Pro

@allysa I've noticed your images take a VERY long time to load on your website. Did you resize them and optimized them for web? When I try to click on images to zoom into them, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The website is very buggy and sometimes displays like this:

I would also add a contact page or at least a contact form on your about page. Right now the only way to reach you is the tiny letter icon under your photo, and it took me a while to find it!

Apart from that I agree with the others - you have a lot of technical skill, but your work seems to lack a little magic, charm and relatability. You could improve your facial expressions and storytelling. You don't have any interactions, all the characters are alone and that's a big gap. Look for the little detail that makes it real - two characters sharing a look with a sparkle in their eye, a little touch on the hand, not knowing how to help, or the proud look a father gives his daughter while she happily plays, oblivious.

@NessIllustration The credit line is also really hard to read with a triple threat of small size, thin lines and funky font! I can't for the life of me make out your Instagram handle This is your time to shine to choose a simpler and thicker font!

@Robyn-Hepburn This looks really amazing, and I can't believe how quickly you made this!

The only thing is that the text is quite hard to read, especially the Theater line and William Shakespeare. There are multiple ways to fix this. You could make the green lines in the background paler just behind the text to improve readability, or erase the lines behind the text.

You could also add a shape behind some of the text like this:

@Jonathan-W Hard disagree. In this situation, it seems to be the author who is "presupposing" too much. He's been struggling to get his manuscript together for a decade and during all this time, is assuming that an illustrator will be available, waiting by the phone and jumping at the amazing chance to illustrate his book.

Something like insisting the client reaches out to us may sound petty, but it's actually important to establish boundaries and an equal relationship where the client values our time and expertise. Too many author/illustrator relationship where the author has no respect at all because they're convinced that as the paying client, their illustrator should be eternally grateful and be a yes man...

@Mimi-Simon I agree with you! Most authors really don't do enough (if at all) research about the industry, the publishing process, and the art. For the art specifically, there's this tendency mostly by authors and readers to devalue the work of illustrators. Many articles about picture books, reviews, book signing events, interviews etc focus entirely on writers, with illustrators often forgotten and treated like a hired hand like the printer is

So it's a bigger problem, but even though the authors should do more research, it's also true art directors will still know more about art and be better equipped to make this decision. Just like how we encourage authors to get their manuscript professionally edited instead of trying to do it all themselves, art directors are experts at this and results will often be optimal if the author lets them do them thing - no matter how much research they've done.

@Mimi-Simon Tthe main problem is that most authors don't know much about what makes good art, or especially what makes good picture book illustration, what skills to look out for in a portfolio, what style fits their manuscript's tone, or what styles are trendy and sell well at the moment.

It would be like me interviewing someone for a lab science job Most authors are not at all equipped to make this decision!

@Melissa_Bailey I've always wondered why the overwhelming majority of authors seem to assume they need illustrations to submit, at their expense And since it's a major expense, why wouldn't they at least double-check it beforehand? It baffles me.

@Nathalie-Kranich Hi!
Me too, I am often approached by authors who want to try and traditionally publish. I always tell them not to hire an illustrator. It's stupid, reputable publishers will never accept such a submission - even I, as an author-illustrator, do not send a finished book! I only make a book dummy. It's a waste of time for the illustrator and a waste of money for the author.
I advise them to use author notes instead.

@Nathalie-Kranich The only "publishers" I've heard who accept fully illustrated manuscripts on a consistent basis are vanity publishers...