home decor design: time for joy

I've been quiet this week. I worked very hard.
Home decor was this week's theme for the e-course Make Art That Sells
Bedding, table ware, kitchen linens, bathroom items and anything else that
decorates your home. Again a totally new market for me.

Our assignment was to make 1 - 4 plates. I made these three:

Let me tell you something about my creative process.
On monday Lilla Rogers gave us the new subject: succulents.
I had to look it up in my dictionarry. We call them: fat plants.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed.

But after googling and seeing all these weird shapes, I began to see the fun of it.
I drew lots of plants, with pencil, markers, pen and ink and collage.
It's a great oppurtunity to try different techniques and discover new things.
Two days of playing not knowing where it's leading to...
I made a lot of these simple cut out forms. Different from what I normally make.

Then the assignment came: Plates. Huh, with these shapes?
My brain was working fast. How am I going to make this into something that suits me.
All those weird shapes. A weird world. I had to think of Alice in Wonderland.
Ah! Alice in Succuland! That was a beginning.
Then I could draw a person, that's what I like! I chose some of my succulent icons.

In the ink drawings I had seen some birds appear:

So I had a woman, a bird and my succlent shapes. I began sketching
My plan was to make four little scenes of Alice in Succuland.
I found out this idea was far too complicated for this purpose.
So I changed it and gave the woman some 'succulent' attributes.
And I've added the bird.

Now it was very challenging to add two more plates to make a series.
I made a lot of variations, looking for unity. For now I'm satisfied.
But there's a lot more to learn. The series is called: time for joy!
It maybe wasn't that easy, but at least I had fun (and sometimes not) during the process.

It also helps a lot to see all the other submissions.
Very inspiring to see how everybody deals with the subject.
Will be continued... :-)

bolt fabric design - bon appetit!

So here I am again: After a week of diving into the bolt fabric market.
I finished my first assignment for the e-course Make Art That Sells

We had to make a bolt fabric design with the icons we created earlier this week.
Or create new ones around the theme: tropical fruits and vintage kitchen.
Here it is: my first bolt fabric design ever.
What do you think?

When you design motifs for fabric, it's good to see it as a whole pattern
It makes a lot of difference if you see your design just one time or repeated
on an apron for example: Then you can see how your design 'works'.

Together with the bolt fabric design we were asked to design some coordinates.
These are fabrics designs that go well with the main design, but much more simple.
You can use them together to make a nice quilt for example, or use them in other projects.

I've made these two. For me this is a whole new world.
All kind of new terms and ideas. I must say, I like it!
It's quite challenging and there's still a lot to discover and to learn :-)
I wonder what will next week bring! I'm curious.
Will be continued...

back to school again

The e-course Make Art That Sells with Lilla Rogers has begun!
We started on Monday. It is very inspiring and a lot of people are joining!
First week it's all about Bolt Fabric. For me a totally new market.

The first two days we worked on what Lilla calls: a Mini.
An assignment to loosen up and get familiar wirh the subject:
Tropical fruit and Vintage Pyrex Casseroles.


I've made a lot of drawings with pencil and a thin marker, scanned some of them
and colored them in photoshop. Above you see a mixture of fruit and casseroles.

I also experimented with monoprint and gave my 'tropical' fruit personalities
It became a bit less tropical than I wanted it to be, but it's a start...

Today we will get the BIG assignment. I wonder what this will be.
It's all very exciting and inspiring, also to see the work of my classmates
Will be continued...

happy spring!

Can you feel it? Enjoy spring!

beyond your flexibility

As you maybe know I do practice bikram yoga in Rotterdam
Quite a while ago I've made this drawing: beyond your flexibility.

That's what the teachers say in class: "go beyond your flexibility!"
I like that, it's challenging.(Not only with yoga...)

I'm by far not as flexible as the figure in my drawing.
But at least I'm trying, that's what counts!
How about your flexibility?

This drawing is now available as a giclee print in my Etsy shop

moustache twins: product of the week!

A nice surprise when I openend the Dawanda newsletter today:

My moustache twins postcard is product of the week. :-)

Dawanda is an inspiring place where you can buy nice things and gifts.
I recently opened a shop to sell my Red Cheeks Factory products.
I still want to add more products, but it's already a start.

Dawanda focusses on the Dutch market, but I also translated my shop into German..
(I often have to laugh when I see these translations. German is a funny language :-))
And ofcourse I also translated it into English.

Happy Sunday!

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!

happy bird-day, dear Jan!

My favorite brother (lievelingsbroer in dutch) has his birthday today!
(Yes the one where I always make fun trips with to Musea and nature)

I made a special postcard for him.
He likes green, he loves nature, he is friend with the birds
and he also enjoys cake :))

Congratulations, dear Jan, happy BIRD-day!

selected illustrators Bologna Bookfair 2014

From Monday 24th to Thursday 27th March 2014 there's
the Bologna Children's Book Fair. I would love to go there some time.

Every year they select a whole bunch illustrators to show their work in a special exhibition
On their website you can find an overview of the selected illustrators
From each illustrator they show one illustration, so you can have an impression.

