Guess who's back! Yay, I'm finally back in business! It's been a long time and there has been a lot of changes in my life. But not just that: there's also been quite some in the field of AI art.

A digital watercolor painting of a cottage, partially made with the help of AI.

I don't know about you, but I'm having mixed feelings about it. Not many people know this, but as much as I love traditional slow living and everything that comes with it - I'm also a bit of a nerd that's amazed by how fast modern technology is progressing.

I really respect and appreciate the time, passion and hard work an artist puts into his work so much. But in the end, I'm also the kind of person who's all about aesthetics and looks at the result of something, no matter how it's made (as long as it isn't harmful). 

These developments have sparked the ancient old question: what is art? Something we might need to answer some day soon, as copyright laws are being tested out right now.

To be quite frank, I'm still not sure about my stand on it. What I do know is that it's here to stay and you better adapt to it ASAP: the sooner the better. If you can't beat them, join them.

x K.

P.S.: The first image is, in fact, made with the help of AI. However, I have transformed it into what it is now using my own editing skills on Lightroom and my own, self-made watercolor paper and brushes in Procreate. So the image above IS copyrighted!

Hi hiiiii, 

Actually, I'm having a bad day today, so I wasn't planning on posting anything. But decided to do so anyway. Although I probably won't talk as much. Perhaps for the better, haha!

So, a while ago I started on embroidering a little tulip. Took me ages to finish - not so much because it was so much work, but rather because my life has become rather busy, as you may well know by now.

There's no huge piece of text accompanying this. There's no need. It speaks for itself. 

♡

O.M.G.!!! 

So.. The following is what's up. I have always loved painting, both on big canvases and paper. The latter mostly used with watercolor. I absolutely LOVE the effect of watercolor, but I didn't really like wasting paper for practicing. Especially since even for practicing, you still need to have good quality paper and yeah, that's not cheap if you like to practice on a daily basis. Some pieces are definitely worth it, but others will turn out to be a complete waste - other than the lesson taken from it.

So a long while ago, I got a Lenovo Yoga Book especially for drawing. It had ArtRage on it and I made some nice illustrations on it. The screen died however and so I needed a new device, this time looking for a tablet. Don't ask me why, but I ended up with an Android tablet. I had loads of fun illustrating on different apps, but nothing that really mimiced the effect of analog watercolor. Ofcourse, I had seen digital illustrations of other artists who used Procreate and have always been in love with how realistic the digital watercolor illustrations looked. I knew that one day I had to have an iPad.

Well.. That day has finally come!! I can't even tell you how excited I am. I'm absolutely OVER THE MOON! And it did not disappoint ONE BIT. First thing I did, was downloading Procreate. Second thing I did, was buying Vanya's watercolor brush set. Here's the second the second illustration I've made so far:

I'm so amazed by how close it is to my analog watercolor style. It's so realistic, that it's REALLY hard to tell apart digital from analog. I think my brandnew Arches paper will be collecting dust in the upcoming time. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy traditional aquarelle a LOT, it's really soothing to the soul. But as you may have noticed, my life has become quite busy. Digital watercolor is just so mobile and when you make a mistake, it's easily fixed!

Anyhow. I also illustrated a little tulip (my first illustration on my iPad) and even embroidered that same tulip. I'll upload that later this week. I'll probably be sharing more illustrations than embroideries the upcoming time, because digital illustrations can be done without daylight in contrast to embroidery. And with Winter approaching, daylight is becoming very scarce at the moment here in the Netherlands. Especially now DST has ended last weekend aswell.

I do have a special lamp for embroidery which is actually really really good, but I still prefer daylight. I'm curious as to how you deal with it during these dark days!

x K.

Hi hi cutie pies! 

Me revoilà! It's been a really hectic week again, as I had already expected it to be, so here's a little throwback to a few weeks ago.

I made this embroidery based on an amazing digital watercolor artwork of Vanya from Vanya Illustrations. She does some amazing work and it was an absolute honor to be able to make an embroidery out of one of her stunning pieces!

Because we both love small and delicate things, I decided to make a mini hoop. Its diameter is only 10.5cm, how cute is that!

As you can imagine, it was an absolute joy to embroider it. I'm still wanting to embroider one of her roses in the future - I'm not sure about you, but I'm obsessed with roses!

x K.

Coucou cutie pies! 

Yes, "coucou", because this time I'm showing you a tiny little embroidery I did last week featuring a very famous phrase in French!

Normally I love my embroidery to be much more complex, because I always feel like finishing projects way too soon. This is also why I love needlepainting so much - it takes forever! But this little hoop was made in between dyieng petals and shaping them, as I had to wait for them to dry. It was done in like, what, an hour maybe?

