Interesting Links for Illustrators

• When you first graduated, did you manage to find illustration work right away or did it take a while? by Teagan White. "What I’m saying is that you have so many options beyond sending out mailers and waiting for responses, that you are in control of how you spend your time and where your money comes from, and that drawing literally anything at all will move you the littlest bit closer to your goals."
• Sheridan Portfolio Tips by Amanda Zima. An impressively thorough article on developing a character design for animation portfolio.
• 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Coloring by Melanie Gillman. You know you're an artist when your class handouts are decorated with charming cartoons and hand-drawn text.
• A Few Thoughts on Editing Your Portfolio by Andrea Offerman. A great post about editing your physical portfolio, from the winner of SCBWI's Portfolio Prize.
• Surtex 2014: Let's Break it Down, My Art Peeps! by Lauren Minco. If you don't know, Surtex is THE big stationary/greeting card/decorative illustration convention. Lauren gives a good post-mortem of what it was like to have a booth there. Useful advice for tabling at any convention, not just Surtex.
• The Myth of Ready by Jennifer Ely. "It does not matter if you are READY. Ready is a lie. It’s a finish line we point to, always far in the distance, where the weather is always sunny and a roaring crowd waits to give a standing ovation."
• Unfinanced Entrepeneurs by Mark Evanier. A rant against working for free on the promise of royalties. Written in 1998 but still relevant and very funny.