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(Caricaturist, Comic Artist, Satirical Cartoonist, Political Cartoonist)
Creative & Media
Salary
€24,000 - €65,000/yr
Level
Professional
Outlook
Stable
Sector
Creative & Media
Cartoonists draw and animate characters, scenes, and satirical images for newspapers, magazines, online platforms, animation studios, and advertising clients. You exaggerate physical features, personalities, and current events to communicate ideas in a humorous, critical, or storytelling way. A typical working day might involve reading the news, developing concept sketches, consulting with an editor or creative director, and refining finished artwork to meet a publication deadline. You may work across print, digital, or broadcast media, collaborating with journalists, writers, animators, and art directors depending on your employer.
Listen: a day as a Cartoonist
You start at around 8:30 in the morning, making coffee and working through the news on RTÉ, The Irish Times, and a handful of political Twitter feeds. As a cartoonist for a national newspaper supplement, your editorial brief arrives by email most mornings, but you are expected to pitch your own ideas too. You spend the first hour reading, jotting rough concepts in a sketchbook, and circling stories that have potential — a politician's gaffe, a housing announcement, a sporting controversy. By 10:00 you are at your drawing tablet, working in Procreate and Adobe Illustrator, roughing out three or four thumbnail sketches based on the morning's brief. These are loose and quick — the point is to test whether the visual joke actually lands. You photograph or export the thumbnails and email them to your art director, who is based in the Dublin city-centre office while you work from a studio at home in Carlow.
Leaving Certificate subjects such as Art, Design & Communication Graphics, and English are particularly useful preparation for this career. Most cartoonists in Ireland hold an NFQ Level 7 or Level 8 degree in Fine Art, Animation, Illustration, or Graphic Design, offered through institutions such as NCAD, IADT, TU Dublin, MTU, ATU, and Limerick School of Art & Design at TUS. A QQI Level 5 or Level 6 PLC in Art & Design or Animation from a College of Further Education can serve as a practical entry route or a stepping stone to a degree via the CAO. Some cartoonists enter the field through self-publishing, webcomics, or freelance work, building a strong portfolio that demonstrates their style and range. There is no statutory professional registration body for cartoonists, so a compelling, professional portfolio is generally the most important credential in securing work.
Many cartoonists begin by building a portfolio through college projects, student publications, webcomics, or social media platforms before securing their first paid commissions. Early career work often involves freelancing for small magazines, local newspapers, or digital outlets, while some graduates move into animation studios or design agencies in junior creative roles. With experience, you might become a regular contributor to a national publication such as the Irish Times or Irish Examiner, or progress into senior roles in animation, graphic novel publishing, or advertising. Highly experienced cartoonists may develop their own syndicated strips, create published collections, or move into art direction and creative leadership within media organisations.
AI image-generation tools are beginning to automate some routine illustration tasks, which may affect demand for certain types of commercial artwork. However, the satirical intelligence, cultural nuance, and personality-driven style that define strong cartooning remain difficult for AI to replicate convincingly. Cartoonists who embrace AI tools as part of their workflow — for example, for rapid concept exploration or background generation — can increase their productivity and competitiveness. The growing public and legal debate around AI-generated art also highlights the continued value placed on original, human-authored creative work.
→ Cartoonist (Current role)
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Organisations in Ireland that employ people in this occupation.
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