Nieuw boek 'Tussen oevers van fluitenkruid'

Ik ben stil geweest hier op mijn blog, maar niet zonder reden: ik werkte afgelopen maand aan een nieuw boek.'Tussen oevers van fluitenkruid'

Samen met Vlaams auteur Geert De Kockere, waar ik ook mijn eerste boek 'Stil verwateren' mee maakte.

I've been quiet here lately, I had a good reason. I was working on a new book: 'Tussen oevers van fluitenkruid': 1001 haiku's (in Dutch) and 71 illustrations made by me. In this post you can see some of them. I continue this post in Dutch, but the illustrations are international ;-)

De herfst jongleert weer
met bladeren. Zijn handen
zijn groot en van wind.

Het is een roman van het leven zoals het is in 1000 haiku's en 71 prenten. Dit keer geen papieren boek, maar een mooi vormgegeven e-book, wat je overal mee naar toe kunt nemen....

Ook al bloeien er
veel roze bloesems, verdriet
blijft toch nog bestaan.

Dit is de cover van het nieuwe boek:

Het was een waar feest om aan te werken! Geert en ik inspireerden elkaar. Vaak maakte ik een tekening naar aanleiding van een bepaalde haiku. Dan maakte hij daar nóg een haiku bij, want bij elke prent horen er twee.

Maar Geert schreef ook haiku's bij losse tekeningen die ik stuurde, vaak geïnspireerd op de seizoenen. Een zeer plezante samenwerking dus ;-)

Wintermutsen van
kleurige wol versieren
nu de witte tuin.

Naast de haiku's haalde ik ook inspiratie uit mijn eigen archief. Toen ik bijvoorbeeld onderstaande haiku las, moest ik meteen denken aan een foto, die ik maakte tijdens de grote Matisse tentoonstelling in het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam deze zomer.Die zet ik dan weer om in een illustratie.

Een modern kunstwerk:
het is de kunst om er zelf
iets van te maken.

Ik heb in dit boek vooral gezocht naar 'de kunst van het weglaten' Dat vind ik mooi bij de haiku passen. Precies de essentie van iets pakken  Vandaar dat de prenten vrij sober zijn.
Een soort beeld-haiku's:

Een groot voordeel van dit e-book is de prijs. In tegenstelling tot het dikke papieren haiku boek, kost dit boek maar tien euro, terwijl je toch dezelfde hoeveelheid aan haiku's en prenten hebt. Het is ook meer dynamisch om te lezen, want je kunt alles uitvergroten met een eenvoudige klik- of knijp-beweging. Ik hoop dat je er net zo enthousiast over raakt als ik ;-)

Meer informatie en hoe je het boek kunt bestellen vind je bij Uitgeverij Pigmalion. 

Veel leesplezier!

Een wit hemdje aan
de wasdraad. De zomer gaf
zich zopas over.

Soort van Winkel

'Soort van Winkel' is a very nice pop-up store in Zwolle. I'm happy they also sell some of my Red Cheeks Factory products, like the Muscle Man Paper Doll, Affirmation Angela and the Dress Cat Paper Dolls Ralph and Mathilde.

Friday the 3d of July they have an opening party. I made this illustration with their beautiful poster (made by Kirsten Zuiderbaan)

The shop has already opened their doors. I visited it last wednesday to bring some copies of the book 'stil verwateren' which I recently made. The shop looks beautiful!

They have a huge card rack with all kinds of cards (also mine). And each designer presents their produccts on special made tables and fourniture. Really very nice to see and to walk around. Some of my products are presented like this:

If you are in the neighbourhood. Go and have a look. Unfortunately I will not be at the opening But I think it will be quite a party :-)

More blog features!

I'm happy to say today my work is featured on the inspiring Artistic Moods blog,
a blog full with beautiful Art, illustrations and inspiring artists.
So it is a real honor to be featured here :--)

And if that's not enough...

It was such a nice surprise to see my '100 Days of Animals' project featured
on the Zo wie So blog yesterday :-)

You can still follow my animal project on Instagram. I post an animal character a day for 100 days.

inspiration: 100 great Children's Picture Books

Sometimes I give myself a present :-) This time it is this inspiring book:

If you like picture books, it really is a 'must have'. A collection of 100 books
from 1922 - 2011. Collected by Martin Salisbury.
I am very happy with it, maybe it's something for you too....

