Hello Färgglad Friends!
I know I have a proper About Me page but that feels very professional and I want to share something a little more personal. I’d love for you to learn more about me, where I’m from and my journey into full time illustration and surface design and motherhood. So here is the Cliffs Notes version of my life. With photos!
Let’s go!
Born in 1984!
Grew up in Portland, Maine in the United States.
Figured out I could draw and liked to as well.
Took as many art classes as possible, and ballet too. Danced from age 3 to 23. (I think this taught me a ton about discipline and gave me some gnarly blisters.)
Major life change #1: Moved to Tampa, Florida in 2001.
Got eleventy billion sunburns.
Went to art school at the University of South Florida.
Drew and painted a whole truck load of weird artwork in tons of different styles and mediums. Never really defined my style but fine tuned my technical skills in the process at least.
Artwork from my days in art school. Graduated from University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, ummmm now what?! I'm no Picasso.
Dang it, I'll just be a waitress then!
Discover Etsy.
Decide I want to be an illustrator instead. (They seem to at least get jobs!)
Completely revamp my artistic style to be more commercial, teach myself Adobe Photoshop, then Adobe Illustrator, and finally start to draw what I love (girly stuff.) I found my style! (Well for the time.)
EmmaKisstina Digital Illustrations Open my Etsy shop, EmmaKisstina in 2007.
Major life change #2: Move to Stockholm, Sweden in 2008.
This is where my parents are from. I also have dual citizenship and speak the language pretty well. I immediately felt at home. I’m never moving home. Sorry Mom.
Live with my Aunt and Uncle for awhile.
Oooo a quick love story!
The middle photo is from 2008. We look like babies. Meet love of my life, the hunky Johan Torsten Valter.
Work in catering.
Work on my EmmaKisstina Etsy shop in my free time.
Catering company goes out of business.
Now what, again?!
Major life change #3: EmmaKisstina is registered as a business in 2010 and I decide giving full time freelancing a chance. Go me!
Move in with hunky Johan. (Live for a couple months in the women's changing room of his parents car dealership. Very glamorous!)
EmmaKisstina Etsy shop becomes top seller in Sweden in the category art!
Start to focus more on freelance illustration work.
Have tons of fun with hunky Johan plus slowly grow EmmaKisstina but pretty much just scrape by with no real focus or plan. Just rolling with it. (Not recommended.)
But I still managed to work with tons and tons of clients and gained so much experience and really built up my portfolio and style.
Major life change #4: Kids!
Baby Stark and Tilly and then Stark and Tilly at ages 3 & 5. Decide it's high time to get my shiz together if I'm gonna be a Mother and business owner.
Organize, plan and make goals like a crazy person.
Son Stark born in 2016.
Exhibit at Surtex with art collective Swedish Creatures in 2017.
Sign on and off with 2 different agents.
Start teaching on Skillshare in 2018. Who knew I would love teaching!
Get an iPad and start drawing 100% digitally in Procreate. (Life changing!!! My process becomes so much more streamlined and I tweak my style to include more texture and more color.)
Daughter Tilly born in 2018.
Sign on with Pink Light Studio licensing agency, 2019. Finally a great agent!
Get to sell/license my work to companies such as Hobby Lobby, Joann, American Greetings and more.
Work from my Pink Light portfolio Have 2 - 3 hour work days but manage to work more efficiently, with more motivation on more projects than I did before kids. (Moms are super-human I swear!)
Finally start to work full-time again in 2020. (Thank goodness for school time!)
Now I'm making it my mission to help other illustrators, surface pattern designers, fine artists, hand letterers or other creative people build sustainable, beautiful, full time creative careers in less time with less hiccups than my own story by writing this newsletter, teaching on Skillshare and sharing a more in depth look at my process and development on Patreon.
Still having tons of fun with hunky Johan and our two kids!
2022 declared Fridays my Fun Friday for traditional drawing play and experimentation. I’ve never felt more creative and motivated to create art.
Present day: Kind of feel like I’ve found a really lovely work/life balance that works for me (for the most part) and I just feel really content, happy and positive about what’s waiting for me in the future.
Thank you so much for reading! I’d love to hear from you. Where are you from? Where do you live? Share a blurb of your life story in the comments below.
xo Kristina
I loved reading your journey and the lovely photos of your timeline! Very inspiring!
Short and sweet! Your kids (and partner) are adorable, so cute! Thanks for sharing Kristina.