Website Revamp Alert!

 

Screen shot of the new "Home Page" to my website: dianadelosh.com

Tah Dah - I finally re-vamped my website, dianadelosh.com. Now I've done mini revamps and updates but this one's a biggie!

Recently, I had a ZOOM group portfolio review where the Creative Director loved my friend's portfolio. Unfortunately, she didn't love mine. She liked my illustration and my hand lettering but she found my website navigation cumbersome and the thumbnails were way to small and didn't show off my actual art. A big wake- up call that it's time to really re-do my website. PLUS, I could analyze what made my friend, Patricia Keeler's website a hit with her.

Previously my website opened to my ABOUT page. Then you clicked on Illustrations and you saw thumbnails fo ALL my illustrations, then my books etc.

So what's New:

1. Home/Landing Page with BIG ICONS for each of my 4 Portfolio Sections Picture Book Art, Middle Grade Art, Published Books, Surface Design
2. BIGGER THUMBNAILS!
3. Dividing the art into 3 sections allowed for Bigger Thumbnails with less scrolling/clicking. Yup you can still click on each individual piece to see it really big. BUT for the really busy Art Director they don't have to unless they want to.
4. Moved the ABOUT page to after the portfolio sections.
5. Added a direct link to my Instagram in my navigation bar. A lot of Art Directors have mentioned how they liked to look at illustrator social media to see other art that may not be in their formal website portfolio.

YAY! My improved website is up, just in time for #KidLitArtPostcard day, tomorrow June 1!

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

M-M-M-M It's a PBDummy!

M-M-M-M CUPCAKES

Scan of my Picture Book Dummy

All art and text © Diana Ting Delosh

Web/Portfolio - dianadelosh.com

Tah Dah - I'm so happy to say it's a DUMMY! I've been working  on this dummy , betwixt and between jobs and life and there were many times that I thought it would never be a cohesive piece.  This 32 page dummy is comprised of 2 finished colored spreads and the balance is loose sketches. I even created some yummy cupcake type for the title. Finally, here it is all put together and in time for my big portfolio review last weekend.

So how was M-M-M-M CUPCAKES PB Dummy Debut? I saw 3 reviewers; 2 editors from small to midsize publishing houses and 1 Art director from a large Big Name Publishing house. 

The Big Name Publishing House Art Director liked how my dummy demonstrated that I had a real sense of how a picture book should flow.  However her imprint was not interested in Concept Stories. 

Editor # 1 was also not looking for picture book illustrators although CB liked my portfolio and told me I could send her ideas and sample art. Sigh. 

However I really seemed to hit it off with editor #2. PG seemed to really like my portfolio and my dummies especially M-M-M-M CUPCAKES. She also really liked concept books as this mid-sized house tends to sell to libraries and schools, hence their lists are school curriculum driven. PG even quickly read through the brief text and gave me a few suggestions and permission to formally submit this proposal after I've made her suggested revisions as well as send other new proposals to her. YAY -very exciting! Keeping fingers crossed!

Note I did not mention the Publishing houses nor the reviewers by names. I have a superstition that if I talk too much about something prematurely I may jinx myself. More importantly though is that this is my experience and yours with the same company and reviewers would be your unique experience based on your work.  This review has convinced me to try a new strategy of picking smaller or midsize publishing houses as they seemed to be more open to acquiring new projects/illustrators. 

FYI: I only show my hard covered dummies in person at reviews, conferences etc. To submit this project as a Picture book proposal, I create a multipage PDF  from the 16 spreads (15 internal spreads plus the cover) that I can easily pop in the mail or even just attach to an e-mail, with cover letters of course.