Happy weekend!

Nieuw boek 'stil verwateren' is er! (Book is ready!)

Een beetje eerder dan verwacht is het daar ineens: het boek: 'stil verwateren'.
Daar horen bubbels bij....Proost!

A bit earlier then expected is suddenly our book 'stil verwateren' a fact!
Cheers!

Het boek is prachtig gebonden en grdrukt op heel fijn papier en het heeft twee leeslintjes. Ik ben blij! Kun je 't zien? ;-)

The book is beautiful bound and has 2 read ribbons. The paper feels very nice and I must say I'm happy!. Can you see it? ;-)

Gisteren kwam auteur / dichter  Geert De Kockere vanuit Vlaanderen naar mijn huis in Rotterdam met een flink aantal kilo's boeken die vooruitbesteld waren, zodat we ze samen konden signeren.
 
Yesterday author / poet Geert De Kockere came from Belgium to my house in Rotterdam  to bring all the pre-ordered books, so we could sign them together.

Voor mij was het de eerste keer om een boek te signeren, dus ik vond het best spannend, maar na een middagje signeren was het net of ik dat al jaren deed.... ;-)

For me it was the first time I made a book and had to sign it, so I felt a bit nervous to write in it, but after an afternoon of signing books it looked like I had done that for whole my life... ;-)

De boeken worden de komende week naar iedereen die vooruit bestelde verzonden en die ontvangen ook een cadeautje. Als je het boek met 1001 haiku's en 71 prenten nog niet bestelde maar je wilt het wel graag hebben, kun je het natuurlijk alsnog hier doen.

Ik ben heel blij met deze mijlpaal en hoop van harte dat er nog meer zullen volgen....

I'm very happy with this milestone and I hope I will make more books in the future, because I love it!

portfolio update

This week I've updated my website. I've added some new work. I also added a whole new projects section about the book 'stil verwateren'  I have made with author / poet Geert De Kockere. It's almost ready now. They expect it the 3d of April! How exciting :-)

Here is an illustration I made for the book:

And another one. It goes along with haiku's in Dutch.

I've added a whole bunch of them to my website under the menu item projects
So if you are curious, have a go ;-)

Je kunt nog steeds voorintekenen op het boek, dan krijg je een geisgneerd exemplaar en een cadeautje.

Printing process book 'stil verwateren'

This morning at 10 o'clock they started the printing process of the book 'stil verwateren', with haiku's from author Geert De Kockere and illustrations by me.
(photo's: Geert De Kockere)

Because the book will have 576 pages the printing process will last for three days....

As you can see, it's a very delicate process....

So nice to see our work rolling out of the press. Unfortunately I wasn't able to have a look, because it'is printed in Belgium, where Geert De Kockere lives. But I'm glad he took these photographs :-)

You can find more photo's of the printing process here

After these three days the pages will go to the binder.
The book will be expected half of April, but maybe a bit earlier now...

For the Dutchies: je kan nog steeds voorintekenen voor het boek. Dan ontvang je een fraai cadeautje. Meer informatie vind je hier

Haikuboek 'stil verwateren'

I've been quiet lately, but with such a good reason. I worked on the haikubook with author Geert De Kockere and it's almost ready to go to the printer.It will be expected somewhere In the middle of April. The haiku's are all in Dutch. This will be the cover:
See more images here

And now I continue in Dutch:

Want vanaf vandaag  kun je het boek al bestellen. Je kunt voorintekenen. Dan ontvang je straks een gesigneerd exemplaar door Geert De Kockere en door mij :-)

En de eerste 100 worden genummerd. Maar ook krijg je een fijn kado. Meer weten? Kijk op deze speciale webpagina met informatie over het boek.

Haiku book project

Great news! I'm working on a book together with Flemish author / poet Geert De Kockere.

It will be a luxurous book, more than 600 pages. A combination of 1001 haiku's and my drawings. Old and new ones. This could be a possible cover:

We did work together before on the 'real face book project'. Remember?

This cooperation is a fun and interesting creative process. Sometimes Geert makes haiku's inspired by my drawings. and sometimes I  make drawings inspired by his haiku's. So I draw a lot lately, which I love doing.

