A Happy January Newsletter
Featured Post #30
Featured Posts are hand-picked by our volunteer team to showcase the excellent work our community members are doing. In keeping with SmallStack’s mission to lift up small publications, all Featured Post authors have fewer than 500 subscribers. Think of it like staff picks at your favorite indie bookstore.
Today’s Featured Post is by
, author of Robyn Hepburn Illustration, and was selected by SmallStack team member . Erin writes:When I read this stack, I feel like I’m sitting at Robyn’s family table, immersed in her life. Such fun and approachable writing and drawing here. With this post, I’m hoping to give the SmallStack community a sample of what Robyn Hepburn Illustration offers: silly footnotes (kindred spirit!), lovely pictures, engaging topical reflections, information on drawing play-dates, and word of the week.
A SmallStack Featured Post
A Happy January Newsletter
Contents: pictures! And words.
By
Friendly greetings!
Right off the bat,1 I’ve published to my blog the first instalment of my Interview with an Artist series. I sent a bunch of wild questions to Aiko of Papercut Prayers, and she patiently replied with full, rich answers, and introduced us to her beautiful art.
A Gallery of Portraits:
Now that Christmas is over, I’m sharing the commissioned portraits2 that I’ve been keeping under wraps the last few months.
(I have a funny feeling there was another one, which I’ve forgotten. If it was yours, please don’t be offended by my forgetfulness - I often forget my most favourite things.)
Thank you to all those who told me how thrilled the recipients of these portraits were. It makes me feel all gooood inside to know that my drawings are making people smile.
A mini-rant about human connection
One thing I love about being invited to create real, physical portraits for real, non-AI generated people, is that it encourages human connection. Chatting to my clients, getting to know my subjects (even the dogs and cats), staring at their faces and drawing them repeatedly, and then sending the physical finished art to them - it is all so very human and connective.
That’s probably what makes people feel a little uncomfortable when I draw portraits live: a relative stranger is staring intently at them and there’s no escape and no screen to add a degree of separation. *smiles mischievously to herself*
Andy Williams recently wrote that one response to all the AI-generated stuff taking over the internet, is that (hopefully) more people will seek human connection face-to-face, rather than online.3I’ve been getting grossed out by AI generated pictures a lot lately - Pinterest and Google Images are full of them, and one of the books my daughters received for Christmas is illustrated with AI. The creepiness seems so obvious to me, but I wonder if people who are not immersed in art, photography or illustration can see it.4
Do let me know your thoughts: do you know AI images when you see them?
Do you find them creepy?
I think that one small way to counteract all this virtual reality is by making a real connection through a real bit of paper. It was a special feeling when I received some handwritten post from Lisa Burda recently,5including some scraps of pretty collage paper. And I told you about the stickers I got from Teresa Barroso a few months ago, didn’t I?
There’s something delicious about getting a real thing from someone you only know digitally.
Maybe I should start handwriting these newsletters…
Anyway, I don’t really have much of a point here except that real connection and physical creations are things I am relishing, because the ratio of digital to analogue interaction is leaning very far to one side.
Happy Birthday!
In case you don’t know, January is the month of my birth. So here’s a little my-birthday present to you: If you don’t already get this lovely, live-blog-like peek into a day-in-the-life of a bookseller every Friday, then you are in for a treat! (If you already do then you know what I’m talking about.)
How's The Scribble Club?
If you don't know what The Scribble Club is, here's a handy explanation. And here’s what’s been happening in the Club since it started in November:
I’ve posted some posts like: Adventures Behind-The-Scenes while Working on a Portrait, A Diary of a Monday (hint: it was not fascinating stuff); a Video of Me Talking about a Picture-Book. It’s been an exciting time, I’m sure all the Scribblers agree.
I’m moving The Scribble Club over to Substack from Ko-fi. Posting even the exact same thing on both is too much for me to remember. But it also means it should be easier for Scribble Club members to connect, now that they’re not on separate platforms.
…and now I’ll stop abusing and overusing the capital letters.
The girls and I have been reading a book about the history of English. I now know why there’s so much Latin and French in the language. So this time, our word is a pretty French one:
Pique: to pride oneself on something; to excite to anger; to wound the pride of someone; to stimulate interest or curiosity. (So many meanings for one little word!)
Let’s use it: She piqued herself on being the fastest of her kind, but a badly timed insult caused Geraldine the homing-mouse to have a fit of pique. She immediately spurned her orders and took herself to the nearest café, where her hunger was piqued by the aroma of freshly baked baguettes.
Hitting send now because Our Cat is demanding a lap. I hope you have a joyful January filled with human connections and hot baguettes.
About the author
is a South African author-illustrator and portrait artist now nestled in the English countryside. She loves creating playful images that embrace the absurd and bring a bit of silliness into the world. Her mixed-media and digital illustrations are colourful, textured, and energetic. Robyn is currently focused on developing her picture book ideas and submitting to literary agencies. When not homeschooling her two children and helping with children’s work and music at church, she’s roaming the countryside, sketching wherever she goes (though in winter she hibernates with coffee, filling sketchbooks with mad ideas).Robyn Hepburn Illustration is a monthly newsletter about me! (and illustration). Filled with ramblings about children’s books and good grammar, I also run free online Drawing Play-Dates. The goal? To encourage drawing without negative self-criticism—because drawing “badly” is better than drawing nothing. The Scribble Club offers more insights, videos, and absurd scribbly nonsense.
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A huge YES to this “it is all so very human and connective.”