During this period, Lin, who already had five children, began working as an illustrator for newspapers and publishing houses. His drawings appeared in Yang Mu's translations into the vernacular of the classics Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West, and after the war in youth-oriented periodicals such as Eastern Youth and Classmate.
這時已經育有五名子女的林玉山開始替報紙或書局的長篇小說畫插畫，包括楊逵翻譯的《三國志》、《西遊記》等等，戰後還曾替當時極少數的學童讀物「東方少年」、「學友」雜誌繪圖。