But there is one answer to what you should put in your portfolio on which all art buyers should agree. Good art. No matter what your visual handwriting is—from realism to abstract art—it must be done well.
Show that you can convey a feeling or a narrative with a strong understanding of your medium. Building a portfolio is like gardening. Do you scatter every kind of seed around, in the hope that something grows?
You meticulously plan. You learn what you can and cannot grow. You read about companion planting tomatoes love cucumbers. You weigh your research against what you want to eat. And then, you plant seeds in measured rows—designed for optimal growth and accessibility. You water, fertilize, prune.
Some plants thrive. Some die. You tell people about your garden. You gauge their interest. You tell tomato people about your tomatoes, and cucumber people about your cucumbers. And the answers, again, vary. In a freelance life already so fraught with uncertainty, it would be nice to have concrete answers. But the truth is that the world of illustration is steeped in subjectivity.
What one art director says is up, another art director will say is down. Illustrators who can create art in several different ways give themselves a better shot at success. Remember our garden? The more diverse your crop, the more opportunity for a sale. Then do that one thing. They each have their own needs, experiences, and ideas. For your website, which can be divided into separate sections, sure!
In it you will see a variety of styles. You see similarities between them, but he approaches illustration from several unique angles. The benefit of having a website is that it makes you seem more professional and creates a great first impression on the client because it shows that you have invested efforts in creating a website.
However, not everyone has the time or money to create a website , so you can opt-in for a third party platform to host your portfolio. These websites allow artists to display their design work in an organized and professional manner by creating a profile. Here are some of the popular ones:. Your style gets different, your way of working, and the outcome becomes different. Displaying everything will confuse them and may reduce the chances of closing the client.
Instead, focus on your best pieces, and include a description of the work along with it. Explain your process of working, the challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and even client testimonials. That will build trust and credibility because, along with your work, now they know about your backend process too. Having an unorganized and cluttered portfolio is not the kind of first impression you want to make on a prospective client.
Wherever you host your portfolio, be it your website or a third party website like Behance, make sure you organize your work neatly. You can even categorize them as per industry or any other measure you deem fit and which might help the client navigate through your portfolio. The quality of your portfolio matters as much as the work displayed in it, so spend time neatly stacking your portfolio. Ultimately, clients always go for the option which impresses them the most.
Camps for Teens Camps for Kids. Online Workshops. Youth Online Workshops. Study Abroad. Would you get enough clients to earn a steady living? Therefore, you should err on the side of the work that seems more marketable to you. Just know that you might have to carve out and create your own niche until the rest of the world catches up.
There are a lot of illustrators out there, so you need to look through your work and see why what you have to offer is different from everyone else. It could be style, viewpoint, sensibility, etc. Whatever it is, make sure that thing comes through in your portfolio and eliminate work that seems derivative. Finally, the last thing you may want to consider when uploading work to your site is your intended audience. Editing your portfolio is one of the hardest things to do when it comes to promoting your work.
You have to be able to step back and look at your art objectively, without any personal attachments, and trim off all the fat. Illustration reps can be great allies for illustrators.
0コメント