One of my favorite and most respected artists, Bobby Chiu, wrote a great book called "The Perfect Bait". It's a mixture of how the life of an artist and illustrator can be along with helpful methods and thought process that may help lead to success. Like the title suggests, every artist is capable of producing different types of "bait" for different prospective clientele. For the longest time, I had no idea what I wanted my target clientele to be or what exactly I could provide well enough to charge for. Being that I'm now a mid-thirties bearded manchild, I've realized and accepted that my inner child is here to stay. It's taken a long time and even more practice, but I discovered that I want to create illustrations aimed at children's stories. Not only do I want to help capture the sense of wonder and magic of being a child, I want to help growing children maintain that wonder. Too often, we grow up and get bitter. We lose that X factor that allows us to laugh at silly things, dream, and attempt the impossible. I want to work on stories that show kids what makes them great and remind adults where they came from.
Enter my perfect bait. I'm working on a series of illustrations I'm calling the Childhood Fantasy Series (super original, I know). My hope is that these portfolio pieces will serve as appeal to authors and creators interested in the same genre and creativescape. Yes I made that last word up, but you know what I mean.
If you find yourself feeling inspired by any of this, please reach out to me. Let's get a project started and publish it together. My email is: kevinallenillustration@gmail.com
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