Stock Illustration Tips from Natalia Hubbert

For our monthly contributor spotlight, we spent time speaking with Houston-based illustrator Natalia Hubbert about her creative career and experiences in the stock marketplace. Here she shares her top five tips for starting out and succeeding in the competitive world of stock illustration.

Be creative, but commercially conscious.

Think creatively and make commercially valuable designs. Use your own vision and perspective, make it unique and different but don’t go too wild because it still has to be acceptable to others in order to sell.

Collections and sets = more sales.

Create lots of sets and collections. It can be Zodiac signs, breakfast or other meals, sets of spices, or even a shoe collection. If buyers like and purchase one piece from your collection there is a high chance that they will want to license the rest of the images as well.

Create customizable content

Make sure your vectors are customizable and your illustrations are easy to cut out. That means having it on a white or transparent background. It is handy not only for the buyer but also for you as well for future use.

Variety is the spice of life

Image banks are full of beautiful and interesting images. There is a huge variety of content out there and something for every taste from the weird to the wonderful. I try to sell a little of everything because every illustration has its own buyer.

Work hard and stay true to your vision

Do good work. Stay in tune with fashion, trends or create classy, timeless stuff, but ultimately, remember it is up to as an artist, do whatever you enjoy and feel more comfortable with. At the end of the day, you will get out of it what you put into it. The more time you spend learning and perfecting your craft, the better you will become and the more you will sell.

You can read more about Natalia’s career and journey into the world of stock here.