Archive for the ‘Ed Word’ Category

Folio Advice For Children’s Book Illustrators

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

 

Edward Burns CEO of Advocate Art gives some folio tips to illustrators wanting to win more children’s book commissions.

 

Look To The Movies For Guidance!

It’s a fundamental fact that stories contain characters – just like a movie contains stars, supporting cast and extras. If you think of the story like a movie and the characters in your folio like a casting director would their roster of actors, it will help you develop them for… well, that next blockbuster!

 

Characters

So no big film is devoid of characters.  There are no films with just scenes and narrative – that would be pretty boring.  The same goes for children’s books. Ok, there may be a religious title with inspirational scenes and verse, but that is pretty much it. If you don’t have characters in your folio, there is nothing for an editor to pick –simple! Now be honest, can you imagine your characters working as stars in storybooks? Or are they really only going to make it as an extra? Unlike a casting director, you have power to create this cast, rather than rely on the acting skills of your clientele – lets do that!

 

Cast

In short you have to create a selection of characters that can be chosen for a variety of stories.  Main actors, sidekicks, the mum & dad and animals (both anthropomorphic and stylized).  The more genres you cover, the bigger your rostra of potential actors, the more films (stories) your folio will work for.  You may have seen that classic 80′s film called the Goonies? For me, that sets the benchmark for characters covered in most children stories. You have the computer geek; the hero; the overweight funny guy; the older sister; her friend; the sensible older boy plus good guys and bad guys mixed as all ethnicities. You see all the same stereotypes in kids films and cartoons from Madagascar to Power Rangers and repeated in animations of cats, dogs, zoo animals – you name it! The same goes for children’s books, let’s see that bad guy lion or the geeky koala for example or hey, draw them as people!

Cover the bases

Remember, you have to supply the whole cast.  A publisher won’t just pick you for the lead character. Your cast needs to encompass all the main characters. A quick trick is to do sheets of doodles, some finished, some just pencil outlines – say a page of monkeys. Another tip is to do a character line up – like a police identity parade.

 

If you want to do a book about “xyz” have it in your folio

Your cast can be stereotypes for sure, just like actors end up playing the same rolls or get typecast.  So if your dream is to do a fairy story, have some fairies on your cast, play to your drawing strengths. Build a cast for roles you want to illustrate or are good at.

We have illustrators who get work because they are simply good at illustrating Hispanic-looking kids, for example. Don’t forget though that each actor needs to be right on the money, there is a lot of competition! And please don’t kid yourself that having a princess in your folio will mean you get a fairy book, it has to be spot on. As an agent, I wait for the Art Director to say, “that’s the girl in my book” as he/she points at maybe the smallest doodle in the corner of a page of your folio.

I recently had an artist comment that it was odd that she was always being selected for period work like fables.  I said “Your joking right? Every person in your folio is wearing pantaloons!” I had a similar situation with an artist saying she was fed up with illustrating bible stories, we had to remove all biblical work from her folio and replace them with characters she wanted to do next.

 

Understand the other side

By understanding what an Art Director is going through to get an artist selected, you will understand why maybe your folio is not working for them. The typical selection process goes like this:-

The Art Director has a publishing meeting where sales marketing and the author are present; they want to see the suggestions for their new cute bear book, for example.

The editor will go in with maybe 6 illustrator suggestions.  Examples of their bears (not giraffes or pigs or fairies) – BEARS! And the right bear for the story.  It may sound a bit narrow minded creatively that they have to show a bear, perhaps sales don’t have the creative vision to imagine what your bear will look like from looking at a giraffe?!  Maybe there are too many bear samples out there for the Art Editor not to need to compromise. Most likely, they really want to nail it at the meeting.  The point of the meeting will be to definitively select the artist, that won’t be possible until the author says “That’s my bear in the story!”

