January newsletter

Hello there and happy January! This is a long over due blog article, it's been quiet here lately… I don't know how other people manage to be consistent enough to publish on their blog every single month!
Also, I sometimes find I don't have anything exciting or interesting to share. That being said, blogs can also be about simple little things, can't they? It's a different pace from social media. In this article I’ll reflect on these past few months while showing you what I have been up to.

I love January very much, despite the lack of light and the real struggle to get up in the morning. It feels like a blank page, a fresh start. And while I don't have new resolutions or particular plans for this year, I just truly savour this feeling of a new beginning. After the intense socializing time of December, I appreciate getting back to my dear solitude.

I have a particular love for Winter. I used to suffer from seasonal depression for a big part of my life but paradoxically it hasn’t been the case since I moved to Scotland. Not logical knowing how “dreich” (Scottish word) it can get here :) I’m so fond of the muted colours, the dark and low skies, the misty atmospheres and the long walks on my own.

2022 was a great year in term of personal and creative growth. I did a CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy) to tackle my insomnia, overcame a huge challenge by filming an online course (not released yet, more information to come in the next few months, eeek!), illustrated a picture book, joined a race (a duathlon, oh boy it was tough!) and learnt new skills (wildlife photography and embroidery).

Some birdies practice from a few months ago

I don't know how 2023 can compete with this, but I'm curious to know what it will bring regardless. I don't have expectations, I'm content with whatever happens as long as I'm able to keep making a living from my art, which fills my heart with joy every day (well maybe not every day, it has it's own challenges and struggles).

A wonderful end of afternoon at the beach. Low winter sun and lots of Sanderlings

Last year I also started to feel slightly bored and frustrated with my art and wanted to take an extra step to explore new paths and shake things up a bit. I'm always interested by the following questions: how to grow as an artist when your income relies on your style? How to evolve and start proposing a type of art that might not be as popular? How to keep having fun, exploring, taking risks?
Don't get me wrong, I love painting my pretty little animals with gouache, it does make me happy. But I don’t want to feel limited to a certain type of art because it’s what I’m known for.

Illustrating a book for the first time this year also made me realise that as much as I love painting scenes with gouache, my current style might not be the way I would like to work on my next book. I have so many ideas and visions in my head, and still a lot to explore. Which is wonderful.

Illustrating children’s books has never been a big dream of mine. But it has changed recently. I'm now thinking that I would love to write and illustrate my own story one day. But working on a stationery product and on a picture book are two different things. While my current style works, I think, quite well for greeting cards and other paper goods, I don’t think it’s the best fit for a book.

I decided I wanted to learn more and took a course on Domestika by Adolfo Serra called "introduction to children's illustration". This was a great decision! This course is so rich, inspiring, liberating! I felt really motivated to play and mess around with new techniques. Like in the old days.

One of the things I admire about Adolfo Serra the most is his capacity to work with an incredible variety of material. His style constantly changes and evolves. He actually says himself that he doesn’t really have a recognizable style, as he adapts his technique regarding the project he’s working on. I found this so revolutionary, in a world where inspiring artists are often obsessed about this “quest”. And it’s a question often asked: how did you find your style?

The students in this course are invited to illustrate three different scenes of a tale, with the techniques of their choice. I picked the “The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats”

One of my favorite pieces, unfinished (there should be seven little goats in the wolf’s stomach)

A few words about my journey

Before finding my voice and starting to make (progressively) a living with my art, I dedicated a long time experimenting with various techniques and topics. These were not easy times in term of lifestyle and money but I had SO MUCH fun! I was scribbling everything, everywhere, all the time. Animals, people, buildings, landscapes. Sometimes with the cheapest art supplies ever (we're talking about a £1 colour pencil box bought in a second hand store haha). These times were full of creative joy and excitement!

Another 2018 sketchbook. Pretty sure these were made with acrylic and some sorts of pens. It was before discovering gouache!

These past few months have been filled, once again, with constant mess on the desk and stains of paint everywhere. Oh the pleasure to be making "ugly" art that nobody will see! We are so used to showing everything on social media, how delightful to paint something absurd with no structure or meaning for the sake of creating textures! The joy of grabbing the roughest brush or crayons and go crazy on the paper like a 5 years old!

These visual studies made me feel connected to my inner child. It may not look good but it’s utterly therapeutic.

The Advent challenge

If you follow me on Instagram you know that I’ve been one of the hosts of the Advent challenge for a few years now. Doing it always gives me the festive mood, and I often use the illustrations I make to design Christmas cards for the following year.

