BUILDING AN ILLUSTRATION PORTFOLIO

Hello sweet blackberry cakes! Happy May!

Today's post is all about building a portfolio, and it's a timely one for me. Even though I've had a working portfolio for over a decade, I'm in the middle of a career shift so I'm currently doing all the things I'm sharing with you today - planning, building, editing and soon, presenting. Whether you're just dipping your toes into illustration, or firming up a nearly solid launch into this career, or revamping your portfolio to better represent your true passions, I hope today's post will be helpful. It’s a broad overview of creating a portfolio, for one could talk at length on any of these stages, from planning your business, to making powerful illustrations, editing , and of course, making a meaningful presence online to share your work.

There's a lot to cover so let's jump in!

As I said, I'm currently in the midst of changing my website, branding, portfolio, and direction.  If I'd written this 10 years ago, I'd have been more interested in showing work to reel in agents or clients. Today though, I'm considering my audience in a totally different way. For one, my audience is YOU (thank you!) so I'm putting more time into sharing and connecting here and on my Patreon. I'm also writing my own books again, so I'm building a solid part of my site that will support those books when they come out. And third, I'm working on a shop with prints, originals, and one of kind items. This is very different than trying to cater to companies and get hired by art directors, and it took me some sifting to realize who I was trying to reach with my portfolio. To be honest, I've been preparing for this change for nearly three years.

Understanding what you want to offer/create as an artist is key. Not what you'd be willing to offer, but what feels so indulgent and joyful that you'd do the job for free (even though you should always get paid!) A lot of illustrators make work they think they should be making, but deep below the surface is their 'true love' and bringing that to light takes time and excavation. This is not always the case, of course, for others, the goal is clear and bright in front of them, and they just simply need time to put pen to paper. If you have an industry in mind, say editorial or picture books, it's helpful to consider your niche within this industry.

Let’s say you'd like to illustrate picture books.
That's great but what kind of picture books? Board books? Non fiction picture books? Magical ones? Books about food? About climate change or nature, or historical biographies? While it's likely you'd be willing to take the first book that comes your way (I definitely did) it's more efficient in terms of personal portfolio building to focus on what you're truly interested in. You still have to have range and represent different people, places, etc but think thoroughly about where you shine, what you care about, what you'd love to spend 6 months to a year (or more) digging into. You have to communicate to potential art directors what you're amazing at delivering, and it'll be way more fun getting a job for something you actually like, I promise. Maybe you're looking to do editorial jobs, or packaging design, or writing your own stories, maybe licensing your art. There's a huge range of potential projects in all of these categories. Zeroing in on what you enjoy most leads to a more intuitive and true portfolio and if you get hired for work like this - AHHH there's nothing better!

What if though, you're like so many of us and you want to do everything! Licensing and cards, murals, picture books, toys, magazines, you might want it all! I'd never say you couldn't - there are artists that have built such a career to do just that - Oliver Jeffers comes to mind. But I also think it's human to want more than we could realistically have time for. Maybe making all these things sounds enjoyable but they might not all have to be a facet of your career. My advice would be to choose 1-2 things to really focus on and then when opportunities pop up in personal projects or from a client to work in a different area - then you say yes and try them out too.

If you're not sure what sort of projects you'd like to to, I recommend doing visualization exercises. Also, this post might be helpful to take  small steps to begin. I'll link to some other classes, options at the end of this post for further learning as well.

To PLAN for your portfolio:

Think about your portfolio's target audience. Is it an Editorial Art Director? A Publisher? A Design Agency? Or maybe direct buyers or wholesale. Maybe it's parents or librarians. 

Consider your timeline. When are you planning to launch? Break down your calendar to schedule in time to develop what you need.

Build contact lists of agents, publishers, or art directors you're interested in working with. (More on this in presenting.)

Now it's time to make the work. What exactly should you have in your portfolio?  What's adequate to prove your skill? What if you have a couple different portfolios or directions?  The brilliant and confusing part about all of this is of course there's no one way to have a portfolio. I'll talk a more about organizing and presenting below but this is the part where we get our hands dirty and actually make work we love. If you feel paralyzed by the thought of making great work for your portfolio, you have a friend in me. I'm always overthinking!

Here are some helpful tips on building a fresh portfolio that shines.

Quantity over quality. I SAID IT!  When you're making work for your portfolio, it might be helpful to loosen up and make a lot of work if you can swing the time. We'll edit later, but don't get so uptight about making the perfect pieces that you avoid making anything at all. You might fall into a stride on a quick piece that pushes you towards a really kick ass illustration. In fact, I find that all my greatest ideas happen when I'm already working - not when I prematurely overthink them to death.

You'll want a variation of compositions -  full pages, spreads, and spots. This will depend on your industry + preference but this shows your ability to work within perimeters, creating interest in your layouts.

The body of work should feel cohesive but not monotonous. It could be connected by theme, or color, or general style, but it should feel like it's coming (even loosely) from one artist. I hate to put anyone in a box, so take liberties here and explore. Even if you have 2-3 ways of working, you have to organize them that way (more later) but within those categories, work should feel like it matches. The AD has to trust that on some level they won't be totally blindsided by what you make for them.

