Requesting Portfolio Review after almost a Year of reforming it

Nyrryl Cadiz · 3 Mar 2020, 15:22

@Nathalie-Kranich so having addressed the layout part, let’s go to the review. I think you have a great thing going on here. I like your illustrations and concepts but I’m seeing 2 major things you’re lacking.

Children of various races, bodies, etc. Currently all I see are caucasian kids. I would greatly help if you include more variety in them. Include East Asians, Southeast Asians, Latin america kids, black kids, middle eastern kids, Kids with disabilities, etc. Show them doing multiple tasks. You can put multiple kids in a illustration and show them interacting.
Sequential illustrations. You might have already heard this but you need to show character consistency through various illustrations.

After completing these, you might want to follow Will’s list of portfolio must haves. You can add more animals, vehicles, different times of the day, different season, adults, different settings, interior/exterior. There’s a lot to add but it will surely boost your appeal to agents. Right now, I think the thing that’s preventing them from hiring you is your limited number of works. Continue illustrating and you’ll surely get some jobs coming in. I hope this helps.

Nathalie Kranich · 3 Mar 2020, 15:26

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Do you think it's better to have overall more work on display then than I currently do? I have held myself back from uploading simpler vignettes or character designs or prop designs because in my mind I thought only full illustrations limited to 12-15 would be better than packing it full with more....very important stuff.

Nyrryl Cadiz · 3 Mar 2020, 15:30

@eriberart @eriberart i’m planning to go to Bologna next year. Maybe we can all meet up!

Nyrryl Cadiz · 3 Mar 2020, 15:42

@Nathalie-Kranich hmm... this is a very complex question. If you have a lot of work but most of them are not there yet or not relevant to your target market, then I’d say keep it small but if most of your work is good, I don’t see the harm of posting more. If you have vignettes telling a story and in good quality, add them but I’d discourage including character/prop designs in your children’s book portfolio. Perhaps place them in a separate tab.

Currently, your portfolio is lacking in kid diversity and sequential illustrations. So I’d really recommend working on those. There’s really no harm even if you add 20 new pieces as long as they adress the things your lacking.

eriberart · 3 Mar 2020, 16:14

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Yes that would be awesome!

xin li · 3 Mar 2020, 18:57

@eriberart oh no. I was hoping to hear more from you about LBF.

eriberart · 3 Mar 2020, 20:31

@xin-li A lot of publishers have pulled out of going, including all the US ones, and Macmillan UK and Hachette UK. If it does go ahead it will be very empty... on the bright side maybe the people who are there will have more time to see illustrators

TessaW · 3 Mar 2020, 20:57

Hi Nathalie! You are producing some really beautiful work. I have a couple of suggestions to add, but please take them with a grain of salt!

I think you'd have an overall cleaner presentation if you took out the paragraph text from the images. NOT the pieces with titles, those are great, but the text from the snow tracks piece and the frog piece. It's not always the case, but I have noticed that many illustrators I follow leave out the text from images that most likely were made to include paragraph text. I find it makes for a stronger overall portfolio impression.
In some of your pieces the rendering includes pencil texture over top. I think you should apply this element to all of you children's illustrations. I think it's more marketable for contemporary tastes and it will help to unify your portfolio.
I'd consider making some black and white illustrations that would fit well into middle grade books. Your style looks like it could work well in that market as well, and it could open up some more opportunities.

Hope that was helpful. I loved hearing what others had to say. Good luck in your career journey!

TessaW · 3 Mar 2020, 20:59

Also a quick note to add- why haven't you included your bear in the snow piece? I love that one.

xin li · 3 Mar 2020, 21:31

@Nathalie-Kranich Keep going. your work really comes a long way. Regarding your last question, I would say do both, pick out a few images you want to improve, and work on them, keep making new stuff also. But at the same time start querying more.

I am in a similar situation as you. Right now I am working on improving 2 pieces in my portfolio, and making a couple more spot illustrations. I am also researching which agencies to contact. I want to send out to 3-5 of them and wait for 2-3 weeks before sending out the next batch. I just assume most of them will say nothing, and maybe one will say "no"( which they really mean is "not yet"). If I do get a "No", then I can try to keep the conversation going by asking "what is missing from my portfolio?".

I used to think to query agency is like applying for a job. But now I think of it in the opposite way. It is more like I am offering someone a job (it is just chances that he/she would reject the job offer is very high). It helps me to think this way because I realized that I have to make sure to offer the right person the job of representing me by doing my own research.

Hope this helps.

Nathalie Kranich · 4 Mar 2020, 10:12

@TessaW Hey tessa! Thanks, that's some great advise. I had been wondering about text and I think you're right, I might go through and remove that.
Thanks for remembering my bear piece XD I wasn't sure if it was all that strong, but with the current layout I have a space free again so I might reinclude it with some alterations...

Pencil textures are featuring more and more in my work so i hope with time my portfolio will become more textured and book-friendly

You might be right about B&W! I alwyas think of colour as my strength, but you're right that my subject matter probably works better for middle grade.

@xin-li

wooh! Good luck with your applications, your work has really stood out to everyone for a while now so it's only a question of time until you make a total breakthrough That's a really cool way of thinking of applying to agents. I'm not sure my inner-imposter could be shut up like that, but it's really good to remember how true that is. They are making money off their artists too after all.

xin li · 4 Mar 2020, 10:41

@Nathalie-Kranich I guess almost everyone who takes art seriously has an inner-imposter. I have been listening to podcasts where many very established artists still struggle with the inner-imposter. I think the imposter monster is here to stay, and it will probably never leave. But we can somehow learn to live with it somehow. I try very hard to remind myself that I am not alone feeling this way, and I am not alone on this art journey.