02 December, 2005

the mini portfolio story



Today I have been mostly working on my mail out portfolio.
I composed a few images and made a mini book with them, to send with my christmas cards to publishers. They were really fun to make!! It did however take a lot of time, as I have gathered this promotion thingy does. Atleast it beats emails, this is much more fun!!
The illos on the left were the two contenders for my
mini portfolios cover.
The elephants eventually won!! :)

9 comments:

tlchang said...

I like them both. (Maybe you can use the landscape as the *back* cover! :-)

I love assembling hand-made promotional stuff - but it does take forever. I try to limit myself now to just a few time-consuming mailings a year. The others must be more simple.

lorna said...

Wooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!

They are gorgeous and I especially love the 'portfolio minimus'.

I hope you get lots of work because if the world were filled with your paintings then it would be jolly nice to run around in.

:o)

Maya said...

Thanks Lorna and Tlc! :)

I am asking father christmas for a good book comission this year...

sulk...I just got yet another polite rejection letter...sulk...
very nice work...blah, blah...don't have anything at the moment suitable for you...blah blah...will keep you on file...blah!

The worrying thing is that I am getting use to them...lol

Gretel said...

Idiots.

If I saw ANY of your work I'd want to buy it. Hang on in there Maya! The elephants are divine.

Maya said...

;)

Hanging on with hands, feet, teeth, hell I'll even tie my hair on the bloody rope if I have too...lol

tlchang said...

Nice rejection letters are better than the quicky 'form' rejections! Do you get handwritten ones? Or anything handwritten on them at all? I can't tell you how many rejections I've gotten.

michelle said...

Your work is beautiful, the response from the publishing industry really has nothing to do with your talent. I've a lovely pile of rejection letters also. It's amazing how the occasional job can keep you coming back for more punishment. I'm a bit cynical about freelance illustration, partly because I'm not a very patient person when it comes to my art. I work very hard and with passion, waiting around for months to finally be sent the lovely letters that say "We like your work and will put you on file." just wasn't enough, especially when being "on file" results in little or no work. Now I teach and paint (LOVING BOTH!), my audience is local and the feedback fairly immediate. Maybe someday I'll come back to illustration... or not. On the other hand I truly believe if you are following your passion and the work that you do energizes you then good things will happen.

Goodness, that was long winded!

Maya said...

No hand written ones I'm afraid tlc! :( Just the cold emails...

Michelle thank you for your post! It is great you are teaching and painting! Sounds like a wonderful fullfilling combination!

lorna said...

Maya- the 'I'll put you on file' letters aren't always a fob off- I got my first editorial commission over a year after they 'put me on file'. At least they've seen your work and you can now bombard them with updates every few weeks to keep on top of their pile! :o)