Have a quick coffee break with me as we dig up an older illustrated journal from the stack. The one I happened to grab was from early 2020, in the middle of COVID days. Not a time I particularly like revisiting, but I actually felt quite grateful I documented this time in pictures and a lot more words than I currently do. Perhaps something I should try to bring back a bit more. Hope you like the video and let me know if I should do another video or even revisit one of the 2006 ones!
No one asked, but I still wanted to film a very quick review of my new Pastels Girault box that my husband got me on our vacation - plus! I got a bunch of tools to work with the pastels. I'm a total novice at working with dry pastels, so you can guess how well that went, but definitely some interesting new things to try and play around with!
If you have any tips or ideas, please do let me know - would really be much appreciated.
Spent about an hour yesterday afternoon using my new Girault Pastels and Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils to create a little page about the weekend. We were away for a few days to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday. He had rented a few cabins in the woods for the whole family, and because it was our youngest son's 8th birthday on Monday we celebrated his birthday as well. It was very fun, even though my husband, son, and I all weren't feeling great.
Let me know if you enjoyed this video and want more or less of this, or if you'd like a review of the new pastels! All music is licensed from Epidemic Sounds
Summer has flown by, and even though it’s been such a long and hot summer, I miss the heat already. Of course, admitting this always comes with a twinge of existential dread because of the global warming of it all, but I truly thrive in a nice sunny 36c.
So before I try to hype myself up for fall, let’s have a little look back at some of the drawings I did in my sketchbook over the past month. A lot of these were made using my new enormous box of Girault Pastels that Jochem bought for me while on vacation near Lascaux. I’m completely in love with them - so let me know if you’d like a review from someone who doesn’t truly know how to use dry pastels.
I hope you had a lovely summer, and stay tuned for more videos and updates soon.
Here's a very long, unedited (sorry), chatty sketchbook tour/look at my illustrated journal from the past 11 months. We've had a pretty tough year, and I really used my sketchbook as a place to unwind, unburden, and get inspired. Hope you enjoy and please let me know if there's anything else you'd prefer or would like to see!
Sketchbook is a Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook, I use watercolors, ink, and colored pencils.
Music is licensed from Epidemic Sounds.
As I wrote in my last post, in May of this year I traveled to Switzerland with my dad to visit my grandma's grave. She died six years ago during COVID and due to the travel restrictions, I never got to say goodbye. My grandma lived in Switzerland for my entire life (even though she was Dutch) and I have fond memories of visiting her there, mostly during summer. We'd hoped for good weather, but got snow instead. Nevertheless, it was a healing trip for me, and a beautiful goodbye.
All music was properly licensed and paid for by me from Epidemic Sounds.
This May, my dad and I are going to Switzerland.
It’s a short trip (honestly just a long weekend), but it’s taken years to get here. We’re going to visit my grandma’s grave as didn’t get to attend her funeral. I’m planning to turn this into a comic. Not just about the trip, but mostly about my memories of my grandma, and what it means to try and understand someone through what’s left. Let’s see where this takes me.
My second piece of graphic journalism for Drawing the Times is about the myths every family has. Stories from when you were little that your parents have told you so many times, they have become your own personal lore. When I was younger, these stories made me feel special and seen, but as I became a mother myself, I became more interested in finding out which of them were true and which were just that: stories.
This particular piece took me more than two years to make. Not because I didn’t like the answers I found (although I didn’t), but more because I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. Maybe the story my parents told me about me being a twin was true, and maybe it wasn’t. And currently, I don’t have a way to find out. It took me two years to realize that perhaps that was the most fitting way for this piece to go.
Hope you enjoy the piece, you can read it below, or, in a much more beautiful and serious environment on Drawing the Times!
I made a new zine! I’ve been meaning to do a new one for a few years now (Cornwall? Provence?), but never felt like the drawings I did were good enough. But this year, I managed. So here it is! This zine is a travel journal of our summer trip to Tuscany, Italy. Join me and my family as we get to know the many critters of the Tuscan mountains, eat pasta three times a day, drag our kids around the Uffizi, and stay in a fancy palazzo.
Details:
Size: A5 portrait (14.8 x 21 cm, or 5.8 x 8.3 inches)
Printed: full colour, on recycled paper (130 grams).