This time I wanted to do things differently, since I had been working and experimenting with different techniques and mediums in the previous months. I took it as an opportunity to make something a bit different from my usual animal scenes with gouache.

I also wanted to see if I could use the texture research done previously and apply them to an illustration.

The plan was to create a little world slightly mysterious and dark, inspired by the beautifully melancholic winter walks. I decided to work on a limited and moody colour palette. Improvise with different mediums, without any concrete plan and see where it leads me.

Working on the colour palette and contrasts of textures

Various ideas for the announcement illustration

Bullfinches in Winter are an incredible sight, their little red chest seems so vibrant! I decided to add a couple for the announcement post. The idea was to make a simple scene, with a few branches, two birds and their little home.

This year we had only five prompts compare to the usual seven (which was a bit too much!). I didn’t feel particularly inspired by the prompts “Grandparents” and “Elf” but this, in my opinion, is one of the best things about drawing challenges. The point is not only to make an illustration for each prompt but also to step out of your comfort zone.

Here is the first bunch of sketches (what went through my mind when I first read the prompts). Some ideas made it to the end, some didn’t.

Christmas dinner in the making. After a few sketches featuring an indoor scene with several guests around the table (see above), I finally decided to go for something more subtle and a minimalist composition (although this little bat is so cute, shame it didn’t make it).

Working with mixed media and collage. I thought seeing the scene from the outside would create an interesting contrast of colours and an even cosier feel!

Research for the “Grandparents” prompts. I went for an old goat couple. Trying to figure out the type of scenery that would suit best. I like the energy of these messy sketches!

There’s something about creating textures that is immensely satisfaying

The most challenging prompt for me was definitely “Elf”. I struggled on this one and spent a lot of time thinking, sketching, painting, failing, starting over. I could not find something I was happy with. I started with the idea of one or two beavers as elves, since they are the best skilled for wood working :)

I was stuck then, being undecided about the type of scene and composition I wanted. Nothing felt natural and pleasant. I went for something simple with a beaver carrying a wooden horse. I even painted two versions of this illustration (lost since then, they probably disappeared under another layer of paint that I used for collage!).

I could have posted this illustration, but I didn’t like it. It was too predictable, expected, too similar to my usual art. It didn’t go with the rest of the Advent illustrations. It lacked of mystery and ambiance.

Again, I felt stuck. I quickly realised that the reason why I felt so limited was because I was supposed to paint an animal version of an elf. Then I started to question this: why? Because that’s what I draw, animals. But who says that I can’t draw a human like character? Nobody, I’m limiting myself for no reason here.

It actually felt really liberating to open the horizons and start sketching a little human like elf. Now I still had to figure out the whole scene, which again was a succession of trials and errors.

Above on the left: one of the many attempts that didn’t work. On the right: going for a different decor, a big forest collage.

I still have no idea what’s going to happen at this stage. Not even sure this will make it either but I decide to scan it and see what happens when I keep working on it digitally.

This is the prompt that took me the longest to figure out but it was also the one where I learnt the most. I tried to build the scene digitally from zero but quickly realised that wasn’t something that works for me. I need a traditional (painted) base to structure and give me direction for the digital part.

I’m not going to lie, it’s also frustrating and draining to keep starting over and over the same illustration. this process left me exhausted but I’m glad I didn’t give up.

Above: trees research for the prompt “Snow globe”.

Below: Colour and texture exploration. I always like to make as many tests as possible. I ended up keeping the one with the trees, it was supposed to be a rough test but I really liked it so decided to keep it as a base to then work digitally.

I was planning on working the sphere first and then add some sort of wooden base for the snow globe. But while working on it I realised I really liked the result of the sphere on it’s own!

I haven’t shown all the pieces in this blog article, have a look on my portfolio here if you would like to see them all.

I worked with a mix of traditional mediums (ink, pastel, watercolour, gouache) and digital techniques (with both Photoshop and Procreate).

This was the last edition of the Advent Challenge, I’m really glad I took the time (and it did take a lot of time, despite the five prompts) to explore unknown territories . I haven’t felt so much joy and excitement in creating for a long time! That was a lovely closure.

That’s all for today my friends, that was quite a long article for someone who didn’t have anything interesting to share :)

Thank you for being here, I wish you all a wonderful year and see you next time 🧡

Love,

C.

A solitary retreat by the sea

Happy Beeing Me