01-20-2015, 12:59 AM
Dont feel so bad about using reference. I'm not a professional illustrator but from listening to One Fantastic Week, I've heard them repeat time and again that almost all professional illustrators(at least representational artists) use reference. Now theres nothing wrong with wanting to improve your drawing so that you arnt completely reliant on it but not using it at all isnt a realistic goal. I recommend checking One Fantastic Week if you havnt already. They've got a facebook group and a youtube channel with all the old episodes.
Again I dont claim to be an expert on this but children's books, fantasy and editorial illustration are 3 very different markets which would call for 3 different portfolios. The kind of work that is marketable for children's books isn't the same as for fantasy illustration like Magic the Gathering type of stuff. If you have a portfolio with 3 different styles catering to each market it sends mixed signals to clients. Its better to figure out what kind of jobs you want to be getting the most and stream line your folio to that specific market. You can build a completely separate folio for other markets that you only show to those types of clients. It is better to have multiple market place options but you spread yourself too thin trying to get into all of them at once. At least this is something I've heard from a couple different blogs and podcasts of pro illustrators.
Again I dont claim to be an expert on this but children's books, fantasy and editorial illustration are 3 very different markets which would call for 3 different portfolios. The kind of work that is marketable for children's books isn't the same as for fantasy illustration like Magic the Gathering type of stuff. If you have a portfolio with 3 different styles catering to each market it sends mixed signals to clients. Its better to figure out what kind of jobs you want to be getting the most and stream line your folio to that specific market. You can build a completely separate folio for other markets that you only show to those types of clients. It is better to have multiple market place options but you spread yourself too thin trying to get into all of them at once. At least this is something I've heard from a couple different blogs and podcasts of pro illustrators.