When people think of career paths for artists they don't always immediately think of technical drawing. While it's easy to think of careers such as painting, there are several other ways in which artists can put their skills to use. Technical drawing fields can offer a variety of different opportunities for an artist to make money. Many of these fields are highly specialized and require schooling and certifications before the artist can begin working in them.

Architectural Drawing

This is the practice of creating extremely detailed plans that can then be used by construction specialists to build structures and buildings. Architects are responsible for the full design of a structure and final architectural plans are complex and contain a wealth of information used to aid in the construction of the building. Some architects use computer software known as Computer-aided Architectural Design to create their illustrations and plans.

Engineering Drawing

This type of technical drawing can cover many different career paths. Engineering drawing can consist of things from civil engineering to mechanical engineering. Almost anything that is being designed or produced first needs to have a detailed drawing so that it can be planned out before being put into production. There are many sub categories that fall under engineering drawing, and interested artists will need to do further research to discover which path they want to take with their engineering drawing pursuits. This career is sometimes called drafting, a broad term that is used to identify several technical drawing fields.

Patent Drawing

Depending on the type of patent being sought, those wishing to get things patented are required to submit a technical drawing with their application. The guidelines for these drawings are quite strict and can require a high level of technical skill to accomplish. Features of inventions being submitted for patent must be drawn in detail to comply with the application rules.

General Design and Illustration

There are a number of other careers available to someone with technical drawing training. Companies require specific technical illustrations for things ranging from instruction manuals to court cases and text books. There are also opportunities in industries such as film, television and video games. These industries can employ a technical artist to do things like character design, animations for games or films and even special effects work that can then be used in films or on television.