We were lucky to catch up with Lucy Sun recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lucy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

A risk that I took was the summer course I participated at GOBELINS Paris. Originally, my friend and I were working on a project together when I had found that GOBELINS, a school that we had always looked up to was accepting people from all walks of life to take a class in Visual Storytelling. I was in my 4th year of university, continuing into my 5th to finish both of my degrees (mechanical engineering and art and design). It was over the summer, expensive, and would severely limit my internship possibilities due to the dates that the course would be in, but after much consideration, I knew in my heart that this was a risk that I was willing to take. My friend and I of course both applied together, got in together, and before we knew it, we were on our flights to Paris not knowing the people we would meet and the stories that we would create.

I can confidently say that this was one of the most life changing things I had done for myself. Even two years after that trip, the friends I made and the people I had met have and still heavily influence me, my craft, my stories, and the choices that I’ve made up until this point, including the decision to return to GOBELINS for my Masters in Visual Storytelling, another risk that I don’t know if or how it will turn out. I am excited to find out, and I am forever grateful for my friends and the future that we build as creatives together. I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t taken the leap to travel somewhere new to do so, and it’s something that I will keep doing to expand my own horizons and meet new people that I know will make my life all the better for being in it!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Lucy Sun and I am an illustrator and visual development artist who recently graduated from the University of Michigan. Currently, I work on freelance for children’s book as well as creative commissions, and I also have done consulting work for brand identity and graphic design. I think that as someone who is also educated in STEM and has experience with different problem-solving methods, my value as a creative comes in the way that I approach collaboration and the way I communicate and approach the requests my clients come to me with. Many times Illustration is seen as a very solitary task and creative field, but an artists connection to the people around them and those that they work with is important, and it’s necessary to understand how many different people think and understand problems and their solutions. I am proud of how well I can work with others in creating quality illustrations/assets/etc and the lasting connections I enjoy forming from each project.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My presence on social media is still something that I’m taking my time to work on but I definitely developed it way too young. I was still in high school, and much of my growth had taken place during then, which in turn had made me feel very dependent on the opinions of my audience and had me spiraling into a very hard place mentally that I am still taking my time in undoing remnants of today. Definitely take your time, don’t place the value of your art into your following, and remember that the algorithm is fickle and that you just have to be consistent.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Definitely online courses through things like Warrior Art Camp, Brainstorm Academy, Underpaint Academy, etc. Much of my community that I’ve built and found are through the people that I’ve met during workshops, classes, and etc, and I find that my skills as an artist have grown much more in these communities than traditional university.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lucy-sun.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meikiran/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-sun-5014021b7/