A Year Later…

Yikes! It’s been more than a year since my last post. I remember letting a few months pass, always intending to come back and chronicle my process and progress. I guess that’s how easily a few months can turn into a year…

A few things have happened in the last year…

• I completed the ITSme mentorship program (which was the last thing I wrote about, I’ll elaborate further)

• My daughter graduated from high school, and I helped her move to Ontario for university

• My son bought his first car, which means I am no longer a chauffeur for anyone (very mixed emotions)

• I went from being a full-time employee to a freelance designer & illustrator

• I was offered representation for my children’s book illustrations, and I accepted!!!

• I am, at this very moment, working on my first children’s book!!!!

Those are the big monumental events. There have been a lot of smaller things too, like continuing to develop some pattern designs, working on portfolio pieces when I could, and trying to complete my second 30-day streak of sketching daily. I’ve been much better, with only one (sometimes two) day slip-ups, which is amazing, and I’ll take the win, BUT I’m not going to let it go until I complete the streak. It’s one of the milestones I wrote down on my goals list, and I need to tick that box off!!

Ok, but seriously, it’s been so long that I’ll have to leave out parts of my journey from the last year. But I definitely want to talk about the ITSme mentorship program in this post. I would hands down recommend this program to anyone who wants not only industry insight, but also honest feedback on their portfolio. For me, I got a clear understanding of my strengths and areas I could improve and work on further (some things I might have known, but had been avoiding). Once you’re assigned a mentor, you also receive feedback from a few agents/mentors who are part of the program. This alone was GOLD. Feedback can sometimes be hard, all creatives know that, but if you can absorb what’s being said, it can help you figure out how others are receiving your work. But it’s also important that you decide which pieces you implement or not.

During the initial meeting with your mentor, you go through the feedback, talk about your goals, and your mentor gives you three creative briefs (you create two new pieces for each brief). Of course, there are deadlines, and there are four phases where you submit your work for review. And now that I’m writing about this, I do remember feeling overwhelmed with the three creative briefs and not knowing if I’d be able to finish all three storylines. There were definitely some late nights, but it was well worth it.

Here are the preliminary rough sketches, where I was trying to figure out the story and what spreads felt stronger.

This story was about a girl (based on another piece I had created for Christmas) who finds herself in a magical gingerbread world with little creatures she be-friends.

I needed to create a few pieces that were emotion-based. At the time, the 2025 Southern California fires had just happened, and I believe I started working on this towards the end of them, and all I could think about was the poor families who had to flee in the middle of the night. I can still feel their pain when I think about it. I wanted to show the moment they had to flee, the feeling of uncertainty, but then show their love and that ‘home was wherever they are together.’

This was a fun story (which I think I would like to develop further) about owners and their pets. The basis of the story would be how, at the end, we all want one thing: friendship and love (does that count as two things?!).

I really enjoyed having the creative briefs. They gave me direction and pushed my work further. My mentor, Christine Hong, was so generous and such a great person to bounce ideas off. Alongside the back-and-forth with your mentor, ITSme also provides video resources about the industry. Which was nice, but for me, it was the individual feedback that helped the most. These are some of the final pieces.

After the program ended, I connected with Ed Burns (CEO & Founder of ITSme) for a few one-on-one sessions so I could get further feedback. I’m so glad I did, his feedback was invaluable, and he pushed me to develop a few more pieces based on my strengths. It was also great to get another perspective on my portfolio.

This whole process ended up being about a year of hard work. The mentorship itself was three months, and then I spent around eight more months developing my portfolio. For about five of those eight months, I was still working full-time as a designer, so I was constantly trying to find balance. There were days when nothing happened. There were days I struggled to finish a piece because what I imagined in my head didn’t match what I was seeing on paper. And above all, there were days I chose to step away from everything to spend time with my family. I’m not willing to sacrifice my family just so I can get to the finish line faster.

Around November 2025, I submitted my portfolio to an agency, but it didn’t work out. Then, in early December, I received an email from Advocate Art, and they wanted to represent me :) I officially signed with them this January, and I’m illustrating my first children’s book at this very moment (can’t wait till I can share more about this). I’m on cloud 9!

There is lots to write, but I’ll end it here. Thank you for joining me in my journey ❤️
Until next month –