Are you sending your work out? part 1

Ever since art school I have been told that I need to send my work out, and I am sure you have heard the same thing at one time or another. But the question is, are you sending your work out enough or at all? It's pretty obvious, the only way for people to know you exist is for them to see your work, and the best way for them to see your work is for you to show them.

The chances are you are not showing an art director your portfolio "just because" hopefully you want a job, and I've thought of some obvious questions but they seem to really help me when I am thinking about who I can show my new portfolio piece to.

What do you want to spend your time doing? 

 I used the think that I wanted to be a fantasy illustrator, because I thought I could do it and I could make money doing it, but I wasn't asking myself, "what do I do when I am not working on anything for my portfolio?" and it was something more fun and playful than fantasy card art. not that I don't love the stuff because I do, I just should not be doing it for a living because my hearts not in it.

Where do you want to work?

Maybe you have figured out that you want to work in whatever for now. but what companies really light your fire? what companies so you want to work for? or do you want to work for yourself?

What position do you want?

This is small but important, and worth specifying, even if you want to work for yourself, you are still going to have to wear certain hats, and you need to decide which hats you like.

What is the persons name that you want to see your work?

Who needs to see your work? for instance if you were applying to a television studio, you probably wouldn't send your portfolio to the interns or the receptionist. They don't make the hiring and firing decisions, and you need to find out who does, it's usually an art director, producer, or director.

Curate your work to that job

This was my big problem with fantasy art, when I started to show around my portfolio, it was not that they hated my paintings, although I doubt they loved them. But there was not a home for them, they were not serious enough to be card art, or polished enough to be card art, and they were too playful.  I've since stopped painting like that, I was painting like someone trying to be something else. And that was a bad idea.

How will you stand out?

This is a topic that probably requires it's own post, but standing out is important, and its something that you need to figure out how to do on your own. If someone else told you how to stand out and be different, that wouldn't be very different. But one thing that I can say is that you can tailor your physical portfolio to the job, for instance I heard a story about someone who got an interview at Laika, and the portfolio they brought with them was not in a 11x14 black book, but a hand crafted quality book that represented that they understood Laikas values,


Thanks!