…and I just realized last week that I didn’t update my website once since February 2021, despite having lofty goals and expectations. I will be gentle on myself [something I’m trying to do more of] and instead focus on it more this year.

I am happy to share that I did get some other things done/started – I focused on my Etsy shop which thankfully grew slowly but steadily over the last several months, I made more art, I left a job I held for seven years which wasn’t an easy decision but definitely the right one. My art was featured as part of a London Arts Council public art project [click here to see a video]. I was fortunate enough to have commissions throughout the year. And I took Surface Pattern Immersion with Bonnie Christine and learned how to use Illustrator [finally!]. And then when I realized Illustrator is great for well, illustrations, especially in a graphic style, I didn’t like how it makes my art look, particularly watercolour. So I also invested in From Paint to Pattern with Sarah Watts which I’m still very slowly inching my way through, in order to learn Photoshop and surface design. They were both big investments but worthwhile and I’m excited to see what collections I can come up with.

Interestingly, while I was taking FP2P, I realized that I really love illustrations. I already realized that when I was taking Bonnie’s course and then over the summer I made an illustration as a fundraiser for Islamic Relief’s efforts in Palestine. I also made some illustrations to address Islamophobia [which I’ll be sharing in another post] but that’s what has excited me lately when it comes to art. Especially painting with gouache – I got more into gouache this summer and it’s still my favourite medium to work with. It’s also a lot of fun to mix with my Posca paint pens so definitely having fun and allowing myself to play and experiment while also making prints and focusing on my business.

So that’s a little update. As I said I hope to blog more regularly, ideally once a week. For now I’ll leave off with three illustrations I did with hand lettering in recent months. I have always loved writing and fonts and while lettering and brush script have become extremely popular, I’ve always been more of a fan of quirky, whimsical hand lettering. I created these for myself first and foremost, especially after leaving my job and all of the emotions and doubts and quesitons that came with that decision [despite it being the right one].

These prints are all available on my Etsy shop and they’ve been quite popular Alhumdulillah so I’m glad they resonate with others as well!