 

“I’m very versatile, just ask me to do what you need”

It’s a classic line I hear from illustrators who don’t have the goods in their folio.  Ok it’s not their fault, often they don’t know what the “goods” are. When an Art Director is browsing your work on the web a) you are not there to say the line and b) why should they go to the effort and ask you? C) If you were perfect for the story, or liked bears, you would have drawn one by now!

Please don’t kid yourself that they will call you and ask you for a sample before the meeting of your bear, based on the strength of your giraffe.  They won’t have the budget for this so it will be a free sample and they don’t want you to terrorize them for weeks phoning them asking how you got on.  Only if they have prior experience with you will they ask you to sample. Folios have become a bit like menus in a restaurant, that’s your choice – the chief won’t do specials.


Characterization. Oscar winners

Ok, the characters have to be good at their craft, good actors, expressive facially and physically animated. They carry narrative from page to page even with dots for eyes and a half moon mouth, for example. It’s all the about the subtleties e.g. the tilt of the head, the turning in of a foot. I’ve seen the best illustrators work with films on in the background, even in the corner of their mac to guide them- Nicholas Cage transferred to a bubbly-headed boy. Show you can do it in your folio by setting yourself a narrative. For example, draw:

-girl is happy walking her puppy,

-girl looses puppy,

-girl thinks she knows where it is

-girl is happy she finds it.

 

Candid – natural well observed poses

Great illustrators are great actors; they understand human movement and poses. You may have a great eye for colour, a great technique and be quick but if your characters are all wooden, like they have been jig-sawed from thick plywood and the arms are moved using pins, they won’t be able to carry the narrative. It’s like the difference between wedding photos when all the relatives are lined up and the candid shots taken by an 8 year old on her iPod.

A tip is to click away on your phone at your family and friends maybe one Sunday. Draw a giraffe as your grandmother looking surprised or laughing; or your young sister as she concentrates on a magazine, or your mum when she is thoughtful

 

Colour

This is a huge subject so I will bullet point the basics that are relevant for children’s publishing:-

  • Production printing processes wash out colours.  Softness and subtleties are often lost. Bright colours are best, especially when pitching younger.
  • Spend some time understanding colour theory.  Warm colours to cold colours evoke moods that will help bring out the narrative.
  • Co-ordinate and complement colours. Again use the colour wheel to make sure they are in the same pallet.  Keep continuity between colours throughout a page to demonstrate that, but don’t have your whole folio using the same green – vary it.
  • Limit your pallet on a folio page of samples to show you have a supreme grasp of colours. Muted colours can add a mood, especially in limited light, or if a scene is set with limited colour choices, like a green frog in a green pond in a green jungle, or a brown rabbit in a dessert etc. Besides, it can be very trendy to limit colours!
  • Use fashion magazines to understand what colours are in.  Check out popular online fashion/shopping websites and even drop the pallet into your own pallet.  Art directors and then the Mums who buy the books for their kids, understand fashion and will make purchases based on what looks right or modern.
  • Mix it up.  Why can’t a night sky be purple or grass be yellow?  By introducing different lighting into your work – vary the obvious.

 

My favorite website at the moment is https://kuler.adobe.com check it out, it will help you through this theoretical science!

 

 

Continuity of Character 

It basically means- can the same characters be re-drawn? You have to prove you can do it with samples in your folio.  It’s one of the most basic and yet often the toughest skills of an illustrator, especially if you have a very naive style. If this is the case, then often there are only subtle differences between the characters. You don’t want the same character pulling the same expression but you also don’t want all the characters to either start looking the same or start drifting into each other.

My best advice is doodle with your character and then set in stone how your character performs, use this as the benchmark before you even start. Sometimes a publisher will want to do this with you – it’s called character development. And don’t be tempted to make changes as you work through the project – you are asking for a re-do!


Child friendly

Are your characters suitable for kids? There is a big difference between Disney or CBBC characters and actors in 18 plus movies. The same goes for Children’s books, don’t have them dressed in sexy clothes, or well developed physically, or too violent, or too scary. In short, no guns, thongs, big breasts, cigarettes or spurting blood. It sounds obvious but it’s so common for illustrators to have in-appropriate characters in a children’s folio. Sure, have them for other markets but not in this folio.