I was very happy to see one of my favourites amongst them: Manon Gauthier
I love her work and she's also very kind :-)

But it's also nice to discover new illustrators.
Aboves illustration is made by: Verena Hochleitner

And I also like this drawing of Trine Logstrup Sorensen.

This is only a quick selection I made, if you are interested to see more, visit this overview

Graphic Art in Nature

I really LOVE trees. Especially in this time of year.
It's like walking in a huge Graphic Art landscape:

love for life!

It is already springtme in Holland. Allthough it's the beginning of March
The sun is shining and the temperature today will be 17 degrees!

Everything looks extra nice with some sunshine. The trees already begin
to develop their fresh green leaves and the flowers appear in many colors.
It's so promising!

This all inspired me to make this illustration of a dancing girl.
Her hands form a big heart above her head, she celebrates life!
The title is 'love for life' and at this moment I really love it :)
How about you?

It's already available in my Etsy shop
Other places will follow...

Enjoy your Sunday and enjoy life!

the perfect nature - culture mix

Yesterday I had a day off. And what a good timing it was!
The first Sunny Spring Day of the year! I even lunched without my jacket on,
in the lovely and warm sun :)

Ideal for me is a mixture of nature and culture.
My brother and I walked through Den Hague, you wouldn't think of it,
but there are very nice parcs and even woods there.

It was beautful between all those trees, refelections and shades.
The world looks so good when the sun is shining!

After lunch we visited the Gemeentemuseum. We saw a lot of Modern Art.
Above is a painting from Jacoba van Heemskerck.

When entering the museum there's a small corridor with on both sides glass.
They placed various bird stickers on them to warn the birds, so they don't
bump up against these windows. My favorite was the one above!

There was also an exhibition for children about Coco Chanel.
With beautiful and playful illustrations from Annemarie van Haeringen

An ideal day full of oh's and ah's, a lot of sunshine and inspiration!
And now back to work again, also good :-)

work in progress

Here's a little sneak peak on some new products I'm creating
for the Red Cheeks Factory. It's a part of my kitchen table.

Unfortunately I don't have a big studio, so I work at home.
That means when I create new things my house is full of places
with all kind of prototypes, paper dolls, faces, drawings, glue, paint etc.
And we eat at a little camping table as if we were on a campsite
in the middle of the creativity :-)

Handsome Herbert postcard

Lately I'm experimenting with all kind of materials.
I work with papmaché, clay, collage, glue, pencils, ink...
It's fun and it brings new ideas, I even experimented with hair.

It resulted in Handsome Herbert, an original collage postcard with REAL breasthair :-))
You can find it in my Etsy shop

Happy weekend!

say cheese!

Did you know we eat a lot of cheese in Holland?

I like it a lot. It's one of my favourite things to eat.
A pity it's not good for your weight, otherwise I would eat much more of it...

What's your favourite food?

Happy Sunday!
greetings from Holland!

ode to my glasses

I have three different kind of glasses, without them I can't see so clear.
In some cases this can be an advantage, but most of the time I need to see sharp.
so I'm constantly juggling with them.

The fisst one is the most important: a multifocal one which I wear everyday
The second one I wear behind my computer to see the screen.
But these two weren't enough, so I bought a third one for reading.

I try to keep them on places where I easily can find them and I won't accidently sit on them
I even have a soft piece of fabric on my desk for my computer glasses,
because it broke already two times and then I'm lost...

The glasses also give inspiration for photographs.
I often see the soft light shining through the glasses which is inspiring.
So they are not only helpful for my eyes, but also for my creativity :-)

featured on Artistic Moods Art blog

A nice start of this week:

My work is featured today on the Art blog: Artistic Moods
It's an inspiring blog full with great work of people I admire,
so it's an honour to be featured there :-)

It's all curated by Sandra Apperloo a Dutch Art lover
TIP: She's also got an inspiring page on facebook

friday afternoon face doodles

I'm a bit quiet lately, that doesn't mean I'm not busy.

I'm working on new products, that takes time to develop
The creative proces, inventing things and not knowing what the outcome will be.
Exciting, I have red cheeks, while writing this :-)

In between it is sometimes very nice to just doodling around
and I must say faces are still one of my favorite subjects

Have a very nice weekend!

exhibition at Aan De Kade

This month a few of my works are exhibited at Aan De Kade.
It's an initiative of artist Marilou de Poorter. She's organizing monthly
exhibitions at her small gallery Aan De Kade.

The exhibition is till 28th of February.
See the other exhibitions here.

Karels Choice in Haarlem

Today I went with my brother to the exhibition Karels Choice in Haarlem
'Looking back at contemporary Art' selected by Karel Schampers.

We first visited a lecture about the exhibition,
were we heard more about the background of the works and the artists.

My favorite photo was Dame Barbara of Juergen Teller

Above the poster of the exhibition. You can see Karel showing his choice.
The exhibition is in De Hallen in Haarlem, the lecture was in de Toneelschuur

Very impressive was the film Number eight, a work by Guido van der Werve
He's walking in front of a giant icebreaker. The film is called:
Everything is going to be allright..

Above some intriguing portraits of Céline van Balen

The exhibition is till the 2d of March.