Illustrator
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- For the vector-based drawing program by Adobe Systems, see Adobe Illustrator.
An illustrator is a graphic artist that specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, or the illustration may be intended for entertainment (such as illustrations in children's literature).
Most contemporary illustrators make their living creating artwork for use in advertising. Pen and ink and airbrush artists traditionally dominated this realm.
Computers dramatically changed the industry, and today computers are used to produce most of the commercial illustrations. The most commonly used computer applications are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Corel Painter is popular with artists desiring in a traditional media style. Also gaining popularity are 3D computer graphics programs.
However, traditional illustration techniques are still popular, particularly in the field of children's book illustration. Water-colour, oil painting, pastels, wood-engraving, linoleum cuts, pen and ink are some of the techniques used by successful exponents of the art.