Can Pandas Be Koalas Too?
A Story About Identity, Belonging and Self-Acceptance
Written by Jane Xu

Planes in the Sky, We Help Them Fly
Story by Travis Bookert

"Sang is the ultimate professional and a clear communicator. She gave my project life and made this entire process, simple, easy, and stress-free. She educated me on things I was oblivious to and made sure I understood some details about self-publishing a book."
— Travis Bookert

Teddy's Treasure Hunt
Written by Nick Hamze

The Hiccups
Written by M. B. Holloway

ZuZu Zebra Goes to Mozambique
Written by Marlon Dos Santos

My Family Love Stars written by Laura Williams

Sang was fantastic. I feel so grateful I found Sang.
She was extremely helpful and colloborative and professional.”
— Jane Xu

Measuring Around the House
Written by The Henry Boys

Teddy's Snow Pop Adventure
Written by Nick Hamze

“Sang Eun is amazing! Has the technical skills to easily incorporate my preferences into an image. It was wonderful to see how my words were brought to life. But the best was when there was space for her imagination to run wild. Has a versatile aesthetic and wonderful artistic sensibility.”
— M. B. Holloway

How do you start illustrating a book?

Illustrations for a book starts with your story and your characters. It always helps to provide the written story to the illustrator so they can fully understand the emotions, design the characters and sketch out the appropriate flow of the story. Sometimes authors have something specific in mind for the chracter design or for each page, and that works too!

I don't know what art style is suitable for my book.

That is completely normal, and why the collaboration between an author and an illustrator is crucial. An Illustrator can suggest a style that is fitting for each unique story. You don't have to have everything figured out before you approach the illustrator!

I have a very specific art style I'm looking for.

This can be very helpful in jumpstarting the illustrations. I specialize in custom style art, where I recreate an original style for your book, based on your art inspiration and your references. If you have certain books or illustrator styles that you like, let me know. And we can come up with something very interesting.* Creating a style inspired by others is great! But please do not request to copy someone else's art exactly in detail - unless you are looking for a new illustrator to continue a book series that already belong to you.

What are the usual steps?

This is the magic formula that works very well for all range of projects:1. Character sketch & art style
I provide 2-3 character design options as well as a collection of inspiration images for you. If you already have an inspiration, great! If not, I can come up with a few suggestions based on our chat and your story. This is then edited based on your feedback until the character design and art direction is fully confirmed.2. Rough sketch of all pages
Based on your story and your page count, I will start mapping out each page in a rough line sketch with the text layout. Once all the pages are sketched out, sometimes authors may want to increase the number of pages or change the order of the text. If you need to change the text itself a bit, that's ok too. This is then edited based on your feedback. This is where any big changes to the sketches need to be made. For example, placing the character from right side of the page to the left, or fixing the composition of the whole page for better flow.3. Rough sketch of the cover
At this point, we have a good understanding of the overall look of the book. I can now suggest 2-3 options of cover design sketches based on what we've worked on so far. If you already have ideas for the cover, great! If not, that is not a problem. Once we edit and confim our cover choice, we go to the final step.4. Final colored pages as print-ready files
All pages, interior pages as well as the cover will be fully colored based on our art direction. Then we will fine-tune each page based on your feedback. At this step, it's about editing the details. Once fully edited, I will send over the print-ready files!

How long does it take?

24 to 32-page children's book with full page illustrations can be done within a month or sooner. But usually with feedback and a few days of time between our communication, it can take up to 1.5 - 2 months. I'm usually very quick to respond, but sometimes you may need to travel or we might have a time zone difference!If you need it sooner or have a specific timeline, it's always doable. Just let me know!

How much does it cost?

The total cost is based on the page count.
Each page is calculated at $75 USD, and this includes multiple edits,
page designs and text layouts as well as any other troubleshooting for file issues.For example, a 24-page book would be:
24 pages x $75 USD/page = $1,800A 32-page book would be:
32 pages x $75 USD/page = $2,400The cost will only vary if the book is unusually larger-sized or the style is overly detailed than normal. I never ask for extra fee for any edits, unless extra pages are being added during illustration process or a page is redesigned after it's been fully colored.

How does the payment work?

Payments are made via Paypal, Zelle or Venmo.
Usually the payments are broken into each step of the illustration process:1. Character sketch & art style
25% of payment before starting this step2. Rough sketch of all pages & cover
35% of payment before starting this step3. Final colored pages as print-ready files
40% before starting this stepIt's just like buying a custom art piece, where you pay the price first and receive the painting in the mail. I just break up the cost to lessen the stress of paying a large sum upfront. This is my full time job, and your upfront payment helps me wake up and draw everyday for a living!

How does the communication work?

During the project, we will go back and forth via email. I respond very quickly!
We can also video chat whenever necessary, but this is rarely needed.

I don't know anything about page counts

A lot of times, page count depends on the platform / website you are using to self-publish. It can be as short as you'd like but on average many self-published children's book are 24-32 pages. Each plaform (Lulu, Amazon KDP, Ingramspark, etc) has varying requirements for page counts depending on paperback and hardcover books, and sometimes the size of the book. For example, minimum page count and whether the total page count needs to be multiples of 2 or 4.It's always good to look into your self-publishing options first so you can prevent having to cut down or add in extra pages!

Do you do text and page layouts?

Yes, I love picking out different fonts for your story and playing with the text layout that best compliments your story. It's ok if you don't know where the illustrations are going to go, how many pages you need or even which page each line of text/manuscript is going to go. I can help you figure that out as well.

What do you think of using AI?

I'm ok with clients using AI to make reference sketches to better explain what they want on each page.
I personally do not use AI for drawing purposes.

You can ask me anything!If you're interested in getting your book illustrated, tell me a little bit about your book:- Book title
- Page count
- Characters
- Overall story
- Preferred art style / reference
- Ideal Timeline
- Any other details / questions* I will respond back within a few hours!

Sang is an illustrator of 9 years with experience working with individuals, authors, artists and brands. Her specialty is illustrations customized for each unique story and brand image.Her focus in the last few years has been on children's books by new writers and self-publishing authors. She looks for projects that are more personal, whether they are written by parents, written by sons and daughters, written in remembrance of somebody or written with your secret hopes and dreams.She puts her all into each project, and dedicates her attention to making a story into a visually charming and marketable book.She began this career after working for various bigger brands, in the hope of providing high quality agency-level illustrations for regular individuals with a very good story. Any good story shouldn't have to go through years of hurdles to be published into a great book.

• Find me on Instagram :)