36 pages including cover. stapled together]
Language: English
Materials used for original illustrations: watercolor, ink. pencil
I have also decided to donate all proceeds from this zine to Unicef to aid children in Gaza. It doesn’t feel right making money off of a happy little zine of a happy little vacation when there’s so much suffering in the world right now.
Big, Chunky & Chatty Sketchbook Tour! After nearly a year with this hefty sketchbook, it’s time for a flip-through! Inside: travel memories, creative highs (and a few meh pages), and a whole lot of colorful chaos.
Spoiler: I’m very ready for a new one—this paper wasn’t my fave and I clearly crave faster dopamine hits from finishing sketchbooks. 😅
Includes watercolors, colored pencils, inks & pastels, travel sketches and life moments, and my honest thoughts on the Goldline A4 sketchbook
P.S. I tried to add some extras (videos, images) but toddler-free time is limited—so it’s a bit messy, but here we are. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
🎶 Music: All via Epidemic Sounds
Although I had some early success with drawing competitions*, I haven’t entered many since. Recently, though, I joined an online and offline community started by local comics artist Rob van Barneveld. A lot of artists in the group were submitting work for a call by Pulp de Luxe Magazine: one page, one comic, on any subject you like. It sounded doable — and I had a few ideas already bouncing around in my head — so all I really needed was a deadline.
I’m not going to over-explain the theme — hopefully, it speaks for itself. It was important to me to choose a subject that's personal. For me, the strength of my art has always come from it being deeply personal. There’s so much magic in the ‘everyday’; I don’t think, and I hope I never will, get used to it. Little hands offering me stones, sticks, and other tiny treasures they found throughout their day - that’s pure magic to me.
And yes, I know there’s a typo. Fingers crossed the jury looks past it. ;-)
*I won a drawing competition as a five year old for the national society for the protection of birds. I mostly remember I got a PINK CAKE, it was the best.
When my American bestie Danielle landed in Barcelona for work, there was no way a two-hour flight was going to keep me from our 22-year intercontinental friendship. So off I went, and what followed were the most incredible 113 hours!
I spent some time sketching on location in a dreamy little courtyard (Antic Teatre), but most of the artwork came together afterward. Adventures like these fuel my joy and creativity for months to come.
Music is 'Blue Night' by Magnus Ringblom via Epidemic Sounds
Another sketchbook tour! This one is from January to July 2024. I drew less than I had planned, but as you'll see, I took lots of trips (mostly for work), and I do try to put less pressure on myself to 'create content' versus actually enjoying a place and being inspired by it. So while there's not a lot of drawings, I do like most of the ones I did do.
Sketchbook: Odd Orange
Materials: Watercolors and colored pencils, lil' bit of crayon here and there.
Music via Epidemic Sounds! This one is called 'I'm a Dawg' by Curly Loxx, which is sort of hilarious when you listen to how chill this tune is.
Short video about last weekend, when we spent some time in my mother's cabin in the woods. I made use of the gorgeous fall weather to do some outside drawing among the trees, and was even joined by one of the little artists for a bit.
Sketchbook is a Clairefontaine A4(ish?) sketchbook, I'm using watercolors, and an assortment of pencils (mostly Caran d'Ache). Music is 'In Place' by King Peaks through Epidemic Sounds.
Work took me to Paris, and I took myself on a little Louvre date, followed by new books and a beverage on a terrace. Only reason I came home l was because I love my children and I wanted to spoil them with overpriced macarons. And maybe because my French is terrible.
All jokes aside, a day like this - but to be honest also the very stunning and fun ‘work’ (is it work when you’re having the best time with some of the best people) I got to do the days prior to this day - just feeds my soul. For weeks. Months. And I cannot believe how lucky I am to live this life of mine. Ok soppy story mode off. Go and have fun, kids. It matters.
I keep planning to do a proper sketchbook tour of our summer holiday in the Provence, France, but we’re now nearly a month into the school year and I think I’ll have to accept it’ll be late no matter what. So here’s some of the more successful sketches.
While I’m happy with the sketches here, it took me a while to get into it. I brought ‘the wrong’ sketchbooks, and only after our trip to Aix-en-Provence where I appropriately bought a new sketchbook, did I really start enjoying it.
