Art & Soul

Self Promotion - Choosing the Right Piece

How do you choose which pieces of artwork to use on your promotional materials?

When you're sending out a promo with several images, it's not such a tough decision, but when you're sending a small postcard with room for only one image, your choice becomes much more important. It's a one shot deal, and you want to choose just the right image.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I feel this is one of my best pieces of work ever?

2. Would I put this image as the first piece in my portfolio? Because that's basically what you're doing with a postcard...you're saying, "Here's my best piece, now come to my website and see what else I've done."

3. Is this piece representative of the type of job I want to do? It could be the best piece of work you've ever done, but if it took you two years to complete it and forced you to wear a brace for carpal tunnel syndrome, you probably won't ever want to do this style again.

If you answer "yes" to all three of these questions, THIS is the piece!!! If you answer "no" to any of them, you should probably select or make another piece.

Push - Character

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the things I'm working on this year is developing my characters more. Whether writing or drawing, I want to push beyond the static.

I want you to be able to look at my drawings, or read what I write and KNOW the person. Facial expressions, gestures, body language, clothing choices, quirks...all the things that go into making a person an individual.

In a workshop earlier this year, I wrote a manuscript for a picture book. I used a stereotypical character we've seen in a hundred movies from a particular genre. Due to my movie watching experiences, I really KNEW this character, and it came out in my writing.

The manuscript practically wrote itself. I never had to guess at the dialog. I knew exactly how this character would react, what he would say, and how he would say it. When I read the story out loud to critique buddies, I naturally read it with his accent and mannerisms. I knew him.

I want to try to know all my characters that well. It's so much easier to give them depth if you know them first.

I wanted to point out a few illustrators who, I think, really manage to give their characters personalities:

• Barbara Johansen Newman - Barb's past life as a puppet-maker shows in her work.
• Ilene Richard
• Christine Schneider
• Jack E. Davis

Great stuff, don't you think?

Looking Forward - 2006

My goal hasn't changed in a few years — to create children's books.

It's still just as exciting to me as it was when I took that first brave leap and left the corporate stuff behind. No reason to change it. I'm on the right path.

I do like to reevaluate my progress from time to time though, and make tweaks as needed.

I'd like to take more risks this year and make my work stand out. I want to concentrate more on character and storytelling. The interesting thing is that these two tweaks apply to both my illustration work and my writing.

I love this. It means that both disciplines are coming together for me. Since I'll be working on the same aspect of both, I can really focus on it. This is a good thing.

I'm hoping this year will be as successful and fulfilling as the last, but no matter how it turns out, it'll be exciting!