20-Year Prospect
The biggest changes in illustration are coming via digital technology. The field itself isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Thanks to e-readers and other devices, Americans are getting their words (and pictures) online instead of on paper. From comic books to comic strips, more people are getting their frames filled on a screen that moves when they touch it.
This doesn't just mean uploading pictures instead of faxing them. Now that a lot of technology has caught up to sci-fi, you may see neat new ways to create illustrations. Tablets and styluses (styli?) and wireless communications are innovating the art of drawing in ways that only Bob Pepper and Philip K. Dick could've imagined.
None of this means you'll never get another paper cut—there's no reason to believe pulp is going anywhere. The new gadgets may revitalize the industry, but we have a feeling that even in the future illustrators will be making a colorful mess out of a whole lot of paper.