What’s Wrong with My Portfolio?
Art by Analise Black
Struggling to get work and not sure why? The answer lies in your portfolio. Samantha Cotterill, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss how to turn your portfolio around and start attracting work in just a few months.
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Samantha Cotterill
Interested in Will Terry’s list of 100 things to include in your children’s book portfolio? Email us at support@svslearn.com and we’ll send it your way!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The portfolio you built in school, full of figure drawings and still life, is not the portfolio that will land you agents and jobs. It’s up to you to create a portfolio that says, “I am an illustrator.”
Live in your worlds longer. The more time you spend creating work with a theme, the more you’ll understand it and the more creative you’ll get with it. Don’t move on to new ideas before you’ve mined all the gold where you are.
QUESTIONS
What are the biggest mistakes new illustrators make in their portfolios?
Including class work (e.g., figure drawings). You can showcase your skills more effectively by applying them to illustrations. Don’t include practice work in your portfolio.
No clear storytelling. If an uninformed person can’t understand the story you’re trying to illustrate, it’s not clear enough.
Boring details. If you’re illustrating a specific age group, like grandparents, don’t settle for cookie-cutter stereotypes (like grey hair and a cane). Give your characters and their surroundings quirks and personality. Take information from real life and use it to give variety to your work.
Omitting art that reflects the projects you want to get. If you want to be a children’s book illustrator, include illustrations of children’s stories.
Too many one-off images. Illustrating multiple pieces in a theme will help you better understand your subject. Don’t move on to other things too quickly!
Stereotypical color choices. Blue skies and green grass are boring! Play with color and key your illustrations: create the entire image with an overtone of one color. (“The Art of” books for animated movies are great resources to learn this skill.)
Jackie asks, “I like my style but my portfolio has been rejected by multiple agents. Should I change my style to match the current market, or are there technical problems I should fix instead?”
Your portfolio is good and your style has interesting shape language. If you like what you’re doing, you shouldn’t change just because agents or someone else told you to. (Our advice might be different if your style were very out-of-date and unmarketable, but yours isn’t.) However, there are a few technicalities that, once improved, will help you immensely in your search for work.
Increase the emotional diversity of your characters. Happy kids are great, but you need to show you can depict a range of emotions and experiences. Illustrate scenes with more tension or conflict.
Many of your choices are stereotypical. Review the advice above for making design and color choices that are more engaging.
Draw different points of perspective instead of completely head-on shots.
Work on your ability to tell a story in a single image. Some of your pieces are beautiful, but more decorative than narrative, which can hold you back if you’re trying to become a children’s book illustrator.
Our advice: Illustrate some existing children’s stories and practice the tips we shared above. Use those pieces to replace your current portfolio.
Your work isn’t bad; you simply need to apply a few new ideas. In three months, you could have a revamped portfolio that calls in work like crazy!
LINKS
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
Daniel Tu: danieltu.co.
Lily Camille Howell: lilycamille.com
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