Think about text. If you're doing design or picture books (not to mention a host of other industries) consider adding in text to show how you can create an illustration with other elements in mind. It doesn't have to be text you designed, just something to showcase how you'd work with it/around it.

It's important to show consistent characters and settings so doing something sequential great. Even if it's just 3-4 images of from a longer story. (To make my characters consistent, I have to draw them SO many times, until I 'find' them.)

Think about your life and personal story when creating this body of work. What seems second nature to you is probably fascinating to someone else - and often this is where the specialness lies in a portfolio. Making it 'yours' helps it to stand out and that comes from celebrating our stories and our lives - those things that matter most to us.

Truly - have fun here. If you're dragging through images you don't really want to make because you think it's industry standard, it'll be even less fun to make them for a picky client. Go full force into play, bring us some life and freshness into the illustration world.

Research illustration in other countries, in other time periods - avoid getting all your inspiration from current artists on instagram - it'll help broaden what's possible.

And lastly - intuition and confidence go a long way in building a meaningful body of work. Often we seek out answers to do it 'right' but deep down we know what we want and are too afraid that it might be wrong. When you feel like you're getting away with something because it feels too joyful, that's usually the gold.
(In art terms of course - please be an honest person!)

IDEAS

If you're not sure exactly what pieces to make, I'm sharing a huge list of potential projects to jumpstart ideas for you on my Patreon this month. Or, you could use a little creative compass jar - that's always helpful for me.

These could be launching pads or actual finished pieces. 
A few ideas from that list include:

A series (2-3) of illustrated poems (you can find public domain poems here)
Three Images of the same character at breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Illustrate a weather report (sounds boring but could be so cool!)
Create illustrations for a local farmers market
Paint a map of your town and list your favorite off-the-beaten-path places
Illustrate a brochure for a children's play gym
Draw a character super close up, regular size, and very far away
Illustrate your favorite book cover, complete with Title/Text
Illustrate a pattern to be used for a child's birthday party
Create graphics for a social cause, racial equity, fighting climate change, etc.

By now you should have a pretty good selection of illustrations.  It's time to put a keen eye towards editing them. The biggest question here is probably, How many pieces should I have in my portfolio? There's no hard and fast rule, but I'd say 10-15 pieces of work if you're just starting out. As you develop, you may have enough pieces to break them into categories. I'd personally avoid having a site with 30+ main images, but I've also seen professional artists do that, so really, your call. 

Deciding what makes the cut can be confusing but there's a couple tools I use when fine tuning my portfolio.

Ask yourself, "Do I want to get hired for this?" If you're not looking to illustrate that classic Edwardian book cover again because you really want to be drawing tacos in leotards, LET IT GO.

Proving your skill is just a piece of the puzzle, but don't keep work in your portfolio just for bragging rights. I've made plenty of paintings I've loved but my style changed and I had to omit them from my portfolio. In fact, probably only 5% of everything I've ever made in is on my site.

Don't keep work for filler. If you can't make ten solid pieces, you might just need more time in the building phase.

If you keep going back and forth on a piece because it stands out in a terrible way, cut it. You could make more work to compliment it, adding it back in later. If you don't want to spend time making more work like that...there's your answer! Get rid of it.

Think of your portfolio as a menu. Would you run a gelato shop and have a random offering of enchiladas on there because you're good at making them? NO. Or maybe, that'd be really funny actually but still, no. Be clear on what you offer.

Get feedback - find 5 other artists to do a portfolio or artwork critique swap with. Always great to have an outside creative perspective.

If you've done client work and feel obligated to share it even though you hate it, don't share it. List them on your client list, and take the work out of your portfolio. It's better to fill your portfolio with solid personal projects than risk the next AD assuming that's what you want to offer.

Ok - we're nearing the finish line here. You've got a great selection of illustrations. You've given a grateful boot to all the not so useful pieces, and now it's time to figure out what to do with it all. Should you send loose images to a company? Or make a PDF? Or is just a link to your website ok? Should you send it to an agent? Or an art director? Wait back up - how do you even make a website? This can all be super overwhelming, but there's a lot of keys to a lot of different doors in illustration. It's not one size fits all.

I think Instagram took over for a bit and it seemed like websites and blogs were old school, but we're kind of seeing now just how solid of a foundation they can build. I'm not going to cover social media because it's a beast (and one I'm not loving lately), but I will share tips on a website.

WEBSITES

I've used squarespace for over 12 years, I love it, I'm used to it, I think it's easy - AND if you're just starting out, you can build off of their 7.1 Version which I think could be better than the 7.0 I'm stuck on. Anoosha Syed did a brilliant dive into websites so check that out if you're not sure to start or which platform you should choose. There are some free options if it’s not in your budget to pay monthly.

Regarding the design, your website can be super basic, I think the cleaner the better. It should include:

A header, logo, your name

One page of your illustrations (cropped or full image)
If you do children's books AND prints, you can do these in two categories or two different pages

An ABOUT page. Tell us about you! Your experience, any awards, educations, clients, etc.
A photo is lovely - I always really appreciate seeing the artist as a real person.

