SCBWI Portfolio Showcase 2022

A week or two ago, I signed up to be part of the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase for their February 2022 Conference.

Pre-Covid I would gather 15-20 of my best images, print them out on nice paper, order 200 postcards as handouts, arrange the images in a regulation size physical portfolio and then hand it in to be set up at the conference. The night I attended my first Portfolio Showcase, it was a feeding frenzy. Lots of people hurriedly looking through all the artwork, taking postcards. I overheard one guy saying, “Penguins, penguins, penguins…” as he flipped through portfolio after portfolio. He was obviously looking for an artist who painted penguins.] Tons of people shoulder to shoulder. By the time I made it back to my hotel room, I had a stack of postcards. Then I went through the postcards and choose to take home only my favorites. I still ended up with a stack of postcards in my suitcase. Over the years, I have continued to weed out the ones I’m not as inspired by and keeping my favorites. And each time I attended the Portfolio Showcase, I brought more postcards home to add to my pile. A lot of my Facebook feed is from those first few years of finding people who were at the same SCBWI conference with me.

This February, as it has been since August of 2020, the SCBWI conference will be held virtually. The number one pro of that is monetary. Every time I attended the conference in LA, I spent minimum $2000—most of it on a hotel room and an airline ticket. When I moved to CT, the cost became cheaper. I could take a $40 train ticket into NYC. The conference in NYC is also shorter so I didn’t have to stay as long and the $40 train ticket back home I could take at any time.

This will be my first conference attendance since COVID shut down the in person SCBWI conferences and there are a few changes. The conference fee is about 1/3 of the in person price. The Illustrator’s Intensive is FREE. There seems to be no limit on who signs up for the Portfolio Showcase. And, each participant in the Portfolio Showcase is only allowed to submit 3 images.

Last year I added 17-20 new paintings to my portfolio. Picking the best was a necessity. I know if I don’t grab an art director’s attention immediately, I’ll get lost in the slush pile for sure. I started by discarding any painting that I felt was weak. Out went any painting that I knew had a drawing problem, was too dark, or I just didn’t love. That left me with 11 choices. I put them in order from my most favorite to my least favorite. Then I took it to Facebook. In photoshop, I had put a number in the upper right hand corner so when I posted all 11 pictures, it would be easy for my friends to vote. I got opinions. Fabulous opinions. There were those who gave me 3 numbers and then there were those who gave me 3 numbers and took the time to tell me why they had voted for the ones they voted for. I really appreciate all the time everyone took to carefully consider which painting should represent me in the Portfolio Showcase.

The result of the Social Media voting left me surprised pleased. Surprised because only 1 of my top 3 made the top 3. And pleased because I think my wonderful Facebook Friends collectively chose 3 strong images that I love as well.

Several paintings tied for their place in this line up. Here they are starting from place #8: