art smarts

Tailoring Your Portfolio to the Magazine Market
By Karen Lee

Illustrating for children’s magazines is an exciting and challenging part of my career. I love the immediacy of magazine work, from the shorter commitment of my time on a project to seeing it in print, gracing dentist’s waiting rooms around the world. As an artist I am challenged to hook the viewer and convince them to linger on the page long enough to read the story. The illustration can bring the story to life, to expand it and illuminate it, but it does it in a limited amount of space. Targeting this market is best achieved through creating sample illustrations that are tailored to the unique needs of magazines.

Research

The first step in building your portfolio is to become familiar with the magazines. A trip to your local library is a great resource for finding a variety of magazines for children. Look through as many issues as you can to get a good sense of the style of art used. Read them to find out what kind of stories they use as well. It is essential to understand the age and the subject focus of the readership. Not all publications will be right for your art so it may be best to select a few that are a good fit for you. Many magazines have web sites that provide submission guidelines. Look through these as well. The CWIM has detailed information about the preferences of many art directors as well as information about terms and contact information.

Subject Matter

Once you have done your research the next step will be to pick subject matter that is appropriate to the readership. Typically an art director will look for an ability to draw appealing children of cultural diversity, animals (either portrayed realistically, stylized or anthropomorphic), and familiar locations or situations. Pick an existing story that is appropriate to the magazine to illustrate or generate your own ideas. Make sure that you have provided enough details to be narrative – to “tell” the story with your art. If you are particularly interested in a certain subject matter, then play up that strength.

Design

Magazine art is often given limited space and the artist is challenged to design a page with that in mind. While it isn’t necessary to put type on your sample, do demonstrate your understanding of a copy heavy page by leaving space for it. Some magazine layouts use spot illustration; a small image that is often surrounded by type. Others may put the story within a border, overprint the type on the art, or “knockout” the type (this is generally not done for body copy because it may become difficult to read). Show your narrative skill as well. Distill your story into one important scene that best conveys the mood and action of the piece. Carefully edit the elements that go into your layout. Select details that tell the story without cluttering up your page design.

Style

Ultimately what sells you as an artist is your unique look, your sense of style. Style is so important but so hard to define. It is in the artist’s color sense, the quality of line and point of view. It can evolve from your sense of humor or your attention to detail. The path to developing style is as unique as you are. Your experiences, your skill, your technique, and influence from other artists all contribute to your style. Allow yourself to experiment and bring your own interests and passions into your art. As your style develops, look for publications that are a good fit for it.

Sell Yourself

Once you have built your magazine portfolio you are ready to begin selling yourself. Web sites, either your own or a group directory, have become an important way for art directors to have easy and immediate access to your portfolio. It isn’t enough to just have a web site; you will need to direct your potential clients to it. Sending postcards or printed mailers periodically, advertising in sourcebooks, and other online directories are all effective ways to get your work seen. It may take several different strategies to effectively attract magazine work. I have found that sending sample packets that are tailored to individual art directors to be very effective. I select several pieces from my portfolio that are appropriate for a magazine. I create my own sample sheets on my home printer, generally one or two illustrations and my contact information, then mail them to the art director with a very brief cover letter explaining my interest and experience.

Getting those first few magazine jobs may take some time. In some cases years have gone by while I carefully built my portfolio for a specific magazine. I was rewarded with my first job for one particular magazine this year after five years of sending samples to them. It has been well worth it to see my art in those issues and to know that kids in dentist’s offices all over the world can enjoy it as well.

Karen Lee is the recipient of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Magazine Merit Award for 2004 for illustrations appearing in HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN. She is currently working on the art for One Odd Day by Dani Sneed and Doris Fisher, Sylvan Dell Publishing, Fall 2006.

This page last updated on 01 October 2005