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.

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?

@carlianne I totally see your art in comic format. Would be really interesting reading comic stories from you. I was huge indie comic reader some years back. My passion for narrative art started with reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi‎'s biographical comics. I am following Lucy Knisley's biographical comic since 2007 when her first book was out :-). Right now, I really love Grant Snider's comic (he also does beautiful, simple and profound children's books :-).

@RioSim1 thanks for the encouragement.

@carolinebautista I think it is a really good idea. But I think it might be much easier to organise such things with your local artists in the same city. At least the accountant and tax side of the thing would be a bit easier to grasp with a collective business :-).

I used to rent studio from a collective. The owner of the collective run an online shop which sell everyone's prints. Customers can also come to the collective to pick up prints themselves. But that was the time before covid, now I am working from home like most of the artists I knew of.

oh. It has been a while since the last jump session. Looking forward.

@carlianne figuring out art stuff takes time, it is all just process. I tend to think of it as collecting puzzle pieces. I have no idea what the big picture is going to look like, but every little thing I understood about art, it is a puzzle piece I collected.

I was also very spoiled with my personal projects for a while. Then client projects kicked in. The way I got through them is to think of them as mileage - I believe the volume of completed pieces is an important thing for beginner artists. I use the client based work to accumulate the volume of completed work, as they have a clear defined deadline, and I have a commitment to do so. Once there is limitations, I have to work creatively to get through. I do see a visible improvement after painting a big volume of work over a relatively short time period.

I also want to play with medium this year

@carlianne Great input. Thank you so much. your suggestions give me a lot to think about

@carlianne
It is true we all have a specific purpose, and it is also true we are all just lost souls painting aimlessly. At least, I feel that I am both, depending at which day, or which time of the day you ask me this question.

Illustrating books is such a weird job. I felt I was in the dark cave for months, and I can not really show the work to anyone, except the agent and editors which I have never met and barely know personally. I actually really miss the days before I start doing client work, engaging with the community here, geek out about value, colour and composition.

Then one day a couple weeks ago, I remembered the main reason I started doing the art thing was that I do not want a full-time job which I spend my whole day on someone else's vision. If I end up illustrating books after books, leaving no space for personal projects, then it is not that different from having a full-time job, working on someone else's vision. I suddenly see why I felt I was in the edge of burnout. That was the moment, I grabbed my laptop and emailed my agent that I need to re-shuffle my schedule for this year to leave some space for me to do silly stories, to learning new skills, and to spend time on the forum here chatting with other artists.

I do not really know what kind of stories I want to write and paint. Right now, I am aiming for quantity over quality when comes to writing stories. I figured, if I write enough (and read enough too), I will find out eventually...

@Melissa-Bailey-0 absolutely fun image. love it.

@Melissa-Bailey-0 sure. i would love to share my learning. I am going to check with my client to see if I can share some process video online. Will let you guys know

@Julia thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I think maybe the most realistic way to start this journey is to start a youtube channel to document my process and see if there is any traction. I am considering doing something with traditional media, getting myself outside of my comfort zone - it would be more of a documentation of my learning process rather than a tutorial in the beginning before I figure out how to paint traditionally myself :-).