Art and illustration career guide | MyPort for Students

This career guide is designed to help University of Portsmouth students and recent graduates explore job options, key employers, and entry routes into the art and illustration sectors.

In this guide

The art and illustration industry is a diverse and exciting field with many different career paths to explore. Whilst it can be competitive, building your confidence, developing commercial awareness, and learning how to market yourself effectively can make a big difference to breaking into the industry.

Gaining experience and making connections early on will be crucial to help shape your future career. Being proactive and making the most of opportunities to connect with others in the industry is key.

Potential Job Roles

Within the art and illustration sectors, you could be looking at a wide range of occupations. Prospects has a useful list of job profiles each containing relevant information about key responsibilities, skill requirements, starting salaries, entry requirements, career prospects with links to major employers and current graduate vacancies. Some roles include:

Visit the Prospects website

Gaining Experience

The real-world experience you gain in art and illustration helps you refine your artistic skills, develop your industry insights, and gain a competitive edge. You'll turn classroom knowledge into tangible, marketable assets, laying the groundwork for your future career.

Creating a Portfolio

You can start building up a portfolio of work while you're an undergraduate student. Your portfolio should:

provide examples of your own ideas as well as your coursework
demonstrate your evolving skills and design thinking clearly

You can create a physical portfolio, and/or an online one. Whichever medium(s) you use, make sure it is constantly updated, and that you can confidently showcase and talk about your work.

Learn more about creating a portfolio

Types of opportunities

Below are some examples of the different types of opportunities to gain experience while you study.

Placements will give you a long-term look at an organisation, and help you to build contacts and experience.

On some degrees, work placements are part of the programme, whilst on others you can choose to complete a placement as one of your modules. To learn more about completing a placement, you can contact the Placements team in the Careers and Employability Service.

Learn more about taking a placement

Many students from the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Arts choose to take a Self-Employed Placement. This allows you to work for yourself during your placement year and receive support from the University's Student Startup Team. You will have access to funding opportunities, networking events and workshops.

Learn more about Self-Employed Placements

It is worth considering the voluntary sector for work experience. Voluntary work with community art initiatives can be valuable. Seize any opportunity to get involved in local community projects to help you develop your work experience. Our Volunteering Bank provides local opportunities to undertake alongside your studies, advertising roles such as:

Artist for Park History Project for Victoria Park, Portsmouth
Graphic Design Volunteer for Southsea Cinema and Arts Centre

You can also get involved in relevant university projects through the different groups and societies via the Student Union. This is a good way of demonstrating your motivation and interest in this area of work.

Learn more about our Volunteering Team

Internships are usually for a fixed period and give you more hands-on experience. Many employers will treat interns in the same way as full-time employees, so when future job roles ask for 'at least one year's experience' you can include an internship in this type of experience.

You can find internships for art and illustration through:

Be proactive and try to gather inspiration and ideas from the world around you: join creative clusters and attend networking events. This is a great way to meet people working in the creative industries and will help you with your networking skills. LinkedIn is a useful platform to network with sector employers.

Visit our LinkedIn Guide

You can also speak to your tutors in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries about potential contacts and opportunities for work experience over the vacation periods.

This is an opportunity for you to spend time with an experienced professional and learn about what they do and their role.

Whatever experience you gain will help your understanding of the skills required in the art and design field. It will also give you an idea of the challenges and triumphs of the creative process.

Where to find opportunities

Some key platforms for finding work experience in all sectors include MyCareer, HigherIn, Bright Network and Targetjobs.

Advertised work experience opportunities in this sector can be quite limited, so building your network and making speculative approaches - such as contacting artists, studios or organisations directly - can be an effective way to gain experience.

Learn about speculative applications

Tips for finding work experience

Try to have something that makes you stand out in your applications: join and get involved in relevant university groups or projects. This is a good way of demonstrating your motivation and interest in this area of work.
Tailor your project work towards themes that interest you.
Research employers/organisations carefully.
Keep up to date with developments in the arts and illustration field.
Speak to your tutor or other members of Faculty staff researching in the areas that interest you, as students are sometimes recruited to work on research projects over the summer.
Start early! Get involved, volunteer during your first and second year to help boost your employability opportunities once you graduate.

Finding a Graduate Job

Research shows that freelance and small businesses make up most of the creative industries. However, you can go into many different areas, particularly within the creative arts and design sector. Employers outside of the creative industries are also keen to recruit art and illustration graduates into their design departments, so keep an open mind!

Self employment

Most artists and illustrators are self-employed and generate their own work based on client needs, which means paid vacancies are rarely advertised in this sector.

Potential clients can include advertising agencies, design consultancies, publishers, print (newspapers and magazines) and events management companies. Other areas that you may work on as a freelance illustrator include:

film posters
billboards
greetings cards
packaging
fine art posters
animated commercials, television shows, short films or government information services (including health and education)

Our Student Startup team can support you with going freelance or becoming self-employed.

Get support from the Student Startup team

Creating opportunities

Whilst not job sites specifically, exploring the below platforms can help you to connect with other professionals, grow your visibility within the creative industries, and share your work with others - which could lead to potential opportunities.

Creativepool

The Association of Illustrators

Creative Network South

CreateBritain

Portsmouth Creates

Are you looking for a role in Hampshire? Our Graduate Recruitment Consultancy can help!

If you're in the final year of your degree, you can register for support from our Graduate Recruitment Consultancy. They work with over 3,000 employers in the local area to place our students into fantastic graduate careers.

Learn more about the Graduate Recruitment Consultancy

Speculative applications

Speculative applications involve sending a CV and cover letter to an employer to ask if they have any vacancies, even if the company is not currently advertising for a role. They're a great way to access "hidden jobs" that go unadvertised.

Submitting a speculative application shows your interest in a specific company and your willingness to go above and beyond to develop your skills and understanding of the industry.

Learn how to send a speculative application

Keep up-to-date with the industry

It's good to keep up-to-date on sector developments and track any vacancies coming up. Below are some great resources to help you research opportunities available. The knowledge gained through your research may help you to target your applications and will help when preparing for interviews.

Arts Industry – Providing the latest art industry news and job opportunities in the sector.
Arts Jobs & Arts News – Advertises latest job opportunities in the art and culture sector as well as posting the latest art related news.
Arts Hub UK – Essential jobs and news information for professionals working in the UK arts and cultural industries.
Creativeboom – Website covering all the latest news and daily headlines which offers a comprehensive industry overview. Search the dedicated jobs career centre for current job postings organised by specific category.
Artquest – Useful advice, information and opportunities for visual artists.
ScreenSkills - Industry body which supports skills and training for people working in the creative industries and advertises vacancies in film, TV and related industries.
Creative Network South (CNS) is working to develop the creative industries in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Their prime focus is the attraction and retention of creative talent.
Ladies, Wine & Design offer free mentorship circles, portfolio reviews, talks & creative meetups for underrepresented creatives.
Design Chapel Coworking creative space in Southampton.
'a space' arts An organisation that supports and inspires artists, audiences and communities through an ambitious programme of exhibitions, artist resources, opportunities, and by culturally reanimating lost spaces with arts and heritage.
We the makers Empowering Makers for professional growth through creative jobs, resources, mentorship, and community
Dribbble The world’s destination for design. We’re on a mission to build the world’s best community for creatives to share, grow, and get hired.