Our guest post today comes from established Children's Book Artist Donald Wu.  Don is a San Francisco Bay resident with a huge portfolio of success under his arm that includes more than ten published books to date. If anyone can tell you what it takes to be successful and stay successful it's him! So please join us as Donald helps to walk you through putting together the most important  tool you'll need to establish yourself and start getting work, your portfolio!

Every now and again, I get asked the question, "What should I put in my portfolio?".  So, I wanted to take a moment and share some tips and suggestions you might consider when putting together an illustration portfolio. Specifically, a portfolio of illustrations catering to children's publishing; although websites and social media play an ever-increasing role in promoting your work, having a physical portfolio will still come in handy the next time you attend a nearby illustration conference or if you find yourself lucky enough to be given some face time with an art director. So let's get started...

First off, let's get the basics out of the way; a typical portfolio should contain anywhere from 12 to 15 images, bound in a nice, clean, and simple, 8" x 11" portfolio. The thing to remember is this: showcase work and talent, so the portfolio itself should NOT distract or compete with the artwork. So rule of thumb ...keep it simple! Be sure to include pocket at the back of the portfolio with postcards and/or business card for someone to take.

Now for the most important parts of any portfolio, the ARTWORK! Here are a few key points to remember:

    
• Order & Pacing: Typically, a portfolio should open with a sample of your best work! The point of this is pretty obvious, you want to WOW your viewer and grab their attention right from the start. Once you have it, it's a matter of sustaining that interest throughout the entire portfolio. To achieve this, you want to space your artwork out evenly and build a rhythm between some of your good/solid pieces and some great/better pieces. And to end it on a high note, you'll want to include another one of your best illustrations. Ideally, this will leave them with a lasting impression of your work, or even better still, leave them wanting more!Below is a quick diagram to better illustrate this. One thing you will notice is that depending on the quality and the number of pieces in your portfolio, as well as the fact that you will be constantly update your portfolio, we will have some variations, but the basic structure should still be followed.
  
  

    
• Consistency of Quality: Your portfolio is only as good as it's weakest piece. So if you have an illustration that you are not sure about, it's best to leave it out. To a potential client, a weak piece will also have the potential of leaving a lasting impression, but for all the wrong reasons. Your portfolio should only contain your best work, so in some cases, less is more. So remember, even if it means a thinner portfolio, only include work that you are actually proud to show off.


• Consistency of Style: Along with demonstrating a consistent quality of work, you also want to define a consistent style in your art as well. A big mistake you can make is filling your portfolio with work in several different styles and techniques. Below are several scenarios someone might decide to do this with their portfolio. In each case, first, I'll give the rationale behind these choices followed by reasons why you shouldn't.
  
  
  
  1. By showing a wide range of styles, there is a belief that you are showing the art directors that you are versatile and capable of handling multiple mediums and styles. Instead, what ends up happening is that you'll leave them thinking, "What kind of art will I expect if I hire you?" And this is not what is desired.  
  
  
  2. By including a portfolio with different styles, you are hoping this will help you land more jobs because you are in essence casting a wider net. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that you are also diluting your portfolio in the process. So instead of having a full portfolio of 12 solid pieces highlighting your individual style, you are only able to show potential clients 4 or 5 pieces. This will make it more difficult for them to accurately assess your skills and make them reluctant to hire you.
  
  
  3. Let's face it, sometimes you just need a filler. You might run into a case of simply not having the number of illustrations to fill up your portfolio. So you decide to round out the 12 pieces with an illustration that's different just to bulk up your numbers. The thing to remember is that any capable art director will see right through this as well, which will lead to them to question your experience. And just as bad, this misplaced illustration will stick out like a sore thumb and disrupt the flow to the rest of your portfolio.
  
  
  
  At the end of the day, the person looking at your art needs to be able to associate your name with your work. So the clearer and simpler you make it for them and yourself, the better.
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Content: The next area I want to cover, I also feel is the most important, and that is the kind of illustrations you should showcase. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty...
  
