An illustration sometimes works better than a photograph. It can more easily be manipulated to convey an individual style, a mood, an abstract concept or an attitude.  Drawn to work together, illustrations can lend a book or a website consistency. An illustration can be a sketch, a simple line or a detailed drawing. It can be either hand drawn or computer generated. It can consist of simple black lines on a white page or ornately colored and intricate as the illuminated characters found in the Book of Kells.

At ImageSpan, we work with so many photographers that it’s easy to overlook the illustrators who use LicenseStream's automated licensing and royalty payment services. One such user is Lisa Sage, an illustrator based in Limerick, Maine. A former computer programmer, Lisa fell into a career as an illustrator in 2008 while – ironically – trying to learn more about photography.

“I had been in the photography forums, trying to learn all I could, and within one forum had answered questions from a woman named Judy about the difference between photorealistic illustrations and vector art,” said Sage, whose website, Sage Family Studios, features illustrations, paintings and photomontages. “To explain the difference, I used images out of my portfolio. Then out of the blue I received a call from someone at Oxford University Press and it turned out to be this same woman! She was looking for really detailed illustrations and asked me to be part of the upcoming project.”

© Lisa Sage/Sage Studios LLC   “Within” was chosen for a new edition of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series

Sage’s illustrations are regularly uploaded to the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) site, where she participates in the forums. One of her images, highlighted for an Image of a Week award on the NAPP site, caught the attention of the visual effects director for a horror thriller called “The Gates of Hell.” Sage soon found herself creating digital matte paintings for the film. While Sage was working on the film (released in 2008), the movie’s visual effects director suggested she launch an email campaign to various art buyers who might be interested in her illustrations. Sage sent postcards to art buyers at various publishers. An art director from Chooseco, a publisher in Waitsfield, Vermont, fell in love with an image on one of the postcards. It turns out the art director wanted it for the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series of chapter books for pre-teens that Chooseco was republishing and that were popular in the 1980s.   “As the art director from Chooseco went through galleries on my website, he was able to click on the images they had fallen in love with and go straight into LicenseStream,” said Sage.

“I was at Photoshop World last year when I received an email from Chooseco’s art director asking to negotiate pricing. Understanding that this art director was with a small publisher – instead of a large New York press – I went into LicenseStream to adjust the drop-down menu pricing, making it easy for the publisher to license the images at the prices they wanted. I re-sent emails to the art director several times before I received a note back from him saying that the images already had been licensed. It happened so easily, that I wasn’t sure – and couldn’t believe – that it had actually gone through!”

To top off that success, Sage went on to win the international Guru Award in the Photomontage category at that Photoshop World in March 2009. Sage now is working to finish a bachelor’s degree in information technology with a specialization in project management. Her hope is to take on larger and more complex projects. Meanwhile, she believes there is plenty of work out there for illustrators. "A buyer can spend a lot of time searching stock images that just aren’t obtainable because they’re too difficult to get,” she said. “For example, often a photo buyer needs an image of a happy family – but one not looking directly at the viewer so they look natural.

© Lisa Sage/Sage Studios LLC  "All That I See” caught the eye of a film’s visual effects director. It later won a 2009 Guru Award

Perhaps you need an image of someone cooking dinner or reading a book.  Or say you’re putting together a document that explains a process, such as the difference between people paying for credit cards and people paying with cash.  These all sound simple but it’s amazing how much time people spend just trying to get the right image.” 

In addition, an illustrator can create a series of images with a uniform look and feel. “It’s hard to make photographic images feel consistent across a Web site,” Sage added. “With branding, illustrations are often easier to work with because you are creating them. Also, anything geared towards children is typically done with illustrations instead of photos.”

Instead of commissioning an original illustration or photo, art buyers also can now search for an image by Sage via a major search engine or go directly to Sage’s LicenseStream store, choose the image they want, and license it with a few mouse clicks.

“With LicenseStream, everything is so simple that you can shoot out a license very fast,” said Sage. “I’m relieved that it takes so much pain out of the process of licensing my work. That frees up time for me to focus on what matters – creating the images.”

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