Some illustrators have a different site all together for adult illustration or think of a sure fire way of separating them on your site. There is nothing wrong with having young characters with attitude, hey kids hate “lame” stuff e.g. how the Brats are to Barbie. Having it in your main folio demonstrates that you are not right for this role, it is a big home goal.

 

How old should your characters be?

There is a rule that generally pretty much everyone is interested in themes that are aspirational to them, but not too aspirational – just the next step. This means you can put yourself into the main role ‘with a little bit of imagination.’  You could be the hero in Die Hard or James Bond or the girls in Sex in the City.  Now consider the target age for these stories, they are always just below the age of the characters.

When you are growing up, ‘aspiration’ can be simplified to just a few years older than the target reader, their big sister or brother (because they get to do more).  So a 3 year old likes to read about 5 year olds, 5 year olds to 7, 7 year olds to early teens and so on. Don’t go too far, being much older is scary and often un-cool. There are exceptions of course but on the whole it works, so bear in mind this when designing your characters, even animal ones.

The Children’s Book market is broken into board books (think pages that little fingers can turn), picture books for mums to read to children at bedtime, early reading, reluctant reading and chapter books with simple illustrations, plus graphic novels and reference books. In general, illustrated books occupy the much younger market.  So as a rule, keep your characters young, say 3-8 and you will be in the range.

 

Cute.  Are they are appealing?

Thinking like a casting agent again, your characters need to be attractive on the whole. Let’s see your Brad Pitt’s and Julia Roberts. The supporting characters can have more interesting faces and the bad guys…well, need to look bad!  Stupid guys stupid, clever guys clever and so on. But the most important thing is that the lead guys are attractive/appealing, even if they’re not human characters.  Sorry, I don’t make the rules!

 

Cool- up-to-date

If you are not an ‘A-lister’ you at least need to know who is and why. Stories are being re-illustrated all the time, just like films are re-made, so you have to have a style which was illustrated this year or why would you be chosen to refresh a book? It is a trend led-world and no one is more on top of trends than the target buyer of kid’s stories – young Mums!

You need to know what type of eyes are in, what type of outline (key line) textures, of register colours etc. Check out the new releases in your local bookshop – absorb but don’t copy.

 

Style 

Your style is what makes you, you.  But it can be adapted and nudged to a degree, can’t it?  It has to have empathy with the reader’s age.  But also be on trend and decorative – maybe even have some sophistication for the Mum!  You need to get down to the child’s level at least and create work that they will enjoy.  Too trendy or arty and you can patronize the buyer and the kids won’t get it. (Sure some art directors will love it but I doubt it will sell so there won’t be a second!).  Naive characters work best when they are artistically aspirational to kids i.e. you could imagine that the most artistic child in the school could draw this way – i.e. within their reach aspirationally.

 

Compositions.  Set the scene 

It’s the location or the scene that will literally form the backdrop for your characters.  Don’t have them all on white and avoid too many cliff-edge compositions (i.e. a foreground but no background to the scene, like they are on a cliff-edge.) Include scenes that can help carry a narrative, as in the girl in the park example above. Do take on popular themes e.g. fairies, trucks even classic tales. This is your chance to be the director of the film so adopt their techniques-

Interesting camera angles can really help set the scene.  Say the story asks for 3 rabbits cowering from a tractor; have the angle perhaps as if you are in the ditch looking up at the rabbits, with the huge tractor filling the page behind them. It will help the reader empathize with the rabbits, as if they are going to be crushed under the wheels. A bird’s-eye view can also emphasize when characters are all together in a circle or one character is on its own.

Silhouettes.  Use these for supporting characters when you want to emphasize a conversation in a busy scene.  The main conversation does not need to be in the centre – just sketching the other characters can work as well.

