My Little Hearts

Mutilated

2012-01-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

About two years ago I designed and illustrated a flyer for ASEED, an organisation that
protested against mega stables for pigs.

This is part of the inside of the final A3 flyer. Since I thought it was a fun project and wanted to support
their cause I didn't charge them for my work.
It was great fun to make this flyer. But it was less fun when I walked on the street and suddenly spotted
my design on a poster and a sticker! Though well, it's not my design anymore... since someone heavily
mutilated it!

The poster was gone before I could take a photo, but I managed to peal off a sticker from a lamppost.
I just hope they didn't pay a designer for this mess. They did a bad trace, scribbled some lines and added
stock illustrations in a different style. And so my design was turned into something hideous, thanks a lot!

So well, I'm shocked and angry. Even though I gave them my designs for free, that doesn't mean
they can do whatever they want with it and change it like this. That's just very disrespectful.
Note: Gifsoja.nl is organised partly by ASEED, so it's not like someone stole my work. They just re-used it.
I'm not posting this to hurt Gifsoja, but I wanted to tell everyone who works with illustrators; Don't
ever mess with illustrations in any way without asking permission. Respect our art.

Update: I contacted them and they apologised. I'm still a bit angry but most of all I hope the 'designer' won't
ever do this again. Not to my work or to anyone else's.

3D coffee

2012-01-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

After giving away my 3D dragon I thought I should show you another photo illustration I made.
It was for the magazine Factor 15 (previously I made this and this illustration for them) and it
was for an article about a report on the quality of coffee at work.

After some thinking I came up with this idea; A talent show for coffee, with a hint towards
Idols and the X-factor. In English-English it's of course 'flavoUr' but because of the likeness
with 'factor' I deliberately chose the American spelling.

The sketch was approved and I started building a set. First I did a test to see if the lighting and
composition would work, then I painted the background, gave the cups faces, brew some bad
coffee and started shooting!

And here's the final result! (The steam from the hot coffee was added digitally.)
I had to change the viewpoint because the magazine wanted an 'upright' illustration to put
on a whole page. I also made a smaller illustration for the next page.

The illustrations in print.

The dragon winner!

2012-01-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

Here are all the name tags of the people who wanted to win my paper dragon!
I put them all in a bowl... and with closed eyes I pulled out one....

And that was the tag of cofvempire! Congratulations! :-D
(I'll contact you through Twitter)

Thanks everyone for your participation and nice comments!
And I'm sorry I only have one prize, but who knows, I might do this again!

Win the original dragon!

2012-01-04T07:51:00.001-08:00

I made my New Year's card in 3D but in the end you still see a 2D photograph. Wouldn't you rather
look at the real thing in 3D?
Then here's your chance, because I'm going to give the original 'drawing' away to one of the readers
of my blog!

What do you need to do for that? Just reply to this post before this Saturday (the 7th), and I'll collect
all names and pick one winner who will receive the original dragon illustration by post.
If you're the lucky winner, you will get the cardboard with the paper dragon (signed) and the loose
foreground pieces, so you can set up your own Winter scene at home!
So the only thing you need to do is leave a reply with your (user)name, I'll contact you for your address
if you're the winner. I'll announce the winner on Saturday.

Oh and some people seem to have technical problems with replies here. If you're unable to leave a reply,
then I'll accept tweets (I'm maaikehartjes on Twitter) too.

Happy New Dragon Year!

2011-12-31T07:27:00.000-08:00

2011 was a strange year with many trips abroad (Berlin, Budapest, Brussels, London, HongKong, Japan and Korea)
and loads of work, but I'm not very good in looking back; I rather look forward to the next year, when I hope
to finish at least one of my two big book projects, work hard again as a chairlady for the BNS (Dutch Comicartist Union),
have many fun assignments (maybe more photo illustrations like this?) and hopefully travel to Asia again.
I hope that 2011 was a wonderful year you as well and 2012 will be even better!

The making of...

The last day in Korea

2011-12-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

These are my very last Korea traveldiary pages!
I hope you've enjoyed my diary. I'm now going to work on my big book about Japan. Please
be patient for more comics!

