Using this one to experiment with style a little bit
It's very long so you might have to click to see the whole thing

So I got carried away and did this in a day...

Adding another book cover illustration to my portfolio.

Hey everyone! Just joined and this is my first time posting. Going to try and do the challenge every month

Technically drew this at the end of June but never posted it. So here's some strawberry picking for you!

Submitting this cover again and another illustration from the story

Book cover project I'm working on for a local publisher here in Montreal.

Full bleed version:

Trim size with rough type mockup:

Hey! New student for the new year Here are some of my recent portfolio pieces

Montreal, Canada!

@Lynniesketches Haha, I was wondering if it was them because the phrasing you mentioned sounded like the same contract. Yeah I signed with them honestly I've talked to Deborah on the phone and Ana over email and they both seem super nice but nothing much has happened with them yet (it's been a few months). They're currently updating their website which is somewhat outdated so I think they're waiting to have that up and running before they do any serious promotion. But it should be up soon now so I wouldn't worry much in your case. I've also talked to a few other artists that Deborah represents and they seem to love her!

That depends on what you personally want to exclude but I can share what I wrote when I signed with my agency. Since my agent primarily focuses on children's publishing and doesn't have many connections outside of that, I excluded everything unrelated to children's publishing. I also listed specific examples for other areas I want to work in, such as sale of prints and original work, as well as pattern design and art licensing. Hope this helps!

@K-Flagg Same! I tried making a separate account for another style that I do and was locked out of that account, which still has my name and looks super unprofessional since it's out of use. If I try to sign it, it just signs into my main one since I made them with the same email address I tried contacting Instagram just to be able to delete it but I haven't gotten any answer and at this point it's been years

@NessIllustration Your portfolio looks great! I think there are quite a few pieces but if you don't want to remove any, that's up to you. I don't feel like it's a ridiculous amount and it's still pretty easy for people to scroll through or just gravitate towards the pieces they like best.

As for whether you should include things that you don't like drawing? My response would be no. Whatever you put in your portfolio is the kind of work you're going to get. The only reason to include a variety of subject matter is because it increases the potential projects you can get, but it's not worth it if those are not the projects you want! And in my experience, whenever I force myself to draw something that I'm not enjoying, it usually doesn't come out very well. You already can clearly draw lots of stuff that has a place in the market so leave the robot books to people like Jake who love to do that specifically!

Anyway, your work looks great and I think you're ready to be sending out some more emails

@Georgios-Christopoulos I agree that I like the composition of the second one better. As for readability, I think the line breaks do affect how people read it but it this case it just seems like the "pauses" make it more dramatic. So I don't feel like it takes away from the meaning. It just forces the reader to kind of feel that "slow-mo" feeling in the middle of the action scene which I think is the point

@xin-li Yeah, I agree that value design is very important, and the area with the most contrast definitely makes a natural focal point. I like doing very detailed illustrations with lots of little elements and patterns so value contrast and colour contrast are super important for readability and not making the image too busy.

Although I suppose there are exceptions to every rule. Like if the character was meant to look more like a silhouette? But I guess in that case it should be the darkest thing and create contrast in that way. And sometimes there are 2 or multiple focal points in an image but that can be hard to pull off. I'd say that these rules are important to learn as a guideline but at the end of the day, you have to use the tools that are most important for the image.

@Jacy13 I think the limit is how much the forum will let you upload but you should easily be able to save jpg for web that would be smaller, by reducing the artwork size or resolution

@xin-li Interesting exercise. I think about composition and framing a lot in my work and I personally think that's improved in your versions. The first one especially, since the characters are so small in the frame. For the Heikala one, I think your edits do improve readability and make her silhouette stand out but I agree with @ajillustrates that it changes the mood a bit, since part of the atmosphere was to have an overall dark image. If the artist wanted the character to blend in with the background and feel like part of the storm, then I think that was achieved. I personally prefer the contrast so if I wanted it to stay dark and moody, I would have maybe made purple clouds behind her instead of making them look lighter and happier, but keep the desired separation and silhouette.

@carolinebautista Thanks!

@Coley Thanks!