  
  
  1. Children: Seeing that we are creating a portfolio for children's publishing, naturally, a huge majority of our time will be spent drawing and painting children. So knowing the subject matter will be crucial! From sad to happy, or surprise to shock, being able to convey children with emotion and life will be an important part to master. This means that your portfolio should not only cover a diversity of races, gender, and ages of children, but you can also cover a variety of situations and scenarios a child can relate to.
  
  
  2. Animals: Aside from drawing children, in this business, you will also be asked to draw lots of animals. So in your portfolio, it would be beneficial to include some animals as well. This can be your more realistic and lifelike animals to your more anthropomorphic variety.
  
  
  3. Make Believe: Fairy tales and the fantastical play a big part in children's publishing, so it would be a natural choice to include them in your portfolio. However, here's a caveat for those who decide to illustrate a popular one, and that is the risk of it being generic or cliche. Personally, I feel that unless you can introduce something new to the table, or add your unique twist to a classic, I would stay clear of them. Instead, you should use the opportunity to show off your creativity, and imagine your very own fairy tale.
  
  
  4. Storytelling: In children's publishing, a big aspect of what we do is tell stories with pictures, and so your portfolio should reflect this. Your illustrations should tell a story. The bulk of your illustrations should include work that shows a characters interacting with either their surroundings or with each other. You should limit posed, glamour shot or pin-up type of illustrations. In other words, focus on the illustrations you would find inside the pages of a children's book and not so much on the illustrations you would see on the cover.
  
  
  5. Continuity: Another part of telling stories with pictures also involves being able to demonstrate continuity. So a good addition to your portfolio would be to include a couple of illustrations (no more than 2-3) that shows you can handle a series of sequential illustrations involving the same character(s).
  
  
  6. Licensed Characters: Lastly, this seems pretty obvious but you should definitely avoid using licensed characters in your portfolio. Unless you look really good in strips or bright orange, just stick to your own original work. Not only would you be coming across as unprofessional, this too, is another missed opportunity to show that you can be creative, by inventing your own original characters.
  
  
  
  When deciding on the content of your portfolio, the best advice I can give you is to make the most of each illustration.  You are limited by the number of illustrations, so each and every selection becomes all the more important when trying to make a good impression. Be deliberate and even strategic about what ends up in your portfolio. A solid, well-rounded portfolio will show potential clients that you can do a job, and do it well.
  
  

• Know Your Audience: Within children's publishing, there are lot of niches, so it's important to know who you are showing your portfolios to. From educational, to religious, to trade publishers, each one of these publishing sectors have their own requirements and preferences. So do your homework and know what these clients are looking for, and then cater your portfolio to fit those needs.


• Updating Your Portfolio: It's a good idea to keep your portfolio current. As your work continues to evolve and mature, so too should your portfolio. While some pieces remain staples in your portfolio, others will be quickly be replaced. One thing to remember is to stay flexible depending on what's needed by the potential client.

 

OnceUponASketch is a Children’s Market Blog.

Norman Grock and Wilson Williams, Jr
have come together to give insight, education and news about the many
facets of the Children’s Illustration Market. From Children’s Books to
Character Design, Storyboarding, Toys and Lic. Products. Find articles,
interviews and resources to help fuel your education and growth. Jump on
to learn more about the varied industries and what it takes to become
successful and make it in them.

how cool would it be if you could buy a book of all your favourites from DA?!

or say you could buy a 50 page book, or 100 page book, and just pick your favourite favourites to be in it?

and if one of your images was included in another deviant's book, then you'd receive a little bit if money; so if you were in lots of deviant's books, you'd get some good money, which would be sweet!

and DA would make nice profits on it and maybe make the site ever hotter than it already is!

^{(but you could also have the option not to be included in people's books!)}

if you like the idea, and think you'd buy a book of your favourites, fav this article!

marty

Thinking outside the box can be tough.


of the [link](Romantically Apocalyptic) comic, presents a tutorial on how to think outside the box to create/publish your own comic, if no publisher has discovered your work and joo want to get into the comic industry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step one: STORY and ART
Comic gota have a CATCHY story- come up with one, or collaborate with a writer.
Where to find a writer? Browse through stories category on DA- if anything pleases yours senses and has lots of appreciation, contact them!
If you are a writer- you can find artists who love collaborations on here as well- there's millions of student artists on this site who are interested in comic collabs, but for this your story must be solid and already popular material standing out as a written piece on it's own.
(Extra note: if you're a comic artist and want to get hired in the industry, don't set the bar low- calculate your page rate and your hourly wages well, don't work for below minimum wage!)
If anyone asks you for "page rate"- google current page rates in the industry! Don't work for pennies.

