Mermaid's Coin Illustration
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The Business of Being an Artist is back!

10/6/2022

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I'm happy to be presenting this full day workshop once again!

This professional development workshop is for artists, photographers and creatives wanting to make more money from their art. Do you love making art, while the business side of your practice gets ignored? Not sure how to secure an exhibition? Overwhelmed by the word ‘marketing’? Then this one day workshop is for you.
"Do I need a website and how do I sell my art online? How do I get noticed? How do I talk about what I do?" These questions will be answered in this full day workshop as presenter Hannah Katarski walks you through important aspects of running your art practice as a successful business, so you leave inspired and with an action plan for what to do next.

You will learn:
• How to talk confidently about what you do as an artist.
• Identify and find your audience.
• Ways to generate more opportunities for your artistic business.
• Social media and eCommerce - what you need and what you don't.

The seminar is taking place on Saturday, 18 June and s kindly subsidised by the City of Stirling.


info and tix
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Venetian Summer Gallery Set - mix and match

12/5/2022

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My latest collection of watercolour art prints are designed so that you can mix and match them to create a beautifully curated gallery wall.

Choose from a number of 'hero prints' and monochromatic coordinates which pair beautifully. They are available in a range of sizes to suit your wall size and decor.


The watercolour details were inspired by antique textiles. The originals were carefully scanned to create a museum quality art print.
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A post shared by Hannah Katarski Mermaid's Coin (@mermaidscoin)

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Due to Covid impacts, I've now partnered with a number of printers so that my artwork can be shipped from 5 locations worldwide. This means you get your artwork quickly with a smaller carbon footprint. Print locations include Australia, US, UK, Canada and Europe.
Explore Prints
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Join the Room Portrait Club

2/5/2022

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I recently discovered the Room Portrait Club and have joined in with some of the challenges.

Room Portrait Club is a supportive, instagram community where artists complete a weekly portrait challenge using their chosen medium. A new image is posted each Saturday and artists from all over the world share their take on the room's portrait. 

What I love seeing is the variety of media! There is painting, of course, and sketching, but also collage, printmaking, assemblage and embroidery. It's really inspiring. Some portraits are realistic, whilst others are graphic and some artists choose to reinterpret or just depict a section of the photo.
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Here's my room portrait from a few weeks ago. A gorgeous little shepherd's hut interior, complete with William Morris wallpaper!
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A post shared by ROOMPORTRAITCLUB (@roomportraitclub)

I've been working on improving my perspective sketching and this image certainly challenged me.
​The image for the following week didn't inspire me as much, but I loved seeing the work of the other artists.
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A post shared by ROOMPORTRAITCLUB (@roomportraitclub)

I LOVE this week's image, because of the colours. I didn't manage to squeeze it in before the deadline, but you can see my version below.
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A post shared by ROOMPORTRAITCLUB (@roomportraitclub)

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Be sure to check out #roomportraitclub on instagram.

If you are interested in joining in but don't know where to start, check out my online class where we paint a living room portrait with gouache and watercolour for our project.
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New Print Announcement - Scheherazade

28/4/2022

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"Scheherazade" is my new jewel-toned, geometric art print available in sizes from 8x10" up to 28x40"!

This beautifully feminine artwork is dramatic and evocative of another era. It is the perfect artwork to elevate any room. Position it above the master bed, in your boudoir, or give it pride of place in a bold living room. 
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I hand paint all my patterns with watercolour, building up layers and lush details. I then scan the finished artwork to create repeating patterns and a range of giclee art prints.
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This design is also available to license on fabric, apparel and in other markets. Email me if you are interested. 
Have a looky-loo
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My Printmaking Process

25/3/2022

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Printmaking is such a diverse discipline and a 'print' can mean lots of different things. Often you hear 'print' meaning giclee prints or digital reproductions of an original painting or illustration.

Most of my works are dry point prints. Each one is made by hand, painted by hand and then signed and numbered -  as they are limited edition.

First, I start out by sketching my design until I'm happy with it. I then transfer my design onto illustration board, which will become my 'plate'. I cut out my plate, seal it with up to 6 coats of sealer, and then I etch all of the lines of my design into the plate with a sharp tool.
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My next step is to 'ink up' my plate ready for printing. The ink goes on and then the excess ink gets gently wiped off, leaving ink in the etched lines. This is the most time-consuming part of the process.

When I'm happy with the plate, it goes onto the etching press. My paper goes on top and I hold my breath and wind it through the press.
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​The prints are left to dry. To make the next print, I ink up and wipe off my plate again. 

Plates made in this way can only go through the press limited times and so each of my designs will be limited to /15 or /25 prints in an edition.

When you see a number on the bottom of an artwork like: 2/25, that means it was the second print pulled in an edition of 25. U/S stands for Unique State and means that the print is unique, either due to ink colour, layout or the watercolours used.
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Once the print is dry,  I paint it with artist quality watercolour paints. The colours that are mixed can never be recreated exactly, so each one has its own unique quality.
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​ORIGINAL PRINTS vs GICLEE PRINTS and DIGITAL PRINTSIt is easy to get confused about what you are looking at when viewing a 'print'. This term applies to a wide range of different products.

Hand-pulled prints: These are original, handmade artworks. They may be a one-off or form part of a small edition. But each is a discrete artwork. Intaglio techniques, such as my etchings and collagraphs will create an embossed edge on the paper. Relief techniques include linoprints and woodblock prints. Hand-pulled prints are more valuable than other types of prints by the same artist. They will be signed and numbered by the artist, most commonly in pencil.

