APRIL (2016)

In an exciting but highly competitive 2016 children's publishing market illustrators need to consider taking one more step to make their portfolios compelling for art directors and editors, suggests literary agent Nicole Tugeau of Tugeau2 Inc.

"We've seen this market only get more and more saturated," she says. "Ten years ago – even five years ago – you used to be able, as an individual unrepresented artist to go into New York City, submit your portfolio to a design team or an art director in the morning and pick it up three hours later with comments or post-it notes on it or a 'thanks, but no thanks' card.

"But you knew you would have eyes on that portfolio.

"What I've found in the past few years is...portfolios alone, sometimes, are not enough.

"Even the best portfolio, unless you are dangling a little bit more or sweetening the pot a little bit more, may not be enough..."

In the video below, she describes what she feels to be the needed – but often missing – ingredient in artists' portfolios and mailings, and she announces the May sketch assignment.

The folder to upload your sketch to before the May 2 deadline is here.

'Show Notes'

The 'missing piece' will be the focus of next month's Guest Group Critique, when Nicole reviews 15 final, full color illustrations that she's assigned from the May sketch submissions.

You can watch her give the sketch assignment in the above video. Here's our shared folder to upload your sketch to.

Here's a tutorial page that should answer most of your questions about how to upload your work to our critiques.

After the May 2 sketch submission deadline, we'll announce Nicole's pick of 15 sketches she'd like to see brought to final art stage. And we'll join her live on May 24 when she she critiques the results. She'll be available then to answer your questions about the children's publishing art market and how to maximize your opportunities in it.

You can 'like' Nicole's business Facebook page here.

While you're on Facebook, join our special closed Facebook Group for Guest Group Critiques where you can visit with colleagues and upload any artwork you'd like reactions on.

If you missed our special April session with Andrea Brown Literary Agency's Kelly Sonnack on how to show off your children's book illustration to best advantage online you can catch that replay page, along with the 'show notes' here.

Beginning at around seven minutes into the below video, director-producer Steven Spielberg discusses his unlikely inspiration and references for the look of the alien 'mother ship' in his movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  (It's an anecdote Mark refers to in the April practice critique.)