Based in Kansas City, illustrator Eric Thompson currently shares all of his work through Instagram, rather than a portfolio website, and so far it’s been working for him. “I started posting to Instagram as a sort of visual diary. I don’t think I started sharing my work with overt commercial aims,” Thompson tells CR. “But then I started to get requests for commissions based on my posts, and I have been able to naturally grow on that platform. It worked for me, and it is easier in many ways than organising and updating a traditional portfolio site.”

This doesn’t mean the illustrator hasn’t thought a lot about whether to find a more permanent home for his work. “A definite goal of this year is to set up a website where prints are available. But again, I have a day job, a wife and family, commissions, and all those general adult responsibilities. There is only so much time,” he says. “Instagram happened organically, and there is an immediacy and ease of use that keeps me there.”