The text will be all in Dutch and unfortunately difficult to translate.
Will be continued :-)

Make Art That Sells

Recently I have bought the book 'I just like to make things' written by Lilla Rogers.
About the illustration market, full with tips and inspiration.

I bought it because I had a vague idea to go back to school again.
Lilla is teaching an interesting online course: Make Art That Sells.

And now I'm quite excited because I registered for it!
Yes, I'm going back to school again :)

I'm very curious about how it will be and what it will bring.
It starts at the end of March within two weeks from now.
I'm looking forward to it and hope to learn a lot!

childrenbooks

It's childrenbook week in Holland! We call that 'kinderboekenweek'

A week with special attention to the children book
I like that, because I love children books :-)

I've made these two illustrations and I must confess I feel like them :-)

inspiration: Harriët van Reek

Today I visited the exhibition Edith & Egon Schiele
In the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag: a fantastic exhibition
with drawings of one of my favourite illustrators: Harriët van Reek

Harriët made a children art book inspired by this painting
It is the only painting of Schiele exhibited in the museum.

The exhibition shows original illustrations from the book
and also prelimanary studies Harriët made for Edith & Egon Schiele

It is very nice to see the painting style of Schiele back in Harriët's drawings.
She also made the text for the book and both (drawings and text)
are full of humor and delicacy. It's touching too.

This is book number 10 in the series of children picture art books (in dutch) which are published in cooperation with the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

To my dutch readers:
Als je in de buurt bent, zou ik zeggen, gaan!!!
Ik vond het echt dik genieten :-)

inspiration: Annie M.G.Schmidt & Fiep Westendorp

I just read this book: Tow-Truck Pluck.
Originally it is written in Dutch with the title: Pluk van de Petteflet
It's funny to see how they translate it :-)

Written by Annie M.G Schmidt and Fiep Westendorp made the illustrations

This was a very famous and successful duo here in Holland.
They have worked together for a very long time.
Lots of books have come from their hand and are translated in many languages

Annie's writing style and Fiep's illustrations are funny with a lot of fantasy
It was a golden duo and I'm a big fan of them.

Little big books: Illustrations for children's picture books

This book was already for a while on my wishlist.
little big books illustrations for children's picture books.

This afternoon I saw it in the bookstore and I couldn't resist to buy it.
It's beautiful, full with inspiring illustrations and illustrators.
Some of them I knew already, but there are also lots of new names.
I made a quick selection, but I assure you there's much much more!

Ana Ventura

Blex Bolex

Juanjo G. Oller

Violeta Lopiz

inspiration: Maira Kalman

I love the work of Maira Kalman, a very inspiring illustrator.
She makes whymsical narrative illustrations: "I want everything I do
to be connected in an absurd, funny way".

These are two books I've bought some time ago:
varous illuminations and the principles of uncertainty.

Here you can find her TED talk:
Maira Kalman, the illustrated woman.
Have an inspiring day :-)

inspiration: stadsgiraffe

a few days ago I received this little booklet made by
Marike Knaapen an inspiring dutch illustrator from Amsterdam.
It's called: Handbook Collecting Courage. I can use that! :-)

You can also visit her blog Stadsgiraffe (in dutch)

inspiration: Sara Fanelli

Some time ago I bought two books from Sara Fanelli.
The story from Pinocchio, beautifully illustrated by her.
And 'Sometimes I think , Sometimes I am'
full of inspiring texts, drawings and collages.

really a pleasure to read :-)

inspiration: Illustrators annual 2012

Today the postman brought a very inspiring book:
the illustrators annual 2012 from the Bologna's children bookfair

I didn't had the chance to read a lot in it, but some eye-catchers for me are
Geraldine Alibeu from France

and Leire Salaberria from Spain, but there is much much more...!

the Morran Book Project

The postman brought me a present today, a very special one! :-)

A book full of beautiful illustrations about Morran,
the Denish/Swedish farmdog from Camilla Engman

Some time ago there was an open call to sent in your Morran-illustrations for the Morran Book Project for a tribute to this special dog (she was ill). I also sent in mine

I'm proud to be a little tiny part of this inspiring project. It's a breathtaking beautiful picturebook. If you want to have a preview you can find it here
The entire profit will go to the WSPA World Society for the protection of Animals - Sweden

Unfortunately last week Morran past away... This book is a great tribute to her!
Thanks Morran, thanks Camilla!