An Exciting New Direction

You guys, I’ve had this idea in my head for a while now and it absolutely won’t go away. It’s something I really want to exist, so I’m gonna make it exist! And I’m telling you about it first.

It’s a program designed to give illustrators affordable, high-quality, career-supporting feedback.

Feedback is so crucial to leveling up. I’ve been able to channel constructive feedback into great leaps forward in my portfolio, and I’ve gotten to work on really cool projects as a result.

But I also dropped a ton of money on it through courses and conferences. And honestly the ratio of feedback-to-expense in these situations is ridiculous. For example, here’s money I’ve actually spent:

• $350+ per course with an industry pro where feedback wasn’t guaranteed. I got some but a lot of students didn’t.

• $50 for a conference, plus over $1000 in travel expenses where feedback wasn’t guaranteed. I did get really useful feedback from one agent, though.

• $800 for a conference, plus ~$500 in travel expenses, where I didn’t get any feedback. It could have for an $100+ but the slots were filled up.

Of course that’s not even including art school!

Ways to get feedback I haven’t paid for:

• $1000-$5000 for a small group/mentorship program where high-quality feedback is guaranteed

• $150+ for a portfolio review (this can be a great deal!)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all worth it if you can swing it, because good feedback is priceless. And the people who give it have worked hard building their skills and careers and 100% deserve to be compensated for their time. But it’s so far out of reach—especially in the early days of building an illustration career—that it can feel a bit like gate-keeping.

And while there are free ways to get feedback, they require time investments and a good deal of luck, e.g., cold-emailing a professional and hoping they get back to you.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make high-quality feedback more accessible, and I’m gonna test it right here on Substack. I’m creating a program that will allow serious and aspiring illustrators to get direct feedback from me and guest industry pros as well as members of the community. I plan to foster meaningful criticism to help us all push beyond the homogeneity of social media-fed art styles to something truly special.

My plan is to go live in early August. At the same time, I’m so excited about it, I kinda want to start right away! Would any of you be interested in a beta program? Would you want to work out the kinks with me, or would you rather come in once it’s all ready to go?

I’ve done the math, and in order to make this work, I have to raise my subscription price. Right now it’s set at $50 USD/year, but to give the kind of support I want to deliver, I’ll need to keep the group reasonably small.

My plan is to have an introductory rate of $100 USD/year for the early birds, and after that it’ll go up to $150/year. Monthly subscriptions are available, too.

I know I haven’t even talked about what this program will include, but I wanted to talk about the price change up front, so that my readers can get grandfathered-in at the current rate (if that appeals to you).

It’s my hope to eventually offer scholarships and pricing-parity for illustrators in different economic environments, but for now, getting grandfathered-in is the most affordable way to go.

Over the next several weeks I’ll share what I’m working on and let you know what the program will include. I’ve been working hard on building out the framework, and I think it’s gonna be such a win-win for this community!

This new adventure will have me sharing more art from the community and less of my own. I’m going to dust off my very neglected blog and start a new mailing list separate from Substack. If you want to join, you can sign up over on my website at jennifermpotter.com. I’d love to have you on board!