Do character pose sheets belong in portfolios?
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I feel like I’ve been taught to believe that the only types of illustrations that should be in a children’s book portfolio are illustrations that you would see in an actual book be it a picture book, chapter book, or graphic novel. So should we not have character pose sheets that show a characters different expressions and some different poses? I feel like it makes sense to have them in a portfolio but I’ve also never heard of them being included in a portfolio unless it’s for animation or concept art.
I’m currently enrolled with an illustration coach and they said I should have some character studies in my portfolio but I was just a bit confused by this because I’d never heard anyone mention that for portfolios before. -
@Griffin-McPherson I'm also curious to hear what people have to say about this, I've heard conflicting advice. For what it's worth, my agent sent me a document with some general portfolio advice when I first signed with them and one of the things they mentioned was including a character sheet. I used to have one in my portfolio but I took it out because I felt it didn't reflect my current ability skill-wise. I've been thinking I should replace it but, like you, I've heard they don't belong in children's book targeted folios.
This is just me musing... I'm thinking there's probably two different ways to approach a character design sheet. The animation geared ones often include a turnaround and a few up-close expressions. I'm thinking a children's book one should look more like a collection of spot illustrations. Mostly active full body poses and different expressions? I don't know if that helps at all?
Good luck with the illustration coaching!
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Maybe a way around this is to include a couple illustrations that use the same character so that you can show your ability to have consistent characters in different positions?
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@AngelinaKizz yeah I was wondering if that would make more sense. I’m going to be adding some graphic novel pages in my portfolio and I feel like that definitely achieves the same thing a character sheet would. I just hesitate to add a character sheet because I’ve heard people say that stuff like that can make an illustrator look like they don’t know what they’re doing in terms of what their portfolio is for. Is this a children’s book portfolio or an animation portfolio? I don’t want to give art directors that kind of impression
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@Griffin-McPherson just add a bit of story in them and i think it’ll be fine
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@Nyrryl-Cadiz Yes I agree with Nyrryl here, I'm in the same spot in developing my portfolio... so along with character sheets include the variations of situations in a setting that makes sense in a story form, with the same characters in all kinds of poses. This separates the animation from book illustration as far as focus.
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@Griffin-McPherson I've seen character sheets in a couple of pro-level children's book illustrator's portfolios. The way I've seen it that I think works the best is when they include character sketches that they did for a finished illustration. That shows off their ability to draw characters consistently, but also shows how they work that character into an environment. Multiple illustration with the same character also works well though, like graphic novel panels or spot illustration for a picture book, or even full spreads with repeating characters.
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@Anna-Lindsay said in Do character pose sheets belong in portfolios?:
This is just me musing... I'm thinking there's probably two different ways to approach a character design sheet. The animation geared ones often include a turnaround and a few up-close expressions. I'm thinking a children's book one should look more like a collection of spot illustrations. Mostly active full body poses and different expressions? I don't know if that helps at all?
I think this is very sound advice! Especially coupled with @Nyrryl-Cadiz's note about adding story.
