January 2025
Wow! 2025! Here you are!
And who am I?
I’m Mia Illustrates, I doodle, paint, create and post - and for some reason people like it enough to look at it on a regular basis.
My birthday was on Monday, and today is my first Saturday as a 30 year old. I’m at home being cosy, drinking tea with honey, thinking about if my weird reel is going to bomb on Tuesday. If you’re from the future, please let me know!
If you want to know more, I kind of use Cinder and Saffie as a visual diary of small moments, either in my life or witnessed. So when I post this weird video to my instagram on Tuesday… it’ll be worse for you to know that it came straight from my brain and not some internet brain rot that I saw on Reddit. You’re welcome.
“Just don’t post the video”… maybe. But If I do, I’ll be true to myself no matter how cringe.
So I’ll just post it and cringe later. Okay. Okay? Okay.
Glad I’ve made that decision… so, January highlights:
New card designs to add to my collection, lovely!
I’ve booked two stalls this year so far… very exciting! More info TBA on my events page shortly
Experimenting with my birthday present, the Cricut Explore 3 - I don’t think I’m fully to grips with it yet but I can make individual stickers and they are truly wonderful, it’s just making a sticker sheet that’s been a bit hit and miss. Hopefully I’ll have that set in February.
There’s a lot to look forward to this year, I have a plan all set out for how I’d like my freelancing to take shape and it is starting to appear, it’s starting to really form - which is wonderful. Behind the scenes there’s more, I hope I can share more here over the coming months.
My MUST mention:
I read Alison by Lizzy Stewart and it was INCREDIBLE! I only tend to read a few times a year, and with the slower pace that January brings I sat down and finished it over two days, bawling my eyes out at those last pages. I really enjoyed the storytelling, the characters felt very real - and I spent days after thinking about them. The drawing/watercolour collage work is divine - if you want a graphic novel to read, I really recommend Alison.
To finish this first blog post, I’d like to recommend two illustrators that I’ve been loving, specifically in the Youtube space - they’ve helped me so much in this past year to figure out my freelancing:
Katnipp Studios Ltd - Her youtube videos are incredibly informative - as well as providing insight into upscaling a business, having your own studio and arranging website drops, she’s just so warm and friendly and everything’s so cute and pink - I love my bumblebutt desk mat! I got it as a Christmas gift and I’m just sat staring at it all the time haha
Mimimoo Illustration - Relaxing videos that teach you everything you need to know to start, giving you the push to create - if I’m ever feeling uninspired or unsure, these are the videos I turn to. Mimi’s Patreon has a really friendly and supportive community built into it as well, I would recommend visiting it if you’re in need of a creative reset and a community.
That’s everything from me for January!
All the best,
Mia