Portfolio Show: Sneak Peeks and Unsanctioned Predictions

Not to toot my own horn* but having seen SCBWI portfolio shows at least twice a year since 2008, without fail one of my favorites from the show has ALWAYS also happened to be a winner of something in the official portfolio awards.

Like the art directors, agents, and editors attending the show I grab a promo piece** of whatever illustrator's work really jazzes me up to remember them by and this year is no different. 

Though not as clairvoyant as the octopus who predicts the Super Bowl***, all the artists below are new to me but I do feel like they stand out to anybody as kickass children's book art. Happy to take bets if any of these picks are winners tomorrow****. So with no input from SCBWI HQ or the anonymous judges my favorite portfolios for SCBWI Winter 2023 are below in no particular order*****. And congratulations to everyone who put their work out there this weekend, that's a big deal in and of itself! 

If you attended the show last night share your favorite portfolio names or links below in the comments!

* A poorly played French Horn in junior high if you must know.

** It's so important for in-person shows to make promo pieces that people can take with them! If you don't have the budget for promo pieces consider printing your name/website as a footer on your individual portfolio pages so someone can at least snap a photo of the art and your name in one go.

*** Eagles all the way, Go Birds

**** Send all my winnings to Venmo, thx!

*****Did not look to see if the illustrator was agented when picking out my favorites, a reminder SCBWI has two categories of winners for portfolio shows so agented and unagented are not judged together.

Brizida Magro

Martin Saavedra

Anden Wilder

Abigail Rajunov

Andrew Lozano

Kelly Anne Dalton

Yuki Murayama