To be honest, I've actually never read the book before this contest! I'm now somewhere in a middle and enjoying it greatly

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to share the big news with someone, I'm so excited! Today I found out, I'm published outside of my home country!
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/sky-pony-press/9781510764309/the-little-monkey-who-wouldnt-sleep/?fbclid=IwAR3GJnOF1fMSX4GQXHUtWFCGeQMLZAbHIj9F3m0AVl8FYb1U00FF5Io5w6k

It might look like that's not that important, where a book gets published, but to me it does make a great difference.
In Czech republic, as well as in other small europe countries, the budget for illustrator is usually very small. So to make a living as an illustrator usually means to work super super fast. Lately I've been working on a new illustration style (the Yeti one), but this style takes a lot of time and I know my publisher in Czechia could never pay that money.
Thus, for this year I decided I will finally get me an agent, break through on the US market and gain the time I need to make some great time... And this is much more easier said than done. The las year was very hard for me and this year looks even harder and somewhat the winter depression got into my head... And I somewhat lost the interest in pursuing my goals.
But. Finding out my publisher sold the rights to one of my books to the US market gave me the kick in the but I needed! I'm so happy about these news and I know it might take some time to get on the radar of publishing houses, but I will try.
Thank you for reading this... I'm sorry it's a bit long and that there's not really a climax in this story. I just needed to get it out.

What are your goals for 2021? I'm super curious to hear what all the other fellow illustrators are working on!
Is there someone with a success story? Is it really hard to get noticed outside of your home country?

And hopefully I'll be able to share my steps towards getting an agent and/or getting published on my own outside of my home country in the future.

This was such a fun! And I did this month prompt on time, yey! Now I just hope I'm still subscribed to SVS courses
Good luck everyone! Looking forward to seeing your work and progress in the upcoming year!!!

Here's my entry. My Yeti doesn't have a house per se, but still has a home. Thanks for the challenge!

Hi everyone! This month’s prompt was amazing aaand - I just didnt have enough time... so I don’t have a properly finished character sheet. But I have a character and wanted to share with you anyway. Looking forward for the critique arena to see all of your wonderful paintings!

Hi! Here's my entry.

I've been posting my work on my local Facebook group for illustrators for a long time. But few days ago, I first post an illustration with a comment that I have a project (picture book) ready to be shared with publishers, just a basic announcement... and in an hour or so two publishers (in my country we don't have agents) approached me and asked for the manuscript. That never happened before, when I was only posting illustrations! And I also did not believe people from publishing houses are actually present in those Facebook groups or following my account. But they are. They were just waiting for a project. So - you, guys from SVS, were right. We need to work on projects and be present on social media, so the right people might find our work.

Does anyone of you also have a success story or almost success story (because I have no idea if it actually will be a success story at the end;) to share? Might be great to hear those!!

Sooo... I hope I will finish this one. but we will see.
This prompt gave me an idea of a story about a little kid, raised by a Yetti family. Thus my character design is for both of them - the kid (still not sure about his/her name) and one of the Yettis

Sooo... after drawing like a ton of different houses and cabins, I realised, my Yeti would probably never lived in a house from bricks and stones. He’s a forest creature, from our fluffy and cute bohemian woods, so I’ve came up with all new sketch and designed his home under open sky.
Do you guys have any thoughts/critiques? I’m not entirely sure if It’s according to the rules of this month prompt cause this is not an actual “house” but it is his home ... so maybe it’s ok?

Hi everyone,
I had this page in my book (personal project), where the scene should happen in the attic. Before watching draw 50 things, the attic was... well - nearly empty (such a shame!) So I decided to take it to another level. Before moving on a more detailed sketch, a lot of the items are now just a lumpy place holders, I wanted to check with you guys the general composition and value. What do you think? Is there something bothering you? Thank you!

Do you want independence, or independence while supporting yourself with art? I’m sorry you’re feeling down, it looks To me like your expectations are really high, which leads to a bigger disappointment... get a day job, there’s no shame in making a living with a not art related job. Working as an illustrator is hard and long road, and there are almost no shortcuts. It took me about 4 years to be now able to have a steady income with illustration only and I STILL don’t have an agent, my portfolio isn’t perfect and I have a lot to learn. So don’t worry, you’ll get there, just don’t give up, keep your sanity while working hard on your illustration skills and don’t rush it. A year of trying is really not a long time (I know it is, for you, but not in general and it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough). It will get better!

Hi you all, I’m always in search of good information resources.
Do you have sone tips on illustration/writing pb YouTube channels?
Recently I found BookEnds (literary agency):
https://www.youtube.com/c/BookEndsLiteraryAgency

And The illustrators guide (illustrator agency): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Idk6FHc8tUwT89WouBiRg

They both quite interesting and I thought it might be fun to share with you. other tips are welcomed!

