Portfolio Review
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Hello Svs people!
I'm trying to get myself ready to send my portfolio to illustration companies, agents and literary/art magazines. The market I'm aiming for is YA readers who enjoy darker fantasy/horror. Definitely NOT children's literature. I would like to focus on book covers for now.
Here are my questions about my portfolio:
What is my strongest piece?
What is my weakest?
Is there anything that doesn't match/looks out of place?
Do I need more pieces?
Am I ready to send queries to agents? If not, what should I do to prepare better?
Here is my portfolio website. https://elimiko.com
Thank you for your time and help! -
@Elisa-Miko-Price hi! I’m a bit busy so I’ll keep this short. You have great pieces. The Little Red Riding Hood is the strongest imo.
You will need an About Me Page. Your Work Page looks lacking. Add more pieces or remove it entirely.
I hope this helps. Best wishes!
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@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate it and I'll implement it right away!
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Hi! I agree you have a lot of great pieces! A few things stood out to me:
you have a "work" page and a "portfolio" page, but the work page just has a link to the portfolio on it, so I would remove that and just have the one tab.
I agree with the about me page.
I thought some of the pieces were combined, and then realized later it was 3 different pieces. and was confused, I recommend putting a border between pieces.
I really like Arsinoe is attacked, and had trouble understanding The Breccia Domain (the shillouette of the girl falling isn't quite working, and the face on the boy isn't as strong as in your other images).
Since your'e interested in book cover, I would try to add text to some of them so that it looks like a book cover.
Otherwise I think it looks awesome!
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@carlianne Yes! There is a lot of technical stuff with the adobe portfolio site that I'm still trying to work out, but that is all very helpful feedback. Thank you very much!
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@Elisa-Miko-Price You have such beautiful work! Well done!
I think the mix of styles is a bit jarring. Consistency is important in a portfolio because if I was an art director, I wouldn't know what I'm going to get if I hired you.
Also since you're aiming for book covers at this time, I'd put some cover mockups in your portfolio as well as write down (on your about page) that this is what you're looking.
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@NessIllustration ahh!! Thank you Ness! I really appreciate your feedback! Would you say that I should just choose between full color illustrations or black and white illustrations instead of showcasing both?
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@Elisa-Miko-Price No no, it's fine to show both black and white and color. But you have different styles of rendering.
Like the Red Riding Hood illustration has black outlines and looks cartoon/anime. But the Witch Queen and Frankenstein cover looks much more realistic with a soft shading.
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@NessIllustration oooh okay that makes so much sense. Thank you for clarifying!