Two new photo illustrations

I haven't yet shown you these two illustrations I made for magazine Factor15.
For both I used my photo-illustration technique. I love this style but I don't have many
opportunities to use it, and it's very time-consuming.
Funny enough both illustrations were about bad divorces.

The first article I had to illustrate focused on the influence this has on the children involved.

Everything is made from paper and cardboard and photographed on a glass table.
Then the 2nd article was about parents (ab)using their children in the divorce battle, and
before starting papercutting, I made this sketch:

(The little boys were supposed to be identical copies in the photo)
I really liked my sketch, but unfortunately it was turned down because the contents of the
article had changed in the meantime (yeah...) and now the article focused more on all the
(official) help that was available for the children.

So this was my new idea, a rooster and chicken fighting, and an egg, protected in a nest.
The egg is real by the way, but the feathers and everything else is made from paper.
I was really happy with how this last illustration turned out!

Both illustrations in print.

Work work work!

I didn't manage to update this blog in a while because after a few slow months I suddenly
got swamped in work!

This is what usually happens when I'm hired to draw at a business event (yeah, count them,
that many!) The past weeks I've drawn a LOT of cartoons for a lot of clients!
Here are some samples;

And then I've also been working on another photo illustration for Factor15 magazine;
This was what my table looked like! Illustrating can be a weird thing...

I can't show you the result yet until it's published so here's a detail of the final pic.

And then finally I had to make a huge illustration for company Ziggo. It describes internal
processes in a visual way. That's also why I can only show you a tiny (censored) pic and a
detail. Nobody is supposed to know yet that Ziggo is starting a boat company! ;-)

The coming week I'll be drawing cartoons at business events practically non-stop, and I
also have to make a comic that explains an important change in the copyright law and a
pile of cartoons about innovative ways of learning.
I hear some people mention a thing called holiday but I'm not sure what it is... ;-)

3D coffee

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.

Happy New Dragon Year!

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...

Another photo illustration

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

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.)

Happy Easter!

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!

More little paper rooms

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

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?).

Flow

A lot of Flow arrived in my mailbox today!

CD and promo CD, promo flyers at the left.

The promo CD cover with its tail, handmade from one sheet of printer paper.

Front and cover of the actual CD!

The back.

Inside.

Underneath the cd.

Yeah! I'm very happy with the results! It was fun to design this CD but I'm not sure if I will again.
I think I'm more an illustrator than a designer.

This CD is called 'Flow' from Jazz musician Iman Spaargaren Quartet en Septet.
It will be released later this month.
The photo's of Iman were made by Ron Beenen, and Ruben Steeman helped me with some technical stuff.

Food photos

I'm still very busy with the commercial assignment for a big food company. I have several
dishes in my illustration that need to look extra tasty, so yesterday I visited a professional
food photography studio, to photograph some meals with my little paper figures next to it.
It was really interesting to watch the whole process!

The cook is busy putting an egg into the right position. It took four eggs to get a perfect
one for the pic.
At the right there's the whole set up for the tiny plate.

Are these the tools of a cook or a surgeon?!
It took us four hours to get the right pic of two sandwiches, and I didn't get lunch. X-(
(the sandwiches for the shoot were only supposed to LOOK tasty, we couldn't eat them)

Work work work...

Usually January is a quiet month for work, but this time it's been crazy! I've been working
practically non stop, but thankfully most work was a lot of fun.
My last job was a sketch for an advertisement, but I can't show you anything yet since it's
a pitch (but paid) and my sketch still has to be approved.
But it was a lot of fun to work on since the ad agency choose me for my 3D photo style!
So here are just some snapshots of the work in progresss.


update: Yes, my sketch has been approved! More about this assignment later.

Autumndam

Last week I had to work in the centre of town on the 11th floor. Great view!

It was next to the Central Station. I never knew Amsterdam looked so pretty in autumn.

Out for a drink

Take me to your leading liquor store!


Out for a drink. Out for a....

Urban beings

Last week I visited the exhibition of Maartje Jaquet. She takes photos of 'stads beesten'
('urban animals'), things on the street that resemble animals.
It was fun because I often take similar pics, but never know what to do with them.

Here's Maartje's Flickr account where you can see all her urban animals.

Pacman!
You can still visit the exhibition until the end of this month. They also sell a book with
her photos and poems there!
(Oh, and I don't know if it's confusing but the pics in this post are all mine)

Everything is alive

Yesterday two lonely clouds passed by my window.

That night I cooked a recipe from Okinawa and the goya tried to escape.

*) Goya is the Japanese name for bitter melon, a bitter vegetable that looks a bit like
cucumber. The core turns red when they're good to eat. Okinawa, a sub tropical
Japanese island, is famous for its goya.

Cheap but nice

My supermarkte has a brand of cheap products named Euroshopper. Recently
the packages were redesigned; Red and white with simplified illustrations.

And I love it, just look at these canned sliced mushrooms!

Lottery ticket

Now with a number like this, do you expect to win or not?

(in case you're wondering; No, I didn't win anything...)

Drinks for the dead!

When I die I want someone to put cups of tea on my grave.

But in the morning, I'd like some coffee.

And in the evening, bring me a beer!

This was on Zoshigaya Cemetery (Minami Ikebukuro, Tokyo)
The cans are usually opened (because the ghosts might have trouble opening
it themselves) but are left full.

Osaka

After small and quiet Nagasaki, we have to get used to big and busy Osaka.

Do you see it? It's a police station and it's amazing!