Episode Details

3PP 29 Curating Your Portfolio

New class that launches this month!
Gina Lee’s Art Licensing Class: Part 2. She has artwork that she is still making money from, thousands of dollars, that she made in college, that is getting printed on bags, shower curtains, etc. If you want to learn how to do that, check that out at SVSLearn.com!

Because Will has his Youtube Channel, does this podcast, and teaches for SVS Learn, he often gets asked a lot to give people portfolio reviews.

Handout: A list of 100+ things to include in your children’s book portfolio, at the bottom of the show notes.

Portfolio Reviews

The main thing that Will will ask people when giving them a portfolio review is: “What type of work do you want to get?”
And he will normally get one of two responses:
I don’t know, I just want to work as an artist in some illustration market.
More specific: I want to do [comics, children’s books, graphic novels, or animation.]

Advice for people who don’t know: if you don’t know what market you want to go into, then there is no way you can make a portfolio that will please an art director and make them want to hire you. Art directors are pretty literal.
If you think that you are good at rendering, then you may think that you could draw anything well, and that the art director will recognize that because you showed your rendering prowess. That is not the case, you have to show it!

It really is so specific. Whatever you show, literally, that’s the thing you will be asked to do.
If you have a couple of illustrations with chickens in them, then you may become known as the chicken guy!

You as an artist know that if you can draw a human figure well, then you can draw just about anything. But that’s not how art directors see it. Art director’s have to protect their reputation. This is their career and they want to be well known and respected, and someday become creative directors. They don’t want a curveball. They will usually go for the sure bet.

You Need a Business Plan

Lee often asks the same question as Will: “What type of work do you want to get?”
That question says: How are you going to be in business? It drives the image and everything else: who the market is? how the market pays? how you get paid? how many illustrations you have to do in a month? how images are licensed? how the pay structure works? do you know how the business works and which direction you want to go in this business? Etc. This is important stuff to research and know ahead of time.

So essentially, when asking, “What type of work do you want to get?” We are asking, “What’s your business plan?”

This is a business and you need to have a business plan.

If you are at the point where you are trying to get work, it is vital that you understand this.
For example: You need to be able to say, “I’m going to work in editorial illustration, focused on these markets..., I want to work with these magazines…., and this is the type of work that they are doing.. Here’s my work and how it fits in there...” And then as a critiquer, we could tell you, “I would recommend, you take these 4 images and make them into post card mailers and send them out, and then alternate them monthly with this email marketing plan…”

The more focused and specific you are, the better advice and critique you will be able to receive.

A business plan is an evaluation of the current market and your particular direction.
Who’s getting work right now? Where is the majority of the work being hired? Are the rates going up or down? Who are your main competitors? What do you have that they don’t have? What’s you