The advice they give you in the field is, if you're an artist get established as an artist first and then once you are established they are more apt to look at your work. Never team up with a writer; they like to team up the artist with a manuscript.
I've been told my work is old fashioned, in a good way. Now that all my kids are growing up and leaving, I'm replacing them with these little kids.
I started illustrating when I was 18. I went into studying art and had to make money. I kept doing it, but wasn't able to focus on it.
They tell me to fix something a little bit and I have to take another year to perfect it. I'm ready to send a packet to a publisher. I researched to see who would use my work. You have to be persistent and keep doing it. You do it for the love of it, not because you make money in it.
I want to illustrate children's books and write them. It's very difficult to get into, it's very competitive. I really haven't spent much time doing it, maybe two to three years.
It wasn't a question of if I was doing it. I was doing it. They told my mother I had talent and she put me in art classes.
