Jen Betton's Blog

When creating a children's book portfolio there are three key elements to consider: format, content, and flow. This is the first of a three-part series on crafting a professional children's book portfolio. 
FORMATThis is the simplest of the three elements, but it has a lot to do with how the person looking at your work will interact with it. First, think about your venue. Are you showing your portfolio to many people, just one person? Will you be there with your portfolio, or is it in a conferenc...

When creating a children's book portfolio there are three key elements to consider: format, content, and flow. This is the second of a three-part series on crafting a professional children's book portfolio. 
Image © Jen Betton

CONTENTThis is the most important element of crafting a children's book portfolio. What do you include? How do you best showcase your talent? For the purposes of this post, I'm focusing on a picture-book portfolio, but many of these concepts apply to all portfolios. I'm draw...

My newest book, BARN AT NIGHT came out recently, and I painted a bunch of snow scenes for it, which got me reminiscing about my favorite winter picture books – old and new! This was going to be a top 10 of my favorite wintry books, but there are too many!

I seem to have a penchant for fox books: FOX DANCE is slightly instructional - the fox wonders what he should do as all the other animals are preparing for winter. FOX'S GARDEN is a gorgeous wordless story of kindness, and THE SNOW FOX is an abs...

When applying color theory to your own work, here are some things that may be helpful to keep in mind. Some of these were mentioned in earlier color posts in more detail.

© Jen Betton
1. Think value first – a strong value structure is more important than the hue you use.
© James Gurney2. Limit saturation – be careful not to overdo bright colors. A little goes a long way.

3. DON'T use black or gray for shadows. Shadows are  full of color. Generally, be very cautious using black (or white) in your pain...

 I got to give this talk once before at the New England SCBWI conference, and this year I got to give it again for the North Texas chapter! I also gave a talk on storytelling with composition. Some folks were interested in my lists of resources and my blog posts on color, so here they are – I hope this is helpful to you in your color explorations! The resources for the composition talk are available here. 

© Jen BettonPOSTS ON COLOR: 
Color Theory Overview: 
Part 1:  Primaries and Elements
Part 2:  Co...

 At the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators North Texas conference this year I got to be on the faculty - yay! I miss teaching art students so it's always fun for me to give a presentation. I gave a talks about composition and color and their use in storytelling. Here are my lists of resources and the artists I showed in my composition talk. I hope this helps your storytelling pursuits! The resources for the color talk can be found here. 

From Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
COMM...

After attending  Toni Buzzeo's  wonderful workshop at  The Writers' Loft  on picture book structures, I started noticing them everywhere. I already talked about "Mid-Point Reversal" (or "Mirror") stories in this post: here . Today's post is dedicated to parallel stories: this is where the plot follows two characters on separate journeys through the story. Sometimes the two characters come together at the end, and sometimes they don't but their experiences echo each other. ...

When I was growing up as a book-addicted kid, we didn't have a local bookstore. I lived in a string of small towns that were too small to have their own mall, let alone a bookstore. I would visit mall bookstores when we traveled, and remember getting kicked out just for reading the books.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sVGWfCQ-68A/XcxkNCtCLhI/AAAAAAAAClc/uJsEPm_Va0wz1ypkOFGJqodyUpvodLa-gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/barnesnoble-2.jp...

When creating a children's book portfolio there are three key elements to consider: format, content, and flow. This post is about flow. 
All images ©Jen BettonFLOWFlow is the order in which the images are arranged – how you arrange your work showcases your storytelling ability, which is paramount in the children's book world. Treat your portfolio like a book! (While flow can also be applied to a website, primarily the focus here is a physical portfolio.)

BEGINNING AND END:
You want to start and end...

When creating a children's book portfolio there are three key elements to consider: format, content, and flow. This post is about flow. 
©Jen BettonFLOWFlow is the order in which the images are arranged – how you arrange your work showcases your storytelling ability, which is paramount in the children's book world. Treat your portfolio like a book! (While flow can also be applied to a website, primarily the focus here is a physical portfolio.)

BEGINNING AND END:
You want to start and end wi...