September is here and it’s already been a week since my last Newsletter and the start of my new Carving Challenge. I’m curious - has anyone else joined me?
But before I dive into this week’s carving subject, I want to talk a bit about subjects in general. I started my Substack in November last year and up until now, I’ve been pondering what to do with this little corner of the internet that I call “Art by Viktoria”. I’ve had so many ideas, but my problem has been choosing a focus. I see so many creatives who cultivate a special technique or subject—and they do it brilliantly. So that’s what I’ve been waiting for to magically appear: a decision on what to focus on. But how do I choose? And what happens if I get bored of that choice?
This question has stopped me many times during my artistic journey. Both broadly and here. It’s been a huge issue for me as a children’s book illustrator too. There’s always this conflict between the thought that I “should” focus on one thing only and the feeling that I don’t want to pigeonhole myself. Can anyone else relate?
Over the years, I have learnt about myself that I don’t naturally focus on just one thing. I get curious and all of a sudden I’m off into a completely different direction. And when it comes to creating stuff, I just create. 😃 I should have applied this knowledge to my Substack ventures earlier, but I’m doing it now.
Finding my spark again
I started my Instagram account in 2015, and scrolling through my feed I can see myself evolving over time. But then life happened, and I lost my spark. Even if it might not be obvious from the outside looking in, I could feel it on the inside. The only sign was that my posts and reels became fewer and fewer. Work and family took over, and my fun, playful art practice was set aside. Now, I want to get back to that feeling of creativity flowing through my life again, and I’m going to use this newsletter to help me do that.
When I create, I feel good. And when I feel good, I create even more. I started this newsletter to hold myself accountable to the promise I made: to stay curious about art-making and play. I want to connect with people like me, and the only way to do that is to show up as myself. Otherwise, I won’t find my people.
For me, one creative area feeds another. Ink drawings turn into watercolors, which turn into carvings. I often end up with many different representations of the same thing, and through different media they get a different expression. And I love that.
So why start a specific challenge if I don’t want to pigeonhole myself?
Good question! Starting a challenge is a little bit like body doubling - it keeps me accountable knowing someone might be waiting for my post. And I don’t think I’ll ever tire of carving. It has such a calming effect on me, and I’d love for more people to discover the artform too. I also have a lot of content since I’ve held several courses on the subject. So this challenge feels like the perfect place to start.
My aim is to mould this carving challenge into something more theme-based: picking a theme of the week and running with it. The technique is secondary. But I can promise that my newsletter will contain a lot of carving if that’s your thing. And I can also promise that it will contain plenty of creativity in general like watercolors, illustration techniques, ink drawings, bookbinding, failed resin projects (and hopefully some successful ones too!).
Subscriptions
So why am I writing about this now? I’ve been putting off turning on paid subscriptions because I didn’t feel my content was specific enough. I thought I needed a perfect plan and focus. I wanted to be sure I was contributing something to you - my lovely readers. But since I’m scrapping the whole “focus” idea, and I do have a solid plan, I’ve decided it’s time to give it a go. Even if it feels a little scary.
I’d love to build a community that’s a safe place where we can share work and ideas, give feedback, and grow as artists. Since I asked if you wanted to share your work last week, I want to provide that space. I also want to dive into subjects that take more research and time. When exploring different themes, I’ll provide prompts to work from and talk/write about general topics like composition and values - areas I want to practice more myself.
On top of that, I’ve just started studying to become a licensed coach, and later this year I’ll be offering coaching sessions too (more on that soon!).
This Weeks Challenge
Last week I posted a carving design, and since it was the first one, I decided to show my process from start to finish. Please let me know if this is helpful. The design of the week was a little herring.
The tools I use are from Pfeil:
It can be tricky to find the right ones when browsing online. But I have written down the names of my tools of choice in the picture above. So no matter what brand you decide on, you can see what size I am using.
Preparing to start carving
Carving the Outline
Carving the eye and finishing details
My approach differs when it comes to carving on the actual pencil line, inside it or on the outside. When I carve the “white” of the eye, I carve inside the line, but when carving the pupil, I stay on the outside. Hope this explanation makes sense.
Printing
New carving ideas
You can create smaller versions of your herring, like I have below or carve some water for them to live in:
Next Week’s Design
For next week I’ve designed a hedgehog. If you want to follow along, here’s a PDF you can download:
Or, if you prefer to create your own design, you can just use it as a prompt. The design is there to make things easier. Now that you’ve seen my way of working - do you have any special requests for next week’s video? This one will be available for free subscribers, so don’t worry, you’ll be able to carve along if you want. But from next week on, the juicy creative stuff will be on the paid subscription, with a free shorter version still available too.
In the meantime, we’re getting closer to the carving holiday of the year - Halloween! It’s the perfect time to start carving. I love Halloween, and yes, I’ve already started planning for it. 🎃
It would be lovely if you have any carvings you want to share. And if you have any questions, just let me know. I am wishing you a lovely weekend and I hope to see you next week!
Thank you so much!
I have the advantage, or disadvantage, of being entirely a hobby artist and now I've retired I have a lot more time - which means fortunately that I can go off on tangents, explore any new technique I come across, experiment with things, etc. Unfortunately it means that I can go off on tangents, explore any new technique I come across, experiment with things, etc!!!
And HEDGEHOG!!!!!!!