This illustration will always hold a special place in my heart – after all, it is the first illustration I ever made.

Back in March 2024 I participated in amazing Valerie Wai’s art challenge. The challenge was to create a costume for Pipo – an adorable clown character he had designed.

Quick side note – Valerie is the artist who first sparked my love for art.

As a child, I wasn’t particularly interested in drawing or painting, nor was I especially good at them. The one exception was clay, or, more accurately, Play-Doh. Although the clay my father gifted me lasted only a few months, the memories of him teaching me how to mix colors stayed with me for years.

In 2023, looking for a way to escape work-induced stress, I decided to pick up clay again. Around that time, I discovered Valerie’s work. Watching her create these delightful sculptures and toys rekindled something in me and inspired me to start creating again. What began with clay slowly grew into an interest in painting, and eventually, illustration.

Back to the illustration – I really like how it turned out! The values are definitely out of whack, and you probably cannot see the mushrooms very clearly, but I still love how vibrant and happy it feels.

I even made several preliminary sketches, along with value and color comps, despite having very little idea how I was supposed to approach value studies (to be fair, I still don’t know this very well) 😅. Maybe that was something I picked up simply by watching several YouTube videos by Chris Hong, another favorite artist of mine.

I still can’t bring myself to throw away those rough sketches on printer paper.

As for the materials, I used supplies that came with Poopikat’s Mossery box (my first art supplies). I was also very inspired by her bright, colorful style, and I think that joyfulness shows in this illustration.

Another artist I discovered around this time, and who inspired me just as much, was Iraville. One of her pieces especially influenced this artwork. To be honest, looking back at it now, I do feel a little uncomfortable with how similar my illustration is to hers. This photo is taken from her second art book – Hideaways, a book I now cherish in my art collection.

But I also think we all start somewhere. This was my first illustration, made at a time when I was still figuring out what it meant to study from other artists, use references, and slowly develop a visual language of my own. It would feel dishonest to pretend those influences were not there. Instead, I want to acknowledge them with gratitude – because they were part of the path that helped me begin.