Medical Illustrator

Becoming a medical illustrator requires a unique and rare mix of art and science knowledge and skills.

A medical illustrator’s job is to draw pictures of subjects related to biology and medicine. These images are often featured in films, media, training materials, and various medical books.

There are several options available for medical illustrators in terms of types of images as well as area of specialization.  You can work with traditional images, digital images or 3D graphics.  Depending upon your interest and qualification, you can choose a specific area for your medical illustrations such as the eyes, respiratory system, reproductive system etc.

Medical Illustrator - Training and Certification

Basic training can be found easily by studying an undergraduate course in both science and art. However although this will give you the basics it isn’t the only thing that you need to do.

A lot of medical illustrators will actually continue to take a number of classes after they graduate in a masters program. However these courses are very hard to get into because of limited seats and tough competition. You must work hard as an undergraduate if you want to be able to get onto one of these courses.

You must have a good record academically and you will also need to have a good portfolio stuffed full of lots of great examples of your work.

Medical Illustration Associations

You will need to network if you can stand any chance of landing good business as a medical illustrator. That’s where associations come in. You might like to join the Association of Medical Illustrators that can help you getting in touch with the right types of people and will also offer advice in terms of training.

These associations also provide numerous accreditations and certificates which can be used to improve your portfolio and make yourself much more attractive. There are also a number of conferences where people can get to know other people in the industry which will help to make their business much more profitable.

Growing your Business

There are plenty of opportunities available for anyone wanting to grow and expand their medical illustration business. You could for example team up with a software company to build your own medical materials. Creating a range of websites and guides to inform students and everyone else can also be very profitable.

Illustrators will be able to work as professors teaching classes about medical illustration. The better the reputation you have, the easier this should be.

It can be very competitive to become a medical illustrator, but it’s certainly well worth it. If you’re interested in art and science then you won’t have a problem making a success in this career.

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Posted by Vikrant on Mar 1 2010. Filed under Creative business ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry