I think this is the hardest piece I have worked on for me. I guess perspective is not my strongest side. Thank you for everyone who has helped out along the way - you guys made my process so much more fun and engaging.

When I was an interaction designer, there was a saying in the industry "celebrate your failer". I did not really understand why, but now I really like that approach. SO I am going to celebrate my first "No" from my editor.

Yesterday, I submitted my first completed picture book dummy to an editor (we had good work experience in the past, I just finished illustrating a book for her recently). Within 2 hours, I received a rejection via email with an in-depth critique on the dummy. I was so excited and I almost said "fantastic" out loud.

I was excited because:

1. I finished a picture book dummy for the first time (a huge milestone for me).
2. Someone professional actually read it and cared enough to write a thoughtful crit during her working hours.

Now I am back to the drawing board with revisions to do. :-).

Here is my entry for this month. So glad I made it.
For the first time, I did my svs monthly challenge with traditional medium. I did not have access to a big enough scanner for today. So the image is taken by iPhone and I did a slight re-touch on photoshop.

Hi, everyone. I have a big news - I just signed a contract with Plum Pudding Illustration agency in the UK this week. I am waiting for them to update info on their website to make it offical :-).

Before the lockdown came, I hesitated to contact agents, because I did not feel "I am ready" (as most of you may feel the same way about your own work). I thought I need to just add a couple more pieces. Then during the first period of the lockdown, everything became so surreal and the world felt upsidedown. I was not able to consentrate on making art, so I started to reach out - writing to agents, editors and art directors. Then I was very lucky to recieve an offer, and now I am preparing for a new adventure.

It was interesting to illustrate the 3 point perspective episode "risky business" around the same time I got the agency offer. I felt I am that bunny who is walking through that door to the unkown territory. It is super exciting and a little scary too.

Thank you so much, SVS family, for all the critiques, advises on the illustration busniess, and surpport&encouragement. Thank you so much @Will-Terry @Lee-White @Jake-Parker for creating the SVS community.

Here is my little anarchist boar. The first animal came to my mind when I saw the word "mischievous" was a boar :-). Thank you for everyone who provided critique and feedback along the way, always more fun to do these when there is a conversation going.

Hey, I do not know if it is a legitimate submission if I submit a personal piece I have created earlier this year. I really want to participate in the all-stars contest because I think it is a fun idea and I wanted to support it. But deadlines ran over my life at this moment, and I do not have the mental space for personal work.

Here is a piece I created during the first week of the lockdown in March this year. I try to capture a glimpse of the time we spent together home together with my daughter. As much as the unknown and fear shocked us (adults), my toddler daughter had the best time in her entire life - as she got to spend 24 hours a day with me. I drew while she took her nap during the first week of the lockdown.

"Love is magic."
I got lots of help from the SVS family in the forum with this piece. Learned a lot. Thank you so much.

I also revisited my piece, and could not resist to touch up a bit more of the muddy color. Sorry for my re-submission.

I enjoyed this and it also drove me a bit crazy. Thank you so much for the critique along the way. Always making my image so much better when I share the process on the forum. Love seeing all the submissions. The variety is wild this month.

Am I too late?

@Gabby-Correia, @Laurel-Aylesworth-0 I try to find the explaination for every type in the sparketype website. But it seems they did not list that (probably wanted me to buy a copy of the book to find out hehe...)

What is a Warrior (or Anti Warrior), and a Essentialis (or anti-Essentialist) about?

@Tom-Shannon haha... I wrote a story based on the feeling you just described. I am waiting to hear how the pitching goes at this moment. I ended on a positive note, although I do not always feel like that in my real life.

@Tristan-Lapetz cool. thanks for sharing

@julian-beresford welcome to the club of anti Performer

@NessIllustration I hear you! I really understand that. I struggled with class presentations, and talking in front of crowd for years in my 20s. But my previous job really required me to do that. So I trained myself to the point I was actually pretty good at doing these things, even though every time it took so much energy out of me. I remember sometime I would do a 1 hour presentation for a group of clients, and the rest of the day, I was so tired that I could not do any more work. Now that no one had required me to do these things as an illustrator, I just avoid all types of performing activities.

But I see books I illustrated are coming out, I need to practice my performing skill again for book promotion.

I am Maven, and Maker. and Anti Performer.

@NessIllustration I had not guessed you are Anti Performer. I had been using this as an explanation to my partner why I am not in the business of making youtube, or running an online store. hehe....

Over the last couple of years, I have been very interested in the question of what kind of work/creative process fits with my personality. I try to pay attention to things that require energy from me, and things that give me energy. I originally was doing this as an attempt to come up with a strategy of dealing with potential burnout, as I knew it was extremely common in creative industries such as illustration.

Recently I came across a sort of personality test which focused on figuring out your type in the context of work.

https://sparketype.com

I was very intrigued by it and took the test. The result was not very surprising for me, but it does give me a bit more insight. I finally have an explanation why it is so energy-consuming for me to be active on social media, why starting a Patreon or youtube channel is so difficult for me to do(I had thought of doing these things for years, but never get around to do them), why learning to become an author/illustrator energize me, even though I have not sold a single book idea yet.

I thought I shared the info here - it might be interesting for some of you who are trying to figure out making a living in the art world.

In the spirit of autumn:

I made the transition to do illustration in recent years. I went to art school for design education and worked as a designer for many years. But the reason I did not pursue fine art was that I did not get into the fine art study (I tried 2 times). The rejections made me believed that I was not talented/good enough to be an artist. I stopped drawing/painting for 15 years before I picked it up again. Since my design education was in art schools, I always joked that I was an art school student who does not know how to draw.

I agree there is probably something about natural talent. But I almost wanted to ignore that, because if I grew up in a culture that values hard work rather than talent, I might stick with what I truely love to do and kept trying to get better and never left the path of pursuing to be an artist in the first place.

I love the Ted talk by Elizabeth Gilbert about creative genius. In her talk, she mentioned how she spoke to this creavtive genius of hers:
"Listen you, thing, you and I both know that if this book isn't brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see that I am putting everything I have into this, I don't have any more than this. If you want it to be better, you've got to show up and do your part of the deal...."

https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_creative_genius

@ruth thanks Ruth. I actually trying to search if there is a Chinese translation. But I do not know how they translate the artists name, or the book name in Chinese