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I have completed both the mentorship and the portfolio course from ItsMe and now have a strong idea for the direction of my portfolio. The mentors are kind and encouraging, but also push you to take your work even further. I think both programs offer excellent value, especially if you are pursuing illustration professionally.
I participated in the Summer 2025 ITSme Illustration Mentorship, and it was an incredibly eye-opening experience. I was paired up with Christine Hong, who has an amazing creative eye, and her mentorship was very insightful. The feedback focused on principles and practices, which helped me improve my fundamental skills. In my opinion, this is what sets them apart from other mentorship programs, where the feedback is mainly focused on the pieces you're creating.
The weekly videos offered insider knowledge of the industry, and the closing call with Ed Burns was both motivating and enriching.
I highly recommend this program to any artist looking to break into the publishing industry as an illustrator.
I recently took part in a mentorship programme with ItsME Learning, and it was a truly encouraging and motivating experience. The mentors guided me to create more detailed sketches, to add more storytelling elements to them, and to keep improving and refining their final look. I’m very grateful for the experience and for how much it helped me grow as a professional.
The It’s Me mentorship program was truly wonderful for my professional journey.
My mentor, Bhavi, with great care and attention, helped me find the direction I’d been searching for regarding my style and market positioning.
In addition, the lessons and insights shared by Bhavi and the team were incredibly valuable in broadening my horizons even further. Today, I feel much more confident that my work can continue to evolve and reach more and more people.
I highly recommend the mentorship program!
I loved the video Be Your Own Art Director - from Tina Doffing. Tina guides and inspires artists to experiment while following a very clear, engaging and creative "step by step" process that allows each artist to grow and direct their efforts towards a clear goal, weather it is working with a specific client, improving our portfolio, or learning through observation and practice to be better illustrators.
Its a brilliant feeling to have a mentorship from its me,I was kind of lost getting rejection from agencies,these course gave me a much light ,what is the issue how should I approach.my mentor was vicky she is absolutely amazing helps alott to improve my portfolio.really thankful to its me
I recently participated in the Spring mentorship Program with ITSME, and it's been a great help for better understanding the publishing industry and tailoring my portfolio after I decided to pivot my work from animation production towards book illustration.
I was partnered with mentor Kate Powell, who was incredibly kind and provided helpful feedback and critique, and took the time to provide me with clear answers to my questions. Based on my style and strengths, she helped me gain clarity on which sphere of publishing to pursue (YA Book Cover illustration). Ed Burns, the head of the ITSME society, is incredibly supportive and kind and provided great feedback about my portfolio. I really got the sense that he was genuinely invested in helping artists such as myself succeed. His words gave me the confidence to pursue submitting to agencies now that the program has concluded.
The AI seminar from ITSME was very insightful and I appreciated it's inclusion given the current landscape of art industries being heavily affected by generative AI's use. My main critique is that I didn't find most of the other supplemental videos that are included in the program to be particularly helpful, but I think that was because they were usually very short, and the age demographic of what work I am making is for YA and not younger children. It would be nice if the program expanded it's content to include more advice specific to YA illustration for anyone like myself whose style might not be editorial or children's oriented. This didn't negatively impact my experience with the mentorship at all, but I felt it was worth mentioning. It would also be nice if there was more of a community aspect to the mentorship that allowed us to connect directly with other mentees after the program rather than coming across the pages by chance on social media platforms like Instagram or Linkedin.
Overall I am pleased with my experience and would recommend anyone who wants to get into illustration in the publishing industry to consider the program. It is particularly helpful if you're unsure how to tailor your portfolio to the industry and want more insight as to what publishers look for when you're submitting real work projects. The feedback I received and the connections I've made with industry professionals through the program is truly invaluable. Thank you ITSME for your help and guidance!
Signing up for the illustrator mentorship has been one of the best decisions I've made for my career. The feedback I received was not only positive and encouraging but also incredibly insightful and constructive. My mentor guided me in discovering my own illustrative style, understanding my potential place in the market, and refining my portfolio to a more professional standard. I highly recommend this mentorship to any illustrator looking to grow and advance their career!
I just completed the Spring 2025 ITSme Illustration Mentorship, and it was an incredibly eye-opening and uplifting experience! My mentor, Bhavisha Patel, accurately identified my artistic strengths and weaknesses, and she gave me plenty of insightful guidance to create my best work while also allowing for creative freedom. The program's videos and webinar were also very informative, covering currently relevant topics for our industry. I learned about the different markets for freelance illustration, and where my work might be best suited. Meeting with ITSme CEO Edward Burns virtually was a particular highlight in the program – I received invaluable advice and encouragement from him to level-up my artwork and illustration career! Developing a freelance illustration portfolio can feel isolating and unfocused at times, so receiving precise, insightful, and constructive feedback from professional agents through this mentorship has made a world of difference for me. I highly recommend this mentorship!
Completed the ItsMe Illustration Spring Mentorship and had an incredibly positive experience. I was assigned Aurora as my mentor; her demeanor was pleasant and she was very easy to talk to. I feel like she understood immediately what markets my work would fit into best and assigned appropriate, focused prompts tailored to bolster my portfolio in that direction. She was very receptive to my own observations and was able to answer every question I had about content, style, industry, etc. I think it was because of this connection and feedback on the prompts that followed that I feel I produced some of my best work so far during the program.
Ed was also very pointed and direct in suggesting a successful direction for my work, what markets it suited best, what markets were actually in need, etc. It was the kind of observations and advice that could only come from somebody with massive amounts of experience in the industry.
Overall there was just this fantastic feeling of sincerity and investment throughout the program. A lot of online "classes" can just feel like a collection of generic videos that's capped off with a mass zoom call Q&A with 50 others where it's impossible for the instructors to focus on the students themselves. The ItsMe Illustration Spring Mentorship values personal connection and development with its mentees and it really does set them apart from so many other online programs.
I really enjoyed the Navigating the World of AI – Thinking CAP webinar. I feel more confident and more at ease about the future of being an artist.
I find all of Thinking CAP’s videos full of valuable information, and I’m happy to have the support of It’s Me to keep learning from professionals in the industry.