Hello Reader! :D

Hope you're having a fantastic week so far! We have a lot to cover today, starting with my next illustration and news about my art shop, and how my view on it has changed a lot over the years.

Let's dive in!

My Shop is finally back online!

Or rather, the prints are finally back!

You see, at the beginning of the year I was very worried, because the Polish postal system had made some changes on January 1st that meant I couldn’t send packages the same way I did before. I then decided to remove all my prints from my website temporarily.

Thankfully now all is good, I’m confident that I’ll be able to honor all orders on the shop, so everything is back online!

I even included the new illustration I made since: Evergreen, the Japanese garden, and the cat by the window that I recently finished :)

I did some last minute tweaks since last time! :)

As usual, you’ll find all these illustrations in large A3 format, with a very thick paper for durability and a matte finish so that it doesn’t reflect when hung. I hope you’ll enjoy bringing those at home!

https://studio.nighten.fr/

Keychains are still available if you’re interested!

Alright, thanks a lot for listening, now let me show you the new art I did this week!

My Next illustration Project

I (almost) always have a lot of ideas for illustration, and the hard part is often which one to choose from. This week I was sketching and juggling with a few, but I was very uncertain about which one would be the right thing to work on.

But then my fiancée suggested: What about redoing the scenes from your Inktober project?

If you don’t remember, last October I posted a small illustration every day, showing different locations of the city where all my illustrations take place. That was a very big project! And it’s very dear to my heart, so I love the idea of redrawing some of them cleanly :)

Here’s the one I’m working on! I already redid the sketch digitally, and I’m now starting the ink:

For my sanity, I will not do all the 31 illustrations from Inktober (at my current pace that would take 2 years), but I’m excited to bring my favorite ones to life!

And hopefully I’ll show some colors next week :)

Why I’ve completely changed my view on art shops (and the role of an artist)

Now I want to look back at a time waaay before you’ve heard about me (probably).

Did you know that I had an art shop years before my current one? It was back in late 2022, a very different time. Back then I managed the site myself, but I was also using a type of service called print on demand.

I even wrote a blog post about it, and that’s gonna be the subject of this discussion!

I still had my anime avatar back then! Good times

To make it short (because I don’t actually want you to read the blog post I’m a bit ashamed haha), “print on demand” means working with another company who will print the product for you and fulfill (ship) it directly without your intervention.

Back then I did a ton of research on the subject, and was pretty much convinced that it was the way to go for artists: "stop making packages and managing stocks, create more products and make more art instead".

“Sending boxes is not where you create the most value.” to quote the blog post directly.

So, what changed now that I print and send boxes all by myself?

Yep, that's how messy it can get when you have a bunch of orders to ship 😄

Honestly, it’s because I’ve realized what the “value” of an artist really is.

I believe that the unique thing indie creators can bring to people is the human connection; whether it is an illustration that deeply speaks to specific people, a deep conversation with people on the internet, or a box coming in the mail… To me, this is what has become the most important when I create.

A lot of independent creators are trying to sound too big and professional (saying “we” even though it’s one guy in his garage), and I realized that I was doing exactly the same mistake: By refusing to put a bit of myself in each order, I was basically turning away an opportunity to connect with someone directly.

Imagine, it's like if I was hiring someone to write this newsletter! It's not directly my art, but it's still so important.

So, to correct my past self, I think artists and creators create the most value by connecting with people. Making art and sending boxes are just some of the opportunities to do so!

I’m sure it can be applicable to many types of creators or small companies, but for me I’ll continue sending the orders myself (even though it’s a lot of work sometimes!), and add little gifts and personal notes as much as I can :)

Yep, that's as human of a mess as you can get

If you’re an artist or if the subject resonates with you, I’d be happy to hear your thoughts or experience on the topic! You can just reply to this email if you’d like 😊

Thank you for following along today! As a reminder, you can finally order my illustrations on my shop (including the new ones!), so if you'd like to bring my art home or gift it to someone, now is the time!