Back to the drawing board with my latest illustration, called Squishy!

Hi and welcome to my first newsletter in 2025!

A challenging winter

I've not been publishing any updates on artwork or newsletters and that's because I've been away from my drawing board most of this year. There are several reasons for that. Last March my family suffered a very sudden loss of a loved one. It hit us all hard and I had to learn that grief and mourning is a complicated thing that happens differently for everyone.

The past months have also had a lot of music in it for me. Music is my most beloved past time and it has also helped me immensely to cope through hard times. I've studied singing and have sung in a choir for over 15 years. At the start of the year I started my vocal studies again and the choir also had it's biggest concert to date last April, performing Bach's Mass in B.

All this, alongside having a family and a full time job with the wonderful team at Parity Games, the energy I need to produce my own work just wasn't there. So, I decided to give my personal work a rest and take some time away from my website and social media and focus my time and energy for everything else as best I could.

Back to the drawing board

Now, summer has come and everything is more calm, including me, and I'm back at the drawing board. I finally managed to finish this illustration a week ago. Say hi to my Squishy creature. I think it's a kind of cross between a soft crustacean and a jellyfish, with air bubbles attached!

I listed up my process here for art technique enthusiasts, but those less interested in the technique can just skip and carry on reading about my next goals below. I drew Squishy last year and started paintwork in January. My process for it was a bit different than usual as I scanned my original drawing and printed it on a sheet of heavyweight paper, that served better for the technique I'm using:

1. I drew the creature on a A4 drawing sheet with a technical pencil (leds HB and 2B)

2. then I scanned the drawing into my computer and adjusted for printing

3. next I printed it out on a sheet of heavy weight A4 art paper

4. next I finalized the drawing with pencil

5. next step was applying shadows and form using black pastel (with tip and with brush)

6. then I used two colours of inks, a few colored pencils and white gouache

7. then I scanned the piece into my computer, again

8. I applied some brush marks and edits in my painting software (Photoshop)

9. and last, I laid it out and printed on high quality paper on my Epson Surecolor 9000

   
   

Here are some process pictures. I'm planning to do a better job at documenting my process.

Goals for 2025 - Better late than never

I didn't set any goals or make plans for 2025. The holidays were very busy and suddenly the new year had hit and I hadn't manage to give it a thought. In my last newsletter of 2024 I listed up what I'd learned in 2024 and looking at those points I've set up a list of what I'd like to achieve in what remains of 2025:

• Develop my techniques and find out how I'd like best to carry on making my art.

• Practice my storytelling and narration skills and implement into my artwork.

• Find my preferred niche and field of art, to better reach my audience and clients.

In short, I just want to find out what I like doing best in art. Up until now I've been interested in everything from 3D art to watercolouring techniques. But learning and doing everything is not the best way to find my artistic voice nor a practical direction for my art business.

However, saying that I want to "find my artistic voice and my niche" isn't enough if I don't have any strategy for it. So, I've come up with one. I am going to plan and carry out three small, yet multifaceted, projects. They will each be in a different types of field of art and illustration; in children's books, in game art and in editorial illustration. These fields all require different approaches to design and storytelling. Working through them should help me understand myself and my voice better.

Here are the projects I plan to do:

1. a draft for a children's book - Sequential narrative and storytelling.

2. a piece of concept design for a game - World building and narrative.

3. a piece of editorial illustration for publishing - Graphics design & narrative.

The hardest part in this, for me, will probably be staying focused on these projects. I'll probably be jumping around and starting and finishing my fantasy illustrations that I have been starting, but lets hope I'll stay focused enough to pull this off before the end of the year. To do that, I'll have to organize my time how best suits my productivity and health and that is something I'm just starting to learn. 

To add to these goals I'm also keeping my art print business going and continuing printing my artwork for those who fancy it! If you fancy a Squishy print, just send me an email, heidarafns@gmail.com, or message me on one of my social media!

Thank you for checking in and I hope you have enjoyed this first newsletter of 2025!

That's it for now!

Until next time, be safe and carry on dreaming ❤

Heiða