The End

A last day with Yun

2011-12-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

(that's an unknown Korean girl next to those cats, it's not Yun)
To be continued...

Last days in Seoul

2011-12-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

The last days in Ulleungdo

2011-12-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

Some people think I'm still in Korea; Check the date on the pages, this diary is from last month!
I'm already back in Holland and very busy with assignments and other obligations,
more about that later. Now first the last pages of my Korea diary:

To be continued...

Fairy Tale island

2011-12-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late update, I've had an extremely busy week.
But let's continue with the drawings I made on the amazing Korean island Ulleungdo:

Drawing for waffles

2011-12-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

Let's go!

2011-12-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

Another day with Yun

2011-12-04T15:27:00.001-08:00

Seoul's cafés - part2

2011-12-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, I made some colour changes to this blog, I got tired of the aqua colours. I'm not sure yet if it's going
to stay like this, maybe I'll change it again if I have more time, but for now it will do.
But anyway, let's move on with my Korea travel diary!

My Asian souvenirs

2011-12-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe it was because I've visited Japan and Korea some times before, but this time I hardly
had any interest in picking up regular souvenirs. Instead I started buying art supplies...

It started with art markers. I use these for my work (drawing 'live' cartoons) and they're
quite expensive, but a bit cheaper in Asia.

Then I got craft tape... Oh, how I love the Japanese 'washi' masking tape! I also scored some
cheap fabric tape and other decorative tapes.

And then I got paper... paper.... and more paper! I still don't know what I'm going to use
these for, but I'm sure I'll find something.

The Japanese have wonderfully decorated origami paper.

But the Koreans are even more advanced in fabricating gorgeous paper (and they had an
even bigger collection of origami paper).

Seoul's cafés - part1

2011-11-30T02:42:00.000-08:00

(to be continued...)

Welcome to Seoul

2011-11-29T04:30:00.000-08:00

Autumn in Seoul

2011-11-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Seoul!

2011-11-25T10:55:00.000-08:00

Leaving Mokpo

2011-11-24T01:37:00.000-08:00

Television!

2011-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

While I was far away in Asia I was on the Dutch TV again!

I was interviewed for Beeldverhaal, a new TV series about comics, set up by comicartist Jean Marc van Tol.
The very first episode was about autobiographical comics so I showed up with my good friend Flo;

Yeah, that's my closet filled with toys in the back. don't get distracted.
If you're in Holland you can still watch the episode at Uitzending Gemist here (click).

It also features Jan Kruis (Jan, Jan en de kinderen), Gerrit de Jager (Familie Doorzon, Zusje), Michiel van de Pol
(Medicijnman, Cartoondiarree), Barbara Stok (Barbaraal) and my boyfriend Mark Hendriks (Tomoyo).
New episode are still being broadcasted and so far I love the series! It's fun but also serious and very interesting.
So go watch next Saturday evening: 23:05 on Ned2 !
Here you can view all other episodes.

Mokpo mountain

2011-11-23T02:39:00.000-08:00

Tired in Mokpo

2011-11-22T06:10:00.001-08:00

Mokpo town centre

2011-11-21T01:01:00.000-08:00

Mokpo

2011-11-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

Yeosu

2011-11-19T03:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry for my lack of updates. I've been so incredibly busy during the last days of our trip,
that I didn't get to uploading new pages. I didn't stop drawing however, so I have a lot of
Korea comics to share with you!

More days in Suncheon

2011-11-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

This day we went to Folk Village Naganeupseong. It was a historical site/ open air museum,
but people still lived in some of the houses. (as in, REALLY living, not doing a performance
of how things were in the past)

To be continued...

Moving to Suncheon

2011-11-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

More days in Jinju

2011-11-03T07:15:00.001-07:00

Our hotelroom was an ondol (= with heated floor)

To be continued...

Another day in Jinju

2011-10-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Our adventures in Korea continue, but the 2nd day isn't as fun an exciting as
the first...
(sorry for the mediocre quality; I can't scan and took photos of my drawings)

To be continued...

First day in Jinju

2011-10-29T03:10:00.000-07:00

This is what happened the first day we went into Jinju for coffee (Korea).

To be continued...

