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?

The first picture book I illustrated in English is out this September. Very Excited for this one.

https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-star-makers-apprentice-sam-hay?variant=39272157577294

I have one Picture book in Norwegian came out in 2020:
https://www.cappelendamm.no/_babysang---rim-regler-og-sanger-for-de-minste-9788202659189

The book did OK. I received my first loyalty report right before the summer holiday :-), very cool. I was also commissioned to do another book with similar concept for the same publisher. I just wrapped up the project before the summer holiday, and the book is coming out this September as well :-).
https://www.cappelendamm.no/_god-natt-----rim-regler-og-sanger-for-de-minste-9788202702649

And here is another book that will also be out this September.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/You-Are-Home/Mackenzie-Porter/9781534496088

Personally, I have a very mixed feeling about the last book. But as Jake Parker always says "finished, not perfect".
Right now, I moved on to the next picture book which will be a non-fiction book. I am also writing my own picture book, a completely new adventure.

I also did a book cover art and some interior work for a YA fantasy novel.
https://www.cappelendamm.no/_tankespinneren-vibeke-koehler-9788202628932

The book got some attention in the country, and I have seen the book poping up around in the city, and around social media and news paper/magazine reviews. It was really cool to see. Unfortunately, there is no tradition to have the illustrator´s name on the cover (I have asked for this, but the AD said "sorry, we can not do that"). So I did not get much benefit from it apart from being happy to see the book around

I am currently working through a personal project, which I kept doubting myself if I am able to do it. I was very excited when I started - I wrote a picture book story. But the story requires me to draw complex scenes with many characters (story called for it, and my usual illustration have 1-2 characters in a big environment. Maybe a typical newbie writer thing - I have a story I like, but the story elements are beyond what I am comfortable of drawing). I just spent a week trying to figure out the composition for a spread with a bunch of characters. In the end, I had to scrap everything, and go back to thumbnail stage. It is just not working. I think I would have put the story to the shelf and told myself "well, this was too difficult for me right now, and I will come back to it when I am levelled up in skill", If it was not for having some external accountability.

Here are a list of things that might be helpful:

1. Have a perspective: things take time. Especially, with things I have never done before, it will take more time than I think. My tendency is telling myself - maybe this is just too hard, time to give up, if I was not prepared. So I would need prep-talk myself into believing this is going to take a lot of time before I jump into the project.

2. Have a group that will check in with me. I had my first dummy by meeting a couple of illustrators on Zoom every second week. I would share my progress with them. I did not know any of them prior to the meeting. The fact someone is going to check in with me helps, even just a group of strangers.

3. Focus on learning, not external recognition. It is helpful to identify things I could learn from completing the project, get excited about that, rather than thinking about if anyone is going to publish my book, or if I will have a big readership, followers, etc. This is a hard one, especially that almost everything we drew is measured by "likes" on social media these days.

4. Focus on showing up to do the work, not how much work I get done. I used to make a schedule such as "finish spread x " by a certain date. Now, I tell myself to work everyday for at least 1 hour for example, and see how it goes. This is probably the hardest one for me. We are all very used to the culture of measuring productivity, rather than effect. To change this mindset takes a lot of practice. I am still working on this one myself - to not get disappointed on myself that sometimes, I could not get anything working after putting in hours of hours of time.

@LauraA I am on Mac system. I turn on the Develop menu on Safari, and switch the User agent to IOS. So my desktop browser displays the mobile user interface, which includes the "+" button. hehe...

BTW, I signed up for the writing course at UCLA, starting in the end of July. I will report back about how it goes if anyone is interested in. The course is about the fundamentals of fiction writing, using Janet Burroway´s Writing fiction as text book for the class.

@Kim-Hunter Hi. Kim. Thank you so much for your generous offer. I really appreciated that, and I might reach out to you in the future for story critiques

Currently, my focus is on developing writing habit, and keep improving the fundamentals. I write my own story ideas on the side from time to time. But what I am trying to do now is equivalent to practice drawing fundamentals, except for writing. I have a couple books about writing came with writing excises, and I intend to follow along. I would need feedback on my writings, and I will need continuous feedback. That is why I seek out for a writing critique group, or maybe more precisely, writing study partners

I almost draw daily for the last couple of years, for myself or for client. But I have no such a practice for writing, and I want to build one.

@LauraA we are in the same boat. hehe.
@artbytra @kylebeaudette thank you so much for the tips.

I will try a bit more with Twitter this summer :-). But really try to be strict with myself on how much time I'd spent on it. I did not install the app on my phone. I deleted IG app from my phone a couple of days ago, but I re-installed it, because I could not figure out how to post multiple images in a post from my desktop. hehe...

@RachelArmington Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It is something to always keep in mind: who is critiquing your work, and how much do you need to weigh her opinions?

From hearing your experience, I doubt 12x12 is my thing. I want to be selective with who I am sharing my manuscript with. I also think there is a danger of sharing a draft too early. I think I need to spend time working out what I wants to say first, then ask peers if I have said what I intended to say clearly. Sometimes, a good idea comes from a bunch of unrelated seemingly bad ideas. I had an experience once wrote a story I really like, based on a bunch of half baked stories on my hard disk. Exactly how the process works in my head, I have no clue. The only thing I knew is that I need time to let the connection happen in my head. If I had sent out these half baked stories to critique groups, I would have never gotten that good story I wrote, because other people's opinions would distract me from finding out what I want to say.

When I realised that, I shared my stories with writer friends, and my current art critique group less. I want to do the hard work of figuring out things a bit more before showing to other people. But I guess everyone works differently. I have friends who basically using conversation as a way of thinking. hehe...

I had an account on Twitter for a while. I never know what to do with it. I was told by many people in the Kidlit world to give a twitter a try. So I plan to be a bit more active on Twitter. I want to:

1. Stay in touch with Editors/ADs (basically show that I am actively working all the time)
2. Not spent too much time on the platform.
3. Appear polite and professional.

I am not very interested in pitching stories online or anything like that, just focus on being present, being in the Editors and ADs radar (I discovered writers, Editors are a lot more active on Twitter than Instagram)

Every social media has its own rules, so appears polite and professional requires me to know what are the twitter etiquette. Today I found myself googling "do you say thank you when people retweet your tweet". This is the point that made me think of posting this question here. Does anyone know an informative guide for how to use Twitter, specifically for illustrators?

Thank you so much @Kerisa-Greene. I will definitely check out the course. I read through Ann Whitford Paul's book last summer. I did not get out as much as I would like to. I feel this type of book really need a study group or a class to go through and do all the excise in order to really digest the information in the book. It is good to know there is a course available for that :-).

@RachelArmington Thank you so much for sharing your experience of setting up and running a writers critique group. I especially appreciate that you shared handling with difficult situations within a critique group. Thank you so much. The information will definitely come handy in the future for me