The Dragon’s Breath #4

26 Feb. 2003

The Art of Submission, Part 2

By Todd Secord

This is the second part of a column on what prospective fantasy artists should do to get that first published assignment. To see Part 1, go here.

The Contact (Continued)

You can, of course, receive positive feedback. If an art director raves over your work, don’t go ego crazy. Accept the compliments graciously and walk out of there with the confidence to hit your next interview.

For initial e-mail contact, keep it simple. Quickly state your intent, list any previous published work, and then provide a bold link to your website. Whether in the interview or by exchanging e-mails, you want to establish trust. If you are a beginner, you clearly must project the impression that you are a "safe bet." The art director needs to feel confident that you will make deadlines, give your best output possible, redo work if necessary, and respect that business is business. She also needs to feel that you will not be high-maintenance during the assignment at hand and that you will not disappear two days before deadline. This kind of stuff happens more often than you think.

The Portfolio/Website

Your website is your portfolio. Your portfolio is a collection of your best possible work from the last two to three years; you should be expanding and improving upon it constantly. Some philosophies in building your portfolio spill into web design, but constructing the website differs slightly in its approach. I will concentrate just on your portfolio, however.

With so many examples from which to choose, you probably already have a pretty good idea of what an illustrator’s website should be like. My favorite is Donato Giancola’s site, which is an example of an artist-specific site, but you also have the option of hooking up with one of the "alliance" sites such as Epilogue. For the record, Fiery Dragon has not worked with Mr. Giancola or artists on Epilogue, but I wanted to highlight them here because I think they’re pretty cool. Without a doubt, though, check out Claudio’s site. What route you decide to take is up to you; just make sure that you have a site set up at which an art director can view your work on-line.

Let’s get back to the portfolio itself. First, you must decide what kind of work you should include in it, but I would like to comment on what you should not put in it. As follows: no depictions of crucifixion or variances thereof; skull and bones stuff to an absolute minimum; angels/demons or variances thereof to an absolute minimum; no angels with wings pulled off; women in chainmail bikinis or naked elf maidens to an absolute minimum; no raw depictions of torture; unicorns or pegasi to an absolute minimum; and no Brom clones (i.e. angels in fetish wear, bodybuilder mutant types, and so forth). This list has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with what you typically see in every beginner’s portfolio. Try to go against the tide and find your own style.

What you do put in is up to you, but your selections should cover a wide range of subject matter and game-related genres. Stick to what you believe constitutes your strengths; highlight the "fun" stuff, but make sure that you also include the "mundane" aspects. In other words, your illustrations should have backgrounds, landscapes, buildings, vehicles, and animals as well as action scenes, multiple character interactions, and character/monster studies. At best, you want to include a number of media from colour to ink to graphite/charcoal/conte. If you feel that you are weak at colour (painting/Photoshop or coloured pencil/mixed media), don’t include it, but do not expect a cover/card assignment (where the real money lies). Finished pieces of art are the norm, but do not hesitate to include high quality sketches or design studies.

Many different sizes and styles of portfolio cases are available. For presentation, I would choose something at 11" x 17" (or slightly smaller) for a number of reasons. First, you want a case that is easily portable, and second, you want a case that, when opened up, fits nicely on a lap, chair, or table (you never know where you will meet someone who is worth showing your work to). You will likely need to get your work scanned and resized, but in the end, you will find that doing so is worthwhile (make sure the reproductions are of excellent quality). You should also make sure the portfolio case has pockets for your business cards and contact sheets. Lastly, it should include rings with plastic covers in which to insert your work; this format protects your work, makes it easier to peruse, and controls the order in which you want your work to be seen.

The order of presentation means a lot. Generally, you should have anywhere from 15 to 20 pieces. No more, no less. Your strongest piece comes first, your second strongest last, and your third strongest in the middle. Vary the pattern of media and colour through the rest of the portfolio, working from the strongest at the front through to the back. If you have any published work, make sure that you include it at the front and then provide the page on how it appeared in the product so that the art director can see how you translate to print (more importantly, he may recognize where he has seen the work before). If you feel you have a great sketch book, bring it along, but keep it separate; if the art director appears to like what he sees, mention that you have it with you in case he wants to flip through that as well.

The Follow Up

So, you’ve made your rounds at the convention(s) and/or blitzed with your follow up e-mails to the various publishers. What next? Well, you wait. I suggest that you send out reminder e-mails once every three to six months, but not so often that you become annoying. Should you get work, fantastic! Make the best of it, and use it to build an even stronger portfolio. As I have mentioned, getting published is tough in itself, but once you do get published, keeping the ball rolling is up to you. Good luck to you! Should you have any further questions, feel free to visit our Dragon’s Breath forum. Cheers!

Next Week: In The Dragon’s Breath #5, Mike Johnstone, FDP’s Senior Editor, looks back fondly to GenCon 2002 and muses upon what makes gaming and gamers so great. That’s right, you can watch Mike gush profusely about that magical time oh so long ago in "How to Survive Winter."

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