Table of Contents
Artinject Conversations Episode 4 – How to Create a Art Business Leaning Onto Your Community
About Tilika D’souza
Tilika is an artist, illustrator, art educator and paintmaker.
Her love for watercolour led her to start Studio Passepartout in 2020 as a way to bring traditional paint-making techniques and recipes of the Renaissance to artists in the U.A.E.
What started as a humble experiment with pigments sourced from around the world has now turned into a resource for local artists where they can not only purchase handmade watercolor supplies like paints, paper and ceramic palettes but also take up workshops which encourage them to fall in love with the process of creativity itself.
Tracing Tilika’s journey from the start of her art practice to building Studio Passepartout
Tilika graduated from Art School in 2009 but her journey with watercolours started circa 2015 when she was working in Hong Kong.
In art school she worked with poster colours, did sketching and created large portraits and life drawings. They didn’t have watercolour work much, it was mostly only in the tradition sense, and not illustrative work.
The start of Tilika’s watercolour journey
But in Hong Kong, Tilika’s next door neighbour who is a scientific botanical illustrator, introduced her to creating illustrative watercolour works. She found out he was an artist when she went to pay him a visit for the first time, and thereafter they started to meet every evening to paint and he taught her how to use different techniques and paint well in watercolour. Soon Tilika’s other neighbour joined them and the three of them would meet and paint together.
And that’s how Tilika’s watercolour journey started.
Then in 2017 Tilika moved to Dubai with all her new watercolour supplies including a set of Singaporean watercolour brushes her neighbour, friend and teacher gifted, in her backpack.
In the middle of this big move, her watercolour practice was her therapy. She started painting often and that elevated her watercolour practice. And it was during this time that she got really intrigued by the process and the medium of watercolours.
The start of Tilika’s paint-making journey
Tilika’s paint-making journey starts pre-covid. She was in Edinburgh and went to a little art shop there which had a whole lot of pigments by Sennelier. She got curious about what these pigments were for, at the time she hadn’t pondered about how paints were made. The guy at the shop told her that oil painters use this to make their own paint, which prompted Tilika to grab a few to see what she could do with them.
Then the pandemic hit and things came to a standstill. It was during this time that Tilika started experimenting with pigments and paint-making.
She shared the paints that she made with her friends and her art class students, and it just grew from there.
These were some of the milestones that got here to starting her art business.
“The business really came out of this obsession of just making more colors.”
“I love the community part that comes with having a business. That’s my favourite.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
Every new development in Tilika’s journey as an artist and creative business owner was borne out of curiosity, of a sentiment of ‘Let’s try this and see what happens’. And she’s had the interactions with her community woven into all of it.
How Tilika came to become the creator of her art tools in addition to creating her art
“Part of being in a community is somebody comes to you and is like, ‘I love watercolor, but I don’t know how to use it. Could you teach me?’ And then suddenly you start teaching people.. It all comes from paying attention to what you need, what people around you need, and then adapting to it, really.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
Tilika started with offering handmade watercolours, and now she has an entire suit of products- ceramic palettes, paper and paint kits to name some. And everything has come from serving some need she herself or some person in her community had.
How Tilika added ceramic palettes to her product offerings
For instance, when Tilika moved to Dubai from Hong Kong she couldn’t find ceramic palettes for her own practice. During the pandemic, a lot of pottery studios around her were selling ceramic kits for making pottery at home and getting it fired with the studio.
With all the free time in her hands and curiosity, she decided to buy one these kits. And instead of following the instructions to make a tea light holder, she decided to use the supplies to make a ceramic palette for herself. She could make three clay palettes with the supplies she had. After getting them fired, she decided to give two to her friends.
And then post-covid when she got back to teaching art, she started handed these palettes she started making to her students to try. Her students loved these palettes and that’s how she added ceramic palettes to her product offerings.
How Tilika added paint kits to her product offerings
Much like her other stories, this too was came from the time of the pandemic. Tilika had a friend staying with her during that time. She was working from home and got bored and was like, ‘Look, I really don’t like drawing, but can you just draw something for me and I can paint it?’
“So I was like, sure, why not?”
Tilika drew her a few illustrations, gave her the paints, and she finished them in no time.’ And she’s like, ‘I want more!’
“And I was like, ‘Well, maybe more people want something like that.'”
And from this the paint kits were born and in fact the Nature Goddesses Kit available on Tilika’s website are the same illustrations that she drew for her friend.
