PORTFOLIO

Getting the portfolio 'right' is so important, it should not only show the best of my work, but also the kind of work I love making.  When I say portfolio in this post, I am referring to both my online portfolio on my website and my physical portfolio book. Although it's important to show my illustration 'style', I also want to show that I have range. This can be difficult to do without shoving in loads of different work, which can make a portfolio look jumbled and uncohesive. I think my best bet is to put in my favourite work, and to make sure that although there's a wide range of stuff, it should look like it's by the same artist!

These images are initial illustrations that I liked and I thought captured my work. I liked the bat above, however it is the only woodcut I have included and therefore stands outa bit too much compared to my other work.

Again, with the blue egg although I like the simpleness of the image- I haven't got much typography/ gum arabic work and it might look a bit out of place.

Below are images that didn't make it into my final portfolio, I think either because they represented a style that I didn't particularly want to show off, or they just wouldn't work because they don't fit in with certain themes that I explore. For example I love the collaged 'Little Mermaid' book that I made last year, but I don't collage anywhere else. This is the kind of work that would be great on my blog (which it is) but not suitable for my portfolio. 

I like these below because they are bright and bold. They also show that I could be involved in children's book illustration, as they are vivid and child friendly.

I whittled down these illustrations and also found some more recent work that is more relevant that the things I made in second year. I chose around 20 images and put them on contact sheets so George could easily look at which ones should be included and how they should be presented, first of all for my website portfolio.

George picked out the images she liked best, and in the end I think we only omitted the colour version of the moons. She also suggested putting them side by side and pairing them into themes, for example the forest bear with the elephant, the xmas card next to the green forest, the black and white life drawings together etc. basically pairing images together so they reflect my style so they aren't disorganised.

My website portfolio now has the images laid out how George recommended:

I went for a similar layout in my physical portfolio, but I also printed out the images with a couple on each page so that you wouldn't have to turn the portfolio to look at the landscape images. I did think about putting all the landscape images together and all the portrait images together, but then they wouldn't be with their partner anymore!

To test out the colours of the illustrations I printed them on normal printer paper. The print quality was actually very good, but I wanted them to be on thicker paper to make the pages in the portfolio more substantial. The portfolio I bought was from Cass Art, and I went for the Mapac Professional Presenter. The other portfolio that was popular with other people was quite expensive- and I also didn't want to buy leather.

Before the Book Fair I printed out the images again on a thick white paper from Ryman, and this made the book feel like a much higher quality overall. It also meant that if anyone wanted to take work out from the sleeves then the page wouldn't crumple.

I think the images in my portfolio are bold and dynamic. I also think it shows off the style that I have formed over the past 2 years at university, but also suggests I have a wide range of skills that could be applied to different briefs.