Busy summer: work, wildlife and other experiments
Hello everyone!
How are you? I hope you’re having a lovely summer, going for walks and filling up your vitamin D level :)
Up Ben Chonzie
I’m back to work for a little bit, after taking a few days off and before going to France for a month. I spent this first half of summer painting and designing new greeting cards for the seasons coming. They’re now packaged and stored on the shelves, waiting for my return in September, when I’ll be launching the new collection.
“The travellers” slowly coming to life!
I also finished designing the 2023 calendar and received the printing proof some time ago, exciting! After two or three little adjustments I was finally ready to order a big bunch, still waiting for the heavy parcel. Hopefully I will receive it before I leave next Monday. It’s always a bit stressful to order such big quantities. I’m constantly scared to make mistakes or forget something and realise it when it’s too late.... It’s a big investment so fingers crossed everything turns out all right!
Another work in progress, for the November page. Remember my last blog post? I was asking for your opinion about the background, I finally chose the plain one as most of you preferred. I’m glad I did!
Calendar sample/printing proof
Working in summer isn’t an easy thing! I tried to be serious and well organised with my tasks, while allowing myself not to work as much as I would during other seasons. It’s important to take advantage of the summer months to be outside, get as much light as possible and be grateful for every little thing before Autumn comes along. I sometimes was getting up around 5 or 6, going for walks up the hills or in the woods, before getting back home and sitting at my desk around 9.
I recently bought a new camera and lens and it’s brought me so much joy! I’ve always wanted to do wildlife photography since I was a child, and these past two months have been wonderful. I would consider myself as an “opportunist photographer”: I go for walks and take pictures of the wildlife I see, instead of setting up a tripod at some strategic places. I’ve always enjoyed going for long walks on my own, so now I just bring my camera with me :) If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I’ve been really inspired by birds lately, taking lots of pictures and experimenting with different mediums .
A sweet pair of Yellowhammers (male on the left and female on the right).
Above: Yellowhammer studies with colour pencils.
Below: Experiment with ink (on the left) and watercolour (right)
I’ve decided to open a new Instagram page for my photographs. A bit controversial at a time when everyone is complaining about the algorithm and wanting to quit the platform :) But I’ m a newbie and have no ambition other than keeping it as a Nature/visual journal (I also don’t want to spam my illustration page too much).
It’ been feeling quite liberating doing all these experiments with various mediums. If I’m being honest I sometimes feel a bit “trapped” in my style, or rather with the type of illustrations that I know are popular (my main source of income being my shop), such as cute anthropomorphised woodland creatures. Don’t get me wrong, I love painting these scenes, but sometimes I just want to be drawing animals that just look like animals, not doing anything but being themselves!
The topic of style is a recurring question, you find plenty of “how to find your style” videos on YouTube. It seems everyone is a bit obsessed about this and yes, I understand why. But at the same time style is also tricky. Let’s say you finally find your own voice, your art is recognizable, more and more popular. People buy your stuff, and one day you can make a full time living from it! It’s a privilege and I’m grateful for it every single day.
But what will happen the day you want to do something else? Now that your income is intertwined with your style? It’s always a question that’s haunting me….
I try to balance things out. This summer I spent quite a lot of time making illustrations that will be a good fit for greeting cards and the calendar, while carving out some time to paint other things for myself. Last year I did a 30 day challenge where I painted landscapes everyday (I only showed some pieces on my Patreon).
I wonder if other artists get bored of what they do? Because the truth is: I do! At times.
After a few years making art full time, I think I now know what to do when I go through these phases: I just do other things, I keep playing, I experiment, I tell myself I’m not just what I show on Instagram. I have other stories to tell, other art to make. I don’t force things and usually what happens is that naturally, after a while, I come back to my little woodland friends with pleasure!
Look at this juvenile Robin looking gorgeous, such a star :)
Not surprisingly Robins are one of my favorite birds, not only they’re always quite tame and easy to take pictures of, but their colour and roundness makes them wonderful little creatures.
I bought some watercolour a few months ago, with the idea of painting quick little landscapes when traveling, but it didn’t happen. The palette stayed in a drawer for a while until I picked it up again to paint birdies. Turns out I really enjoy watercolour, even though I don’t know how to use it! Maybe that’s why I like it so much after all. I feel watercolour is very forgiving in some ways (and not at all in other ways). Playing with pigments and water is extremely satisfying, they always work together in an unexpected way! I feel I can make art in a more spontaneous and playful way.
I love drawing my wildlife encounters, the big lens allows me to take close up pictures and see the details I woudn’t see with my eyes.
Another summer task: to paint some illustrations and turn them into new “Thank you” cards for my shop. I made four designs and treated myself by painting a little Bullfinch. No photography to show you, I’ve been trying to take picture of these little guys but haven’t succeeded so far (they’re all blurry or the light is bad….)
And last but not least (I told you, I’ve been a busy bee this summer!), this year gain I’ve been invited by the Nucleus gallery to join the exhibition “Power in Numbers” (see the paintings I did for last year’s edition). This time I’m only going to paint two pieces, with some froggies!
It begins with some weird sketches…
I wanted to paint a third scene with a frog riding a snail but it won’t be happening due to lack of time.
The two final sketches, now ready to be traced and painted!
And that’s it my dear little creatures, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and seeing what I’ve been up to these past few weeks! Please let me know in the comments if you enjoy this form of “slow” content over the speediness of social media (why is everyone saying that blogs are dead? I don’t think so!!) . Personally I really appreciate sharing things here with you.
I wish you all a wonderful summer 💛
Cécile