“So everything has come from somebody wanting me to make something.. Inspiration sometimes is just around the corner, you know. It can come from strangers, it could come from friends.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
How to know what your audience wants from you as an artist and business owner
I think it is important to note how Tilika always kept a pulse on how people were responding to what she was putting out into the world. And I think that it is especially important for artists who are selling their work to consider that.
Not to suggest that you only make art for other people, but observe what is it you’re creating that is resonating with your people and maybe do more of that.
If we slow down and really listen to what our community is saying, people are making their interests known.
And it’s always good to remember that if one person is asking for it, probably more people are thinking about it but they’re too shy to ask. So stay connected to your community and keep a pulse on what people around you want from you as an artist.
“So you know, I put my own spin on it. And then of course you see what people want and then you put what you want in there and you make something much better.. And that is very important when you’re creating something as a business because a business is between you and somebody else, right.
So it’s not just you. You have to tie the two people together, without losing authenticity of course.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
How making her own paints for her paintings impacts Tilika’s art practice
“I want to create art that has a deeper meaning, at least from my point of view, because to an outsider, these just look like watercolor like illustrations.. But I was able to make them much more personal because of the story.. So, okay, let me tell you how both these series is came to be.”
Tilika is someone who has been to very remote diving spots and even in such places has encountered the destruction caused by ignorant waste disposal.
And during her time working at another studio as an art teacher, she witnessed her students just wash down acrylic paint in the sink which made her introspect about tools us artists use in our art practice.
“Acrylic is plastic at the end of the day, which is going to turn into microplastics that you be put down the sink.”
Her love for the ocean and the desire to understand her art making tools- what goes inside our paints, how we should be using our paints, and how we should be disposing them off, led her to create her own artist-grade watercolors with ocean-safe binders and naturally derived pigments.
“Reef Memories”
Tilika has been scuba diving for about 10-12 years now and during the pandemic due to the inability to travel she ended up being away from the ocean. “Reef Memories”, Tilika’s on-going series of watercolor illustrations, was born from missing the ocean and are actually just memories of the different coral reefs she’d been before. Each of the paintings represent a reef from different parts of Asia.
“They’re not exact photographic memories.. They’re just like, if you close your eyes and you want to go back to being underwater, that’s what they’d be like- wishy-washy, but still very alive, you know?”
“Earth & Sea”
When Tilika started reading about pigments, she discovered how back in the day artists would go out and find things to make paint from. During this time a student of hers gave Tilika a curious little thing she got from Souks, to identify and see what paint can be made from it.
Then she started researching, going around souks and the mountains, looking for more curious little things. On her hike on one of the New Years, she stumbled upon a beautiful yellow ochre stone and took it home with her.
“So that’s how.. I started picking up these few little things and then when I had enough, I think I had like six colors that I thought were a good range that would really show the UAE, you know, on a palette. So I was like, okay, let’s see what we can do with these.”
“So a lot of people have this misconception about a lot of cities that you don’t get to see good underwater life. But when I did start recently diving in the UAE, maybe like four years ago, I saw it was stunning. It was absolutely breathtaking.”
“So I was like, okay, now I have to show something that’s UAE based. So using the earth of the UAE, quite literally to show what’s in the sea, you know?.. I just wanted to marry my passions- paint making and scuba diving.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
And that’s how the “Earth & Sea” series was born. The entire series of paintings was made using the paint she handmulled from the six different foraged pigments, and depicts the different coral reefs across U.A.E. dive sites.
Fun fact: I started my watercolor journey with making paints out of vegetable dye because I was very conscious of what tools we are using to create the things we create. And I didn’t want to create with things which were potentially harmful to the environment. And it is also the reason that I’ve not been able to fully embrace acrylics as a medium. So I love the idea of making a small batch of handmade paints made with earth-friendly pigments to create a collection of paintings.
“Like you said, it’s based on everyone’s perception.. If you want to use acrylic, fair enough, use acrylic. Everything is fine. But what I’m trying to do with my business is just trying to educate little by little.. Use what you can but be knowledgeable about what you’re using, you know, that’s it.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
What Tilika’s Holistic Art Workshops look like
Tilika observed in her friend whom she drew the painting sheets for, that how painting helped someone disconnect from the stress of their work, find a moment of joy and become fully present in the moment.
