Wearing My Other Hat Today

Illustrator E.M.Gist interviews Yours Truly on his blog, Day of the Dead, today. This is Lou-the-de facto-art director he's talking to, not Lou-the-editorial-director. So there's some pretty covers to look at, including one making its debut, and I say erudite things like:

The best piece of advice I can give is the best advice ever given me. The very wise Jacob Weisman of Tachyon Publications said, You should never judge an artist by the best piece in his/her portfolio. You should judge them by their worst, because if that’s what they hand in, you’re going to have to live with it. I think this is tremendous advice for art directors. For illustrators, I suppose it means you should identify the worst piece of art in your portfolio and get rid of it! In all seriousness, I see too many portfolios that include everything going back to college, too many roughs and early works. A portfolio should reflect where you are now, not where you were five or ten years ago. Best foot forward, and only that foot!

Incidentally, that's one of my favorite examples of Gist's work you see pictured above. It's from the soon-to-be-released, highly anticipated Escape From Hell!,from Hal Duncan and published by Monkeybrain Books.