Dear sweet BirdMembers,
You have been waiting so incredibly long for this package. Your patience has not gone unnoticed by me. Here is a little life update, info about your newest package, and things to look forward to.
Life update:
Mom-Life caught up on me and I found myself in a rollercoaster of pre-school viruses, autism assessment tests, meetings with pre-school, doctors, experts here and there, finding a fitting elementary school, and more meetings. I've always been open and transparent about how I run my business, but I kept these things a bit more quiet and in the background. Not because "it's none of your business", but more because it's so incredibly energy draining that I just don't have the energy to talk about it.
And it has showed in my work. You've seen less "happy or funny video's" on insta, less new products, and less of simply me. With everything going on, my whole business slowed down. And you know what, THAT'S OK. <3 WE'RE OK! We're doing the best we can do for our son and sometimes that means I have to put my work on pause to focus on what needs to be done. And to protect myself from potential burnout.
Because I know myself, I can go on, and on, and on. And then crash.
So we took a family vacation to relax and to reset. I didn't bring any artsupplies. Because they felt too much like "work". It was just us, in the middle of nature. No paints, no sketchbooks, no pencils. And it was exactly what I needed to recharge.
Because when we came back, I had fresh new ideas on my mind. New paints, re-stocks, and new projects to work on.
I took my sweet time to finish this little trio for you. And I hope you will feel my love and passion for paints radiating from it hahaha.
Juicy Papaya
Introducing: Juicy papaya.
I wanted something "summer themed". But not flowers again, so I went for fruit. It gave me the opportunity to finally use my Vintage Earth Pigments. Which I always find interesting. Since it already took millions of years for earth to create these pigments, can I really consider them "vintage" just because they were harvested and sold in the 1970s?
I mean sure, vintage synthetic pigments are quite rare and unique. But is an earth pigment from the 70s not exactly the same as an earth pigment from 2020s? ;-) If sourced from the same mountain....
I'm getting distracted. Anyway, here are the pigment combinations:
Papaya Orange Pink: Vintage Potters Pink Pr233, Vintage Ultramarine Pink PV15, and Orange Yellow PY110
Papaya Green: Vintage Raw Green Umber Pb8, Green Oxide PG17
Papaya seed brown: Vintage Burnt Umber Pb7, Vintage Iron Oxide PBk11
I included some gifts for you. Starting with a line drawing of Papaya so you can immediately start painting. Ever since I'm so swamped, I find it hard to find time to paint. A simple colouring card helps me with that. I can paint without worrying about the subject. So I took some photos from Papayas in my local fruits & veggie store and traced lines in ProCreate. Once I was happy I printed it on 100% cotton watercolour paper.
Talking about watercolour paper. I found these handmade cotton paper sheets while hunting for indigo. According to the manufacturer, they are 100% vegan. They say the sizing is made with vegetable gelatine rather than animal gelatine. BUT, I still haven't received an official document with this statement. So I wanted to be transparent about that. As long as they don't provide me with some kind of certification, I'm not comfortable stating that it's true Vegan Watercolor paper.
And lastly, a cute papaya sticker for your sketchbook. ;-)
future projects
Summer break has started. That means 6 weeks of MomLife and no regular studio days. I aim to work on weekends and/or evenings. But you may find some delay in shipping if you order something from the shop.
Other than that. I'm working on something pretty exciting. OPAQUE WATERCOLOURS or "Gouache". Not in tubes, but in big wide pans so your bigger brushes can move freely in the paint. So get ready to try some.
I'm also having my very first market this year. At Dutch Comic Con of all places. I'm super nervous because I have no clue of what i'm doing but thankfully there is a whole community out there willing to help me navigate this new path. I've never done markets before, but I think it's time for me to get out there and connect more with artists in real life rather than true a phone screen.
Don't get me wrong I feel like I'm friends with you! You know so much about me and I know so much about you! Seeing your names when you DM me makes me happy. I love our conversations and I love getting all nerdy together about paints and art. But economic times are hard, especially after loosing a lot of members due to an Orange Muffin... So I need to get myself out there. In the wild.
I really hope I will see you one day face to face! <3 until then, have fun painting. And don't loose your spark <3