Split scene.  Use these if you have over-lapping narrative.  It may be too complicated for young children, but really exciting if the text (and Art Director) calls for it.

 

And finally

Look in bookshops regularly, don’t rely on just looking at other artists or agents web sites.  They can throw you a curve ball because you may be looking at a folio of an unsuccessful artist! Check out what is out there on the High Street, especially really classic evergreen work. But hey, it’s all in the movies as well – go for the Oscar!

 

Ed.

CEO & Founder

Advocate Art

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Edward Burns says Happy new year!

Friday, January 6th, 2012

It’s that time of year again for an Advocate update! Read Ed’s letter to find out about our new heads up calendar and book, the growth of the company and what exciting things we are doing this year, including fairs and events. We need some fantastic new designs to take to all of these shows so keep sending in new ideas! Check out the Resources section of the website at the bottom of the ‘About us’ page for plenty of inspiration and ideas.

“Hope you had a great Xmas and Happy New Year!- for me, the break is usually the one time of year I don’t get e-mails so can turn the blackberry off, however since we now do more work overseas with countries that take less time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve I think this year has seen a possible end to that tradition. I should not complain, usually we don’t cover our staff costs in December and actually record a loss- however this December our sales were double (yep 100%) last years, which was a record year itself.

Heads Up 2- has just gone out phew! but hold on… it’s a calendar and has a CD resource folder as well this year..that’s going to be useful. We have sent out to 1100 publishing contacts worldwide, (eye watering when they cost $10 to post each) we have another 400 to go out this month.

2011 has been a busy year here at Advocate, we moved to larger premises and doubled in staffing (what’s that story about fish growing to fill the size of a pool?). We believe bigger makes us stronger, we can do more things for you, hey like the heads up book and more besides. I think being bigger means we have become a destination agency, by giving clients choice and back up. It also means the artists and clients get a better fit, like a store that is big enough to stock half sizes…..but we don’t want to act like the biggest, the (more creative) team here are all about working like a one-man-band would work from a kitchen table, one- to- one attention – ahhh those were the days.

Oh, did I mention “we” picked up 15 awards last year? Check our blog for details. We have even commissioned a little animation to celebrate it on the front of the site. Sure it’s about the art, being paid for a good job, seeing your work out there and working with great people but nothing quite beats a swelling trophy cabinet as well. Just enabling talented people to carry on working is enough to see them simply get better and better at what they do each year…….. actually it’s that, which gives me the biggest kick.

We are planning for growth in 2012. We now have Becky Reece on staff who runs telesales, lead validation, and works with Lesley. Also new is Martin Tidy who is a trainee Agent, that brings the team to 14. What’s on now -Kate is off on Sunday on a week’s sales trip to the US, she is going to Boston, Atlanta (including Americas Mart) and Florida. She’s seeing a mixture of greeting card and book publishers. – We have taken space at Paperworld in Frankfurt at the end of the month and then the Spring Fair in Birmingham on the 5th of February. I’m panicking already about what work we have available for this, please dedicate some time to new designs! We have a new large stand at each….now just to pay for it.

We have some cool things in development that will benefit you coming up later in the year. -New upgraded back end engine to the website. (cumulus 8.1) The site will be faster, compatible with the next generation of browsers and have better SEO capability. It’s a £25,000 project intending to get your folio out there to new art buyers and make it easier to find that perfect fit. -New artists internet interface. Means you can login, check what work is pending, what jobs you have in progress, what is waiting to be be paid and how much $$ is going out to you. You can print statements and create invoices. (It will be similar to your on-line bank statements). It will be completely transparent i.e all credit control notes will be recorded so you can see at first hand the often epic battles we have to get your money in! It will also have a note page that we will be able to add what call outs we have had for you etc. -New lifestyle calendar, based on the success of the “heads up book” we are producing one for art licensing clients. It will run from May to May and be a working day calendar so 252 pages long.

