The Death of Quality: Why Your Tools and Paints are Failing You
Dear Blogger and YouTube Audience,
This year has started out pretty hectic for Serenity of the Mind. We had really hoped to have the store launched and running smoothly by now, but we've hit a few unexpected roadblocks.
Elevating Our Artistry
First, our artist Shy Artist wasn't happy at all with how her work was turning out using the Daniel Smith artisan paints. She's decided to go all-in and make her own paints from scratch—mixing pigments with her own watercolor medium. Watercolor artwork already takes a ton of time, and now we're waiting while she creates all her new supplies. She promises the results will be much more professional, though, so we're excited for that.
On top of that, I just realized I hadn't set up our scanner properly, so all the digitized artwork wasn't looking its absolute best. I've got a lot to learn about getting those settings right!
The Challenge with Automated Tools
Things have also changed a lot with tools like Canva and AI image features. These days, if something even touches AI (even if you don't realize it), it automatically adds that "pillow-style" card border around the artwork. We believe it's meant to flag it as AI-generated.
The one that's really throwing us off is Canva. Even with completely hand-created art or our own photos of our cats, if we add transparency, it slaps that pillow card on there automatically.
Our New Path Forward
To fix these issues, we're going to switch to tools that give us more control:
- Photopea.com: For our primary editing and transparency needs.
- Blender (2D Grease Pencil): For more advanced work. It has a steep learning curve, but it will be worth it.
We're doing our very best to get the store up and running properly while still keeping up with YouTube videos and blog posts. Please bear with us as we shift away from the old tools and get settled with new ones.
We truly believe this will make our channel, blog, and store even stronger in the long run. Thank you so much for your patience and support—it means the world to us.
Creators of Serenity of the Mind
