May Studio Diaries no. 02
A month of lots of socializing and inspiration 🍪🏭🎨
May was a month that was supposed to mark the beginning of sunnier and warmer days in Berlin, but this year winter decided to take one last breath before summer arrived. The days were sunny, but colder than usual. Which, to be honest, I don’t mind at all. For me, the best kind of day is a crisp, sunny one where you can sit in the sun and feel its warmth.
When it comes to projects, I can break this month down into blocks: a trip I took to Poland, an update on my website, and an illustration event I attended in Berlin.
But let’s break it all down in more detail!
In May, I joined two events, one was a trip to Poland, and the other was an Illustration event here in Berlin.
Poznan and Łódź – Poland
At the beginning of the month, I spent one day in Poznan and two days in Łódź. I went with some friends and my husband to visit another friend who recently moved to Łódź. Before he moved there, I had never even heard of the city. But I found out it used to be a very important industrial hub in Poland, especially for textiles.
Poznan is an absolutely charming city, with a beautiful town square surrounded by houses with different façade styles. Łódź, on the other hand, has more of an industrial vibe — but its main street stole my heart with its 2 kilometers of beautiful architecture, shops, restaurants, artisan markets, and some hidden treasures like a Harry Potter-inspired store and second-hand bookstores💚.
I had a plan to go to second-hand book stores to buy some books with drawings by Polish artists. In the end, I bought 3 books (spoiler: only one of them has drawings made by a Polish artist):
one about flower arrangements and their care;
another about what life was like in Poland in the past,
and lastly, a book of Ukrainian folk art. About this last one, I was trying to find a book about Polish folk art, but I couldn't find a specific one that I liked.
TAD Berlin 2025
At the end of the month, Berlin hosted The Art Department, an event all about the art and design process for film, animation, and games. And I was lucky enough to be there!
It was two full days of talks, workshops, demos, artist studios, portfolio reviews, and lots of new connections with fellow illustrators. I even got to meet some of the artists I admire in person, like Beatrice Blue, Dani Diez, Julia Koerner, and Aaron Blaise.
If you’d like to read more in-depth about everything I did at the event and my thoughts on it, I wrote a full newsletter just about that, which you can check out here:
Because I focused so much on bigger projects this month, I wasn’t very present online. That meant only two newsletters on Substack (which you can find below), and unfortunately, no YouTube videos or Instagram posts.
Substack
🧙♂️ How I Create Characters: A Practical Guide for Illustrators – Part 02 → [Read it here]
🦄TAD Berlin 2025 - A weekend about illustration, inspiration, and connections —> [Read it here]
And yes, the Golden Age of Illustration series is still on track. I’ll probably start publishing those posts next month!
Same website, but with a new look
My website also got a little makeover! And I added a new section: a blog.
Initially, I just wanted to add the blog, but to do that, I had to rework the entire internal structure of the site🥲. The theme I had chosen before didn’t look great for blog post pages. And if you’ve ever had to switch your website’s theme on WordPress, you know what a process that is!🫠
Still, I learned a lot of cool things along the way. For example, I now know how to edit the header and footer in one single place instead of updating them separately on each page (yes, that’s what I used to do .. can you believe?).
While adding the blog, I also realized I no longer liked the colors I’d picked for my logo. So I updated the logo’s color palette, and as a result, the entire website got a fresh new vibe. And I love it, especially because it brings together my favorite colors: blue, green, and pink.
📖 The Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
I finally started reading The Hobbit. I know this book isn’t new for most people, and it wasn’t for me either. I knew about it, watched The Hobbit movies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the series. But I had never actually read the books.
I have to say I’m reading the Portuguese edition and I’m loving it. What’s inspiring me most is the way it’s written. It’s a different kind of narrative, and I can’t explain exactly how, I just know that I’m enjoying it a lot.
🎧 I’m listening to the radio again!
Yes, you read that right. But I’m doing it in a slightly more modern way, through the Radio Garden website and app.
Why? Two main reasons:
I no longer have a Spotify subscription, and
I can’t turn off my phone screen while listening to music on YouTube.
So lately, I’ve been listening to a few Italian and American radio stations that play rock and oldies. If you also listen to the radio and have a favorite station to recommend, drop the name and the country in the comments, I’d love to check it out!
🖌️Matt Forsythe
During Dani Diez’s Artist Studio at TAD Berlin 2025, he recommended an artist whose work I instantly fell in love with, and I had to share it with you: Matt Forsythe.
He came up in a conversation about rendering, and how not every illustration needs to be fully rendered in a realistic way to feel finished. Sometimes, you can keep a sketchy feel, and it still works beautifully.
Matt is a perfect example of that. He uses base colors, shadows, and light, but without aiming for realism, and yet, his illustrations are absolutely stunning.
And that wraps up my May monthly newsletter!
I hope something in here inspired you, and I’ll see you again in a month. 💚
Charlene ⭐
I love the new color palette for the website!!