In comics good humour, solid art and simplicity are key.
You have to release comic pages at a quick rate. The faster- the better for promotion and popularity of the comic itself.

To be a success, comic generally needs:
a)well executed art (example: "the meek")
b)have great humour (examples: "explosm", "xkcd")
c)Connect with viewers on a sexy/cute/emotional level
d)relate to a huge popular topic with a huge audience such as computer games/board games/popular events, etc (example: "penny arcade", "ctrl atl del", "goblins")

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GETTING IT OUT THERE:
Create a simple website for your comic- collaborate with a programmer or use a pre-built comic code if you are lacking in knowledge of html.
Simply google "making a comic website", and a whole bunch of most recent sites will come up that offer free comic hosting to comic artists.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR COMIC:
Post your comic book pages one by one on deviantart- gather fans!

Get on comic lists like:
[link]
[link]

Start threads in MOST POPULAR art/design/general forums such as conceptart.org or 4chan
Just google popular forums and post your comic pages in a single thread, until the said thread gets thousands of views.
If your comic becomes a meme, you're in business!

Create a facebook, twitter account, myspace page!

Invest in ads:
google ads, www.projectwonderful.com ads, any kind of ads that are cheap and will reach a mass audience.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for a publisher. Google local publishers or try:
[link]
Write as many publishers as possible, don't give up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Printing it yourself:
To print the comic yourself, you gota invest moneys and have existing audience to sell the comic to + have confidence that you will sell the comic + have time to ship the comic/hire someone to do it/use a service that prints and ships the comic with an in-built store such as lulu.

www.lulu.com LULU costs quite a bit per comic but offers GREAT quality of books and an online store. All you have to do is know how to make a pdf file for the comic.


[link] Kablam. Cheap prices, but low paper quality, thin paper(won't work for high detail comics)

[link] comics express. Cheap printing cost, mild quality of product.

[link] medium prices, great quality of customer service, great quality of books

...OR you could go to local print shops and ask for quotes, but generally local print shops are bitches and will want you to buy 1000 books for the price to be anywhere worth it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Selling the comic:
Your best chance for selling the comic yourself is at comic conventions or anime cons, a place where people come to buy new comics. (It doesn't matter that your art isn't anime by the way)
A comic con table costs about from 70-400 dollars, but it's your best chance at seeing who really buys your comic.
You can split a table with another comic artist, if you fear that the price is high, or even split a booth between 5 comic book artists!
Booths cost 1000+ dollars at New York comicon for example.


Getting into a comic book store is improbable if your comic is unknown, as the industry in very tightly controlled and comic book shops buy from a specific distribution company (Diamond in Canada, for example):
[link]
You can also try calling comic book shops yourself and trying to convince them to buy a couple of of your comics, but that's tough work, and you gota be VERY convincing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't forget to +fav this article if you enjoyed the informative informations within.


Also, this being interactive news- Leave a comment on HOW you would promote/print/sell a comic!

(Short) History and Art of Children's Book Illustration

Children's Book Illustration would be defined like any type of picture or decorative work produced for books specifically intended for a youthful audience. This article tend to give people a large idea of what is children's book illustration. I'm not going into details, but speaking a bit about what we do (illustrators) is another step to recognize that our job is an entire form of Art.

Also, this article will be added to the library of our deviantART group *childrensillustrators

A short History of Children's Book Illustrations.

+ The beginning.

Although children's literature had its beginnings in the early seventeenth century, with books intended to teach rather than to amuse, it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that books intended specifically for children books began to emerge. By the nineteenth century there was an established market for children's books and a need for illustrators of these books. George Cruickshank was perhaps the best known illustrator in Britain in the early nineteenth century. His work included illustrations for the first English edition of Brothers Grimm's fairy tales.

