June 2024
Hello, my dear friend,
Summer is here and the days are wonderfully long. Although we have not seen the sun that much in Belgium lately, I don’t mind it. I truly believe there is no such thing as bad weather. Not judging a situation as good or bad, but simply being in it brings a deep sense of joy and calm. When the sun is out I enjoy the warmth on my skin and the heated smells of the city and nature around me. When it’s rainy I enjoy the water falling down my face as I cycle back home (sometimes I’m brave enough to take the bike even when it’s raining on the way to work!).
Nature is the easiest way to become aware of the present moment and that’s why this month’s illustration is about my love for the mountains. Although Belgium still has wonderful nature, it doesn’t have mountains. I tried to capture the blue-purple of the trees in the distance and the greenness of the forest behind. You can find this illustration through my Redbubble shop.
Patterns
I tried my hand at making a pattern just in pencil on the theme of forest animals. The pencil marks ended up being too vague so I solved this issue by copying the entire artwork and layering it on top. It still looks delicate (which I like!), but has more definition. You can find it via Redbubble and Spoonflower.
For a Spoonflower challenge I made a pattern on the theme of Christmas. It’s always fun to work on Christmas themed things in the summer.
I worked here with a diamond layout and used soft peach and cream, combined with the green of the tree and a few pops of red. The brief was to create a cheater quilt so I added dotted lines as contours to suggest stitching marks. I find it still transmits a Christmassy feeling, without screaming it too loudly as the strong contrast of the traditional red and green would (though “Feliz Navidad” was playing loudly in my mind while working on this!). You can find this pattern on products through Spoonflower and Redbubble.
Hand lettering
I’m working on a series of illustrations about presence and this is the first one of them. It’s a vector illustration, which I first drew in pixels and then vectorized. For the flowers it worked well, I like the wobbly, imperfect lines. They reflect what real flower petals look like. For the lettering, however, vectorizing by tracing was not a good idea. Even with tweaking the settings, I didn’t get the results I wanted, so I spent an inordinate amount of time correcting the nodes to get the smooth, clean look I was going for. Next time I will build the vectors manually for the lettering.
This illustration is a reminder to be in the present moment instead of in our minds, thinking about the past or planning/worrying about the future. Past and future exist only in our minds as memories or imagination. They have no other reality. Everything that ever happens, happens in the present moment. Have you ever felt sad or uneasy without a particular reason? When everything seems to be going well in your life, but you somehow still feel an underlying current of anxiety? It could be because you spend most of your time in your mind in the past or future, instead of in the present.
Use this illustration as a little reminder. When you see it, take a few conscious breaths and become aware of your own body. Look around, wherever you are, without judging your surroundings as good or bad. Touch something and feel its texture. Take another conscious breath.
This illustration is available on products through Redbubble and as a wallpaper for my newsletter subscribers (you can subscribe here)
Art Academy
It’s the end of the school year, so we spent some time preparing the exhibition. This year is my fifth one, my graduation year, so I got to exhibit a lot of drawings!
With thanks to my colleague Bart for the photos.
In the last weeks I did some more model drawings.
Sketchbook
Inspired by a colleague, Helene, I got a small sketchbook, 12x12 cm, that I can take along easily and more importantly for me, that has a low barrier of entry so to speak. The page is so small, that even if I would want to get lost details, there’s only that much space on the page. This means a higher chance that I will draw every day without the unconscious fear holding me back that I won’t have time to finish.
I mostly worked in fineliner. It’s fast, the sketcbook comes with a pen loop for it and I like linework. I will probably include color pencils more at one point again and maybe markers.
Calendar
I’m working on a 2025 calendar. Here is a first peak. I’ll finish the illustration (the theme is “Tree of Life”), have the dates double-checked then send it over to the printer for tests.
It’s a yearly planner and the purpose is to give a high-level overview of vacations or other several-day events. I’m currently testing it at home by circling specific dates and adding the title of the event above or below. A highlighter might also work, I’d just need to ask my daughter for one.
I tried out the idea of a continuous calendar, instead of splitting the months up each in their little table. What do you think?
Goodbye Instagram
I’ve decided to leave Instagram. In the last months (years?) it’s truly becoming a mad house there. People feel the pressure to keep up with the algorithm so they create content as often as they can with fast-moving images and videos to keep others engaged. I don’t like fast-moving images (or short videos). I don’t like to make them and I don’t like to watch them. I of course am also engaged when watching that kind of content, but it generally brings nothing to me, but a sense of anxiety and subsequently guilt for having wasted my time.
Social media platforms would not exist without the content created by users, but the users seem to always pull the short straw in this game. Although a company like Instagram provides the software and the server space to run the whole mad machine, they are the ones who always win in the end. It’s very rarely a consistent win-win. If I take a step back and observe, I notice that people upload content, people dance through hoops and loops trying to create what will become popular, people pay for that content to be shown, and people watch paid content from others. It’s like this tech company has shot us all with berzerk arrows (like in video games) and we mindlessly fight each other (upload, like, share, boost, comment), we get frustrated, anxious, or even depressed while the company becomes rich. This is madness.
I do have to mention that I had already uninstalled the Instagram app from my phone a couple of years ago after realizing how much time I spent on the app. I was shocked to see two, three, or even four hours of screen time a day. I was not aware of that. In my recollection I had just spent a few minutes here, and a few minutes there, maybe sometimes 30 minutes at once. I had never realized it added up to so much. I then uploaded and checked Instagram from my computer which made it less addictive.
The essence of the problem with all social media platforms is the presentation of an endless feed of potentially interesting content. This seems like an infinite buffet of delicacies but I guess, just like our stomachs, our minds also quickly get satiated. In the same way that I decide what to eat at each meal, I can decide what to look at for inspiration, entertainment, or relaxation.
I will maybe miss updates from some people who only post on Instagram. But yet again, the endless feed makes it hard to engage with anything for more than a few seconds. Because my mind keeps saying “I wonder what the next post will be. Will it be something even nicer? Just scroll down further and see.” (hello, attention deficit). Before deleting my account I made a small list with names and websites to visit. There are a few people who only have an Instagram account, but most of them I meet in real life (real life!) and can peak in their actual sketchbooks or listen to their vacation stories.
If you want to keep up with my latest art, this newsletter sums it up monthly. You can always reach me through email or the comments section below. Do send me a link to your website so I can visit it.
Wallpapers
For the email subscribers to this newsletter, I created a space to share a few digital wallpapers. You can use them on your computer, phone, or tablet.
If you’re not yet on my list, you can subscribe here. You will then get the password to access the wallpapers.
The plans for next month are to keep drawing in my small sketchbook and work on two patterns. I don’t have hopes for much more, as it’s vacation period and we will also do some renovations work at home!
I hope you enjoy the start of the summer, take care, be well,
Ema
Find all my patterns and illustrations below:
Drawing is not about what you see as much as what you can make others see.
I am an artist and illustrator who believes in the power of images to make people happy. I’m most known for my colorful cards and patterns depicting people, flowers, and animals, in a sensitive and feminine style using flat simplified shapes.
I live in Beersel, Belgium, and I like to go on long walks with my little dog, Luther.