Arrival in Korea

2011-10-28T02:48:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I'm still alive and I didn't stop drawing either!
I have traveled through Japan and worked hard on my new Japan book. But didn't have much time for
drawing, and all the drawing I did do went straight into the book so I can't show you any of it yet.

But now I'm in Korea and I have much more time to draw my adventures, so here they are!
Let's kick off with our arrival, which was quite a culture shock after perfectly-organized Japan:

To be continued...

A week in Hong Kong, part 2

2011-09-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

The other pages I drew in Hong Kong:

Sign in the park near our hotel.

Here 'skin colour' is not MY skin colour anymore!

So many things are not allowed, but no one cares.

A week in Hong Kong, part 1

2011-09-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

So while I'm typing this, I'm sitting behind my laptop in Hong Kong, and I need to pack
because tomorrow we're already leaving for Japan!
Anyway, here are some recent pages of my traveldiary! Sorry, it's all in Dutch and I hope
it's readable enough, since I don't carry a scanner with me (these are photos).

Hong Kong started a bit disappointing, but our hotelroom comforted us!

Here we are at the 21th floor, that is actually the 18th floor, since there are no floors 4,13 and 14.
(4 is an unlucky number for Chinese, since it sounds like the word for death, and 13 is missing
because of Western superstition)

Great green view for Hong Kong! Tsin Shui Wai is far away from the centre of town, so it's
pretty quiet here. Hong Kong didn't stress me out like it usually does.

I love Jim Houser's art! There isn't much at his website, so just check google for examples of his work.

Left: The 90's called, they want their stock illustrations back.
Right: Thank god, also some more interesting work from Hong Kong illustrator Chocolate Rain.
(I'm just wondering what 'dress casual' day is like, since the Chinese here dress
incredibly casual already.

*('Potsticker' is actually a kind of dumpling).

Waiting for our Chinese friends with sore feet.

To be continued...

Socks 33

2011-09-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

At the moment I'm in Hong Kong, but internet connection has been poor. I've drawn a lot of new
stuff and I'll upload it later! For now I still have some pages of my old Japan diary (2008) :

Socks 32

2011-09-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Socks 31

2011-09-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Dace Day

2011-09-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

The exhibition of Dace Sietina's work in comic gallery Lambiek ended (see my previous

post about her), so I could finally take the two drawings I purchased home!

(damn that reflecting glass!)

Detail of the rabbit figures at school

But there was more good Dace-news:
Griffioen Grafiek turned one of her drawings into a gorgeous print and gave me one!

Dace Sietina 'Ode to Basquiat'

The print is really big (50x70 cm) and the quality is excellent, so close to the original!
And because it was impossible to print the fluorescent colours that Dace used in her work,
she hand-drew all the fluoriscent orange parts! A truly one-of-a-kind-print!
There are only 35 made and you can buy one, numbered and signed, for €100.

Check out the rest of Griffioen Grafiek's catalogue as well if you like comic art; They sell some

amazing prints of Chris Ware, Joost Swarte, Robert Crumb and Charles Burns a.o.

(and an old print of me and Barbara Stok as well! Scroll down to 1998, it's just €25!)

Socks 30

2011-09-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

(the last note says 'please watch Korean drama freely')

Socks 29

2011-09-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Socks 28

2011-09-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Some people think I'm already in Hong Kong; No, these 'Socks' pages are old and
come from my traveldiary from Spring 2008.
But this Tuesday I'm off for another trip to Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.
I hope to post pics of my trip while I'm there (depending on how much time
I have to draw and post, and my internet connection of course).
But in the meantime; Let's continue with my old traveldiary, the last day in Hong Kong:

Socks 27

2011-09-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Messy Hong Kong...

Socks 27

2011-09-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

Socks 26

2011-09-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

The last hours in Macau and then back to Hong Kong:

.....And then the day that was the reason why we went to Hong Kong arrived:
The wedding of our friend Sharmon!

This comic is published in Dutch in the latest issue of Zone 5300.
That's why I'll post the rest of the pages later. First go buy that magazine because it's great,
just look at that cover if you don't believe me!

