Welcome to February
Let's polish up those portfolios!
Welcome to February in The Creative Flock! And hello to all the new people who have joined recently!
This months theme is..
For those of you who aren’t at the stage of putting together a portfolio, fear not! There will be other, less practical and more playful aspects to this month too, including a bonus colour challenge video with
from Designers who Draw, our live drawing session and more besides. Dates below..Dates for your diary:
Live drawing session (paid members) - Tuesday 13th February at 2pm GMT
Bonus colour challenge video (paid members) - released on 18th February
Why portfolios this month?
I’ve decided to add this practical element to the membership this month as I'm in the process of refining my portfolio with a view to submit to agents and thought it would be useful for anyone doing the same.
Even if you’re not submitting to an agent, the tips and advice I'll be sharing can be applied elsewhere, for example submitting work to a gallery to sell, applying for a course or submitting work for competitions.
All the posts in the membership are archived so even if you’re not at the stage of refining your portfolio now, you can come back to the information i’ll be sharing at a later stage.
I started a big period of development in my work in 2020 and by 2021 I had an idea of the type of commissions I wanted, and the agents I would like to have represent me, but the feedback I received was that there was some work they liked but I didn’t have enough to show. I could totally see their point, I knew my submission was far from perfect but it was still a good exercise to go through. At this stage I was starting to identify the subject matter I wanted to focus on (spooky stuff, nature, older children's fiction etc) and I knew I wanted to move from a digital/traditional way of creating my illustrations to purely traditional methods and this was going to take some time and practise.
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During 2022 and 2023 I spent more time in my sketchbooks, playing with materials, building my confidence in inks and paints and gradually leaned into my instincts of what I liked to create. I now feel my work has a more cohesive style, I have more confidence in what I'm creating so it's the right time for me to start looking for representation again.
I made a small start to my portfolio development last month and joined Sarah Dyer and
co-hosted portfolio development session and also watched some of Sarah’s videos on Patreon where she talked about her own portfolio development work she’s undertaking. If you are working on your portfolio I highly recommend you check these videos out and the replay with Sarah and Beth (links below). During these sessions I revisited my agent submissions from 2021 and made a note of any changes to their submission process.
Sarah Dyer’s Patreon videos:
Timelapse and chat - creating new work for portfolio
The next stages in my portfolio development:
Consider what my current dream projects or commissions would be and do the agencies I wanted to work with back in 2021 still align with these dream projects. If not, I will have to do some further research.
Do a full review of my work, pulling together my favourite pieces, thinking about how well these represent me as an artist/illustrator and would they be strong enough to get the type of work I want to be commissioned for.
Consider what gaps there are to be filled and plan out new pieces to add.
Once I feel I have enough strong work in my portfolio, I will resubmit to agencies.
This whole process will take more than a month so I will keep you updated on my progress and share any insights as I go, but for this month I plan to work through stages 1 and 2 at least.
I will be sharing the process in written and video posts and possibly a co-working session for paid members if that’s something of interest.
Sketchbook Share Part 2 - (Paid members)
Following on from part 1 of my sketchbook share series in December, I will be delving back into the pile to bring you part 2. This second part will feature the sketchbooks from 2021 when my development really kicked off and my sketchbook practice became a ‘habit’.
Paid members can access the first part here:
Sketchbook Share Part 1
Hello, here’s my first (ever) sketchbook share! Yikes! I must admit, I feel vulnerable sharing this, I forget how much of ourselves we put into our sketchbooks and many of my older ones are more like journals, where I wanted a space to record my thoughts as well as sketches. I was surprised how many memories and emotions these sketchbooks brought back, …
Also to come this month, i’ll be continuing to work in my nature journal.
I admit my tax return and admin got the better of me in January and I didn’t dedicate as much time as I wanted to it, so will try again this month!
I’ve also pencilled in some drawing sessions with Beth Spencer, Emma Carlisle and Sarah Dyer, a selection of these are below:
Beth Spencer from the Introvert Drawing Club - Draw Turtles with TJ & Beth. Feb 8 at 10 am CST / 4 pm GMT.
Sarah Dyer’s Patreon - Life Drawing with Naomi. Friday 16th Feb at 10am GMT
Plus Sarah will be hosting another Palestine charity drawing session on Wednesday 28th February at 7pm GMT
Emma Carlisle’s Patreon - Mountains and Landscapes themed drawing session. Thursday 22nd February - 19.00 - 20.30pm GMT
If you have any recommendations for workshops or drawing sessions this month, including any you are hosting yourself, please pop in the comments below.
Lastly, keep an eye on the chat threads where I’ll post each Monday (creative intentions) and Friday (sharing good stuff from your week).
There’s a Substack app which is a great way to keep up with content on the go. All members can start new threads here, please feel free to do so and connect with others in the community.
Looking forward to polishing up my portfolio with you this month!
I love this theme, Emma! I desperately need to get some stuff added to mine and this is perfect motivation! 💞