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 children's 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 consulting an illustrator can be helpful. 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. I always provide one or two colored sample pages so you can see what the final pages will look like. It's important to sketch out all the pages roughly rather than do one page / spread at a time, in order to see the overall visual flow of your story. This is then edited based on your feedback.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 be in different time zones!If you need it sooner or have a specific timeline, it's always doable. Just let me know!

How much does children's book illustration cost?

Normally children's book illustration through an agency & publisher costs 5K and up.Based on my experience working with self-publishing authors,
an average illustration budget can be 60-75 USD per page.
This cost includes multiple edits, page designs and text layouts as well as
any other troubleshooting for file issues.This is a loose average of standard cost,
and it can be lower or higher depending on the size of the book or the style of the art.I never ask for extra fee for any edits, unless extra pages are being added
or a page is being completely redesigned after it's been confirmed at sketch phase & fully colored,
which almost never happens.

What if I want to work with you, but I am tight on budget.

I am willing to work with anyone trying to get their story out.
If you have budget limitations, just let me know when reaching out
and we can assess if that is doable or not.It's always better to ask rather than not ask at all!

Why does children's book illustration cost this much?

You might beYou may find an illustrator who will do a whole book for less,
but you may have these issues:Unfinished / Lower quality art
AI-dependent art
Extra cost for every small & big edit
No assistance in page / text layout
One-sided service over creative collaboration
No guidance for page counts / self-publishing
No troubleshooting file format problems for different platformsThis pricing includes collaborative one-on-one communication with creative flexibility, which means more time is spent in our chats, on each page, on perfecting each detail to your needs.

How does the payment work?

Payments can 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.
But the cost is broken up to lessen the stress of paying a large sum upfront.There is no limit or deadline to edits after the payment,
and we will work as long as we need until we get the book in perfect shape!This is my full time job, and your upfront payment helps me pay my bills and draw every day 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 not always needed. Most projects are fine via email, but let me know what you prefer and what you are comfortable with.

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 based on your budget first so you can prevent having to cut down or add in extra pages!There are also interior pages to consider - such as the inside title page, dedication page, etc. I can provide guidance if you are not familiar.

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.

Are you familiar with various self-publishing platforms & requirements?

Yes, I've worked with a variety of self-publishing platforms - not limited to just Amazon KDP and Ingramspark. There are a lot of platforms with varying requirements for files, cover size, spine size,and page counts. If you are not familiar, I can guide you through the process one step at a time.

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.

Why hire an illustrator over AI?

Children's picture books or any books are about a story that rings an emotional bell for a child or an adult. Emotional pacing in the visuals and subtle compositions that make us feel a certain way are the skills of an experienced illustrator.For example, if you instruct AI to draw a page of a child feeling sad on a playground without other children knowing - AI might draw a very sad child on a playground next to other children playing.A children's book illustrator may show a small, faraway glimpse of a melancholic child's face between a closer view of excited faces on the playground.The difference is the AI giving you a very literal portrayal of a scene versus the illustrator giving you a cinematic composition that guides the readers through different emotions. AI's drawing tells the readers visually someone is sad & others are not. With the illustrator's drawing, the reader's eyes first spot the closeup of happy excitement and later spot the hidden melancholic child. Then the readers ask, what is making this child feel melancholic, small and left out? Rather than simply sad vs. happy.An illustrator might also ask the writer whether they want to see tearful sadness, confused melancholy, a sense of loneliness or loss. There are so many levels of emotions in characters and stories that AI might not catch onto.AI can be used as an amazing and speedy tool, however, emotional pacing and intentional page composition are what the experienced illustrator can achieve with keen emotional intelligence.

• Ready to get your book illustrated?

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 Budget
- Ideal Timeline
- Any other details / questionsIt's ok if you are not sure about certain things.
Let's chat and figure it out.* I will respond back within a few hours! (I'm in ET time zone)

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.She has lived in New York, Charleston and currently residing in the DMV area with her husband and their two cats!

• Find Sang on Instagram :)