Socks 25

2011-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Socks 24

2011-09-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Chairs and tables outside on the streets of Macua

My drawing of the front of a house, with a lot of ACs, put over a plastered wall.

Socks 23

2011-09-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

It's a face!

Holes in the wall.

(again the fortune bat pictured in the iron of the window decoration)

Socks 22

2011-09-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Socks 21

2011-09-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Socks 20

2011-08-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Up to Macau, and Island close to Hong Kong that was once a Portuguese colony.

To be continued...

Socks 19

2011-08-28T12:56:00.001-07:00

To be continued...

Book in progress

2011-08-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

What the 'manustript' looks like on the inside; Sketches for stories and copies of drawings that I
made while traveling. I'm going to put all my traveldiaries together and make my ultimate book
about Japan. I want to explain all the crazy things I see there, and also why Japan fascinates me
that much.
I don't know yet when this book will be published. First I'm going back to Japan to get some more
documentation and draw some more, then I to put everything together and THEN my publisher
needs to announce it and publish it (which can take up to half a year). Oh, and I want to make an
eBook version of it as well! (I want too much)

Socks 18

2011-08-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 17

2011-08-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 16

2011-08-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

After several days Hong Kong gets to me...

To be continued...

Another brainchild

2011-08-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

And while I'm filling this blog with old pages of Hong Kong, I'm doing other stuff as well.
It's been a while since I painted, but my friend Flo visited me last week and we spent the day
making a total mess of my living room!

I'm making another 'brainchild', but a smaller one than before. (it's not finished yet)
I still have plans for a whole series of these. Now only to find the time...

Socks 15

2011-08-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is a shopping paradise... or a shopping hell.

To be continued...

Socks 14

2011-08-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 13

2011-08-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks12

2011-08-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 11

2011-08-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 10

2011-08-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

(Looking out from my hotel window)

To be continued...

Socks 9

2011-08-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

(Yummy piggy is the brand name of the canned meat, it's mentioned on the yellow price tag)
To be continued...

Socks 8

2011-08-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Actually we went to Hong Kong in 2008 because our friend Sharmon was getting married!

To be continued...

Socks 7

2011-08-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is too much concrete...

And too much shopping.

To be continued...

Socks 6

2011-08-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

The signs says 'It is Dangerous to Climb Sculpture'

To be continued...

Socks 5

2011-08-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 4

2011-08-09T09:46:00.001-07:00

To be continued...

Socks 3

2011-08-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Supermarket in Hong Kong:

To be continued with more Hong Kong skyscrapers

Socks 2

2011-08-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

2008, 3rd of March
After a long flight we arrive in Hong Kong:

To be continued...

Socks 1

2011-08-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Summer months are always more quiet than other months, so I'm using my 'free' time to
work on two books;
One for the BNS (I'm the chairlady of the Dutch Comicartists 'Union') with business information
for illustrators and comic artists (but in a fun way), and one of my own; A book about Japan.

The past years I've traveled to Asia numerous times and filled over a dozen of travel diaries with
drawings, but the only thing that got published was a book of my first trip to Hong Kong.

But after I visited Hong Kong and Tokyo in 2008 I started to work on another book. The title was
'Enjoy your socks' (or just 'Socks'), after the text I spotted on a Japanese sock store; 'Enjoy your
life and your socks'.
The book was never finished and thus never made it to publication. But it's a shame to just let it
lie there, so while I'm preparing for yet another Asia trip, I wanted to show on my blog what I did
finish of Socks.
And there's good news for you foreign readers; It's all in English! :-) I hope you enjoy it!

-To be continued (in colour!)-

Published!

2011-07-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

I saw a lot of my work in print today! Firstly this book arrived! It's the thesis of Jasmijn Rana
who did research about kickboxing Moroccan girls. It turned into a big project under the name
of Chicks, Kicks & Glory, with a comic exhibition, dance performances* and now a book!

I drew a story about Nadia, who dreams of ballet but finally founds out that kickboxing has
that girly pink side as well. I enjoyed working in a more realistic and collage style.

Then I got these papers from my publisher, who promoted my books on a book fair in China!
So is this how my name is written in Chinese??!

Then I went to the supermarket and bumped into this big display with my illustration on it!

