Stupid little walk for my stupid mental health

A new year's resolution in print

Hi all!

This year started very slowly for me. I was very eager to start Jan 5 at my studio, but due to heavy snow and a broken bike, I worked from home a bit longer. January is often a slow month, but a good opportunity to reach out to new potential clients, start a Substack (hi!), and make some personal work (I also tried to embrace the silence and made a few snowmen).

The great thing about sending 3-4 sketches to any client, is that you often end up having multiple favourites. Sometimes the clients goes into another direction, so I’ve set up a folder with ‘unchosen’ sketches. In my spare time I like to revisit that folder and pick a sketch I still enjoy, to see if I can create something new.

I made this sketch early 2025 for Farmer Gracy, an online flower bulb company, to be printed on a tote bag. I really liked it, but they chose another sketch in the end. But there’s something about walking barefeet on grass, isn’t it? I couldn’t forget this sketch.

I’m a very neat sketcher, because if a sketch gets chosen I can solely focus on colors and textures. I love that part the most. I put on podcasts or an audiobook and lose myself in colours for hours on end. Especially if it’s rainy: these are the best days!

This does mean a lot of time gets spent early on. Maybe not efficient on the job but the result is often multiple neat sketches I can reuse! I do like to let go of my style a little bit more in the future though. I like to maintain a lot of control over an illustration, but a little experimentation or surprise could be healthy I think. Something to try out this year.

I added length, a snail, some extra creepy crawlers, text, lots and lots of bright colors, and it resulted in a new print! Focusing on two new year’s resolutions: 1) walking more and 2) walk at least once with bare feet on grass (not now, it’s still snowing).

(is it noticeable that I recently binged Stranger Things? The use of the red text with the beigy background color and border in this illustration is so 80’s/90’s to me. I think I’ve been influenced!)

I liked it a lot so I impulsively ordered a few digital prints. Not sure what to do with them just yet: I’d like to decorate my studio space further, maybe send a few out for promo, but… if you’d like one, let me know! It’s a digital print, size A2, 250 grams, €65. I’ve got very limited stock so first come first serve.

Thank you for reading! See more of my work on my portfolio or Instagram, or get in touch with me.