eugenia

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thanks! I used Art Philosophy watercolors, they are known for their vibrancy. :)

eugenia, 9 months ago

Ευχαριστώ!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Cost of living is better than the US overall, but the prices on foods is going up constantly there… Thankfully we will have a veggie garden, and access to local pastured eggs, goats, sheep, and chickens by my aunts, and wild fish from the nearby sea town.

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thank you! :)

eugenia, 9 months ago

We’re currently in Spokane, WA, USA. I also lived for a few years in the UK. I left Greece in late 1996.

eugenia, 9 months ago

It wasn’t to happen for us either. But then my dad died in Greece last year, and I’m pretty sure that I could have saved him if I was there (he was living alone in the mountains and he was not seeing doctors regularly). So I said, that’s it, I still have a mother. We’re going. And (French) husband agreed.

eugenia, 9 months ago

Yep, my intent going to illustration was that particular children’s style.

eugenia, 9 months ago

Yeah, it’s going to be quite a change, mostly for my French husband. It should be familiar territory for me. We bought a new house close to my mom’s house, as we have a lot of things and we wouldn’t fit in her house. We’re moving after deciding I need to help my mom, after my dad’s death last year, where he died alone in the mountains (they were divorced). I had plans to go that year and move him to an apartment, after postponing that trip due to c-vid for a year. I was too late…

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thx! I left to find a job, originally in UK, in 1996. I was a programmer originally. Then I met my (French-in-the-US) husband on IRC, got married, and also moved to the US. Been there since 2001. Here I became a tech journalist, and then an artist (mostly collage art, where I had a very successful career in the 2010s – paintings/illustration are new to me).

The reason to come back I detailed in another reply here.

eugenia, 9 months ago

He does, yes! We should be in France 1-2 times a year for sure!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thank you! Yeah, a children’s book was in my plans until AI happened and the market was flooded. I had an idea to teach kids about timezones!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Haha, I wish! He’s an engineer, and he says that I “don’t do the boxes right”. So he likes to do it by himself! He only needs me to ask if we’re going to keep something or throw it away. So I keep painting! :)

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thanks, I have been posting there for a while now! :-)

eugenia, 9 months ago

Traditional painting and illustration! While I now know that I never needed to spend more than $250 for professional-grade tools, I’ve spent about $18,000. As for sales in 3.5 years, they don’t account for more than $800. For that I mostly blame Instagram where it’s not possible to grow anymore organically and get an audience & potential customers. So I moved to the federated open source PixelFed now, if anyone’s interested in my book-style illustration: pixelfed.social/EugeniaLoli

Also, as a word of advice for anyone who wants to also do illustration and don’t want to do the same mistakes that I did. All you need is:

• The Lukas 24 watercolor palette of student grade ($18). It’s good enough and these days most paintings are scanned, so even if not all colors are lightfast, it’s not a big deal. Few people only buy originals, most go for prints. If you’re going to go selling originals, consider the Daniel Smith primaries set of 6 colors for $40.
• A set of brushes of different sizes, including a flat brush and round brushes including a long thin one to do details, $15
• Pencil, eraser, sharpener, $15
• A set of gouache. Best bang for the buck for professional quality is DaVinci brand ($10 per large tube), or if you want to go cheap, the Himi Miya set for $25. If you go for the cheaper stuff, it’s still advised to get a better quality white tube, so it’s truly opaque (the cheap stuff aren’t opaque enough). So go for Holbein or DaVinci white for $10-$15.
• Soft core colored pencils, set of 48+. $15 (you will mostly need the muted colors to enhance the painting with harder edges)
• Grey, sepia, black ink pens, and manga ink brush pens (for some types of paintings only), $40
• 100% cotton paper for watercolor $25, or any watercolor paper for gouache $10 (gouache works on any, watercolor is more nuanced).
• Brush watercolor markers, e.g. Tombows or Ecoline – in case you want to do such type of illustration too, $30 for a few muted colors.
• Masking fluid for watercolors, $10
• White gel pen and white Posca pen (0.7mm) for white highlights, $15
• Faber Castell white pencil soft pastel, $4
• Caran d’ache Luminance white colored pencil, $4 (the cheaper colored pencils above again don’t include a strong white)
• Caran d’ache Neocolor II white crayon, $4
• A ruler, to help you sketch.

I included various mediums above in white color because highlights are king in illustration, and each provides a different look and feel, depending on the painting. Happy painting!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thank you, haha! :) Yeah, I used to do collages indeed. :)

eugenia, 10 months ago

Unfortunately, that’s the wrong thinking. There are different kinds of mods for controversial topics. Let’s say: UFOs. Mods on one lemmy instance might allow only sightings (that’s the deal with the reddit one, for example), but another one might allow also for abductions (as it should, since it’s part and parcel with the whole thing for many people). So disallowing communities from existing on different servers, it controls the narrative and creates pigeonhole opinions. It needs to be something for everyone instead.

eugenia, 10 months ago

Good effort! I’d suggest you start with thinner washes, let it dry, and build it gradually in intensity, using different colors in it too (a bush is not just green, for example). What kind of paper and paints are you using? In watercolor, the quality of your art supplies play a big role, more so than in any other medium (due to its transparency, it needs to behave well in thin washes).

eugenia, 10 months ago

Ah, that explains that look you got. It’s best to start with actual watercolors, and not brush pens. These brush pens don’t allow you to use them in a thinner (watery) consistency, which will allow you to build nice-looking layers. By the time you have layed the color on paper, it goes inside the paper and it doesn’t create a nice looking “wash” (spread of the pigment). The brush pens are more interesting to be used in specific kinds of illustrations, rather than traditional watercolor. Also, 200gsm is a bit thin for watercolors.

I’d highly suggest you get 300gsm paper (I’d suggest Meeden 10X7" Cotton Watercolor Paper, $21), watercolor “round” brushes at various sizes ($10 for a set), and a set of good watercolors. I’d suggest the MeiLiang Watercolor Paint Set for $21 (best quality for the price). The look you will get from these will be much different than the brush pens, and will be a lot more versatile.

I’d suggest you start with this tutorial: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDdfPMTX15Y and then continue with these ones: www.youtube.com/Feel free to message me or email me directly if you like some more help!

eugenia, 10 months ago

Thank you!!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thank you!

eugenia, 9 months ago

Thank you!