Critique vs Marketing

menalkhan

Hi everyone!

I'm at a crossroads and would love some advice. I recently updated my portfolio (www.menalkhan.com) and was about to start marketing myself/emailing a few art directors, however, I haven't yet reached out to anyone for a detailed critique of my portfolio.

Should I seek out a critique first to ensure my portfolio captures the feedback of another perspective before I start marketing myself, or should I start marketing now and make adjustments based on feedback as I go? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

@menalkhan Your website has wonderful examples. I have no critique except for you to recognize the quality of your work and be confident in that. I've seen less mature work in print. You are ready to go out and conquer!

menalkhan

@thomas-young - this gave me a boost of confidence! Thank you so much

tombarrettillo

@menalkhan Your art in my unprofessional opinion is ready to go. Your color choices and character designs are excellent.

I will say, however, based on what Jake, Will, and Lee have said in the past, is to be sure your illustrations have a clear story. I think the boy dreaming of his vacation and the monkey photos are there, but some of the others could be improved. For example, while most would recognize that as the story of Matilda, why is she in trouble in this specific illustration? With the duck and the bear, who are they and where did the slime come from? Why is the princess sad (Rapunzel?)? Don't just rely on people to know the stories to understand the art. And I love the tuk tuk with the chickens, but how much more fun that might be if they were driving it!

I don't believe you need to redo all the illustrations in your portfolio, but perhaps 2 or 3 key ones might make your story-telling abilities even more clear to potential clients/agents. And either put those at the top, or mix them in more rather than having them all at the bottom of the page.

And a few details on your site I noticed. The text is very choppy and rough. I would fix/change that to make everything more readable. Also, consider making your social links a bit larger if you can.

menalkhan

@tombarrettillo - Thank you so much for the detailed feedback!!
-Rapunzel - Great point! I added bars + lock to her window to emphasize her sadness from being trapped.
-Tuktuk - Since I already have a piece with a vehicle in motion, I wanted to show this tuktuk as idle, with chickens taking advantage of the space. To further show this I added a chicken reading inside.
-Matilda - I'll think more about this one! It was initially meant to be the front cover but at the end I decided against it.
-Duck and bear - They're detectives and I had the badge on the duck to show this but I realize now it may have been too hidden, so I made it more visible. I've kept the 'why the slime' reasoning vague to enhance the mystery theme. I also made a few more changes but have made a separate post on that.
-Website edits - Thanks for pointing out the choppy font! I’ve updated it to something more readable.

tombarrettillo

@menalkhan I like the reading chicken; adds much more story to the piece. And the duck and bear piece is more clear.

If I can be so bold, I would say that the Rapunzel piece, while the bars are good, might do better if you zoomed out a bit so that the reader could see that she is actually in a tower and not a palace. I would go so far as to remove the parapet, but will leave that up to you.

And good on the website. Text is much more readable.

I think you have a great style and should do well as an illustrator.

AnthonyWheeler

Hey! Lovely portfolio, style, compositions, colors, etc!

Here's my thought--don't wait for permission, just make things happen.

Perhaps you spend a bunch of time getting things "perfect" and then no one looks at your stuff. Perhaps you spend a bunch of time getting things "perfect" and editors/agents think your stuff needs work. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Your work is of a professional quality--go get after it. As you get going, continue to take advice you are getting here, seek reviews, make your work stronger, etc.

menalkhan

@tombarrettillo Thank you! I'll rethink that piece. Appreciate the feedback!

@AnthonyWheeler That's the plan! Thank you for the awesome advice!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@menalkhan hi! first off great illustrations. Secondly, is it alright if I critiqued your portfolio? thanks.

menalkhan

@Nyrryl-Cadiz - Thank you! And yes, go for it, I'd love feedback!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@menalkhan hi I'm just gonna keep it brief. I think you have a good style going and I would definitely recommend making submissions. I always recommend submitting even if you're not ready so that you'll get over the fear of rejection because that fear is very strong and paralyzing. A lot of illustrators give up before they even get started because of that fear. And boy, will you inevitably experience a lot of rejection during this process. that's just a given.

what I think you need to work on most is adding sequential illustrations. if you want to illustrate books or narrative works, you need to show that you can illustrate the same character consistently over various illustrations.

overall, this is my 2 cents. all the best. keep us posted.

menalkhan

@Nyrryl-Cadiz - Yes! I've actually been working on a sequential piece. Initially, I had the chimp-polaroid image to show the same character in different poses, but decided to make one that's a bit more obvious. Thank you for the feedback, it's very much appreciated!
I submitted myself to a few places and actually signed an agent this past week, excited to see where this takes me.

tombarrettillo

@menalkhan congrats on getting an agent!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@menalkhan woah! that's wonderful news! congratulations who did you sign with?

menalkhan

@Nyrryl-Cadiz @tombarrettillo - thank you! I signed with Bookends Literary!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@menalkhan that is wonderful! all the best.

Yogita Chawdhary

Hi Menal, Love your art style! Your work would look super cute on PBs. Congratulations on getting an agent! All the best!

menalkhan

@Yogita-Chawdhary Thanks so much, Yogita!! Your work is great too!

StudioHannah

I'm kinda late to this post but I just wanted to say you have an excellent style and portfolio! Great work!