20 years ago I went freelance and set up the advocate cooperative, this year is also my 10th year married, the Queens Jubilee, London Olympics, Kate’s 30th and Caroline’s 40th. I hope there is even more to celebrate to come. Don’t forget new designs for the shows! Happy New year Ed.”


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Designer, illustrator or artist?

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

At Advocate art illustration agency we represent a diverse range of creatives from oil painters to digital illustrators. Owner of Advocate, Ed Burns has written a short piece on how to decide whether you are an illustrator, an artist or a designer.

“Designer, illustrator or artist – Edward Burns of Advocate Art says it’s important to decide who you are.

When reviewing an artist’s submission, I’m guilty of skimming over the intro letter – where studied, where lives, age, what inspires them, what they want to be… I suppose it’s all immaterial really if the work does not fit our market. However the one thing in the letter I do look out for is what the person describes themselves as – designer, illustrator or artist. It may sound obvious but how a creative describes themselves within these 3 terms speaks volumes on how open they are to accept commissions, or do they simply want their creative output commercialised (i.e. sell the rights and originals). What is much less obvious is it does NOT describe their work – not at all.

“I’m a textile/greeting card/typography designer”

“I’m a childrens/editorial/graphic novel illustrator”

“I’m an artist”

I list the terms in degrees of openness or “up-for-it-ness”, not by the sophistication of the technique or the medium, or complexity of composition. eg. Damian Hirst’s famous screen print circles could look at first glance pure design, but it’s art. How would you describe a fine art greeting card of say a cricket scene produced in oils, to us it’s design, not art. Illustration lies somewhere on the spectrum between graphic design and artistry, here the lines are even more blurred. To further make my point it could be said that prior to the advent of photography most art was illustration, often the greatest paintings were slabs of propaganda, serving the church or monarchy. Those creatives were illustrators, maybe designers: but creatives like Monet, who had an idea and technique, they were artists. Today it’s about whose idea you want to work with, whose story – who’s propaganda if you like, yours, or someone else’s.

We represent the whole spectrum of creatives at Advocate Art, we sell rights and win commissions. We would choose a designer for a different job than an illustrator or artist of course. More over we won’t offer commissioned work to someone who describes themselves as an artist at all, but market what comes out from them instead. We don’t define a creative by medium, because designers paint, as do illustrators and artists: it’s not the media they work in that defines where they position themselves, or even what they produce – but their openness to be a hired hand.

So if on the submission email “Dorothy, 26 from Gosport that got a 2.1 in Leeds” has NOT described herself in one of those 3 terms it will be my first question when I call her. I’ve been there – yep, and looked for an agent as well. I’ve also struggled to describe myself in creative terms. Some styles can be commissioned and some come from ideas deep from within. How you describe yourself in these 3 commercial terms tells the world if you are commissionable or an artist of self expression – “stand back it’s all me” or “I can illustrate your point”.

Images: Top left – Simon Mendez – design, Top right – Leila Fanner – art, Bottom – Louise Anglicas – illustration

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How to Create Successful Licensing Characters

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Edward Burns, CEO of Advocate Art – Britain’s largest illustration agency talks through his experiences in creating successful licensed characters.

The artists we represent develop against a client’s brief perhaps as many as a 1000 characters every year for greetings cards, children’s books and even advertising campaigns. A client’s brief will typically relate the character to this single commercial application – in children’s publishing ‘to carry the narrative for 3 year old boys’, or ‘a message carrier for a valentine design for teens’ in the case of a greeting card publisher. No one is so bold as to say they want a “successful global licensed character’. After all, in a highly competitive market place, mastering your own product group is a huge success in itself.

So when from these 1000’s of characters one captures the imagination of many, like recently Alexander the Meerkat in Compare the Market or The Gruffalo, then it’s interesting to us from a creative stand-point to figure out why.

I was asked once by one of our more successful artists if I thought her group of characters would work for other products and my reply was…”well I like them, the guys round the office do, if the publisher does and then it sells really well I will come back to you”. A cop-out answer perhaps but really, who knows? Certainly licensors will not buy into a character until they have seen some sort of run of success.

