🎃👻 October, Monsters & Making Things by Hand 🐈‍⬛✨

🎨 Back Home & Back to Creating

Since coming home, I sold a painting, started and finished a commission, and have found myself slowly working on the same piece every single day.

I’ve realized that when I have a reference to work from, like a dog, a house, or something that physically exists, I paint so much faster. Sometimes I can finish an entire piece within a few days or even a day. But when I’m painting completely from my imagination, it is a very different process.

I don’t have reference photos for my monsters. I usually don’t even sketch them out or think too much about what they are going to look like beforehand. I just take a paintbrush to the canvas and let them start coming to life. That means figuring out the lighting, shading, proportions, and everything else as I go. Is it always technically accurate? Definitely not. But I think that has become part of the fun and, at this point, part of my style.

🌎 Little Worlds to Escape Into

The piece I’ve been working on lately is filled with different little worlds that I would love to escape into. It has also pushed me to combine mediums in a way I don’t normally do.

I’ve been incorporating clay into every little world, adding physical details that actually come off the canvas. I love that these pieces are becoming something you don’t just look at, but almost want to reach out and touch.

Recently, the topic of AI has somehow made its way into almost every conversation I have or overhear. And, unsurprisingly, I usually have some thoughts.

I struggle with the way AI-generated imagery is beginning to replace work that artists and designers would otherwise be hired to create. Branding, marketing, posters, illustrations, and so much more can now be generated in seconds. While I don’t think AI can replicate the creativity or personal history an artist brings to a piece, its growing presence has made me think more about what I want my own work to be.

Oddly enough, it has pushed me to become more physical with my art.

Clay has become one way of doing that. I want to make things that have texture, dimension, imperfections, and evidence of the person who made them. Things that exist beyond a screen. So, for now, I’m leaning further into making things with my hands and seeing where that takes me.

💌 Commissions Are Open!

As for commissions, I am open and ready for more!

It is always a little nerve-racking starting a new month without commissions lined up, so if you have been thinking about having something personalized made, or know someone who might, please reach out. Pet portraits, homes, places, people, strange ideas... I’m always happy to hear them.

I also have a limited-time discount on my minis online right now, so go check those out while they’re still on sale!

Shop Minis

🎃 The Best Month of the Year Has Arrived

October is here, which means HALLOWEEN IS HERE, and I genuinely believe Halloween is the best holiday and season to exist.

For one night, you can be whoever you want to be. You can step into a completely different world, which is probably why I love it so much. It feels a little like the worlds I try to create in my paintings. Bright, strange, happy places I can escape into, especially when reality is feeling particularly... Monday.

And for some reason, love is especially in the air right now.

Maybe it’s because October is secretly one of the best times of year in LA. We call it local summer because the tourists have mostly disappeared, but the sun is still out and the weather is still beautiful. Okay, maybe slightly too “beautiful” considering this heat wave, but I’ll take it.

💕 Weddings, Anniversaries & an October Birthday

Last night, I went to a family dinner to celebrate my cousin on my mom’s side, who is getting married tomorrow. The week before that, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, celebrating another cousin’s wedding on my dad’s side.

And the day after that wedding was Chandler’s and my two-year anniversary.

Oh, and did I mention Chandler was born in October too?

Seriously. Best month of the year.

🐈‍⬛🏚️ Mooncake’s Halloween Town

One of today’s very important projects is building a miniature Halloween town for Mooncake.

Unfortunately, I cannot take artistic credit for making the town itself, but I can take responsibility for constructing an entire tiny spooky village for my cat.

Obviously, photos will be coming in the next newsletter.

Happy October & Happy Halloween Month!!! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻

With love and color,

Rosalie