Sarah Jane Studios...

I was reading through the wonderful blog of Sarah Jane Studios yesterday  (www.sarahjanestudios.com/blog/) and found a post which made me smile. Sarah Jane is an illustrator from the United States with a thriving Etsy business, who beautifully illustrates and designs all things childhood. I have been following her for some time now, she is a woman who completely inspires me as I dream every minute of every day of beginning my own illustration business.

London - Sarah Jane Studios

So I found myself with a bit of free time and thought I would read through her blog archives, hoping to perhaps find a couple of entries that would help me with selling my own illustration work. After reading through a couple of months, I came across her post on August 3rd in 2007 in which she says...

"In some ways it is frustrating when I come across an artist with a similar style who has already succeeded in what I want to do. But at the same time, it is exciting to see that they are successful, and know that people really like that style." - Sarah Jane Studios

The first time I came across Sarah Jane on Etsy, this is exactly what I thought to myself. It is incredibly frustrating when you suddenly stumble upon an artist who shares elements of your style, as the last thing you would ever want to do would be to tread on anyone's toes, especially not when it is through doing something that you absolutely love. But yes, it was also very exciting seeing her work and how well it is doing for her. So as much as it can sometimes knock the wind out of your sails a little bit, it can at the same time completely fill you with a confidence that actually you CAN do and achieve what you dream of. And to be honest, that has been priceless to me over the past few months.

Before I signed off this post, I just wanted to share with you two of my absolute favourite Sarah Jane prints, July's Dilemma and August Sound. So simple yet just so lovely, they really gave me a cosy warm feeling inside when I first found them. In fact, all of her work did...