I had dinner once with Akiko Tanaka of Determined, who is credited for introducing Snoopy to Japan and managing and developing the huge program there in the 90’s. I can only guess at the total retail value of the brand but I was told the stationery alone was worth $300 million at retail. She described Snoopy as having kawaii, there is no direct translation for this word in English, it means life, character, something special, lovability, magic. A successful character has kawaii. We discussed what was working in the licensing world, what is failing and why that was obvious. It became apparent to me that a vein of constancy runs through these successes and failures. By no means is this a recipe for creating a successful licensing character, but perhaps a good check list for considering one.

I believe characters that have the strength to work over a large number of licensed goods and mediums must have 3 key qualities – empathy, association and appeal:

Empathy – the viewer needs to have an emotional connection with the character, they are able to create a bond between themselves and the character. They perhaps understand what the character is going through. They feel it!  A good example of this is Snoopy, people relate to his alter egos and hidden talents, or Homer Simpson and how he struggles with mid-male-life.

Association – the character shares an interest with the viewer; this could range from planes and trains to fashion and make-up. The character itself can even become the object of association – for example, people who like cute/whimsical may be drawn to licensed characters such as Miffy, or people who like trains in the case of Thomas, or Bart Simpson with skateboarding.

Appeal – it really helps if the character is loveable, nice and witty – all the same reasons why you may choose to be friends with a person. Beyond that successful characters such as Winnie the Pooh are crying out for the viewer to love them with perhaps arguably few other redeeming qualities. Lovability is their main appeal.

While you can empathise with a character that is not appealing, or find a character appealing without association, the most successful licensed characters need all three of these qualities.

Now the rub. To create a really successful character you need to ramp it up so it has the above 3 in spades but to the masses, and also dumb down what the character represents – in short, to be very popular the character must have broad appeal already before you even give it depth with empathy, association and appeal. For example, a bear will win over an alien monster, a fairy over a crocodile, a train over a carrot. Sometimes niche characters or animals (like a clown fish for example) can become popular if they are boosted by a big media release, but not for long and not on their own. Ok, so how does Sponge Bob work then? You can’t get more niche than a sponge in pants. Perhaps it is his originality that makes him work? Certainly Nick’s investment in great writing keeps my own kids interested, but I’m not sure Bob would stand alone without the series in the same way Snoopy works without a cartoon strip.

Our focus is always the first fence; make it work for the original brief, and watch it fly- hopefully.

Advocate artists have created a number of successful licensed characters over the years. The caliber of their designs have been recognized by the numerous industry awards (Henries, Louies and 6 children’s book awards this year alone) that we have achieved. Advocate also recently participated in the annual Brand Licensing show, displaying our artists’ designs alongside international branded characters. We don’t market brands beyond their original license, this we leave to the established licensing agent.

Marina Fedotova’s fairies are proving particularly popular over a range of products – from cards and crafting goods to picture books. These appeal to a large age-range, from children who can see themselves in the characters (who are quite modern and fashionable), to older generations who can associate the characters with their daughters or granddaughters.

Another artist with a talent at developing licensed characters is Kimberley Scott, who has seen her creations jump from greeting cards to children’s books and vice versa. Her anthropomorphic mice, cats and dogs are always full of character, charm and appeal. She often places them in situations that the viewer can associate with, and have an emotional resonance, such as a camping trip with your son, a day at the beach or a game of football.

First founded as an artists’ co-operative almost 20 years ago, Advocate Art is now the UK’s leading illustration agency, with the largest bespoke image library in the world. Now representing over 400 artists, Advocate supply illustration to book publishers, designs and advertising agencies, greeting card companies, wrapping paper and bag companies, ceramic manufacturers and editorial illustrations for newspaper and magazine.