Most illustrated books produced in the early years of the nineteenth century contained wood engravings; By the 1860s colour printing was in widespread use. Chromolithography had been used some time but the images printed in this way were often garish and unappealing, and, later, the introduction of photographic processes had a significant impact on illustration.

A further technical development was the introduction of offset printing, a commercial variation of the lithographic process, in the 1920s. Offset printing offered several advantages : the reproduction of very fine lines, a wide variety of paper stock could be used and original artwork did not have to be reversed prior to reproduction. Offset printing allowed for variations in the placement of text and illustration, resulting in an increased integration between image and text.

+ Today.

During the twentieth century the illustrated children's book emerged as an important component of the publishing industry. Improvements in print technology have made it possible for illustrators to work in a variety of different ways and the range of styles seen in illustrated children's books is immense. Children's Book Illustrators never had as many freedoms and possibilities of creation as today. Traditional approaches such as pen and ink, watercolour, paint and coloured pencil are popular, as are techniques such as collage and assemblage and the use of computer 'digital' generated imagery.

Children's Book Illustrators: who they are.

Children’s book illustrators have a difficult job. Unlike the artist who creates a self-contained piece, the illustrator works within the constraints of the "book." In a picture book, each illustration must respond to the story. While the artists may interpret and add details, it is not their job to retell a tale. At the same time, the illustrator is responsible for enhancing the story through visual clues. The artist also needs to layer the illustrations, so that each reading brings new visual discoveries.

Children's book illustrators may have a degree in illustration (Art institutes, Beaux-Arts, University...), or in "Art" in general. They also may be self-taught artists. In both cases, they are totally aware of the market, and they know how hard it is to convince a publisher, and to create, launch and promote a children's book. The most difficult part of the job is not the creation, nor to find some awesome ideas, but probably the "waiting phase". When you are waiting for the revisions the Art Director or publisher may ask you.

Working on a children's book.

_{exemple of steps you may encounter while working on a children's book.}



- A few personal question before starting anything: Think of the contract. What you want, what you absolutely don't want to do. How many pages / spreads is the story. What is the size of the pages. How many samples will I be provided. Deadline for first sketches. Deadline to see finals. Deadline for delivery... and a lot of other questions.

The planning phase is important and necessary.

- And here come the research phase, and the first sketches.
Then you submit your sketches to the publisher. Generally by e-mail. It's very important to provide them your sketches in good form. Good quality of jpeg or pdf files. Invite feedback from the publisher.

- You're now waiting (several days most of the time) for them and what they think of your work. It's the first damn waiting phase! grrr...

- They send you their thoughts. And they ask for some revisions. Sometimes you have to change everything and it's important to provide them as soon as possible some new sketches. Sometimes they like the piece, but they ask to change some minor details. You're lucky, you got it. Depending on the publisher, they can ask you 1, 2, 3,... 10 revisions. You must be able to say "stop" when needed.

- Working on finals. The best part of the job if you want my opinion. You add colors on your sketches.

- Submitting Finals.

- Another waiting phase... for approval. Sometimes this can take some time (one week in most of my assignments). Your work has to be reviewed by a lot of people, and it's a good thing.

- New revisions, but very rarely at this stage. They may ask you to change a color or two, not important things.

- Waiting phase..

- It's ok. You'll have to send them your illustrations, via FTP or postal services. And that’s it! Now you have to wait to see your books published. Often this can take several months.

- Don't forget to ask for payment (;

- Promote your new baby!


As I said, this is only some examples. Each illustrator may work in a different way than another one. These are steps I always encounter when I work.

-----

I hope this little article has helped you to understand a bit more our world. I also hope that the dear members of *childrensillustrators will appreciate.

If you are interested in joining us, at *childrensillustrators, please send a note, entitled "join". Talk a bit about yourself and your attraction to children's book illustration. You must be a children's book illustrator or a wannabe to join us. You must have a great amount of children's book illustrations in your deviantART gallery.


[ sources:
Charles Sturt University, Wikipedia]