My boyfriend's hand was so proud to see the result of his first model job! ;-)

*) The Chicks, Kicks & Glory exhibition and dance performance can be seen on De Parade
in Amsterdam from August 5th to 9th.

More decorated boxes

2011-07-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

Again I decorated some boxes as presents for friends, this time I started painting on wood.

Work in progress. I worked on all four at once.

The final results!
I'm really happy with how they turned out! I'm thinking about making more to sell, but
since they each take me about an hour to make, I'm not sure if it's worth it...

My personal favorite. ( I almost didn't want to give it away! ;-) )

But I got a self-made present back as well! This super cute felt keyring was made by my
friend Nerderella.
(Sometimes she's selling her creations in her Etsy shop!)

Journey to the East

2011-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Oh no, another earthquake in Japan??!?!

No, this is what happens when a wall falls down in my dollhouse! ;-)

Meanwhile I'm really happy because we just booked our next trip to Asia. This Fall I'll be going
back to Hong Kong, Japan and Korea! I'm looking forward to it so much and I hope to show you
lots of drawings and photos!
(And if anyone wonders; It's perfectly safe again to travel to Japan.)

Games & education

2011-07-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I worked for GATE, a project about games and education,
organised by De Waag Society.

I made these cartoons and unlike my other work (don't steal my work!!!) it's licensed
under the Creative Common license. Which means that you're allowed to use my
cartoons as long as you give me credit and don't use it in a commercial way. :-)
Here are bigger versions of these cartoons on Flickr (click).

Cake & dolls

2011-07-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

I decorated some boxes as gifts for my dolly friends...

And before you think I've gone crazy... I don't mean any imaginary friends, but real people
who collect dolls like me. Though well, that's up to you to think I'm crazy for playing with
dolls at my age. ;-)

We met at the beach and sat down with all our dolls for cake and tea.

Comic protest

2011-07-03T17:18:00.001-07:00

Today is a special day in Holland; As a protest to the Government plans to spend less
money on Culture and Arts, Dutch comic artists came up with a fun plan; Today they'll
draw only stick figures in their comics! You'll probably see the result in a lot of newspapers,
magazines and online.
Personally ehm... I've been drawing stick figures my whole life ;-) so I decided to make
a comic about my thoughts about the cuts on Art and Culture. Sorry, it's in Dutch.

And I know my story is just a small part of the whole issue, but a lot of people already addressed
it from other sides, so I wanted to focus on this. Artists are treated by this government as lazy
scum and art as an unnecessary luxury, and that might hurt even more than the loss of money.
It pains me how small-minded our government is nowadays...

-------------------------------
Updated news:
-Article in NRC.next with a clip from the national NOS news
-Article in newspaper het Parool.
-Peter de Wit (S1ngle) talks about the protest on Radio 1.

Here are some other comics from comic artists who participated in the protest:
Barbara Stok
Do You Know Flo?
Fokke&Sukke
John&John
Peter van Straaten
Roel Venderbosch
Sandra de Haan
Ype&Willem
Zoociety

Know any others? Leave a comment and I'll add it! :-)

Dace Sietina

2011-07-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

Usually I just show my own stuff here, but this time I want to introduce you to the art of
Dace Sietina. I discovered her work when I was a judge in the Benelux Comic Contest,
the comic she sent in was my personal favorite (unfortunately the other judges didn't agree).
So I was excited when I heard she had an exhibition at gallery/comicstore Lambiek.

I have a feeling that people will either hate her work or absolutely love it, and personally I fall in
the 2nd category. ;-) It's weird and fresh, sometimes even gets close to being ugly but still manages
to stay interesting and entertaining. Er... sorry, I'm not an art critic!
Anyway, I loved it and for the first time in my life I felt like buying something, BUT...

The big one was her latest, most expensive and personal favorite work, inspired by Basquiat.
It was my personal favorite as well, but unfortunately Arthur Griffioen beat me to buying it! :-(
But the good news is that Arthur runs the artprint company Griffioen Grafiek and plans to turn
the drawing into an exclusive print! (And he promised me one, yeah! :-D )
The smaller drawing at the left is based upon the sign that hangs from the Lambiek store.

