December 13th, 2007
A Children’s Illustration Portfolio: 10 Things to Include
Published in: Uncategorized
1. Your best possible work. Don’t include work just for quantity sake – make sure each piece you include is at your highest standard. Most people recommend you include 10-15 pieces.
2. A unique illustration style that draws you out from the crowd. There are SO many children’s illustrators out there that it’s important to have a unique style or approach that will help potential clients remember you. Differentiate yourself in a manner that is comfortable and natural.
3. Children with different expressions, moods, movements, interacting with other children.
4. Children in different settings. These settings can include children at school, on the playground, at home, at a pool party, and the list goes on!
5. Children of different ages along with parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.
6. Children of different ethnicities.
7. Animals.
8. Illustrations of different sizes and compositions. Be able to demonstrate your ability to work your illustrations into a book layout or a magazine article. Having examples of two page spreads or spot illustrations are important to emphasize your understanding of composition and design.
9. A series of illustrations with the same characters carried throughout. You may be able to draw an expressive, wonderfully charming character the first time, but being able to repeat this character many times is an important skill for picture books.
10. A business card and take-away samples of your work. Make sure both these items are reflective of your style as an illustrator in both design and format.
I’d love to know if you have more you’d add to the list!
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Rachelle is a mother of two little boys and works part time as a children's illustrator. Her work can be seen in children's books, greeting cards, craft supplies, children's room decor, and more! Rachelle's art has been featured in various international magazines and websites. Her boys inspire her work tremendously and her husband is her emotional (and technical!) support she needs to make it all happen! 
Wow!great tutorial and advices! Thanks a lot!
A very helpful blog post. I often struggle with trying to perfect my portfolio and make it as marketable as possible. It is nice to have a simple guide like this that can help steer people having trouble with their children’s illustration portfolio.
I’ve saved this on my reader for a later reflection. Here I am, months after, appreciating such precious advice. Thank you so so sooooo much Rachelle. Now, I gotta put my brains (and hands) into working. :)
Tarsila – I’m glad my post can still be helpful! Good luck with your work :)
Hey Rachelle!
Thanks for this helpful post. How large would you recommend a physical portfolio be, dimension-wise? I’ve heard it’s best to have something that is easy to handle and store, but there are so many sizes between 8.5×11 – 11×17 out there! Also, for children’s illustrations, is it better to have a vertical or horizontal portfolio? Vertical is the traditional, but maybe horizontal is better for showing a book layout? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks :)
Yifan – The size and format of your portfolio should be chosen based on your type of work. For children’s illustration, a smaller portfolio is sufficient as your work shouldn’t be too large to begin with. I have been told by various people in the past that smaller portfolios are more favourable as they are easier to handle :) If you are mostly showing landscape children’s illustration spreads, I would opt to choose a landscape format portfolio. Ultimately it’s your work that will speak for itself – you just want to make sure you’re displaying it in an easy, clear format. Pick a portfolio shape/size that fits best with your work. I don’t think it matters too much if you pick 8.5×11 or 11×17 – these sizes and anything in between are all great, manageable sizes. It’s also very important (if not MORE important) to have an online portfolio for potential clients/employers to view. Almost all my work is acquired through my website so I couldn’t recommend this any higher.
Hope this helps!
Thanks Rachelle…it definitely does help :)
Hi there and thanks for the advice!! I’ve been wondering also about the presentation of the portfolio, it should be with book binding, spiral, tape binding, stapled maybe? and what about the layout, do the publishing companies prefer a designed portfolio? I mean, with cover, index, page numbers and a description of each sample, like it’s a published book? What can you tell us as far as you know?
Osmont – I would first recommend that you have an online portfolio. This way, you can email potential clients/jobs and they have somewhere immediate to go. A printed portfolio works well for in-person interviews for jobs. As a freelancer, I never find the need to have a printed portfolio. But if you are going to sit down interviews, I would recommend that you purchase a portfolio book with clear slots to add printed pieces (http://www.discountart.com/store/art-portfolio.html). It is important to have a portfolio that you can update with more recent work. I would stay away from binding your portfolio as it’s much harder to update as your work grows/improves. I don’t think it’s necessary to have an index page, etc. The most important thing is for the portfolio case to be clean, professional, and organised.
Hope this helps!