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.