Apart from that, I haven't been able to do a lot of creative stuff this week. I've been doing a lot of research which should eventually benefit my creativity though (think of art and fashion history, millinery techniques, stuff like that). So I haven't been completely unproductive.

Upcoming week will be a busy one aswell, so don't expect to see much on here. But hopefully after that, daily life will become a bit settled again!

x K.

Hi hi cutie pies! 

Last week I had started on starching some white cotton I had still lying around - initially to embroider on, but I thought I might aswell try using it for flowers. I didn't really get that far though, as it was a pretty busy week. I actually wasn't home a lot.

Anyhoo. So, I started on starching the fabric last week. Made my own starch, dipped the fabric in it and let it dry. Today I was home all day long, so once my husband went to work, I enthusiastically started on drawing some petal shapes onto the fabric with the Frixion pen I normally use for embroidery. Then, cut them out, blow dried them (so the marks would vanish), made them wet with a brush and painted them with watercolor. Since ribbon embroidery is sometimes done with watercolor aswell and fabric paints often have a similar effect as watercolor (silk paints anyway, not sure about others) - I thought, why not try that? I didn't have any fabric paints and I merely wanted to practice, so heck, good enough for me.

In the beginning, I thought I had used way too much paint, as the colors were pretty dark and saturated. But thankfully, just like watercolor on paper, it dried up way lighter. They were dry pretty fast, so after some embroidery, I was ready to get my flower making toolset!

All went pretty well shaping the petals. It was super fun to do and less scary than the first time (this was my second). Later on, I'll write a post about how to do so. I actually thought this was gonna work out just fine!

But then, I had to assemble the flower and that's where everything went down hill really fast. I didn't have any glue at hand, so I thought I'd just handsew it all. Which worked out great for the flower, but not so much for the stem. (No surprise there in retrospect.) So I ended up taking it apart, which in turn resulted in the flatlay above.

I gotta say - I've had way uglier accidents in the past, including a hideous aquarelle the other day! But they're part of life and especially when you're learning something new. In the end, you don't fail, you only learn, right? However, hopefully next post in this category does include a final result!

x K.

Hi hi cutie pies! 

When I said that I'd hope to talk to you again soon with some more work to show, I didn't expect to be here the very next day!

I've been trying to get a watercolor style to my liking through digital illustration - but having an Android tablet is kind of a huge limitation. Until I get my hands on an iPad - which, yes, I'll be purchasing especially for ProCreate - I decided to practice some more analog watercolor in the meantime.

The above illustration is a eucalyptus, which I made this afternoon. I thought it would be the perfect plant to practice leaves - and it was!

Any recommendations to practice botanicals? I bet tulips are great aswell. Perhaps the next time!

x K.

Hi hi cutie pies! 

Oh, I gotta say - even though having been a fashion blogger for years, I'm actually kinda nervous for my very first post on here! Luckily I've already introduced myself, so that's done! Now, I wanted to share with you my vision for this blog and my little atelier in general. Or rather.. The edited version of it regarding embroidery, because - surprise, surprise - I changed my mind!

Initially I announced on Instagram that I was planning on creating embroidery patterns for beginners. However, I figured I wanted to stay true to myself first and foremost - and your typical beginner embroidery is not really "me". Besides, the market for beginner embroidery is huge and there are a lot of great artists out there who already provide our cute little community with the most amazing designs! I had already made 3 embroidery patterns. (Well, 4 actually, but I changed the way of embroidering that 4th pattern for it to become more of my own style. Anyhoo, more about that later - back to those 3 embroidery patterns I initially wanted to talk about.) Sooooo, since I have already made those, it would be a waste not to release them, so I was thinking of releasing them as freebies!

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm releasing them for free because they'd be trash. I really do like the patterns (some more than others, ofcourse). It's just that eventually, it doesn't really suit my taste and desired direction. Personally I'm more into needle painting and delicate florals - both of which are hard to do with chunky floss and simple stitches. To my surprise, there aren't a lot of beginner friendly patterns or even sources for this type of embroidery. So hey, that's a win-win! Obviously I'll also focus on more intermediate and advanced stitchers aswell!

So, yeah. Needle painting it is. But also stylizations, ribbonwork, beading, goldwork, quotes, journaling style, haute couture, mixed materials, perhaps even abstract art here and there or something inspired by culture, art or history.. Anything that speaks to me, really!

There goes for this little update. Stay tuned for the 3 freebies, which will be released soon! The picture above is a tiny little sneak peek - I posted some more on my Insta. Hopefully talk to you soon again with some work to show!

x K.