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Ed Burns shares his thoughts on how to package your folio

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Edward Burns, the founder of Advocate Art illustration agency explains how we package work from artists and illustrators into a portfolio that is in sync with industry needs. Also the importance of samples, why some images are chosen for your portfolio and some aren’t and what artbuyers look for. If you are a freelance illustrator then read on to perhaps gain some useful tips for yourself.

“When work is first submitted to us we can see pretty much straight away where we can place it commercially.

It’s important that this commercial vision or creative direction is shared with the artist and they are fully on board with it before we start marketing their work. It has to be a shared vision, or else the artists may be stuck doing a style that they don’t enjoy or go off in a different direction stylistically and lose the commerciality we first saw. Having the opportunity to meet and discuss what we see in the work and explain this to the artist is important, we call it “packaging with their permission”.

Work is presented just like a product is packaged, easy to understand, the contents are evident, what you see is what you get and the features are highlighted. We want it to say  “this is John Smith! This is what he does, isn’t it great!” We package the work or images into a physical and online folio as well as numerous portals, adverts and marketing material.

The aim is to present the artist’s work in a way that they agree shows them in the most commercial light and is also in the same direction they are going creatively.

In our experience when meeting artbuyers (we meet on average 500 different art buyers between us a year) they are looking for continuity (you can do things over), colour understanding, (co-ordinating colours and complementary colours), characterization (candid, clever poses), a design element (decorative elements, added value), relevant to the age group (the style and characters match the age of the characters shown which in turn match the target audience), matches the rest of your folio, ahead of trend or on trend and most importantly an application (the work has a use).

The work must have an application i.e. be more than “nice” and “well done”, we are a commercial agency so it boils down to application. The work must either on its own be usable or be able to inspire a commission. If you are an illustrator this is completely relevant, but much less so if you are an artist who we are more likely to find an application for their work than the other way round. An illustrator may produce a nice image of a dog on a rug for example but what would it be for? Can it carry a narrative for a children’s book or is it decorative enough to work as a design for a product? As Agents, just like you see in the cartoons, we have to look at work with dollar signs in our eyes- we want to be blinded by them!

The thumbnails we select from an artist to go on material and the main artist site are key indicators to how we we package the artist’s work. They are the style setters, at a glance this is what the artbuyer will see in the rest of the artist’s folio. This may sound obvious but so often I see thumbnails that simply don’t relate, how frustrating that must be when you are searching for style.

Portfolios need to keep growing into this agreed direction, hopefully incorporating any subject matter commonly asked for by art directors and contain unpublished work. We brief artists speculatively on filling these gaps in advance of being asked. The most ideal way to achieve a rounded folio is with real paid commissions, if a client thinks an artist may have the ability to do something but they can’t see it from their folio they may ask for a sample.

Art directors often need to show their marketing department or the author (who perhaps have less of a creative eye) an example from an artist folio, you are not going to convince these people you are the best person for a jungle book by showing a train sample, obviously. So when an artist is asked for a sample, even if it is free, it is important to take the opportunity. The Artbuyer will be selling you, fighting your corner if you like, you need to give them the best chance you can.”


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Ed Burns On Inspiration and Influences

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Last Month Edward Burns Managing director of Advocate Art was in Art Source talking about inspiration and influences. Here is an extract;

“Some trends can lead back to films or big media releases like a video game, but we find art trends tend to be a collective movement inspiring fashion, homewares, fabrics and art. we monitor these trends in our resources database and themes become apparent when you see them in a collective form. This year again we have agents visiting New York, Paris and London over the Christmas season looking for trend indicators. we also repeat this through the year and collect images from all sources, which we pool into an online database that currently contains 7000 images. This is accessible by our artists and used continuously to help homogenise trends”

Three Key Trends

celebrating Britishness. “in 2011 I think we’ll see a resurgence in all things British, from flags and bunting to stags and Mini Coopers. This could be related to the success of programmes and films that celebrate British culture, such as coast, The Young Victoria and Brideshead Reavisited. In fashion world we’ve also seen the enormous success of Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania range”

Folk Art: “The huge revival of traditional crafts such as knitting, sewing and embroidery may have informed this trends. In the new ‘age of austerity’ people are looking back to homemade comforts that are also fun,bright and quirky.”

