IF - Myth

For 'myth' I chose a cyclops, a creature I have been fascinated with for a long time. It began when I first read the Odyssey and reawakened only lately when I read it to my son. I never realized how bloodthirsty Greek mythology is. Only when reading, it dawned on me that maybe it might not be suitable for a nine-year-old. However my son seemed completely unimpressed by any bloodshed.

Shortly after that I read Cinderella to him and I must confess that this fairy tale seemed even worse to me with the cut-off toe and heel of the evil sisters. As neither Greek mythology nor fairy tales have done any serious damage to me, I begin to think that adults sometimes make to much of a fuss about this kind of incidents in stories or mythology. Children just visualize them differently. However, this is not meant to be an invitation to more brutality in stories for children. It just shows that children are capable of more distinction than adults normally credit them for.

IF - ocean

For 'ocean' I chose to show a desert which resembles an ocean in its vastness and its wave-like dunes. Even the shadows are bluish. The camel I added is called 'Wüstenschiff" in German which means desert ship, a further allusion to ocean. In consequence this camel finds a message in a bottle - right in the middle of a desert, of all places.

IF - New

Let's see what is in store for us in 2013. Hoping for the best I have wrapped it in gold.

I had a very hard time with some new paper I used for this drawing. Eventually wanting to draw on high quality paper, I bought some at the local art supplier. They refused to sell single sheets to try it out. Unfortunately it turned out to be slippery and grainy at the same time. While slipping off its awful surface, I couldn't get the drawing as smooth as I normally work. Well, I certainly won't take it again. Which leaves me with 99 pages of very expensive waste paper, unless I find some other purpose for it.

Wish you all a happy, healthy and eventful New Year.

IF - Glow

The entry for this weeks topic 'glow' is also part of my current Advents Calendar.

It shows the four candles for the four Sundays before Christmas. While looking for inspiration for this illustration I found several Advent wreaths with three purple candles (Did you know that purple opposite to violet is a non-spectral colour together with grey?) and one in pink. Becoming curious whether there is a purpose behind this colour scheme, I deciced to look it up in Wikipedia. And there actually is no topic you cannot learn anything new about. In this case I found out that the lithurgic colour for the time of Advent is purple. As the third Sunday is called 'Gaudete' (rejoice) the candle for this day is pink, considered to be a happier shade of purple.

For me one of the best things in illustration (apart from inventing and drawing) is looking up on issues and discovering so many interesting news even about the most ordinary topics.

Have a wonderful Christmas time!

IF - Snow

Finally here comes my last entry for 'snow'. Of course it's also part of my Advents Calendar.

As you can see, the ilustrations have simplified, with the nearly realistic snow cristal, the partly realistic snowman (though this hardly shows after scanning) and this almost abstract rendering of a for tree. Which one do you like best?

Wish you all a wonderful Christmas time.

IF - Snow

Here is yet another one of the Postcards for my Advents Calendar. It illustrates 'Leise reiselt der Schnee'.

IF - Snow

For the current topic 'snow' you can see the most recent entry of this year's advent's calendar on my homepage.

It 's such a nice coincidence (though pretty obvious, too, considering the season) that I wanted to do this illustration for the old German Christmas song ' Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen'. The calendar presents different old German Christmas Songs every day with the lyrics underlying the illustration.

Unfortunately all snow we had last week melted away, with no prospects for snow on Christmas either. Let's hope for the weather forcast to be wrong and enjoy a white Christmas.