Motivation Poster & My New Newsletter!

When I was in primary school I got REALLY into penpals. I had at least ten and I was writing and receiving letters pretty much every single day. Not surprisingly, this is when my love for stationery started, too! Ads for penpals were usually at the back of kids magazines but I also roped kids I met on holiday into becoming my penpals. Even when everyone was on the internet, I was exchanging snail mail with people I knew online. I loved writing the letters and making my own envelopes, adding stickers and little details. And I LOVED receiving post, too - I still do!

Nowadays I rarely have the time or patience to write proper letters, partly due to being busy and partly because after drawing all day I don't feel like also using my hand to write (plus, I write super slowly). But I still love sending birthday presents to friends in other countries - including lots of little gifts, wrapping them, decorating the box, etc.

It's similar with my Etsy orders, I love making everything cute so that when you open your order it's like receiving a gift!

Why am I telling you all this? Because these were the things I was thinking about when I decided to start my newsletter. I don't want it to be just list of 'news'. I want it to be like sending a letter/present to a friend. With lots of care about the details so that it's really fun to receive and open my emails.

It doesn't have to be one-sided if you don't want it to be - you can email me back with comments, suggestions and questions. After ten years of being an illustrator some things can seem really obvious even when they're not. So don't hesitate sending in your questions and I'll do my best to answer your questions and include a Q&A at the bottom of each newsletter.

In addition to that, I want the newsletter to be about motivation and productivity because I love those topics and many people joined in my '100 Days Of Productivity' challenge which I didn't expect! I think they're useful topics for everyone, whether you have a lot of projects you would love to do or whether you just want to get stuff done efficiently so you can have more time off.

That's why I've illustrated a free printable Motivation Poster for you, wohoo! If you sign up to my newsletter you will be taken to a page with the free downloads, there's both a colour and a b&w (which looks cool on coloured paper, I think) version. I hope you like it and I'm excited to start sending you my newsletters soon!

Exhibition / Isle Of Dogs

At the start of April we went to see the Isle Of Dogs Exhibition at The Store X in London. Like so many other artists and illustrators I know I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson, because, well, he's obviously amazing. His new film (Isle Of Dogs) was finally out at UK cinemas and this exhibition displayed 17 sets from the film and a lot of the puppets. It was incredible and so much bigger than I had ever hoped! Even though it was pretty busy, there was plenty of space for everyone to have a closer look at each set - each one was to detailed and beautiful.

I decided to finally share these pictures (which admittedly I've been meaning to do for weeks!) But hopefully that means most people have seen the film by now and it won't be full of spoilers. Even though the exhibition isn't on any longer, maybe it is fun to see a glimpse of it if you didn't manage to go?

Out And About / Kindred Studios Open Day

On Sunday I took the day off and we visited the Kindred Studios open day! My illustrator friend Viktorija has an amazing studio there (you can see her desk in the last photo) and I had visited the studios before so I knew this would be amazing. 

There are over 160 artists making all sorts of work in this huge Victorian building which used to be a school. From fashion designers to fine artists, architects, graphic designers, jewellery makers, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers and more. There was so much to explore. Lots and lots of inspiring work and just as inspiring workspaces - I loved seeing the details of everyone's space and who doesn't love a huge building pretty much filled with art materials! Not to mention the beautiful lighting inside the building and great views over London! 

Bt the end of the day I felt all inspired to go and re-organise my own little home studio. If you live in or near London, I definitely recommend checking out Kindred Studios on their next open day. It's such a magical place!