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Shirin Illustration

@shirinillustration.bsky.social

1.4K followers 120 following 500 posts

Nice to meet you! I'm a creature concept artist + an animal and scientific illustrator with a background in biology. I'm also a writer and an editor. Based in Scotland. I'm open for new projects! #creaturedesign #animalart #scientificillustration

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Oct 24

Hello, I'm new to Bluesky. I'm an illustrator specializing in animals, scientific illustration, and creature design. Here is a piece of a unicorn with a more realistic colour pallet, based on fallow deer. #fantasy #conceptart #animalart #unicorn #conceptillustration #illustration #creaturedesign

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · 5d

Hello all, here's a paleo themed logo I drew awhile back for The Palaeo Minute, a paleontology themed newsletter. If you're interested in dinos, check it out at : james-ronan.co.uk/the-palaeo-m... :)

#dinosaur #paleontology #paleoart #trex #creatureart #animalart #art #cartoon #illustration #sciart

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · 14d

Gorgeous!!! Out of interest, how do you find selling on Folksy? Is it better than Etsy?

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · 18d

I pretty much always have a headache by the end of watching Speed Racer, but its worth it every single time 😂

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · 18d

Go Speed Go!

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · 18d

Speaking the truth.

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 7

Recent pet portrait, soft pastel on pastelmat. I'm currently open for commissions :)

#petportrait #animalart #dogart #dogsofbluesky #redfoxlabrador #labrador #dog #cuteart #creatureart #pet #art #softpastel #pastel #traditionalart

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 4

Pastel piece. 'Impression'. I really like drawing mums and their babies!

#paleoart #dinosaur #pterosaur #dinoart #paleontology #art #illustration #creatureart #animalart #sciart #creaturedesign #traditionalart #softpastel #pastel

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 2

Yes it does look a lot like gouache. If you like painting this way, gouache might be really great for you if you haven't tried it already, it's much more suited for thick coverage.

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 2

Really beautiful piece, surprised it's watercolour considering how thick the paint it!

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 2

Smilodon sketch ❤️‍

#sciart #paleoart #animalart #creatureart #catart #smilodon #bigcat #art #paleontology #illustration #traditionalart #graphite #cuteart #catsofbluesky

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Sep 1

Triceratops! I was hired to produce this piece to accompany a paper on the potential of Triceratops horns in combat. I went for a stylized look opposed to realism.

#paleoart #dinosaur #dinosaurart #sciart #triceratops

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 13

Thank you so much! I love your designs too! It is a hard world to be an artist for sure. I might also set my designs as private, or possibly put like a 220%+ margin on my stickers or something so that I earn the same amount as before!

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 12

Agree. I'm not as successful as you, I've only had about 2k sales, but most have been stickers at a 100% margin. To make the same as I did before, I'd have to put the margin at around 200% which honestly I probably will do out of spite.

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

When they introduced the 'standard' tier I think it may have been to filter out AI and bad quality art, but the Premium accounts are apparently meant to be better quality? (I don't know their tiers are vague) Think they just want to squeeze as much as possible out of us. Time to move on I think!

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

Me too. Took a break, was literally about to go back to it after amassing some new designs and then this. I will not be wasting my time formating/uploading, that's for sure!

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

Good for you. I've had a decent run with redbubble but I'm really tempted to close my shop too. At the very least, I won't be uploading new designs or promoting my shop anymre. Weighing up whether the small passive income from the designs I've already put time into uploading is worth the principle.

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

I'm angry at their disingenuous claim that it'll help market our work. My sales have been falling off a cliff for ages. And why aren't Pro accounts paying? They have the biggest share of sales and benefit the most from the promotion which I guess premium/standard is paying for?

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

I've had about 2000 sales on Redbubble but upon hearing this news, deleting my shop has crossed my mind. At the very least, I won't be uploading new designs, advertising it, or investing any more time into the platform. It won't do anything but I have sent them a protest email.

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

So Redbubble has introduced new fees ... As a Premium user, this is a flat 20% (Standard is 50%!) + 50% of anything earnt from a product margin over 20% (my main sellers are stickers which have high margins, so a significant hit). I have to say, this makes Redbubble inviable for me.

#redbubble #art

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

Absolutely. Stickers are the vast majority of what I sell, most of my designs are very sticker friendly. A platform that did stuff like stickers, magnets, key chains, pins, that sort of thing would be ideal for me!

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

I'm done with Redbubble. I probably won't close my shop, but I won't upload anything new or maintain my shop anymore. It's simply not worth my time. Not to mention, Pro don't pay anything, but the 'marketing' our money is going towards probably mostly benefits them. My sales have been down for ages!

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Aug 11

I'm really angry about this, sent a complaint out of principle. Stickers are by far my best seller and like many artists, I price them with a 100% margin. According to Redbubble this makes products sell less? No it doesn't, stickers sell better than anything on the platform!

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Jul 11

Thank you for reposting! As far as I know, I don't think there are any studies on this species real colouration, but I could very well be wrong on that! When reading about it, woodpeckers came up, so I coloured it based on green + spotted woodpeckers. The colours are completely speculative :)

Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Jul 10

Brevirostruavis, an early bird drawn in colour pencil and copic. I based the colouring on green and spotted woodpeckers. Brown feathers might have been more suitable, but I wanted to draw something colourful!

#SciArt #birdart #nature #paleoart #paleontology #bird #dinosaur #animalart #creatureart

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Shirin Illustration @shirinillustration.bsky.social · Jun 22

Very nice! Love the dotwork

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