Kneel for April's growth experience.

If, like me, you only do one thing and focus on one goal for 20 years, you will succeed.

-April

April is a beautiful cartoonist who is very popular on the Internet. She has published cartoons before she graduated from college, and won the gold medal in the fifth Golden Dragon Award for Best Story Cartoon Girl Group. The most admirable thing is that she is the only Chinese mainland cartoonist who has entered the mainstream Japanese cartoon market.

Regarding success, april said, "I am an extremely clumsy person. I can't learn to give up after difficulties. I only know that I don't turn forward. " . The road gets longer and brighter. I was surprised to find that I was walking on a beautiful grassland, and I was like a silly and happy sheep. "

Hungry! I insist on drinking boiled water to draw.

April's name was given by his grandfather, which means "helping the world when you reach your goal". Grandpa makes a living by writing, his father is engaged in the restoration of ancient buildings, and his mother is engaged in the appraisal and restoration of ancient calligraphy and painting, which is a standard scholarly family. April could recite 300 Tang poems when she was 18. Her family environment has endowed her with the influence of classical culture, which has created a strong "Chinese style" in her cartoon works today.

April was not a good student since she was a child. He is stubborn and eccentric, and only likes painting. When she was in junior high school, she was determined to become a cartoonist and never changed. All her efforts are aimed at realizing this dream. She studied freehand brushwork and meticulous brushwork and saved all her pocket money to buy comic books. After graduating from college, I went to Beijing in April without hesitation. In her fantasy, Beijing is a place where "you can feed yourself by painting".

Real life soon gave her a severe test. At this time, although she has started to publish comic works in various magazines, it is simply daydreaming to support herself by the payment. Therefore, there are only two key words in her whole wandering period: hunger and death.

At first, she didn't know how to live. Every time the manuscript fee comes, she plunges into KFC and eats and drinks. The price she paid was that she had no money to eat and went hungry afterwards. April is a shy girl with strong self-esteem. She can't borrow money from others, and she doesn't want to reach out to her family. She can only draw when she is hungry to distract her. She used to draw with white water. I painted a picture for 10 hours, and finally she fainted at her desk because of hunger.

Once, a friend came to see her and called her to ask what she wanted before coming. She hasn't eaten for two whole days. She shouted in her heart: of course, she brought food! But she couldn't say anything. When her friend came, she had been secretly praying, nervous and standing at the window watching. As a result, I saw a friend coming from afar with a big bunch of flowers in his hand. She cried in disappointment and said, "It's beautiful, thank you." My friend was surprised: I just sent you a bunch of flowers. As for crying like this?

Later, April learned his lesson. Every time he gets the manuscript fee, he goes to buy a big bag of rice first, at least to ensure that he is not hungry. She invented a method of cooking rice porridge: after the porridge is cooked, add a proper amount of soy sauce, sugar, chicken essence and a few drops of vinegar, cook for 15 minutes, and finally order a few drops of sesame oil. The porridge cooked in this way is delicious. You can drink two bowls without any side dishes.

This girl, who knows nothing but an affair, slowly learns to live a cautious life. Every time I go to Beijing from my hometown in Huaihua, Hunan, there are always two cans of meat sauce fried by my mother in her suitcase, except books. April said that this kind of meat sauce is "omnipotent". Eating with steamed bread, noodles and rice tastes good and can save money on food. If you fry it a little, this dull vegetable tastes like meat. It is a good "placebo" for her who often has no money to buy meat.

The hard material life damaged her health. She has a serious stomach trouble. Every time I get sick, it seems that there are 654.38 million ants crawling in my stomach, as if a hot iron plate is slowly burning my stomach, making people sit or stand. She sang and danced in the room to relieve the pain. ...

Looking back on these days, April concluded: I'm hungry, I'm bitter, I'm sick to death, I don't go out because I'm lying down to fight hunger, I'm thin because my digestive system is disordered, my hair is long because I can't afford a haircut, I torture my mind and body every day, and I sacrifice my life for painting.

Focus, focus, or focus

So hard, but never thought about changing careers, this girl's stubbornness is really amazing.

In fact, she has many opportunities to live a carefree life. For example, an advertising company once invited her to be a graphic model, and she could earn thousands of dollars just by holding a few photos of other people's products, but she refused without hesitation. There is also a gallery that asks her to draw a beautiful woman, a small picture 100 yuan, and charge as much as she draws. After painting a few pictures, she lost interest and said, "This is not a creation, it makes me feel like a copier, which is boring!" "

All she knows is that she loves comics, and she has devoted all her enthusiasm and feelings to it. Little did she know that success was approaching her step by step.

