The SCBWI Southern Breeze Portfolio
Award is an honor we give to an illustrator attending our annual regional
conference. It is always a pleasure to
see the level of talent on display on the portfolio tables. It is fashioned after the SCBWI National
Conference Portfolio Show and is judged by our esteemed faculty during the
conference.
The winner for the 2018 Southern
Breeze Portfolio Show is Lori Nichols.
The judges reviewed the portfolios for quality of imagery, presentation
and suitability for the children’s literary market. Ironically, and not by design, Lori won the
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators New York Winter conference
portfolio award in 2014. We're chatting with Lori today about developing an award-winning portfolio:
Lori, congratulations on winning the 2018 Southern Breeze
Portfolio Show! We are all striving to make our work better and we’d like to
get some tips from you. Talk with us
about what inspires your choice of characters and how you bring them to life?
Thanks! My characters usually come
from hours of playing around in my sketchbook. I like to set aside time to get
to know my characters and that involves exploring their emotions. I draw them happy,
mad, sad, frustrated, and ambivalent as I search for their emotional blueprint.
The emotions are the real essence of bringing a character to life. The setting
always comes last.
We love to learn about the
spaces where artists work because they vary greatly. What is the one
thing you can’t live without when it comes to art making? What do you use to
create your illustrations? Do you have a special process or something
that helps you get in the work flow?
The one thing I couldn’t live without would be
pencils and paper. Those things bring me the most enjoyment. I use pencil on
paper, ink on Bristol board, and gouache on watercolor paper. I like to
experiment. Most of my books have been done with traditional pencil on Mylar or
quilled ink on Bristol board. I then scan the original images into Photoshop to
clean them up and color them. I also create traditional watercolor washes or
acrylic textures to use as backgrounds. Sometimes I will use the textures to create
custom digital brushes.
My process is kind of a dance: sketch, draw, scan,
color, repeat. I go back and forth between medium when working on a project,
and I like to set aside warm-up time before diving into the finished
product.
Can you give us any tips on curating our work (for online and in your physical
portfolio) to decide on what should be included within the body of work?
One mistake I made a lot when I
graduated from art school was trying to show everything I created. I learned
it’s better to choose only your best work and to try to find your voice. An art
director wants to see your ability to create a character and move them through
a story. Showing one or two characters in several different scenes with
different emotions is more useful to an art director than showing her you can
do 15 different styles. It’s OK to have different styles, but character
development is more important. If you want to show that you have a few
different styles, make sure you divide your portfolio up into those categories
and mention in a divider sleeve that you work in a variety of styles. But do
try to find your voice within those styles.
Portfolios can vary widely.
How did you make the choice on the style, size, materials, etc. of your
physical portfolio?
When I attended the New York SCBWI
conference they had specifics on portfolio sizes. I choose one that fits within
their guidelines. If you have too large of a portfolio then your work may be
disqualified. Remember, their reviews have hundreds of portfolios and they need
to be able to fit all of them on a limited number of tables. If you’re going to
spend the time and money to attend a national conference it’s worth doing your
research on their rules. I would also recommend scanning all your work and having
it output instead of showing the original art. This will allow you more
flexibility to size things as well as keep your original art safe from damage.
Tell us about how you get your new work out into the children’s
book market.
Luckily I have an agent who pushes my
work but for those who are just starting out, social media is a wonderful tool.
Follow every art director, publisher, illustrator, and writer you can find–especially
those whose work inspires you. There are several different communities out
there on social media to help you. A lot of it is just showing up and putting
yourself out there. Your work won’t be seen if you don’t show it. Also, have a
website! There are so many easy website building sites out there. I use WIX.
The
pictures on your website show you having a great time with the kids doing
school visits. Do you have any tips
you’d like to share with other illustrators who may be interested in getting
into school visits?
I think if you are a debut author or
illustrator it’s OK to do a few school visits pro bono to get your feet wet.
I’m not saying to do this forever and not suggesting giving your future
presentations away for free, but there will be a learning curve on what works
for you and sometimes you need to just practice. It’s a win-win. The school
wins and you win experience with speaking in front of children. I registered
for a public speaking conference with Highlights in Pennsylvania when I started
speaking at schools and conferences. I needed feedback and guidance. Really, I
needed training! It also helps to see other authors speak at schools. Inquire
at local school if they have any authors coming in for speaking engagements and
ask if they would let you listen to the presentation.
Do you have any special
projects or work coming up that you’d like to share?
I’m working on two books right now. One book is with Nancy Paulsen at Nancy
Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House and one with Boyds Mills Press. That’s about
all I can say right now...but I’m really looking forward to both of these books
when they come out.
Where can we learn more
about your work?
