A couple of weeks back, I shared my Kidlit Career Bingo sheet as a way of celebrating milestones in my kidlit illustration career, but another bingo sheet I created before was my Kidlit Portfolio Bingo sheet, which was built based largely on advice of Kelly Sonnack, literary agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, at the 2018 RMC-SCBWI Big Sur Agent Workshop for Illustrators — things she considered to be timeless in picture books — with a sprinkling of things I wanted to make sure not to miss having in my portfolio that I considered strengths or interests.
Each cell included an element or setting, and on a trip to the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, and with the time I had in my hotel room, instead of trying to connect rows, I proceeded to try doing a blackout, and this ended up being the start of my kidlit art portfolio. Certainly, it’s evolved from here as I’ve discovered my artistic voice more clearly, and figured out what kinds of books I want to write and illustrate. You can see where it is now here.
If you’d like a blank template to create your own, feel free to use this one:
Enjoy playing, and good luck on your journey!
Twitter: @zombicatures
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Web: http://stanyan.me
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