What do you think are your strengths as an artist?
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Imagine you are meeting with an art director and they ask you to tell them in a few words or single sentence - what your strengths are as an artist? What would you tell them about yourself?
Think about what it is that makes your art uniquely yours.
And remember - this is what you feel are your current strengths. Sure we can all keep improving but I am asking you to provide only the positive things about yourself and your work here!
And go.........
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Mine would probably be the idea. Like adding humour to something or thinking about something in a unique light. I know that's more the nebulous thought process rather than technique or anything.
Anyway... you can't get away free... what's your strength?
Ace
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Difficult question... I can handle a paintbrush really well. I can work fast. I am passionate about my work. My illustrations are to become cheerfully happy.
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@Leontine I completely agree it is challenging (for me at least). This question came up at my local SCBWI Illustrators monthly meeting on Saturday as we were discussing prepping portfolios for the one day conference event coming up in November.
And several of the people there could easily list a few things that they thought were their strengths or represented what they are best at illustrating.
Where as I was sitting there not able to readily decide - because my work/style etc still seems to be a bit all over the place. I came home and was looking at my website and most of my pieces shown all look completely different and it gave me a wake up call on what I need to do for my portfolio (and updates to my site once those pieces are done).
But I was still over analyzing what I would say about my own work. And that is when I thought I would pose this question to our group to see if it might helps others take a higher level look at their work as well.
So after all that is said I would say my strengths are: I am great to work with, I am best suited for children's themes and books and I love to use color!
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This is a hard one for me as well. Its so much easier to point out weaknesses! As far as work goes I always make sure to get stuff in on time and, on the rare occasions when I can't make that happen, let them know ahead of time. So that is good as far as it goes I guess. I guess I also think really well in shapes, which is hard to translate into terms non-artists can understand.
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I know what the answer needs to be if you want to be a successful illustrator. It comes down to this simple idea:
"You need to be able to effectively and creatively meet the needs of the client or job at hand." This is why the 3rd tuesday prompts are so good. It's easy to make cool illustrations if there is no criteria. It's hard to do it well while hitting a concept.
Things that reinforce that are:
- Think carefully about what is needed in any given situation. You are able to adapt to the situation and still get a result that resonates
- Experience and working in a team environment
- Offering multiple choices to the client that all work
- A willingness to work with others to get the best solution. A willingness to revise to get a good result.
Things that don' matter to a client (these are things that I hear a lot from students when they are entering the field):
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I really LOVE to draw
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I've been drawing since I was 2 years old.
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You are willing to do whatever they want (they are looking for someone who comes up with solutions, not someone to dictate commands to).
