- May - Floral silhouettes, vintage stamps and illustrated lamps
Monthly update from my art studio
Hello everyone,
It’s still a bit cold in the studio, and at the shared studio the heating is broken so I’m writing this to you wearing 2 jumpers and fingerless mittens. The sun has finally come out though and it made everything come to life, we’ve gone on beautiful woodland walks and I already have a folder full of reference photos that I’m exited to draw from.
In the Studio
I’ve been brooding on them for a while, but they are finally available; I made these beautiful lamps together with Houtlokael! A very nice collaboration with a local company that makes beautiful craftsmanship by hand. The plates are interchangeable, so you can change the lamp to suit your mood. View or buy them here.
Art community updates
Natural history is a subject close to my heart. Besides drawing, I enjoy researching and learning more about the properties of plants and animals. Last month we had some great drawing sessions on that subject.
During the Seasonal Sketch Session, we drew plants and animals seen in my area (Haarlem, the Netherlands) in April. My favourite was the bluethroat and a geum plant.
In other videos, you will find:
(All of these videos are also available at Patreon)
Supporting Sunflowers
I added a new tier to Patreon for people who’d like to offer me a little bit of support: see it as buying me a cuppa tea once or a pencil once a month. Even small support means a lot to me and allows me to keep on developing as an artist. In return, you get access to a few exclusive videos (about once a month), and you’ll be the first to know about updates or discounts. If you’d like to be a Supporting Sunflower, you can do so here.
Coming up : NESTS
In Dutch, we say “„In de maand van mei leggen alle vogels hun ei. [Behalve de kwartel en de spriet/griet, die leggen in de meimaand niet.]” (translation: "In the month of May, all birds lay their eggs. [Except quail and sprites/grits, they do not lay in the month of May]. - This may only be true for female birds, but still, a lot of egg laying is done. So let’s focus on nests! And did you know not only birds make nests?
Available at Patreon - Meadow Maestros tier:
Tuesday May 7th 16:00 (4 PM) CEST (+replay)Seasonal Sketch Session - we will be drawing plants / flowers and animals that are common in May in my area (The Netherlands)Tuesday May 14th 16:00 (4 PM) CEST (+replay) - All paid Substack + Patreon members (Avian Artisans and Meadow Meastros)
Theme: NestsSIGN UP HERE
Please use this time zone converter to find the times in your area: www.worldtimebuddy.com
Sketchbook exercise
(In case you missed my previous post): I lost my voice a few weeks ago and did a sketchbook page to cheer myself up. If you want to do a similar exercise, you can watch it here for inspiration:
Other Live Session Tips:
A lovely community with a monthly live drawing session, usually also focussed on nature. Loved the Nature Journal Month.- hosts the and it’s the best. Looking forward to the Anthropomorfic Animals drawing session 🎉
- - Check out Shivam’s Patreon, it’s chock full of playful live sessions to loosen up and get inspired to create!
Favorite Art - one of mine and one of theirs
I don’t think I can ever get bored of looking at Audubon's artwork. The compositions, the colours, the details….just gorgeous.
Drawing birds is one of my favourite things to do, and I often use reference photos for it. For this artwork, I used a photo I took on a holiday of a bird building a nest in a cactus. Its head was curiously sticking out of the hole. I later created my own version of the moment.
Lovelies
Finding the joy in small things:
Recipe: In an effort to get my kid to eat more veggies, I made my own chocolate spread. Turns out it’s delicious.
Having a picknick outside with friends.
Watercolour pencils. Caran D’ache Supracolor 2 ones and the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer are my favs and I also stumbled upon Koh-i-noor progresso watercolour woodless pencils, which I am now a big fan of but are hard to find.
Thanks so much for reading, I hope your room is warmer than mine and the sun shines through your windows, see you in June!
Loved reading your update Pauline! Thank you for the mention 😊 I really enjoyed watching your sketchbook timelapse - the colours, simplicity of materials and use of toned paper is inspiring. I've put white ink and acrylic pens on my shopping list!
Glad you're feeling better and hope the weather has warmed up for you x