Coming Soon!
My trip to London, new vlog and Our Planet Week 2025
I’m keeping it short today – mostly because I’m so covered up with work, I can’t decide what to deal with first. And I realized how long it’s been since I caught up with you over here! Let’s get right to it!
Menu for today:
Let’s go to London
Our Planet Week 2025 is coming soon!
Are Instagram challenges even worth it?
London times
In case you missed it – I went to London in February. In short, it was a really nice trip. I worked a lot from my hotel room on a book cover and editorial illustrations, ate takeaway, walked into every Waterstones possible, built an impressive book tower, got on a first-name basis with every London squirrel, found my favourite restaurant, and drank a lot of coffee (ranging from very bad – certain sweet-savoury bakery, I’m looking at you! – to quite good ones, which you’ll see across the video).
What else can I tell you – even though my video uploading is irregular, patchy, and inconsistent, I enjoy it more every time. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll manage to carve out more hours and finally, after all these years, upload every two weeks. Can you imagine?
And since I’ve been filming and uploading a bit more these days, I’ve also been spending more time on YouTube myself. It’s such a lovely change of pace to watch longer-format videos without the hectic scrolling, the trending music, and loud invasive noises coming at you.
That being said, if you have favourite YouTubers – art-related or not – please leave some recs!
Our Planet Week
We’re back - another year, the 6th edition already! Our hosting team is a group of talented and incredibly dedicated artists from all over the world, check them out below!
Our Planet Week 2025 Host Team:
@asiaorlando_ @ananaisdesign @beetleinthehay @emmalopesart @hello.momo.illu @janinarossiter @josie_illustrations @karlasandersart @lamartina.art @melanie.johnsson @raquelrussoo @sarahvonrickenbach @studioamsel @studiolisa @tyymes @zatiff
Each year, choosing and completing the team is quite a challenge - the spots are limited to 19 or 20 artists. This year, we have some very experienced illustrators who’ve already hosted in past editions, and a few new ones whose support and dedication so far has been amazing!
I’m guessing most of you are already familiar with the event, but in case you’re not, check out our most recent Instagram posts - all the info and rules are over there. And stay tuned for the prompt reveal next week!
On April 7th, we’ll be sharing the official list of 5 inspiring themes for you to illustrate over the span of 10 days.
I don’t know about you, but I think that spreading environmental awareness and talking about the climate issues closest to your heart while creating awesome art is a win-win!
I’m also planning to make a video of this year’s edition, and I would looove to include a few of my favorite entries.
So if you weren’t convinced before, I hope you are now - and I can’t wait to see your art!
Please let me know here if you’re joining, so I can match some Substack names to your social media faces :)
#illustrationchallenge ?
Have you noticed that the popularity of Instagram art challenges has been decreasing? Just two or three years ago, it felt like new challenges were popping up every day - so many that artists had a hard time choosing which ones to take part in, especially since so many overlapped.
Now, only a few of the older ones are still going, and you don’t see new ones appearing nearly as often. I guess it’s all Instagram’s fault - the app really isn’t making things easy for us.
To let my internal troll run wild for a moment - there were quite a few challenges I didn’t personally enjoy, for various reasons. One that I particularly dislike is “Draw This in Your Style,” but that’s part of a longer story. The vague concept behind the challenge, combined with a general lack of understanding around copyright and ethics, has led to some weird and unpleasant situations within our small - but especially cool - community.
I’ll admit, organizing Our Planet Week hasn’t been the easiest thing over the years either. Even though we’ve let go of some parts of the event, organizing it still takes up a good chunk of my time every first quarter of the year :)
But after all this time, I’m very attached to the event and don’t want to let it go. The satisfaction of seeing artists come together and create art around the prompts is incredibly gratifying. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen artists get commissioned by clients who discovered them through their Our Planet Week entries. How cool is that?
For me personally, one of the best things about taking part in an illustration event (like Our Planet Week, but not limited to it) is the self-imposed obligation to pause and create something just for yourself.
As professional illustrators, we spend so much time translating other people’s ideas into visuals. Hitting pause to make something that’s entirely your own can feel like a much-needed vacation. We all need those breaks to reboot our creativity and imagination.
So whether you’re a pro or a hobbyist, consider joining us. It’s fun and it matters.
Disclaimer: This is a newsletter, and you can opt-out at any time; there’s a link below where you can automatically unsubscribe. I wouldn’t like to see you go, but you have the option. Also, some links, not all, might be affiliate links; when you click on them, I get a small commission at no cost to you.