Pump It UP Portfolio CritiqueFest
sponsored by SCBWI CA North/Central 

Get ready for our upcoming April Spring Spirit conference and our May 19 Illustrators' Day and learn how to pump up your portfolio to catch that editor or art director’s eye in this workshop!

SCBWI Members $40/Non-members $50. Your class fee includes a 15-minute portfolio critique. 

Featuring the fun, fabulously talented, and multi-award winning guest reviewers Yuyi Morales and Jim Averbeck working in conjunction with your SCBWI co-illustrator coordinators, Kris Aro McLeod and Mira Reisberg.

We'll discuss what art directors and editors want to see in a children’s illustration portfolio. We’ll point out your strengths as an illustrator, help weed out weak pieces, and figure out what you might be missing. 

 Bring your portfolio with removable pages or separate pieces in plastic sleeves so we can spread our your art and help you create a magical portfolio book ready for SCBWI North Central’s Big Illustrator Day in May. Also bring any sample business or promotional cards to display. 

If you’d just like to learn from others and/or see some gorgeous art, you do not need a portfolio to attend (price is the same and you’ll be welcome). 

Limited to 22 people, so sign up soon!

 Contact Kris Aro McLeod at  or Mira Reisberg with questions. 

SPEAKER BIOS

Yuyi Morales -- Since having immigrated to the USA in 1994, Yuyi Morales has create some of the most celebrated Latino works for children’s books. She is the multiple winner of Pura Belpre Medal for Illustration, given to a Latino illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children. Some of other recognitions include the Americas Award, the Golden Kite Medal, the Christopher Award, the Jane Adams Award, and the Tomas Rivera Award won in 2004 and 2008. Asked about her work Yuyi says, “I strive to capture the incredible beauty of the everyday forms and to use textures and colors as another way to reveal the heart of the story. I also pursue glow and luminosity with resolve. If I could ask for a talent, it would be to become a color genius.”

Jim Averbeck won a Charlotte Zolotow Honor for his first book In a Blue Room (Harcourt 2008.) He is the illustrator of Newbery winner Linda Sue Park’s serialized novel, A Long Walk to Water (Breakfast Serials 2009.) He is the author/illustrator of the critically acclaimed except if (Atheneum 2010) as well as the forthcoming picture books Oh no, Little Dragon! (Atheneum 2011) and The Market Bowl (Charlesbridge 2012.) He lives in San Francisco with his spouse and their dog.

CANCELLATION POLICY: Full refund (less $25 processing fee) up to one month before the event. If you want to cancel less than a month before the event you will receive a 50% refund IF we can fill your spot off the waiting list. Otherwise no refund.