Self Promotion - Gaining some ground

After completing the previous independent pracitces module I have been inspired to create a range of products to sell, the module also taught me that a product not only demonstrates my skill level but it promotes who i am and what i stand for as an artist. I was very happy with the products that i had produced for the previous module and i am sure that some elements will work their way into this module. I learnt a lot about who i am as an illustrator and how i generate my work. I learnt how to sculpt, make foam cut outs and even design and make my own boxes, they are some useful skills to have.

The new self promotion module is just another step forward in that direction as i am to make a product(s) that i can send away to companies that i would want to work for, i also have to think about the general public, i need to have something at the ready should someone want to get in contact with me.

When i think self promotion i think business cards, post cards, badges and labels, i will need to think further than that for this module as i want my things to stand out from the crowd, i want them to be remembered. 

For the most part of this year i have been absolutely certain that i wanted to be a children's illustrator and i am pretty sure that i want to continue down this path although i feel as if i could broaden my path on the way to my end goal.  Before i made my own self promotional pack i wanted to look around and see what other illustrators were doing to promote themselves. 

Over the last two years i have had the pleasure of being able to work with artist Jack Teagle, he ran a comic book workshop a while back and he was also one of the campers at camp CBSP which was another awesome comic book event, throughout the workshops i have learnt that Jack' style of imagery works really well outside of paper and because of which he has been able to make a variety of things which he then sells in his shop. Throughout this module i am to find ways to effectivley promote myself as an illustrator through psychical products and virtual space.
I chose to use Jack Teagle as my first point of research because he seems to have the full deal, a huge online presence, online stores, a vast range of promotional products and a big career to back it all up/.

Jack Teagle is hugely inspired by comic books and throughout his career he has made a bunch of his own little comics about his life. Above is one of his comics named 'Turtle Fighters' which was being sold at Teagle's stall at the stuff fair, i picked one up because the idea was so good and it was very cheap to both buy and make. The comic only consisted of three pages but it folded out into a A3 poster which i thought was a really nice touch, at the end of the comic Teagle also added his website and his name at the bottom of the page which helped to promote him. 

I thought that a comic book was significant to Jack Teagle and that is why it works well as a promotional object for him, i wanted to know if every illustrator needed to have a significant item for their promotion to be effective, does it all need to tie in? 

I had a quick look at Greg Kletsel because he has some really abstract work and i wanted to know how he promoted himself, Like Teagle, Kletsel has a massive online presence with sites such as Tumblr, Instagram and twitter to name a few. also in comparison Kletsel has a very tactile look to his work which makes it look very home made which reflected well in his store as i saw hand made badges and screen prints, he did not need much more really. 

I now need to search further and look at a bunch self promotional ideas and packages so that i can begin to make my own.