Blogging For Illustrators, Part 1: Why Should An Illustrator Blog?

These days it seems everyone has a blog, from the ‘Dear Diary’ type personal blog to the corporate insight-style blogs run by big blue chip companies. But, as an illustrator, can a blog help your career? The answer is a definite YES.

First, let’s start with the basics…

What is a blog?

Blog is short for ‘weblog’ and in its basic form that’s exactly what it is - a log on the web collecting a series of entries (posts) that you have created to share with the world. These posts could be your latest portfolio pieces, the results of a day out sketching or a shared resource that you think others illustrators might find useful. It might be that your blog is just an online progress tracker for you to look back on and monitor your artistic development.

All these types of blog have a place, but with a little strategic planning, your blog can become a vital tool in your marketing arsenal.

What Are The Benefits Of A blog?

Helping Art Directors Find You On The Web

As an illustrator in this web savvy age you are going to need a portfolio website, but once you have uploaded your best pieces of work the site remains pretty static. This is where a blog comes in to play - search engines love new content, so a regular schedule of postings of your work in progress, resources and sketches will mean that your blog has a better chance of featuring a lot higher in the search engine rankings than a static website which rarely changes.

You could also go one better and incorporate an integrated blog into your portfolio website so that when someone stops by to view your latest post, they can also check out your more finished portfolio work.

Search Engine Optimisation

If you specialise in a specific niche of illustration, whether that be the subject matter or the materials you use to create your work, it’s worth considering search engine optimisation (SEO) and think about the key words you use.

For example if you, like me, work primarily in the field of wildlife illustration, think about the key words an Art Director would enter into a Google search if they were looking to commission a wildlife themed illustration and incorporate those into the text of your posts and the file names that you give the images that you upload. You don’t want to go over the top here though - make sure your post still reads well and isn’t strewn with obvious key words repeated throughout the text.

Progress Tracker

A blog can also serve as a useful progress tracker and visual guide of your artistic development. It’s great to look back a year into your blogging & illustration journey at the work you were posting in the early days to see how you’ve improved - this can be a real motivator when you feel that you aren’t getting anywhere.

Building A Fan base & Community

A blog is also a great way to build a fan base and a community around your work. It’s really important to interact with others and get crits and feedback to help you grow as an artist and it can’t hurt your credibility with an Art Director either when they visit your blog and can see a vibrant community and buzz around your work.

Sharing Your Knowledge & Experience

The life of a freelancer is often an isolated one (I’m lucky, both my wife and myself work from home) so it’s great feeling to reach out to other illustrators and help provide inspiration and a useful resources that could help them on their way.

One of my main reasons for starting this blog was to try and help other aspiring illustrators who are on the same path as I am and share the knowledge, pitfalls and success stories I’m finding and experiencing along the way.

If you think a blog might be for you, check out the free zero2illo tutorial ‘Set Up Your Own Blog In 60 Minutes’.

Check back next Thursday for the part 2 of the ‘Blogging For Illustrators’ series: Which Blogging Platform Should An Illustrator Use?