Includes mediums such as: collagraph, etching, lithograph, dry point, intaglio, linocut, monoprint, screenprint.
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Giclee prints: (pronounced jee-clay) These are quality, archival reproductions of an original artwork or photograph. They may even be a reproduction of an original print. Also called fine art prints, they should be of excellent quality, printed with specialised inks to museum standard. They may be editioned, signed and numbered, thus increasing their value. 

Digital prints: These are the most affordable prints. They are digital reproductions of artwork or photographs, often printed with an inkjet printer. The lines have blurred in recent years with many digital prints being referred to as giclee prints, and digital printing now available to a very high standard of quality and longevity. They may be signed and numbered - but not necessarily. Uneditioned prints will be the most affordable.

It can be hard to tell a good giclee from an original. Look for the embossed edges on an original intaglio print and an original signature. If the signature forms part of the image and is not made by hand on the paper, it is a reproduction. ​
Shop Original Prints
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Venetian Summer

7/2/2022

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I am excited to share my new collection of four pretty, pink prints!
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I have loved painting this collection. I started off painting the woven pattern and then moved on to the scallops. It was really freeing to have a repetitive structure and then be able to try new things in each shape or line.


I've been inspired by lace, beading and antique chintz, theatrical costumes and colours of Venetian glass. 
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Venetian Summer Artwork by Hannah Katarski
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Shop Now
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Parisian Summer - New Print

17/1/2022

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I'm so proud to launch my latest print, Parisian Summer.
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Shop here
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I am really enjoying exploring this idea. I've been inspired by lace and antique chintz, theatrical costumes and colours of Venetian glass. ​
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This artwork is printed at museum grade quality and available in US and European sizes, from 8x10" and A4, all the way up to 70x100cm!
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Shop here
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Creating Collections

31/8/2021

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I love taking online classes. Victoria Johnson's are some of the better ones I've done. She provides succinct, useful information and then great briefs from which you can launch into new work. The classes aren't about learning techniques, but building concepts and ways of thinking.

Her Create Collections class got me thinking about leveraging all the ideas I have to create a small series. This is far more efficient than creating five unrelated illustrations. I do love working this way, because sometimes I feel this need to include all my ideas in one design! I don't want to leave anything out. A series allows you to explore as many as your ideas as you want to.
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For this collection, I combined florals and something new to me - birds. It was great to take on a new challenge an fun to create some simple coordinates to fill out the mini-collection.
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These designs are all available for licensing.
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Mindful Parenting Magazine - Cover Feature

17/8/2021

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Last year I finally took the plunge. I had been building my illustration portfolio for maybe a year, and was getting prepared to start approaching art directors. The first market I was going to try my hand at was editorial. This can be book covers, magazine covers, spot illustrations... the kind of artwork that accompanies text.

So I had been adding artwork to my portfolio that included people and children, in order to show that I could do the work.

I wrote my email pitch and started introducing myself. I tried to keep my hopes realistic. After all, it's not like someone was going to get me to do a cover, but hopefully a couple of spot illustrations would come my way.

The very next day, I got an email from Mindful Parenting Magazine. The artist they had lined up for the next issue was unavailable and would I like to do it? YES! I would!
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They send me a fab brief and a contract and I got to work creating some concepts. Once they had chosen their preferred sketch, I created some colour roughs for them before painting the final artwork.
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Lessons Learned

This was such a dream project. I also learned some lessons along the way.

Communication is key and art directors and designers need to see what is in your head as much as possible. This is always difficult with painting, when the only way you can really show what the artwork will look like is by painting it!

For this project I created colour roughs with coloured pencil. I have also created them digitally, but for subsequent projects I'll be creating thumbnail colour roughs using paint. Thumbnails are small sketches with minimal detail and therefore faster to complete, while still communicating colour and feel.
Colour pencil didn't communicate the saturation or texture of watercolour. I have tried digital roughs but then need to mix my paints anyway.

The added bonus of using paint is that when I get approval, my colour mixes are ready to go.
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This image was licensed exclusively in 2020, while that issue was new. It is now available for licensing.
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Product Launch!

7/8/2021

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At the beginning of 2021 I had a list of goals for the year. One of them was to get my work on a jigsaw puzzle.
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I'm unbelievably excited to share my latest collaboration with you! "Beach Essentials" from Surf Shack Puzzle Co.

This was a match made in Heaven! Owner, Mahina is a fellow surfer who started Surf Shack Puzzles last year. I approached her about working together and she was full of wonderful ideas. This first puzzle was an adaptation of an illustration in my portfolio. I painted some additional icons to add more detail to the puzzle.

Mahina was wonderful to work with and I love that she promotes female artists across the world. Surf Shack Puzzles are made from recycled materials, come in plastic free packaging and are printed with non-toxic inks.
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I created the elements with watercolours before scanning them and tweaking the arrangement in Photoshop. I kept to a colour scheme in order to make everything coordinate. (I talk all about this in my online class.)
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I just love that there are so many avenues for illustration to find its way onto products. My second design will be launching with Surf Shack Puzzles a little later in the year. Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to hear about it.
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    WELCOME TO MERMAiD'S COiN

    Surf Artist, Hannah Katarski is based in Fremantle, Western Australia. She creates ocean-inspired art that is bohemian, retro and fun.

    Mermaid's Coin is the perfect place if you are a surfer girl, surfer at heart, decking out your beach house, or just wanting a little bit of Summer to hang on your wall.

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