Just had my first SCBWI portfolio review & thought I'd share

Coreyartus

This weekend my local San Diego chapter is having a conference they call "MayFest". In normal times, it would be a day of workshops and panels and portfolio showings and such. This year, because of Covid, it's all online.

My 10-minute critique with Sarah Baker (Associate Executive Director of SCBWI) was beyond enlightening. She reviewed my previously uploaded 14-image portfolio PDF, and wrote what was called a "Gold Form" response I got to review the night before our brief Zoom chat.

It covered:

The positive aspects of the work
The elements that require attention and improvement
Notes on the overall presentation
Notes on continuity and consistency
Notes on subject matter
Notes on perspective and composition
Notes on marketability
Next Steps

Talk about enlightening. I was able to get clear, actionable items that I can work on and some sound advice from someone who has seen a LOT of portfolios come her way. I had no idea what to expect as I'd never done an illustration portfolio before, but the 3-Point-Perspective podcast on Building a Strong Portfolio really really helped. I still need to develop a larger body of work from which to select my best stuff, but because I knew what needed to be in it I was able to curate what I did have with a bit more specificity. It helped.

Our discussion was private, in a break-out room set up for us by a moderator who helped coordinate the whole thing, and while brief I was able to ask her questions and clarifications about her response, and because she's done so many of these things our time together was high quality octane.

Now that I've been through one of these, I look forward to going away and doing my homework and showing my stuff to someone else to get their opinion about things. It makes me much more confident to take advantage of the Office Hours when they are offered again.

I just wanted to rave about my particular experience and the results I got and encourage folks to give SCBWI a shot. I know it runs hot and cold depending on your particular area sometimes, but I feel like I got my money's worth this first year of being a member here in San Diego.

[As an aside, it's amazing the level of technological awareness that has been thrust on folks--many of them older and not necessarily "adept"--and how they've risen to the challenge. Zoom is a "thing". And it's getting wielded very well by a slew of noobies who never dreamed they'd have to learn anything like it. It's quite impressive and inspiring.]

aprilshin

Wow, what a great experience! Thank you for sharing it with us. I’m sure we’ll be seeing published books with your name on them very soon! ️

Jose A Nieto

Sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing mate! Keep it up

Leah Boulet

Congratulations! It sounds like a super experience for you!

Heather Boyd

@Coreyartus that's really encouraging for you and super helpful tip about keeping faces shown - I will remember that thanks.

Hillary Craig

This was super helpful, thanks for sharing! Beautiful work!