But that didn't stop me from buying; I bought this one with the 'rabbit' figures! Dace poses next to it.
And then I also bought the smaller drawing at the far right from the first pic. Seriously, this is the first
time ever that I bought art! But as you can see I'm already getting inspired by Dace's work!

So go visit her exhibtion in Amsterdam, it's still there for 1,5 months!
(but if you want to buy something you better hurry up! Prices vary between €50 and €500)
And this is Dace Sietina's website.
Oh and did you know that Griffioen Grafiek made a print of my work too, many, many years ago?
Somehow it's still not sold out, and they're just €25 a piece (and they're huuuuge!)
(see here at the year 1998)

Published

2011-06-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while it's fun to get mail and see my work in print.

This time I spotted the illustrations I made for Calvé advertisements in Viva magazine,
and I received a book in the mail with one of my comics in it.

This is the 'Hu.Man Holidays Vakantie Doeboek' with my 6-page comic about Hong Kong.
I wonder what you'll think of it because it's a bit more poetic than my other travel comics. :-)

The Hu.Man Holidays Vakantie DoeBoek #9 is available in stores or online for €18,95

Another photo illustration

2011-06-08T13:49:00.001-07:00

I blogged about this photo illustration before when I was working on it.
Now it has been published so I can show you the final photo:

This was an illustration for Factor 15 magazine, about children staying with a foster family.
This style of illustrating with paper dolls is pretty time-consuming but I enjoy it a lot.

Terror food

2011-06-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a suicide cook.

(and yes, I know that they announced by now that bean sprouts are safe to eat, but
I wasn't worried anyway. This pic was from my meal yesterday.)

My work in the supermarket

2011-06-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Even though my work has been published numerous times in magazines and newspapers,
it's still a nice sensation to walk into a supermarket and spot my illustrations there... on the
top of mayonaise!

These little foldable papers contain simple recipes with Calvé mayonaise, illustrated by me.
(The potato in the red ribbon is my design as well)

I'm really excited about these. It was a great assignment and I'm so happy to see them in print!
The ad agency asked for a loose handycrafted style so I worked with scanned paper, patterns and
used different paint brushes in Photoshop. Here's a closer look at my designs:

My illustrations are now also used in editorials ads (check your magazines!) and on posters.
My sister spotted the poster below at an outdoor event.

And keep an eye out for this design; It's the debut of my boyfriend as a hand model! ;-)

Budapest day 5 + day 6

2011-06-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

The final pages of my Budapest comic diary!

Budapest day 5

2011-05-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

A late update but here are new pages from my Budapest diary!
After going home early, the night wasn't over yet...

Tomorrow I'll post the last pages of my diary! To be continued....

Budapest day 4

2011-05-25T08:40:00.001-07:00

Of course, after that night of partying I paid the price....

So what was this workshop about? Basically just a bunch of comicartists coming together and
drawing a page on the spot in a few hours time. The theme was Elvis, because at the time he
had just been declared an honorary citizen of Budapest (I kid you not!).

Everybody chose an Elvis song as the title of their comic and had to come up with a story about the
King. After a few hours of drawing in the sun all comics were collected and immediately went to the
printer to be turned into a wonderful limited edition comicbook! Joost Swarte designed the cover.
Here's a bigger version of my Heartbreak Hotel comic (click).
Can you spot all the letters?

And for you comic lovers, here's a bigger pic (click) of all the artists that cooperated.

To be continued...

Budapest day 3, part 2

2011-05-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's hard being the single women between all these men...

(Unfortunately Blab didn't make it into the official pic with the ambassador :-( )
To be continued...

Budapest day 3 , part 1

2011-05-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

To be continued...

Budapest day 2

2011-05-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

The 2nd day of my stay in Hungary.

To be continued

Budapest day 1, part 2

2011-05-19T05:16:00.001-07:00

After settling down in the hostel it was time to discover Budapest!

