State of the Union - Post 6

Review your responses to the above questions. What sort of an illustrator are you?

Besides an overly wordy one?

It seems pretty clear that I’m someone who’s on a completely different career trajectory than...well...I'm thinking most everyone else, I guess...but as far as the questions go, it appears that I’m definitely leaning in the direction of the stay-at-home freelancing of children’s book writing and art, book cover art in general, and/or greeting card art and/or writing…no surprise there. I’m an artist with some life limitations, who’s immensely interested in the story that inspires the art, and an artist who derives great pleasure from the fact that art can inspire emotion in people. I think doing freelance work for one, or even all three of these particular markets might be a good fit for me.

What sort of career do you want to have?
My dream career would be one as a rocking children’s book illustrator and writer, with time left over to do some personal painting, and maybe travel, but if that didn't happen overnight, illustrating for children's magazines, smaller print magazines, online magazines, and/or greeting card companies is something I'd like to look into (in the meantime, I'm doing pet portraits whenever I'm up to it), and I'd still like to try to make room for illustrating my own writing.

Because of the challenges I face with my less-than-healthiness, my intention when I started school was to hone the skills that I had and acquire new ones, so that I could do some sort of freelance work, strictly from home. Since the the health situation hasn’t changed, and is maybe getting worse, that’s still my goal. I didn’t originally have a specific art career in mind, I just wanted to find something I enjoyed...something that I had talent for, something that despite my physical limitations, I could actually do, that might help me to become a little less destitute, and at least a small part of the world-at-large, again. I declared Illustration as my major because I’ve had a lifelong interest in children’s book art, book cover illustrations, and to a lesser degree, greeting card designs; Illustration seemed to be an agreeable amalgam of Fine Arts and Design Arts, and it appeared to be a more financially practical path than Painting or Surface Design.

Does your present body of work reflect your aspirations?
Not completely.
After looking at everything two or three or four or five times, I think there are some pieces that might actually appeal to a children's book, book cover art, or greeting card market. I think the shortcomings of my body of work are...first...about the quality of the work—I need to show better skills, and after that, the types of work, and then the number of pieces in the portfolio.

Could it do so more strongly?
Absolutely.
I’ve been happy with many of the ideas that I’ve come up with for my assignments. That being said, at the very least, I don’t believe my present body of work is accurately indicative of my painting and drawing skills. I know that I’m better than what I’ve produced, at least as far as some of the work I’ve done in my Illustration classes, goes. I’m slow, and much of the time my completed pieces either look unfinished, or hurried, or both, and not in a good way. I think in many instances, I had solid, workable (maybe even potentially salable ideas to the right demographic and market); I even managed to come up with a couple of pretty good ideas once in awhile, and my preliminary drawings weren’t bad. In the end, however, the quality of my final pieces was often not what I’d hoped for. Looking back over my body of work…again, mostly from my Illustration classes…I’m not miserably disappointed with what I’ve done, but my portfolio definitely needs to be stronger and more substantial than it is now. There are just a few pieces that I'd be pretty comfortable showing to a prospective client, since the idea is to actually impress and attract them with my work, but I think that...over a period of time...several of the pieces could be reworked, or even redone from the original drawings, to add strength to my portfolio. It certainly wouldn't hurt to do some new pieces with a target audience in mind, either, and I'd like to offer as much variety as I can. Though the work I’ve done in Illustration has never widely appealed to the peer group, I’m certain that there’s an audience out there for my ideas and my ways of creating, it’s just a matter of finding that market, and then doing whatever I can do, to produce work that meets both my standards and the clients’.


List ten images/themes/techniques/subjects/formats that your portfolio needs in order to become more in line with your aspirations.Besides the rework of some of what I've got,
1. illustrations based on my writing, because I don't have any.

2. a greeting card or two or three

3. something in a happy, colorful, fun style that's specifically aimed at kids; I don't think many of my pieces set a mood or elicit emotion from a viewer the way I'd like for them to.

4. something in a quirky, darker style to contrast with the happy, colorful, fun stuff, but still kid-friendly. I actually prefer darker-themed pieces, but I don't have any.

5. water - I've not done much water; what I did do, I didn't do well.

6. flora and fauna - I don't have many animals or plants in my illustrations. I don't think the dogs in my portraits count, because they're much more realistic than my illustrations.

7. photo collage - I've only used photo collage for an Illustration piece, once. More and more it's being used on book covers, though not always well.

8. ink - I only have one piece in ink, & it's a silhouette.

9. watercolor - I don't think I have any watercolor illustrations, & it seems to be popular medium with the children's book crowd, plus, I have a looser style with watercolor.

10. better, more consistent values in my painting