New Portfolio Images

It's time for spring cleaning - of my portfolio that is. I get busy and sometimes forget how outdated my portfolio has become. I also procrastinate because I have a terrible time trying to figure out which pieces should stay and which ones should go. I thought maybe other folks have the same problems, so I thought I'd share with you which ones that I've swapped out and the reasons why. There will be more updates to come, but what do you think so far? Did I make the right choices?

I decided to get rid of the shopping owl. The image is rather flat and the owl has very little expression or emotion. We have not idea what this owl is thinking. I think it's cute but not great...



I replaced it with this recent Illustration Friday piece which has a bit more drama and mystery...



Egyptian woman is gone. It didn't really didn't show my style or tell a story. Frankly I'm not sure why I had it in there to begin with...



And I replaced it with this sign language diagram. I've done a couple of these sign language pieces. This piece doesn't tell a story exactly but making sure the signs are correct and then trying to convey those in the simplest way possible can be a challenge...



The last one I decided to nix was piggy bank girl. I already had an egg head kid in my portfolio and I didn't think she was adding much. I thought the composition was boring and I actually liked the pig better than the girl...



I like doing silly cartoon characters, but more often I'm asked to portray figures more realistically, like this piece for High Five magazine...



The last one to go was the boy with the gears in his head. This was for an adult magazine article about keeping boys engaged in class. I like the concept behind this piece but I think it's more of an editorial illustration than a narative illustration...



So does this have a lot of narrative? Well story-wise it's not really that exciting. But it does show my style and I do get a lot of call for these simple black and white spot illustrations...

Comments

Really wonderful for you to share what goes and what stays in your portfolio....and it makes tons of sense.

Now if I can get my act together and do some cleaning of my portfolio myelf....
Ben Clanton said…
Really neat to hear about how you make portfolio decisions. These are some great illustrations!!!
Ginger*:) said…
Thanks for the insight, and best wishes for the success of Authors and Illustrators day!

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