Are There Snakes in Your Folio? How to Spot Them Before an Art Buyer Does

What to include in an illustrator portfolio and how to spot snakes! (In the children’s publishing and decorative market)

Art directors scan agency portfolios and websites rapidly. They are mentally processing the acquisitions list they’re looking to fulfil, remembering what the rights team said sells well in a particular market, and giving serious artistic consideration to whether they can trust you with their precious commission. If a folio is not well curated or a single image raises doubts, it can be a “tell” … a snake. 

They will skip to the next illustrator. Snakes in your folio can scare off art buyers. 

A great portfolio is cohesive, market-targeted, and in line with your brand.

Let’s start with what you should include. Illustrators often mistakenly believe more work equals more skill; in reality, quality beats quantity. The strongest portfolios are curated “greatest hits” collections, typically featuring 12-18 excellent pieces rather than 40 average ones. Be careful including weaker work—art directors often judge portfolios by their weakest image. Poor work suggests inconsistency and a lack of self-editing, leading clients to question your reliability and quality under pressure. It is often better to send an art director individually selected images via email than direct them to your Behance or Instagram, which has absolutely everything on it.

A portfolio should say:

• My name is…………. Start with a great bio and photo; it’s your brand, which must be reflected in the portfolio as well. e.g., if your bio says you love horses, have horses in your portfolio as well! See our bio builder for more guidance.
• This is what I do– 12-18 pieces that, at a glance, say to the art buyer, “This is what my boy, girl, house, animal, jungle scene, underwater scene, etc., will look like if you commission me.” It is the opposite of versatile.
• This is what you’re gonna get! The work is suitable for the industry you’re targeting. If you’re a realistic illustrator and you want to work on puzzles, let’s have busy pieces. If you’re a book cover illustrator, compositions are typically in portrait orientation, with space for text at the top. An art buyer needs to recognise the compositions as works they may have purchased just the day before!

Common Snakes:

These are the hidden, sneaky elements in an otherwise great composition that rightly scare an art buyer off.

It’s easy to have snakes in your portfolio when you are working speculatively. Only when you start receiving professional commissions can you understand what elements art buyers don’t want.

Get rid of those snakes:

Work that was clearly commissioned by non-professional art directors, such as wedding invites, gig posters, and pet portraits. Professional illustrators will not have these in their portfolio

Unless it is specifically intended for an adult target market, like editorial, leave out all the following:

• Tattoos
• Piercings, even studs in ears
• Revealing clothing; often shoulders are even covered
• Guns, even sci-fi ones
• Unsheathed swords, knives, zombie killers
• Super sharp teeth, unless it’s meant to be realistic. Let’s not scare them.
• Blood
• Overdeveloped bodies
• Alcohol consumption, even champagne glasses
• Smoking, even Santa’s pipe!

Unless the characters are specifically intended to be high-energy and humorous, overexpressive characterisation, such as tears, huge bean mouths, and animated angry lines, is a no-no. It’s much better to convey the character’s mood subtly. 

Missing teeth, unless it is part of the story; otherwise, it would detract.

Unusually shaped noses, unless it’s part of the story. Keep them neutral-shaped.

Fan art. Save it for your own folio.

Children in dangerous situations, such as walking along the road on their own, being outside at night, having access to something dangerous, being in water on their own, or climbing a ladder in a kitchen. We don’t want to encourage them to do things that they’ve seen in the book!

Any type or text, unless it is an artistic addition. It’s very rare for illustrators and artists to get the design and text elements right. Most professional commissions exclude briefing the type or text, so if you include it on your sample, it’s a tell that it wasn’t a real commission. It’s much better to leave a space for it than to get it wrong. You don’t want them to start judging you for the text. Let’s just have them look at the illustration. 

Not a day’s work! Ensure your work reflects the right level of expertise, effort, and time. Quick low-end work devalues your folio. You can always come down in the standard of your delivery if the budget isn’t right, but it’s difficult to prove (without showing it) that you can go up

Another common snake to avoid: don’t sign your work, add a title or stick a copyright notice on it. It detracts from the main piece; besides, copyright law in most countries is automatic, so it doesn’t make much difference whether you sign it. Professional illustrators will know that.

These are just some of the common ones. If you have any doubts, have a look at professional (busy) illustrators’ portfolios on agency websites to see what they include. Typically, represented artists don’t have time to create speculative work, so the work you see will be briefed snake-free. 

A good agent will regularly curate an artist portfolio to ensure that it has the best chance of winning commissions, and moderate new work… or contact ITSme. We will ensure your portfolio is snake-free during one of our courses.

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