In April 2008, he began to create a long comic book "Woods Yu". The work tells all kinds of strange and interesting things that happened to Xiao Yu, a 9-year-old girl, after she moved to an ancient town with her parents. This is April's hardest work. Every day besides eating and sleeping, she paints. Finally, she began to hate eating and sleeping, thinking it was a waste of time. She said: If only God could give me a wish. My wish is to live without eating or sleeping. There is still a scar on her left middle finger, which was accidentally cut across the board when she wanted to work while cutting vegetables. At first, she didn't feel any pain, but she was surprised to see the blood coming out. Pulled away from the comic book world for a long time, her reaction was to cut her hand. A friend described her like this: it is a miracle that she can live to this day without starvation, electrocution or burning.

After the manuscript of Ziwuyu was completed, it was serialized in You Man magazine, which attracted countless comic fans with its mysterious plot, exquisite painting style and rich classical style, and won the gold medal of the best story comic girl group in the fifth Golden Dragon Award.

By chance, this work attracted the attention of Rongyuan Matsui, a famous Japanese comic editor, and strongly recommended it to UltraJump, Japan's top comic magazine, becoming the only original comic book in China that entered Japan's top comic magazine. April still remembers it vividly, and he is still excited: When I heard about it, my first reaction was that others were joking. People who like animation know the author of this magazine, including many masters such as Da Muwei and KISHIRO YUKITO. We all grew up watching their cartoons! I feel like dreaming at the thought that my works can be published in the same magazine as those of these masters.

Woods has been a great success in Japan, and many Japanese who have seen this cartoon have commented that it "has an incredible strange atmosphere and charming beautiful fantasy". April's photos and works have been reprinted by hundreds of websites, becoming the latest hot topic on the internet and the top three in comic search. At the strong request of Japanese fans, April then went to Japan to hold a book signing meeting, originally scheduled for 1 hour, which was extended to 3 hours because there were too many fans coming. April, who was shy by nature, was frightened by such a warm scene and kept burying her head in signing. The reporter on the spot can only take a snapshot when she occasionally looks up and hands the book to the reader. The intense flash caused her to cry and her skin was allergic.

The trip to Japan allowed April to avoid activities such as book signing, photo taking and media interviews. She even posted on her blog, asking her fans: Don't spread my photos, don't forward my news, and don't add adjectives such as "beautiful girl" and "little loli" before my name ... She said: "For those who like and support me, the best thanks can only be their efforts to contribute better works. For myself, I will feel comfortable only when I am faced with drawing paper and other jobs.

Comics are my whole life.

In many people's imagination, a beauty artist like April must have a colorful private life. But friends who are familiar with her all say: She is like an ascetic since ancient times. Give her a pen and a piece of paper, and you can live happily.

She doesn't like shopping, especially trying on clothes If she likes a style, she will buy one in every color, which saves the trouble of choosing. Basically she only buys clothes twice a year. Her reason is: I paint at home all day, who can I show it to? It is also a waste to spend so much money on clothes. When eating, she often pours rice, carrots and soup into a bowl and mixes them together, saying it is simple and convenient. If a friend invites her to a restaurant, it is really a pain for her. She said: Many people sit around a table, eat and drink, and say boring things, which is a waste of time. She doesn't like dressing up and often forgets to wash her face and brush her teeth. The only cosmetic is a bottle of L 'Oreal skin care lotion, which was given to her by a friend because it was unbearable. She used vaseline before. She doesn't like bars and karaoke Her only leisure time is to be in a daze, lying on the sofa for a long time, with long eyes and a dull expression, and a pen and paper in her hand. Often lying down, she suddenly sat up, grabbed a pen and paper, drew some messy images, and then lay down and continued to stare blankly. ...

In short, outside the world of comics, she is undoubtedly a boring and clumsy person. It seems that all her spirituality, passion and vitality are devoted to drawing paper.

For example, in this year's Spring Festival Gala, there are four beautiful women's New Year greetings. Lin Chi-ling, Joey Yung and Yu Cuizhi represent Taiwan Province Province, Hongkong and Macau respectively. The representative of the mainland, originally in April, asked her to take a cartoon rabbit she drew and show it on stage. However, during the rehearsal, April was so nervous that she forgot the location of the station for a while and her lines for a while. In order not to let this highly anticipated party fall off the chain, April offered not to go on stage. The director had no choice but to put Li's painting on the stage. So, April sitting quietly under the stage was photographed by the photographer, and his lovely and pure appearance was firmly remembered by many viewers. After human flesh search, April became "famous" helplessly.

The noise of the outside world did not affect April's heart at all. After the Spring Festival Gala, she devoted herself to creating another long comic, Song of Eternal Sorrow. She said: I hope comics can be my way to leave a track of my life in this world. Every story is a world, and my future plan is only creation.

Thank you for being so concerned about Mr April. ...