Tilika has a friend who practices meditation and other healing modalities, so she collaborated with her and introduced ‘Holistique’ workshop.
It started with Tilika’s friend doing a little meditation to begin the class. Tilika then guided the participants on how to prepare paint and then let them get immersed in the process of mixing paint in their palettes- making little wells with water, the brush hitting glass water jar, swishing sounds on paper.
Once the colors were made, Tilika prompted the participants to play with their paints for around for 15 minutes but because the participants went into a flow state, Tilika and her friend had to tell them to stop!
And then Tilika guided them through the fundamental aspects of visual design and the process of creating intuitive watercolour abstracts.
Tilika comments how, “It’s almost like bringing their childhood back.. people’s shoulders just go back down, you see them take a breath.. That’s where the holistic part of the workshop came up.”
How the holistic workshop led Tilika to develop the ‘Holistique’ Watercolour Painting Kit
Continuing her strategy of learning from what her community wants, Tilika developed the ‘Holistique’ Watercolour Painting Kit inspired by her workshop of the same name.
The box has teas, tealights, and quartz crystal in addition to art supplies that empower one to create. Tilika has curated the kit in a way that engages all the senses. She also adds six watercolour paints, a ceramic pocket palette, paint brushes and sheets of textured watercolour paper for an enjoyable paint practice.
“So your painting, you’re having the tea.. you’re smelling beautiful candles- all your senses are engaged.. and you’re being present in the moment.. It’s basically a studio in a box”
Now Tilika conducts a lot of different workshops where she teaches people watercolour techniques and notes that, “But even still they end up being holistic in the sense, you know, because people are just learning the right things.”
“Understanding that the water does have to work for you.. You have no control over how it dries eventually, you know? So it’s also helping people let go of that need to control it.”
|
“Now they want to learn more.. and now it’s not just because it makes them feel better, but it’s that and more.. In fact, a lot of them now start seeing, ‘Oh my God, I can paint’.. I think it’s very rewarding as an educator.. Like you’re not even educating, you’re just informing them.. you’re just giving them the right tools.. that’s it. Most of my workshops I teach maybe for 10 minutes and the rest is just encouraging them.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
Game-changer Mindset Shift for Tilika’s Art practice
“There are days when I feel like, ‘Oh God, this is going nowhere. Why am I doing this?’
The struggles are there. There are the ups and there are the downs with having a business or even an art practice, especially in this day and age where there’s so much information available.”
“You are open to so many artists around the world that you start seeing all this amazing stuff around you and think you’re not enough.. your art is not good enough. What you’re selling is not good enough. How come they’re doing better than me? When am I going to get there? All these questions, you know?”
“So one thing I would definitely tell people is when you are creating anything or even running a business or whatever, try and give yourself permission to just put your phone aside.
“You look on Pinterest.. you find 50 people who are painting something close to what you were thinking of painting, if not hundred percent the same. And then that’s it. ‘You know what? It’s already done. I don’t need to do it anymore. It’s done better.'”
“You don’t have to conquer the whole world. But if you can connect to your community and make it special for them with something you do, even if there are ten people around the world doing it, it’s okay. There is enough room for everyone.. Sometimes it’s nice to think small in this time and age of social media.”
Tilika D’souza in Episode 4, Artinject Conversations
I couldn’t agree with Tilika more, there are truly no original ideas. So it’s okay to have the same idea, what’s important is what flavour we are adding to make it our own.
Emergency Moustache Litmus Test
Tilika shares her Emergency Mustache Story of this one time she went to stationery store located in one of the biggest malls in Dubai and saw a little box of felt stick-on emergency moustaches.
“And I said, if there is a market for this, there is a market for anything. So I use emergency moustache as my benchmark every time I make a new product.”
“And I’m like, ‘Okay, is this better than an emergency mustache? Then, yes, going out to the market!’
“So find your emergency mustache, that is, find that one thing that would be like, ‘Yes, if this can be sold, my stuff can be sold.'”
Tilika’s moustache story is such an important reminder to keep the threshold low.
While most artists tend to be self-critical, I think women artists are even more so due to societal conditioning. I think women have always had to prove their worth, and that translates into our art business in a feeling like we’re not doing enough and all the ways in which our work can be better. We put too much pressure on ourselves as to the standard to which we are putting something out there.
And while it is a good thing to be conscious of the kind of work you’re putting out and making sure it’s the best that you can do, it important to not get over-critical and to just put our work into the world.