Society of Visual Storytelling

    SVSLearn Forums

    • Register
    • Login
    • Search
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Search

    Introduction

    Introductions
    5
    11
    889
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • NessIllustration
      NessIllustration Pro last edited by NessIllustration

      Hello everyone!

      My name is Vanessa (or Ness!) and I'm an illustrator from Ottawa, Canada.
      I first studied visual arts for a couple of years, then switched to traditional animation. From there, I worked in the mobile games industry for 3 years and I just recently quit that to become a freelance illustrator! I'm managing to stay afloat so far, but I'm not getting the kind of work that I really want to get yet: children's books, puzzles, sticker books, etc. One of my ultimate long-term goals is to illustrate a story in Storytime magazine! I'm working hard and hustling to get closer to those goals, but sometimes it's hard to know if I'm in the right direction or not! I'm currently making a lot of new portfolio pieces to re-submit to agents and art directors in a month or so...

      I'll attach a picture below, would love to know what you think

      Nice to meet you!

      0_1537022646360_instapreview.jpg

      vanessastoilova.com
      instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/

      Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess

      Chip Valecek 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 6
      • TessaW
        TessaW last edited by

        Welcome Ness! Glad you're here. The piece you've shared is really beautiful! I wish you well as you advance your career. I hope you keep us updated.

        Website: www.tessawrathall.com

        Instagram: www.instagram.com/tessawrathall_art/

        NessIllustration 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • NessIllustration
          NessIllustration Pro @TessaW last edited by

          @tessaw Thank you Tessa 🙂 I'm really glad to have found a forum with like-minded people and I think I'll really like it here!

          vanessastoilova.com
          instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/

          Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Chip Valecek
            Chip Valecek SVS Team SVS OG @NessIllustration last edited by

            @nessillustration welcome to the forums! Thats a great piece, i love the colors in it!


            https://www.instagram.com/chipvalecek/
            https://www.facebook.com/cvalecek
            http://www.cshellmedia.com/

            NessIllustration 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • NessIllustration
              NessIllustration Pro @Chip Valecek last edited by

              @chip-valecek Thank your Chip, nice to meet you!

              vanessastoilova.com
              instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/

              Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • K
                kerilynnwilson last edited by

                Hi Ness 🙂 This piece you posted is lovely! I'm in love with your color palette and I wish you all the best. Im still new to the forum too, it's great to meet all the artists.

                NessIllustration 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • HeidiGFX
                  HeidiGFX last edited by

                  amazing work! what are you doing to get noticed by the industries you want to work with?

                  https://www.heidigfx.com/
                  https://www.facebook.com/heidiGFX/
                  https://www.instagram.com/heidigfx/

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • NessIllustration
                    NessIllustration Pro @kerilynnwilson last edited by

                    @kerilynnwilson Hi Kerilynn, welcome too! 😃 Thanks so much ❤

                    @HeidiGFX Hello Heidi!
                    To answer your question, I first started trying last Spring, when I was still employed in mobile games full time. I built my first children illustration portfolio and emailed it to a bunch of agents and art directors (and about 50 postcards as well). Nothing came out of that though. Then there's a little gap of a few months because I moved from Montreal to Ottawa and started working as a freelancer full-time, so that took a while to organize! For the last month or so I've started making more portfolio pieces and I think I'll be ready for a second round of submissions in another month or so. Apart from that, I've been posting 3 times a week on Instagram and started a Behance account recently, and I'm working on building a custom website (for now I only have an adobe portfolio and daportfolio, which isn't all that professional...)

                    vanessastoilova.com
                    instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/

                    Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess

                    HeidiGFX 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • HeidiGFX
                      HeidiGFX @NessIllustration last edited by

                      @nessillustration

                      • I would say focus most of your marketing time on Behance, Facebook, and LinkedIn that's where I got my leads and customers. Instagram is still important for illustrators but your followers might mostly be young artists and beginners not publishers or people looking to hire.

                      • Share your art on your FB page then in a bunch of related FB groups.

                      • Make good use of Instagram and FB stories, they let people notice you and know more about you, they're like a high way banner or something.

                      • Do your best to learn about SEO and keywords to make it easy for people to find you. and

                      • Whenever possible, go to events where you can meet people in person.

                      People are more likely to hire you if they know you and trust you. Do what you can to build this trust.

                      there are apps that can help you run all that stuff smoothly but I'm not using any. I do it manually. I also post on Pinterest and on Google+. Try to find the best time for you to post.

                      https://www.heidigfx.com/
                      https://www.facebook.com/heidiGFX/
                      https://www.instagram.com/heidigfx/

                      NessIllustration K 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • NessIllustration
                        NessIllustration Pro @HeidiGFX last edited by

                        @heidigfx Thanks so much for taking the time to write this detailed advice! That's very nice!

                        vanessastoilova.com
                        instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/

                        Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • K
                          kerilynnwilson @HeidiGFX last edited by

                          @heidigfx oh this is excellent advise. Thank you so much for sharing. do you have any FB related groups that you recommend? I was in a couple but they either seemed too big to be any help or they were super inactive and eventually died.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • First post
                            Last post