IF - prepare

As carnival is not so far away now ;) my son has decided on the costume he wants to wear: it has to be Hector Barbossa from 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Fortunately we already have some of the required pieces, but I still have to sew a few things. So I have prepared for this since Sunday by adapting patterns and looking for appropriate fabrics.

Of course I want to do the monkey who perches on his shoulder, too. This is a bit of a challenge, because the only patterns I could spot so far have been for sock monkeys which this one is definitely not going to be. I'm really looking forward to creating the monkey, though.

To prepare the above illustration I made a very quick sketch that I also want to show you:

Right now I try a few different approaches from my usually very realistic one. Not because I don't like it, but sometimes it's simply too time consuming. Also I feel the need to develop. I am already excited about the outcome.

IF - grounded

Grounded again - the first post for IF for quite a while now.

It shows a pylon standing in water that is standing about 50 m from our house. Right now the river I'm living at (which normally can't be seen from our house) has flooded all the adjoining grassland so that it looks as if we were living at a big lake. I love this sight! Fortunately our house is built on a much higher level so that there's no risk of water in the basement. The pylon itself is built on a concrete base that emerges about 2 m above ground - under normal conditions, that is.

Exhibition

New year, new beginning.

Finally, I finished my illustrations for the fairy tale 'The Golden Hero Dragan' I have told you about some time ago. The opening of the exhibition will be on Saturday, 7th January in the public library of Emsdetten. Everyone who lives nearby is warmly invited to come and see. As you can imagine, I am very excited about it and hope the illustrations will be appreciated. Keep your fingers crossed!

Also, I intend to resume posting for IF as it's always so much fun. Hope to find enough time though,  because I have quite a lot of projects going on.

Closed

Thank you to all my followers, but for private reasons I have to close my blog until further notice. Hope you have a nice time.

IF - hibernating

 

The first thing that came to my mind for 'hibernating' was a polar bear, just because I love them. But apart from the fact that I don't think polar bears are hibernating at all (living in the everlasting winter of the Arctic), this seemed to 'wintery' an interpretation for the present season. So instead I chose some fruit and seeds people and animals are gathering for winter. And of course some fallen leaves, too.

The night sky is again part of my project 'The Golden Hero Dragan', all the other items have already appeared in a different context. I newly arranged them to fit this topic.

As you may have noticed, I have been kind of hibernating myself recently because of my current project of the fairy tale. It turned out to be more time-consuming as I assumed it to be, and I am afraid this may last a bit more. So I hope you will be patient with my hibernating and look forward to the finished book which, of course, I will show to you here on my blog.

IF - boundaries

This is about boundaries in drawing (lines to separate different items) as well as in reality: people/artists are separated by living on different continents. By overcoming these boundaries and joining their efforts they are making the world more colourful.

Thanks to Linda Hensley who came up with this wonderful idea of artistic collaboration during our online conversation.

IF - mysterious

For this week's topic 'mysterious' I chose again an illustration for my current project of the fairy tale "Dragan The Golden Hero".

The above scene circles around a stay with the brother of the hero (who is a magic smith) during which he teaches him his arts. These arts are somewhat mysterious and may include alchemy, astronomie and healing. Hence this seemingly mysterious display of items.