Writing Spirits / February's Riso Print + Mushroom Guardian Stickers! + Art Book Kickstarter Deets! (Patreon)

Hello again everyone! 

I'm back with the final version of February's Riso print and with February's sticker update below the print breakdown! Plus sharing some extremely exciting news about my new art book- dropping tomorrow (friday)!! 

Writing Spirits / New Riso Print for February

Very excited to share this new print, this time in a new color palette- Aqua, Fluorescent orange and yellow! It's a much softer Riso print than most of my others with their dark blue line, but I love how gentle this one is with it's soft yellow gradients and cozy, round little creatures. 

This print is headed out to my February subscribers- who paid on february 1st! March's coming soon! 

This piece took me 5 versions to get right- especially because the Aqua is so light and I had to spend extra time on the values for everything to read well! I'm also simply not used to an aqua-fluo orange- yellow combo, so I was setting myself up for a TIME. But I really love this combo and already can't wait to try it again.

Overall, each combo below takes me about ~30 minutes, so this is probably 2-3 hours of frustrating work while I'm figuring out values.

Attaching the above piece as well since it's probably hard to read here.

The Aqua line art was the really tough to balance with the fluorescent orange because the orange can be soooo overbearing, and I wanted the line art to read first before the shapes of all the little characters. I added a tiny bit of orange- like 15%-20% to the branches to neutralize the bright greens the yellow and aqua make. 

Similar to my experience on the Totoro piece a while back, I had a pretty wild time mixing the fluorescent orange into darker values and controlling what color would actually happen when printed with the Riso. Fluorescent colors can be so wild!! The shirt on the girl in this piece and the underbelly of the tree foliage kept surprising me with how purple or red they would become, rather than brown or just slightly more neutral. This is probably because my expectations were so off with the color mock-up and how hard it is to replicate fluorescent colors in photoshop. In combination with the aqua, I found the fluorescent orange makes the color underneath a gorgeous and vibrant warm tone, rather than just my expectation of what plain ole orange will add to a color. 

I've been talking a lot about color theory! I made this piece because I love the 'Magical Orange Tree' print, but wanted to make an updated version with clearer action and some of my new little demon creatures! Still love the Magical Orange Tree print (originally made with cornflower blue, regular orange and yellow), just wanted a different flavor and to try out my new Aqua-fluo orange-yellow combo in tribute to it! 

I love the quote going around about ancestors sitting with you when you write or create, but I also think about all my demons with me as well. They're the spirits of my former and future self, my ancestors, my friends cheering me on, my anxieties and my pride. They're all there when I'm writing something I care deeply about- and they were there with me in childhood when I'd find a quiet place to be alone and write fantasy stories about other worlds I wanted to escape to. 

Thanks for reading!

Here's my breakdown with all my Riso layer information! I've also attached it so it's easier to read! Sticker updates below!

Stickers!!

These stickers are for subscribers who paid on February 1st! They're little Mushroom Guardians, inspired by my mushroom guardian sticker/pin! I'm experimenting with stickers now- the last ones were more full scenes and these are just fun little guys! I was originally going to make them a sticker sheet but I think I love them as little one-offs even more. Maybe sticker sheet of single characters next time!! Excited to be making these little friends to put on EVERYTHING lol. 

These are really nice stickers, y'all! They're THICCC and can go on waterbottles that go through the dishwasher or prob even a CAR!? anyway, very excited for these little hefty guys to come in the mail, any day now! 

If you're interested in making your own stickers I'm getting these made with Rockin' Stickers! They're so great and make the sticker outline/proof for me when I send them new designs! Very thankful for this step when I don't have the time to do it myself. 

Here's the original Mushroom Guardian sticker from my Bedtime Story print!

Art Book INFO

Tomorrow we'll be dropping a link to the kickstarter early just for patrons!! This way y'all can pick up early bird specials and snag limited signed copies at your leisure! It comes with a special *NEW* Riso print as well!! Kickstarter exclusiveeee, will be sharing that soon!

"Over 158 pages, Dreaming in Color is split into different sections, covering her early risograph works, monthly patreon print series, a large section on fantasy art, and an "how-to" section on risograph printing where Natalie shares some of her methods and dives into how the printing works."

Here's the sneak peek of the cover!! Published by suuuuper secret new publisher :33 that announcement to come!! 

xoxo thanks for reading <3 nat