Peacocks and Opulence. “We can see this trend emerging in fashion, homewares and greeting card design, This could be because people are looking back to the rich, exotic elegance of the 1920′s Jazz era, but could also be development of the bird trend we’ve seen in 2010″

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Children’s Book Trade Shows – Why You Have to Take Part

Friday, July 9th, 2010
Advocate Art international illustration trade fair logos

Come and see Advocate Art at all of these trade fairs!

Edward Burns Founder of Advocate-artist agency is proud of the fact that they are the only Agency to take space at the book fairs and explains the importance of book conventions to his business and how they can invest so heavily in them.

“There are those who take part and those who just attend- it’s simply a matter of cost, and the company’s capacity for business, that divides the 2 camps.

The cost to exhibit at Bologna Book Fair, London Book Fair or Book Expo America adds up to around £10,000 per show. Add the 4 Greetings Card shows and 2 Art Fairs and an artist’s agency could easily spend £100,000 on Trade Fairs. It’s a figure that precludes small artist co-operatives and most agencies from taking space because they simply don’t have the capacity to make the figure up in sales. Therefore it relegates them to walking the aisles trying to show folios in coffee shops and ticket halls; not the best way to get your work ‘out there’ or to make sure you have the found the right Publisher – Artist fit.

Advocate Art are proud that they are the only Agency in the world to take space at all major events every year, sometimes exhibiting simultaneously with 2 events at once when calendars overlap.

It’s our face to the outside world, it’s our opportunity to meet international buyers, attract new artists and source new contacts. Of course you have to be a certain size to be able to afford these events, there needs to be a critical mass of business before your budgets can stretch to this outlay. For Advocate it is our thing, we spend 6 months of the year travelling at these events and the next 6 months, which includes the August holidays and Christmas, following up and meeting clients at their premises – only to start the process over again in January. We have made contact with fantastic Publishers in Korea, Japan and Russia who have seen us at these events, know us and therefore trust us with their projects; you simply don’t get that by cruising the aisles! When our Children’s book artists join Advocate, they realise by joining a big agency they will be able to have exposure that smaller agencies simply can’t afford.”

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Can card artists make good book artists?

Monday, July 5th, 2010
cute dog illustration by advocate artist sarah pitt

Dog illustration by Advocate artist Sarah Pitt

“How can I get into children’s books?” is a question that is an often asked by Greeting Card Artists.

The artistic limitations in designing a greeting card can frazzle some artists over a period of years. “I can’t do one more Christmas scene with out contravening my own copyright” was a quote from Sarah Pitt when she joined Advocate Art.

There is no doubt that designing greeting cards is a challenge that many relish and are very successful at. But after a period, if you don’t develop either, the industry will tire of you or you of the industry.

What next? How can I get into children’s books? We have coached many artists through the process of producing a portfolio which a publisher will pick up on.

Designing a card is about sentiment, synergy with the sender and recipient and trend. Designing a book folio is about almost the same things just in a different ways.

“Its very exciting” comments Senior Agent Kate Johnson. “Often the characters are there already, it’s just simply a matter of bringing them to life with good characterization and then showing them following a narrative. After that, knowing which publisher is interested in that look and presenting it to them!” How did Sarah Pitt get on? She was published in 6 days and now has over 20 titles to her name.

Advocate have recently signed greeting card designers from studios such as Hotch Potch, RMS and Stewo besides others. Greeting card artists don’t have to wait for the crunch day either. Why not supply both industries? The ideas spawned in one feed the other. An artist can also reduce their output in each industry and become more special by limiting who publishes their work because they are not over published in each. We at Advocate unveiled these new Children’s Artists’ folios at the London and Bologna Book Fairs.

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