Um, mag says yesterday I got an offer. My agent was shopping my picture book for almost a year.

This is my very first big project with a big publisher. Is there something a beginner like me

could easily mess up? Yes. Yes, there is. The first thing will be, it's almost stated,

uh, understated in your question. And that is tightening up because you're nervous and because you think it's almost stated, understated in your question. And that is tightening up because you're nervous

and because you think it's a big publisher. And so all of a sudden you sort of freeze a little bit

in terms of artistically. They have hired you because they like your work. And so the big thing is

thinking like, okay, they're expecting me to be perfect and they're expecting me to work in a

vacuum and you're just going to present the whole thing to them and they're just going to be

blown away. That's not how it works. The best thing you can do as a beginner, especially with a

big publisher and big project, is work with them. Hey, here's some sketches. What do you think of these

character sketches? And here's some

samples of what I'm thinking the dog looks like or whatever's the story. And really just kind of,

it's a real back and forth kind of thing. And if you have a question, ask the question.

Don't try to do it all. And then just impress them at the end because that will end up in disaster.

That's a great point. And that that's something that I fell into early on is I don't even

know how to put this into words, but I would, when I would first get assignments, I would

do what I thought the art director wanted.

I was afraid to do the wacky stuff that I had on my portfolio.

And so I would tone it down.

And then I would have comments sometimes of like, how come you're not, how come it doesn't

look like your stuff in your portfolio?

And the true answer was I was scared.

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