Trip to Brussels and Ghent
And my thoughts on Instagram's new grid format
Hey! ✨
I hope you had a great weekend. I just got back yesterday from a trip to Brussels to visit a friend of my husband, and we also went to Ghent. We spent three days walking around and exploring these two cities that I had never been to before. The hardest part for me was walking in cold and foggy weather. Every time we walked into a shop, pub, or church, it was so comforting to warm up a little.
Even though Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the first choice for most tourists, I loved discovering Ghent (thanks, Rodrigo, for the suggestion💚). It’s just a 30-minute train ride from Brussels, and on weekends, you can buy a one-way ticket that includes a return trip to Brussels (at least that was the deal when this newsletter went out).
Ghent is a medieval city with monumental churches, a gorgeous canal, and a castle. It’s small, so we managed to explore the whole downtown in just one day.
My highlight in Ghent was visiting the castle and taking the guided tour. We learned about what each room was used for, and from the castle, you get an amazing view of Ghent’s downtown, with the three churches in sight.
Apart from visiting Ghent and Brussels, my last week was packed with non-drawing tasks:
I edited a video for my YouTube channel, in which I recorded myself drawing the latest theme from our art club;
wrote a few email templates I needed to send to publishers;
organized some email spreadsheets;
picked an email marketing platform;
and even started working on my logo because I felt the need for a visual identity.
If you’d like me to talk more about prospecting (email marketing, templates, and lists), leave a comment below, and I can share more details in future newsletters.
I haven’t planned my week yet — I usually do that on Sundays — because I was too tired yesterday, but I plan to schedule more drawing sessions this week. The only drawing I managed to do was the latest theme for our art club, which I worked on while traveling back to Berlin. But I'll talk more about this below, in our club session.
My thoughts on the new Instagram grid
One last thing I want to comment on is the change in Instagram’s grid layout that happened last week. I’ve seen some illustrators get upset about it because since Instagram started, the grid was all about square posts, but now it’s all about portrait posts. Thinking about it now, maybe this change was predictable since Instagram started showing this new format in the feed last year.
The problem here is that a lot of people had already been designing posts and illustrations in square formats, or even creating the “perfect feed,” where one post connects to the next with some graphic element.
I understand why this is frustrating. Personally, it hasn’t affected me much because my illustrations aren’t made for Instagram. In the beginning, I used to create square illustrations for Instagram, but as my focus shifted to children’s book illustrations, I started working in book formats (landscape and portrait). Once they’re done, I just adjust them a bit to fit Instagram’s square format.
I’ve also realized that it’s not worth drawing specifically for Instagram or other social media. In the end, I was creating for the platform, not for my portfolio or my followers. Usually, someone sees one of my illustrations first and then checks out my profile — they’re not there for a “perfect grid”.
On top of that, a perfect grid doesn’t work for me because I’m already a perfectionist. Adding that extra layer of pressure would block me from posting at all.
I think social media is a great way to showcase our work to the world, build connections, and support the work of people we admire. But we shouldn’t work for these platforms because, sooner or later, they’ll change the rules, and we’ll just have to adapt. I agree with the mindset that we’re just renting space on social media. If we want something that’s truly ours, it’s better to have a website or a newsletter.
I didn’t think I’d write this much about Instagram’s changes, but if you’ve made it this far, thank you 💚
Fantasy Art Club ✨
As I mentioned earlier in this newsletter, I worked on last week’s theme during my flight back to Berlin yesterday and finished it today. I loved drawing potion bottles💚. The trickiest one was the shell-shaped bottle — it’s so much easier to draw straight lines than the curves on that one.
For next week’s theme, I got inspired by Ghent’s castle: we’re going to draw candle holders. I’ve pinned some references on our Pinterest board. I hope you have fun, and if you want, you can share your sketches with me on Instagram or Threads. Or just send them to me here on Substack via chat 🙂. That way, I can share your sketches in the next newsletter.
Have an amazing week!
Charlene