We were staying in Cotignac, about an hour drive east from Aix-en-Provence, and one of the cutest little villages in the region. We stayed here a few years ago (different house), and loved it so much, we came back. An unintended consequence of this was that we had the most relaxing vacation ever, as we had zero FOMO about seeing any of the touristic attractions - we’d seen them all last time!
And perhaps as a result of the true relaxation, I didn’t take much video, and I didn’t put any pressure on myself to create. Meaning there’s no real vlog, no video now, but just a few happy snaps and sketches. And maybe that’s the best outcome I could have hoped for.
For my 40th birthday this year, Jochem organized a trip to London with the boys. Although the kids were both born in London, neither have been back since we moved to The Netherlands five years ago and I have really wanted them to see the old neighbourhood and get to know the city they will forever be tied to.
Jochem found a bnb right across from our old house, which was just lovely.
But first. The journey. We had wanted to go by train, but the prices were so exorbitant that we decided against our better judgement to go by plane this time. And boy, did our karma catch up to us.
I needed many wines to recover from that day.
The next day we walked around our old neighborhood towards Stoke Newington where we hit the playground and did a nice lunch. Then, off to Islington Green for some serious bookshop action. In the evening we ordered Indian food, which, even if it’s “just” a takeout is still better than any Indian food we’d be able to get in NL. Yummmm
The next day was Easter and aside from the Easter egg hunt, we didn’t plan our day very well. But the museum was worth the wait and so was the sushi.
For our final day we hit another playground, and hung around cafes all day eating cake, drinking coffee, and reading the books we got this weekend. In the evening we flew back home and got home incredibly late (hoping we wouldn’t get told off by the kids’ teachers the next day for them falling asleep in class, but they managed)!
We miss you already, London!
Another sketchbook tour! This one spanning from June 2023, until January 2024. Not the most creative couple of months for me as I was dealing with some health issues, but there's a couple of drawings I'm quite happy with nonetheless.
I also talk a bit about staying in your comfort zone vs pushing through, and how in some situations I am ok with sitting in my comfort zone as a part time artists (and especially when life happens). What is your view? Eager to hear!
Sketchbook: Seawhite of Brighton A5 sketchbook Materials: Tombow markers, watercolors, Luminance colored pencils, inks and gouache!
Music via Epidemic Sounds!
This year has been a slow year for painting. During the pandemic I felt like I was hanging onto my brushes for dear life, but ever since then life has sped up again, and creative work slowed down. It’s not always what I want, but at the same time it means more of the work has moved from my hands to my head, thinking through concepts before finding the time to put them onto canvas. I feel like this has helped me find a voice that’s deeper and more considered in my work.
Spring & Summer: Pebbles
The dark winter months produced very little, but as the trees finally started to sprout some new leaves, the paints also came back to life for me. We had a wet summer, and pebbles, streams, and rain were on my mind as I explored loose shapes and adding depth and reflections to my abstract works.
Late Summer: Lush Greens & a Commission
With some warmer weather coming in late August and early September, darker greens and pinks came into my work. I’m always amazed at how much the seasons influence my colors, but I don’t mind it. Even though we live in a city, it’s nice to be connected to nature. This piece, with many many layers, was done as a commission for a dear friend of mine living across the globe. It’s on its way to her home now and hope it’ll be a good fit.
At the same time I have decided not to do as many commissions anymore - I love doing them, but they’re also a little stressful (Will they like it? Will I want to make what they want?) and with work being insane at the moment, I think it may be healthier to take a step back.
On my Easel now
This piece on the left I absolutely adore and is a work I’ve been working on for ages. It’s had about six iterations, which are all layered somewhere underneath there, but finally is finding its ‘soul’. I couldn’t tell you what inspired me, but it feels like a culmination of the work I’ve done this year so far, and it feels very satisfying. On the right is a piece I made as a gift for another dear friend. She’s got such a caring and vibrant personality, and I wanted to see if I could capture that in a painting.
What’s next? I’ve bought two large square canvases. They’re primed and ready to go, but I feel with fall coming in for real (?) now, I need a bit of time to settle on the color palette. Stay tuned, I suppose.
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