Update and a little bit sharing

lenwen

Hi there, everyone!

I am not an active member right now in SVS. I also barely write here, and I only joined SVS for three months after I had won the contest year ago (If I am not wrong) and also bought a class from here. But, I learned A LOT from people here in SVS as I read the threads and discussions. Long story short, I think I should also give some contribution in exchange.

Although I am not a hight profile illustrator, I've been working as a full-time illustrator since 2016. I've got projects mostly from Behance. I used to work for primarily self-published authors and companies in the past years.

Last December, after so many rejections and silent emails from agencies, I've finally signed with Cat Agency. They've rejected my first approach, but they gave me critical feedback. It required me like more than one year to eventually changed my style a little bit and signed with them. After all, it was worth it to tweak my portfolio until I feel comfortable and confident with my works before I've signed with an agent. (So if an agent is now rejecting you, but you have solid feeling and connection to that agent, don't give up yet. There might be second chance).

I am not an expert in this field and agents stuff, but as I've mentioned, I learned a lot from this forum, so I thought this would be a little bit of information to share, and if you've any questions related, don't hesitate to let me know!

nadyart

I was already following your work on Instagram, I like your style a lot! Thank you for sharing your experience. Have you received work through your agent?

lenwen

@nadyart thank you, Nadya! I love your works too! yes, two weeks after I signed, I got one assignment for children's magazine and so far 2 books deals

nadyart

@lenwen That is great!!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@lenwen i’ve been following your work on instagram and. I just love everything you’ve been posting.

xin li

@lenwen Thank you so much for sharing your experience. The cat agency is on my "To-contact" list. I finally made up my mind going for the illustration agency route. So I will be focusing on reaching out to agency, and preparing getting rejections and loads of silence.

Jeremy Ross

@lenwen, congratulations! Love your work! It would be interesting to hear more about your style change to fit into mainstream. Perhaps you could share a side by side old vs. new to describe this topic further. I’m currently exploring many different styles and just having fun with the whole process rather than specifically searching for one.

Again, congratulations!

MissMushy

@lenwen congrats to you. I am curious to learn what sort of changes in style you implemented that moved you forward?

lenwen

thank you so much @Nyrryl-Cadiz !
@xin-li don't worry, you will find it sooner or later when you are ready

@Jeremy-Ross @MissMushy good question! So, my old style was exposed more to the animation style (like Pixar, Dreamworks). I uploaded here my past work so you can see. The eyes were enormous with the distorted body proportion (which is fine, but mine is too extreme like the head is huge compared to the body). My agent said it wasn't fit for a trade picture book (at least for the publishers who've worked with them). And this was my personal opinion, but I also thought I tend to render the image too much 3d-ish.

I hope it shows what I meant clearly

xin li

@lenwen your recent work is so beautiful. I can see that your color palette, the use of shapes are also evolving comparing to the past works. really really love your work.

Jeremy Ross

Hi @lenwen, thank you so much for sharing! While I think your previous work is awesome, I can see how the style adjustment helped you.

Also, I checked your site and noticed almost every character is holding something. That is such a great way of communicating story; well done! I’m taking notes.

I love your pieces and all the line work too.

Thanks again!

MissMushy

@lenwen lovely work. So interesting to see the evolution of your style. Thanks for sharing

lenwen

thanks so much @xin-li , @Jeremy-Ross ,@MissMushy

Heather Boyd

I love your work. I’ve been taking notes from your work just now to help me. And I too follow you on Instagram!

lenwen

@Heather-Boyd thank you, Heather!