Not really an answer to your question, but I think the shark design was the closest to a character sheet, the other ones look more like a page from a comic, so maybe that’s way they weren’t picked. My personal favourite was Steven, btw.

Love your sketches! And (sorry to disagree) but I think the name of the hotel is pure gold! My 4 year old would love it! And of course she would giggle over it day and night... but that’s not a bad thing, isn’t it?

@Georgios-Christopoulos she is indeed!

Hi everyone! This month’s prompt was amazing aaand - I just didnt have enough time... so I don’t have a properly finished character sheet. But I have a character and wanted to share with you anyway. Looking forward for the critique arena to see all of your wonderful paintings!

If you don’t want to resize your original artwork (which you probably don’t) you can create a new canvas in Procreate with the dimensions you need for the artwork to be posted in the thread , copy there your original artwork (select copy canvas in Procreate) and then export as a jpg. you can then upload directly from your iPad.

@Michael-Angelo-Go oh no, I definitely agree with you that you’ve made the right decision about this client! I wouldn’t go down that rabbit hole either. I just felt the need to share my story - I think Upwork might be useful sometimes, if handled correctly. As you said, the job must have some benefits, and if the client doesn’t allow me to put the work into my portfolio, it’s a bad sign (it actually never happened to me on upwork? Sometimes I even negotiated different terms regarding the (c)...).

In defence of Upwork and similar sites...
When I first started with illustration, I was still working part time in a small publishing house here in my country (Czechia). I was absolutely clueless about everything restring picture books. I was an in-house creative manager and we’ve been creating colouring and activity books with licensed art (Disney, hello kitty etc), so my background in what should be the prices for pb illustrations was nonexistent... and I was the typical third world country resident (haha).
My art was bad, my rates were low and I was ready to take on any job. Back then, I was seeing my self as a kid who really wants to make some bucks by mowing neighbours lawn. Cheap work, bad treatment, all this lovely stuff included! I took it as a school, as a battlefield I could learn and grow on. After a while I raised my rates and applied only for jobs with bigger budget (btw, the client usually declares the budget for the job, so - if you’re not within the budget, don’t apply for the job maybe?;). Now I think I’m in a totally different place with my illustrations. I’ve grown, learned, took a ton of classes, and I’ve illustrated a ton of lousy self published picture books and I’m grateful for my clients they let me learn while paying me the money. Just like the kid who outgrows his lawn-mowing days for cheap and is ready to build a serious lawn-mowing company.
Yes, I was giving all my rights while working for this freelance projects.
Yes, the clients usually wanted just cheap and quick job, but with some learning it’s possible to avoid them.
And yes - I did not mind the cons. And I was always trying to do my very best, even when payed poorly.
With help of upwork (and other similar sites, but mainly upwork) I was capable of sustaining my self during the transition time, quit my part time job at the publishing house and focus on building my portfolio.
Right now I still from time to time work there, I work as an “in-house” illustrator sort of a think for a publishing house in New Zealand that creates educational books for kids, they pay me very well ($70per illustration) and since it’s a returning client, upwork takes only 5% and honestly I’m absolutely ok giving up all my rights since I don’t want my name to be linked to those books anyway (not that I’m ashamed or anything, it’s just that creating educational illustrations is not my goal, it’s just something that helps me get my monthly income, someone might prefer delivering pizza).
Long story short...
Don’t work on upwork if you don’t like the conditions. However, don’t dismiss it only because it’s not the the dream client. IMHO, I think it absolutely pointless to worry about my giving up my rights to the illustrations. In the beginning of my art career, they were such an ugly illustrations (in retrospective) I really really don’t care. And to think my clients might get famous because of a book I’ve illustrated for cheap and they now are super rich and famous and I have nothing of it? Well yeah... that probably will never happen.
Maybe you still need to paint some of those lousy paintings to get them out of your system... what a great opportunity to paint, learn and get a little bit of money out of it! But for someone this would not be the way to grow. Someone might be much better off with actually mowing the lawn to get the money and grow as an illustrator in their free time and jump on the illustration train with big clients and big publishers when the learning phase is finished....
But seeing upwork as a place to get a real big world client? Probably not. You might be lucky though, but for me the healthy attitude was to take it as a place to learn my craft while getting payed.
Sorry for this loooooooong post.

Hi!
I think the improvement is massive! I love your use of colours, textures and all the little details (pattern on dad’s sweater etc).
What might help this images would be to think about the silhouettes - i made a quick draw-over. Since that part of the boat is cropped out anyway, it might just not be there at all to help enhance your main characters silhouettes?
But overall it’s really cool image!