Portfolio help

Griffin McPherson

@Nyrryl-Cadiz totally agree about that narrative pieces! That’s my main focus going forward with portfolio pieces. I also definitely see myself fitting into middle grade and young adult market better. I tend to enjoy stories that are a bit darker and more serious.

Kind of makes me feel torn because I want to create pictures books because that’s the format I love but the types of stories I enjoy telling are more for young adults or even just adults. Now I’m wondering if I should revaluate making a children’s book portfolio altogether

KatrinaF

Griffin. I think several of your pieces should go in your portfolio. I'd even suggest tweaking the brown cabin and snowy house to add characters and a story. Those are great. I also love the robot running off without his hand and the elf in the library. Like many others have already said you need characters interacting.

Cheers
Katrina

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Griffin you could do both. Your current pieces look more suited for older audience so you might start from square one if you want to build a children’s book portfolio in my opinion. It doesn’t have to be big. Even just 8 pieces will do.

Griffin McPherson

@Nyrryl-Cadiz 8 for a portfolio? I thought they’re supposed to be between 15 and 25 pieces. Or do you mean a portfolio that is a mix of children’s book and YA illustrations?

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Griffin not really. As long as they are of good quality, you can start with less. Most illustrators would recommend 12. I say 8 coz 12 can still seem daunting. 8 can be a good number to start. And you can add more to it as you go on

Edit: yes, this is only for a children’s book portfolio. You can start with 8 and build it up as you go

Griffin McPherson

@Nyrryl-Cadiz as it is right now, what pieces do you think could stay (if any) and/or what pieces could work if I added character interactions to them? Thanks for your helpful advice as always!

Griffin McPherson

@ArtistErin thanks! Interesting to hear what stands out to you in my style. Hard to notice one’s own tendencies so that can be insightful!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Griffin I think you can tweak the background ones. Anyway, I suggest you create new pieces instead.

Griffin McPherson

@Nyrryl-Cadiz oh I’ll be making plenty of new ones, thanks!

Valerie Light

@Griffin I like your style, but as others have said, you need scenes with interaction and story between characters. And while I understand (and share!) your worry about style cohesion, I think you're well within range. Look at Jillian Tamaki's website for inspo there.

When I looked through your work, I thought 7, 15, and 16, were cute but not standouts. Mainly because they mostly seemed to be saying the same thing. If you added a piece with, say, a few ghosties having dinner with 2 kids in a house, or something, you'd be on your way to some sequential narrative pieces that help tie things together.

1, 2, and 3 clearly go together in a narrative, but I think swapping one of them for a scene with character interaction might be a great addition.

I think 5, 11, 12, 13, 14 are a good basis to build from. And where's that cool Joe Todd Stanton guy from your Insta?

Griffin McPherson

@Valerie-Light maybe I’ll add that guy in! I posted this before making that drawing. That’s a great point about some of the pieces "saying the same thing". I think each piece should have a distinct feeling in a portfolio, otherwise it’s sort of wasted space. I’d never even thought about the fact that I never really illustrate character interactions until I got the responses from this post so I’m glad that I did. An overarching sort of theme in my work for years has been solitude, often just individual characters in a story that’s just their own. I don’t want to abandon those kind of illustrations entirely but I see that they’re not fitting for a children’s book portfolio. Another angle is that maybe I can do some illustrations that are just individual characters but they’re interacting more heavily with the world around them.