A portion of an illustrators time needs to be allocated to portfolio work, that is the creation of work that demonstrates to particular clients that you understand and have unique solutions to their problems.
You’re reading the Daily Edition of Ten Minute Artist, if you prefer getting Weekly Editions you can adjust your setting here.
The Lag Effect
I was producing portfolio work for 2 years before getting my first book client. Towards the end of those two years I was least for ideas, and started reaching out to many illustrators more experienced them myself. One of them told me to keep going and that when the work starts coming in it comes like an avalanche.
And indeed it was an avalanche , so much so that I slowed down my portfolio work to the point I made very little altogether. Still the work kept coming in, there is a lag effect, but if you don’t keep up with the portfolio work eventually things quiet down.
I’ve seen this happen with many illustrators where they get so busy and neglect the portfolio work until the work almost dries up, then they ramp it up again, and the cycle repeats.
The thing about illustrators that don’t have feast and famine cycles is that they actively keep up with the portfolio work, in addition to doing side gigs that also serve as a kind of portfolio work.
What is Portfolio Work (verb)
Portfolio work is not just creating work to put on you website, It’s getting to know the people who hire illustrators and what they are looking for. And it’s presenting your personality and point of view by creating the in between pieces, that show the process and storytelling that helps art directors know you and not just the work.
Very often I notice this is done through autobiographical comics, newsletters, blogs…but it’s also done through skillful intentional use of social media.
The latter being the go to place people look for illustrators.
It’s also the place illustrators themselves mainly hate to use to promote their work. And the reason is that we can focus too much on the platform itself and not about the work.
Like oh, I need to make a Reel, or I need to Post a Story.
As I restart my season of making portfolio work a more regular part of my practice, I need to become conscious of not falling into the trap of making work for the platform, instead, I’m just going to make work… playful work lead by curiosity.
I’m going to focus on the joy of making things, And then I’m going to share them.
I drew this comic as i was thinking about what to share on social media, you need to be doing work behind the scenes in order to share behind the scenes work, so I’m glad I have been doing the work in the past week.
Instagram Stories
I might be late to the party, but I recently learned that instagram stories is the part of instagram that goes mostly to your own followers, which means it’s also the most fun place to be in as an illustrator who follows lots of other illustrators and creative people, because when I’m in there all i see is what the people I’m interested are doing, and I can react to that and strike up a conversation.
It’s also the easiest low stakes way to share things.
And the kinds of things to share on stories are:
Services you have to offer
Behind the scenes stuff
For all the ‘bad stuff’ meta is doing… stories is a place where you really can see what other artist are doing, and connect 1-1, so I’ll be kicking off my return to portfolio work by posing to stories. If you want to follow that this is my instagram
TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT
Art I Made Last Week (month, year)
I’m not going to ask you to post on instagram, but I’m going to ask you to think about some of the recent work you made, or art that lights you up and make a 4 panel comic.
Step 1: Draw 4 boxes
Step 2: Browse your phone or memory for recent things you made or saw that interest you, draw the thing and write about it.
You can also document the steps of making the comic, to give you a few extra pieces of ‘content’. Trust me it’s interesting to look at the desk and minds of other artist we all want to see it.
This is an exercise to think about the things you could share but the comic itself is something you could share to help people learn more about you.
Share yours in the gallery!
💼 Portfolio work is such a big and important topic, I created a chat for anyone who wants to explore the topic more deeply.
PS: I make this newsletter because I want to make art everyday. And I want as many people who share that desire to have the ability to do that too. Liking, commenting and sharing help this newsletter reach more people, do it for the people :)