This episode where they discussed @allysa 's work really resonated with me. The advice Jake gave was spot on, and was a similar conclusion I came to about my own work: too dark both subjectively and visually, render less, look at targeting older age demographics for the work.
I got rejections from agents too, and realised that I needed to change things up a bit, but in a way that I would still enjoy the work - e.g. not becoming yet another Klassen clone.
Here's my original dark style compared to the last lighter, pencil and digital style I tried out (for an SVS prompt).
dark-light.jpg
I'm going to use the darker visual style for a video game I'm working on, and the lighter pencil style for any future picture books. I don't think I'll look for an agent and will just self-publish picture books in the future, it just seems too much of a hustle to make money from illustration in any meaningful, sustainable sense. Especially because I take a long time on illustrations. So I'm going to have to keep up the UI design to sustain me.
Looking forward to seeing where Allysa ends up in 6 months. Also, I like the idea Lee suggested about showcasing illustrators, I learn a lot from those little mini-portfolio reviews, I think it's something that can help illustrators.