop Classic Effects and his two Down and Dirty Tricks books. Although for Photoshop they can be helpful in general. I also found Technical Drawing w Engineering Graphics helps with some of the technicalities. It is thick and expensive but a good reference if you are heading down the technical illustrator road.

One of the best things to do is find something around the house that you can dismantle. Draw it, dimension it, create different views and try and create a variety of final output pieces with it. A catalog of parts, an assembly sheet or booklet, a company brochure, etc. Anything you create in this manner will help expand your skill set and can be added you your portfolio - so time and energy required is not wasted.

At some point you may want to consider getting into 3D CAD. You'd be amazing how well this skill goes with the work you are getting into. Draw it once in 3D and you can create all manner of views from that. You can easily do exploded views and cutaways. Cost can vary but it can be well worth the effort to learn. I use TurboCAD Pro (~$1500), but you can offten find an older Pro version for a very reasonable price via eBay or something like that. I also use SolidWorks Pro (~$5000). I wouldn't have this due to the cost but one of my long term clients wants me to use it with them, so they supplied it to me and pay for the yearly maintenance.

I also use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Adobe Acrobat on a daily basis in conjunction with my design and illustration work. (I currently have Adobe Design Premium CS5).

Feel free to post some of your work. I would like to see some of what you have done if at all possible.

Hi Veronica - and welcome. You've come to the right place There's a lot of expertise here.
Make sure you take a look at the main blog http://technicalillustrators.org - there are lots of very useful posts for you to review.

Enjoy - and as Don says, it would be good to see some of your work.

Best,

Mike Abbott

Hi Veronica, welcome to the site!
I feel pretty fortunate to have been able to go to school for Technical Illustration and get a degree in it. For the majority of my career I worked along side people that did not go to school for illustration and it showed. I would never under estimate the importance of going to school for Technical Illustration, as long as there are good instructors.