How To Promote Your Art To Publishers & Clients (Patreon)

After going to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair last month and seeing so many illustrators promoting their art portfolios to publishers there, I wanted to share what I learnt alongside a few ideas for promoting your art to clients and publishers.

It seems to me that are two types of portfolio:

🌷 Public portfolios where your work is available for everyone to see all the time and can be found by potential clients (like websites, social media profiles etc), and,🌷 Private portfolios where you might make a custom or curated portfolio to privately send to a particular client.

Public portfolios are something you would design for clients to find you, and private portfolios are something for you to take to clients directly.

Depending on what stage you’re at in your journey, you might have both. I think it’s always a good idea to have a public portfolio somewhere online, even if it’s just a social media profile like your Instagram feed (this is the only public portfolio that I actually have), because you never know who might stumble across your work. If you don’t have a public portfolio then you’re guaranteeing yourself to only ever be found if you actively reach out to people (which, let’s face it, is a lot of work).

Public Portfolios

Social MediaI know that it feels really difficult to be seen on social media platforms lately, but I still think they’re a great place to show off your art. I’ve been posting fairly consistently on my Instagram account for nearly three years now, and I’ve had some professional opportunities come directly from my account there including licensing and picture book projects.

It’s going to be less curated than a traditional portfolio but I like that it’s more casual - it gives potential clients a broader understanding of what you do. If you’re hoping to get a particular type of work (picture books, portrait commissions, greeting card licensing), then showcase that on your profile so that it’s clear to anyone who finds you that you’re interested and capable of doing that.

Personal WebsitesYou could also host your favourite pieces on your own website. You’re not likely to get as many people stumbling across your site as you will your social media account unless you have really fantastic SEO, but the upside is that you can choose which pieces to showcase.

You could have a personal website alongside a social media profile, and just have your website as a more select portfolio with only your absolutely favourite pieces because sometimes those can get lost in a social media feed.

If you go to any in-person events like markets or fairs, it can also be really nice to have a website to share with the people you meet and from there they can get in touch if they’re interested in collaborating with you.

Portfolio WebsitesIf you’re looking for something in between social media and a personal website then you could consider joining a portfolio website like Behance or Dribbble. I don't personally have any experience with using these for a portfolio but I've looked at illustrations on them in the past.

They're designed to showcase artists and will usually have a search function, so you might benefit from traffic that’s visiting the site looking for an illustrator. Each artist will have their own profile and you can curate your favourite pieces to showcase on it.

Private Portfolios

If you want to submit a portfolio to a specific client or publisher, then you’ll probably want to make a custom portfolio for them rather than sending them to your general website or Instagram account.

Do some research into the kind of art styles and subjects that they usually commission, and include in your portfolio the art that feels the most relevant to that. If it’s a children’s book publisher, be sure to showcase how you can tell a visual story and develop character ideas. If you’re submitting to an illustration agency to get editorial work (for things like magazines and other publications) then include art that would suit projects like that.

If you don’t have any professional experience yet but want to show off examples of how your style would look in different scenarios, you can always create a mock project that’s not real but showcases your skills in that context. For example, you could create a mock book cover for your children’s picture book portfolio, or put your illustrations on greeting card mockups for your licensing portfolio. There are lots of templates available online on places like CreativeMarket for digital mockups.

When it comes to sending your portfolio, as far as I’m aware most artists use digital portfolios these days rather than sending physical ones in the mail, and you can usually find information about portfolio submissions on the website of the client you’re reaching out to.

In-Person Events

There might be some opportunities for you to meet your dream illustration client at an in-person event like an art fair or a book fair, so do some research to see if there are any events close to you that you could attend.

Perhaps you don’t even have a specific client in mind and just want to see what’s out there, you can always go to an event just to look around and see what companies and publishers exist in the industry (which is what I did at Bologna), or at some fairs you can have your own stall to sell and promote your artwork.

At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair there were a few opportunities for illustrators to showcase their work: there was an illustrator wall where artists could stick posters and business cards to show off their style and share their contact details; there were portfolio reviews where publishers would look at your portfolio in person (lots of people showed theirs on iPads they had brought along) and give you a short review on it; there were lots of stalls where you could chat to publishers or other industry professionals if they were available; and there were also just lots of opportunities to chat to other illustrators and do some networking with other artists which is always lovely!

People brought business cards, stickers, flyers, bookmarks, posters, all sorts of things to hand out to the people that they met at the fair. Here are a few examples from art friends that I met:

^top row business cards from @fearines and @barbaraelart, bottom left stickers from @carolmd_art and bottom right a flyer from @le_facciotte

I wasn’t very prepared personally because I didn’t know what to expect so all I took along were some business cards (bottom right in the below photo) and some stickers to share, but for my first time at the fair this was enough for me.

So, there are lots of ways to showcase your art, and the method that’s right for you will depend on who you’re trying to reach.

What portfolios do I use?

At the moment I only have my Instagram account as my art portfolio, and that works for me because I only work as a professional artist for a portion of my time and work as a content creator the rest of the time, so I don’t need to completely fill my schedule with art projects.

I was really lucky that HarperCollins Australia found me on Instagram and that’s how they got in touch with me (via the email address on my account) to ask me about illustrating my first book.

You never know who might be looking at your portfolio, and sometimes you might just be in the right place at the right time to connect with someone looking for your exact art style. It’s worth a try!

♥️