Contact - this can be your email on your ABOUT page or you can make a separate CONTACT page for readers to fill in.

Other options are a blog, newsletter sign up, etc but don't get overwhelmed with those if you're just starting out.

Here's a couple websites I love - you can see there's such a range of possibility.

Ping Zhu - clean, minimal, and client focused
Penelope Dullaghan - very personal and playful - clear categories
JooHee Yoon - lots of images, clean, great book layouts
Becca Stadtlander - clear organization, categories
Rose Jaffe - movement, colorful, animation
Gia Graham - colors, feeling, and clear organization
Louise Lockhart of The Printed Peanut (two website for portfolio & shop!)

WHERE TO SEND YOUR PORTFOLIO

You can choose one or choose all three and see what sticks! (Some agencies or publishers ask that you give them a certain amount of time to respond and that they prefer an exclusive submission, so think about that)

ART DIRECTORS - this would be in jobs like magazines, newspapers, licensing, and a host of other industries. (Publishers have ADs but I'll do that separately.) Best idea is to build a contact list to keep you from sending a mass 'to whom it may concern' batch of emails. You can often find art director info in the front of a magazine, or on the about/contact section of a company's website. This is a bit older, but still a helpful read for building a contact list. Again, Anoosha Syed does some amazing videos about freelance illustrating and she also shares how to contact Art Directors.

PUBLISHERS - If you're looking to write or illustrate picture books, start on the publisher's website - they almost always post submissions guidelines (though some will say they aren't accepting unsolicited manuscripts (which means you are unagented). Even a couple google searches brought me to these submissions page from Clavis, and this page from Candlewick. If you want a massive list, I recommend the Children's Writers and Illustrators Market Book, which comes out every year. Was super useful when I was starting out. And lastly, joining a organization like the SCBWI can be majorly beneficial with all the resources they offer for portfolio reviews, submissions, etc.

AGENTS - If you're a writer, you'd be looking for a literary agent. If you're an author/illustrator, you'd be looking for either a lit agent or an illustration agent and if you're only doing illustration, you'd go for an illustration agent (though most specialize in publishing/advertising/editorial/etc). Every agency should have their submissions guidelines posts on their site and you’ll want to consider whether or not your work fits with the agent’s aesthetic. It has to fit In but also be different enough that you’d stand out amongst the group. When I started, I submitted to 20 agents and heard nothing back! So I poured my energy into sharing a ton of work online and an agent reached out to me. If you don't hear back, don't give up - just keep forging ahead!

WHAT TO SEND

This largely depends on whomever you're approaching so do your homework. I'm finding that a lot of ADs request a website link and a few low res images. As Magnet Reps puts it, "Email a link to your website and up to five low-res jpegs or pdfs. The link to your website is important, it displays both your creative-vision and your commitment."

LOW RES JPGS

Don't blow up the art director's email - they don't have time to download massive files or click on an expired wetransfer links. If they're asking for images, send them at 72 dpi, as attachments.

A PDF

Personally, I think a PDF could be so fun because you can play up your presentation. You can add your logo, a line or two about yourself and a clean beautiful layout of your work. (I do this for my books bc I'm super into presentation!)

A LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE - easy peasy! Just make sure it's hyperlinked so they don't have to copy and paste it.

POSTCARDS - I'd focus on this last, sadly, because a lot of art directors are still working from home and aren't in the offices full time yet. That said, I'm sure they love to see actual postcards so if it's something you're really keen to do, I won't stop you!

IN CLOSING

Well that was a novel! But before I go, just a couple more little bits I want to share with you....

Finding your place in illustration can take time. It took me three years to get into real client work and another 4 years to find my niche in picture books. And truly another three years to realize what I actually cared about and wanted to make.

Building a portfolio is never one and done. It’ll continue to change, morph, and grow, so don't feel like your portfolio is concrete. Always thinking of it as a living breathing collection of pieces.

If you spend all this energy making and sharing a portfolio and you hear crickets, don't be let down. It's a career that demands tenacity and resilience, a lot of trial and error, hours at the drawing table. It will pay off, even in a small way at first, but tiny seeds grow in time.

If you’re already working but you’d like to push your portfolio to the next level, it might just mean making time to personal projects - even if that’s a morning a week. I find that a little goes a long way, and making time for even a personal project every couple of months keeps me fresh. Also - signing up for a gallery show or something always pushes me because then I HAVE to create personal work. Like these!

A couple other helpful links: Here’s what Art Directors want with Magoz, SCBWI submitting to publishers, a Domestika Course, and a Skillshare Course (not ads, haven’t taken them but they might be good?)

In other news, I’ve been making my home homier by putting up all my little thrift finds. I’ve also been cooking a lot, clearing out my garden, and working a TON on my upcoming picture book series, which I can’t wait to share with you.

I hope you’re all doing lovely, soaking up the good in the world and finding the sun when the clouds part.
Best of luck on all your portfolio adventures, and do share with us in the comments where you are in your portfolio building venture. Just starting out? Just finished a killer portfolio? Would love to hear about them.

Take care friends, and see you next month!
xo,
Becca