Experiences of a First-Time SCBWI Conference Attendee

She's an artist's agent who represents 44 artists in North America, the UK and Europe. Her advice covered much of what we'd been hearing since Friday. However, she said we should show different ethnic groups, create interesting backgrounds, experiment with color or, at least try to keep your portfolio from looking like it's from the same book or color palette. Be sympathetic to the age of the reader, show contemporary scenes, change your perspectives, look at shadow and texture and include "leave-behinds" with your portfolio so art directors and editors can keep your samples on file.

A lot of valuable information. How on earth can I show this in 12 to 15 pieces of work? Practice, I guess.

The last part of the afternoon was spent at the authors' signing, which also served as a chance to thank the authors for their presentations.

It was inspiring to hear about their experiences and listen to their words of wisdom including a fabulous talk by Marc Brown, creator of the children’s character Arthur.