Acrylic love

Ha! I discovered acrylics! I love them!

This is a lion based on my other animal designs, but, obviously, done with acrylics instead of digital.


A girl in a storm, also acrylics. Not much of a story to tell, she just likes storms, like myself.


Good ol' watercolors. The scanner really messed up the picture, despite the 300 dpi. I tried to fix it up a little in photoshop, but didn't succeed all that well.


And another watercolor. This one should have been in my Volkswagon post, the one with the ice cream, but I completely forgot. I did this as a sketch to show the client. He was happy with the style and skills, thankfully.

Sketch Dump III

I'm back from the Book Fair and it was awesome! I loved the networking and all the things I saw and heard were very inspiring. Including, of course, all the drawings, paintings, illustrations. Not only those in the exhibition, but also those on and in the books that the many, many publishers had on display.

I decided to follow up on that inspiration and once home I immediately bought some art materials I thought would be useful for expanding and improving my portfolio. So in the sketch dump below you see things I made to test my new acrylics (the ponies and, frankly, all the colored stuff) and at the very bottom I made a lino print. The black acrylic I used for that print didn't work out that well, so next time (or somewhere in the future) I'll use the right type of ink, but for now this will do. It's Aladdin, by the way, a modern version. I have one more sheet of lino and am thinking about making a follow-up to this running scene.

Children's Book Fair

That would be the Children's Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. Yes. (YES!). That's where I'll be from the 22nd to the 25th of this month. It's a fair for professionals in the whole process of children's books - writing, illustrating, publishing, translating, rights, etc. I'll be going there as illustrator and translator and see what my chances are.

Maybe nothing will happen and I'll continue this passion in my spare time.
Maybe something will happen and I'll get a tiny chance to translate a children's book.
Maybe something else will happen and I'll get a tiny chance to illustrate a children's book.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a tiny chance to do both.

I'm not pessimistic, I'm positively realistic. I know the chances are small and that there are many, many talented artists and translators out there, but that doesn't mean I won't go at all. I will try and do my best and I will have fun and who knows? A tiny chance is all I need...

For my portfolio to bring to Bologna I have worked/am working on a couple of pieces:

This is Lyra from Northern Lights / The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Currently we are researching this novel as a class project at the university, so I thought it would be fun to illustrate it as well.



This is Sniff. His life consists of nothing but adventures. Every new smell, every exciting odor is a new adventure for him. It is a work in progress, so not quite finished yet.



This one I will not put into my portfolio. It's a failed attempt at a collage technique. I hate the composition and well, I just don't like the overall image. But the separate elements are all right. There's Sniff, a boy music maker, and Bo - a supergirl I once made up.

VW and Icecream

I finished my commission and got permission to post the results on my website, so here they are!

This is the leaflet the commissioner wanted. Trying for a rather retro/50s style and I think I succeeded quite well. The commissioner was very happy with it. Obviously, the commissioner sells icecream - from a retro Volkswagon! Yay! Since this commission I've come to appreciate retro vans and Volkswagons, lol, even though I'm more of a modern car type of person.



This is the van in color. It's a little different from the original painting, since I touched it up in photoshop (perspective, angle, some such stuff, lol). I'm happy with the way it came out. And, before anyone asks, I don't mind it being turned to black & white, I like that variant as well, plus it fits better into the whole of the leaflet.