I’d like to do a shout out to Lee White, one of the illustration instructors on SVS Learn and the fellow who inspired me to look into doing art contests. SVS Learn is another organization that I’m a member of and focuses pretty much exclusively on developing the skills of illustrators in visual storytelling, with an emphasis on children’s books. Along with Will Terry and Jake Parker (of Bonaparte and Inktober fame respectively) he hosts the podcast 3 Point Perspective. This is an amazing podcast, full of PRACTICAL knowledge about how to structure your career, work flow, the psychological challenges of being a working artist, etc. One of the development tools that Lee is always talking about is how important it is to enter art contests. Believe it or not, this is not something I had thought of doing. I thought, “meh, I’ll just work on my own projects and query and see what comes of that.” Fast forward a few months and I constantly find myself at loose ends between projects and casting around for topics to do portfolio pieces on. So I thought I would take Lee White up on his advice and behold! Art contests are so awesome! They give me a deadline (yesssss), a specific topic (thank you), a ready made goal (TO WIN!) and a resolution on that goal (rejection or glory). So thanks to Lee White and the SVS Learn crew for such helpful advice and thanks to SCBWI for offering the opportunity to apply for a bite sized contest. “Bunny Journalism” was fun to make and another positive stepping stone.