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?

Hi, everyone
I considered doing recording with my digital painting in the past. I used the Apple default screen recorder, which works fine technically. My biggest challenge was the workflow to produce something useful for others to watch, my big problems are:

1. I often forgot to pause when I take a break from painting.
2. If I remember to pause, then I forgot to start recording until half way into the next session of painting.
3. The video files are big, and hard to preview, how to organise them?
4. Editing? I know a bit around iMovie, but that is it.

Do any of you do digital painting recording regularly? what is your workflow like to produce a painting recording video?

I love the opportunity cost question, and Will´s answer to that. Thank you so much

@Tiffany-Thomas so cool. love seeing your process. You have a lot of control in your watercolour work. I love to practice more in panting with watercolour. I recently started to love imperfection. I found my own work too tight, and too controlled. It has been more than a year that I wanted to focus more on developing my art work with traditional media. I am taking a baby step now - really have to tell myself to dare to put down a mark on a blank piece of paper - the expansive watercolour paper.

Hi, everyone.
I remember earlier this year, I saw a couple of you doing traditional + digital mix media pieces here on the forum. I was very inspired, and wanting to try out for mat current book. Originally, I was planning to paint mostly traditionally, and only add details and enhance the color in Photoshop. But in the end, I realised that I need more practice painting on paper in order to pull that off. I ended up letting the digital painting part do the heavy lifting

Here is my process images:

and the final art

I am curious what are your traditional + digital mix media process looks like.
If you are interested in the process in detail, I will write up a blog post before the summer (after I hand in the artwork for the book in June :-))

@Janette
I echo @NessIllustration - let a clear focus drive your decision on how to put together a portfolio. If the focus you choose does not work out, you can always change it, tweak it, re-invent yourself.

I consider my website super simple. But recently, I have an art direct reviewing my portfolio. She did not realise that I also have black and white illustrations in my portfolio because it was in a different tab. This made me thinking that there is definitely room for improvement on my website, especially if I want to get offers for YA novels with black and white interiors.

I made the decision to become an illustrator when I was 39, and I had almost 0 illustration experience. For years I felt I was too old for starting a new career which I have no clue when I can start paying the bill. But now I am glad I did it.

@PieterVanDerBeek big congratulations! Enjoy the special moment of your life
love the card!

@Asyas_illos I love the colour and texture of this piece. Definitely good material for portfolio.

I would try to work a bit more on the silhouette of the girl. Depending on what story you want to tell, right now the girl does not read very well since the value of her face and body is very close to the dragon. If you have the girl sitting up, her upper body and face would against the dark background, which could help. But of course, the posture needs to work with the story you intended to tell.

Regarding painting without line. I struggled with it for a long time, did lots of trial and error. One thing that has helped me was to think in value and shape. Lee white used to say "is this image a light shape against dark background, or a dark shape against a light background". Another thing is pay attention to edge control. Lee has made a youtube video which explains some methods on working with texture and edges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7DedDc7aU0

Have fun with the dragon :-). I always love painting dragons.

@cianamacaroni hehe. thank you so much, Ciana. I wish I could be more active here in svs forum or on IG. I really miss being more here in the forum - I learned so much during the last couple years here.

I can not help but I am listening in the conversation.
I recently started doing part of my final art traditionally. I did see similar issues with scanning - especially the weird color lines. It is not a big problem for my current experiment as I paint with black ink only, and color the painting digitally. But I can see the problem down on the road as I want to do more process in traditional media with watercolour, or gauche.

@Kevin-Longueil Oh. My. For years, one of my biggest dream was to meet Le Guin in person somehow. But I have never been to the part of the world she lived sadly. I have a very strong relationship with her YA novels. Earthsea was the first book I have ever read in English. Some of her books really contributes to shaping my world views.

I completely agree with you regarding the creative pressure. I did not tell my critique group much about the stories I am writing, until one of them is in full dummy format, and I need test readers. I think it is almost necessary to sit with the idea, struggle with it, and see what comes out before asking for feedback.

Last year, when I started writing picture book stories for the first time, I would come up with a story idea, wrote a summary, and sent around to ask peers for feedback. Then I realised it was hard to get any constructive feedback when the story was just a summary of idea. I also find hard to give feedback to other artists's idea in that way. After some trials and failing to complete stories, I decided to struggle with one story, and it worked. During the last 2 months, I really struggled with this one story, and got it to a picture book dummy. The mini accomplishment made I start to get a bit of confidence that maybe, maybe it is something I can actually do. SO yes, holding on ideas and struggle with them is the way to go.

The reason I am looking for a writer community was not to discuss about story ideas, but more of getting feedback when I have done writing excises. More craft focused, less idea focused, if that makes sense. Think about Lee's introduction to digital painting - it is all about craft, not idea.