En ken je Speak the Hungarian Rapper nog niet? Kijk en luister dan snel hier! (klik)

Budapest day 1, part 1

2011-05-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not dead, just taking a well needed rest! But now I finally got to scanning my traveldiary
from Budapest.
I went there last month as chairlady of the BNS (Dutch Comic Association) with Albo Helm, on invitation
of the Fonds BKV, Gert Jan Pos, together with a bunch of other Dutch comicartists; Lamelos, Marcel Ruyters
and Typex, who all had an exhibition of their work in Budapest.

To be continued...

Ghost noodles

2011-05-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.
I've been on a short trip to Hungary and then took some much needed rest,
but of course I've been drawing like crazy abroad and I'll upload my travel
diary soon. For now just one pic that I just made for fun;

A good friend of ours in Hong Kong is thinking about writing a book and
when my boyfriend described her plans to me, it inspired me to make this
illustration.
(But I have a suspicion that his description wasn't very accurate.)

Spot the differences

2011-04-25T12:10:00.001-07:00

Last month I worked hard on another advertisement assignment for Calvé. I had to make
illustrations for a series of recipes with mayonaise and potatoes.
I enjoyed this assignment a lot but the thing with advertisement is that it oftend needs a
million changes before it can go to print.

So it wasn't a million, but here are the changes one of the illustrations had to go through,
from grinning garlic to smiling potatoe and other things, and then the final result used in
a magazine ad (now published so check your magazines, there are 8 others!).
(I also made the red banner, but not the lettering next to the illustration in the ad)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hope you have lots of sunshine, flowers and eggs in this year of the rabbit!

And something else:

The day before Easter I went for a quick trip to Antwerp for an interview at the World Literature Day
event, organised by Stichting Lezen, Cobra.be and the VRT. I was interviewed by Friedl' Lesage.
I had planned to talk about my way of working and my visits to Asia, but ended up only talking about
the comicbook I made of Hong Kong ('Hong Kong dagboek').
The interview was live streamed on cobra.be and you can still watch it here.
I hope I didn't say silly things, my hair looks stupid and I was a bit nervous.... aargh!

Berlin day 5 (part 2)

2011-04-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

These are already the last pages of my Berlin Pictoplasma diary.
The last day of the festival continued with more interesting lectures:

That's all for now! But next week I'm off on another trip; A comic festival in Budapest! So expect
more comicreports when I come back!
Oh, and here's some more about the bunny of Yasmin (Nerderella).

Berlin day 5 (part 1)

2011-04-19T15:14:00.001-07:00

Now back to my Berlin Pictoplasma diary! Here's the ending of another festival day:

And then the last day of the festival started...

To be continued...
And in case you're wondering about the little rabbit that pops up in a few pics; That's
one of the bunnies from Nerderella (=Yasmin).

More little paper rooms

2011-04-18T13:56:00.001-07:00

After blogging about my latest 3D paper illustration I thought I'd show you some more
of my previous paper assignment; a big illustration for Unox soup.

At the left is the sketch that I sent in for the pitch from the ad agency (and that got me
the job! :-) )

And here's a pic of one set that I made for the final illustration. (the figures are actually
holding plates that were photoshopped in later).
It's going to be used on a huge card that will be distributed door to door so if you live in
Holland you might find it on your doormat soon!

A room on my desk

2011-04-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

I'll continue my Berlin diary later, now it's time for something else;

This is what my desk looks like now. I'm working on an illustration for a magazine and
I wanted to make it with paper in 3D again. I kept the set on my desk for a while, just
because it looked so cosy to have a miniature room next to my coffee cup. :-)

The fun of these 'illustrations' is that you can take different pics of them. I won't show
the final illustration before it's been published, but here's a small preview with different
lighting (night scene?).

Berlin day 4

2011-04-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

My diary continues. Keep in mind that I drew this originally just for myself. Most are notes
I made during the lectures. I'm not saying much about the animations we saw because I couldn't
draw in the dark (there was more light during the lectures).

The first page starts with the ending of the 2nd Pictoplasma festval day:

To be continued...

Berlin day 3 (part 2)

2011-04-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

More about the 2nd day of the Pictoplasma festival:

I really love Christoph Niemann's work. Check out the illustrated 'blog' he keeps for the NY Times.

To be continued...

Berlin day 3 (part 1)

2011-04-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

The 2nd day of the Pictoplasma festival:

(to be continued)