Pop-up's and puddles

Hello lovely reader! :)

Finally there is something to see from my current project, which as it turns out will be a children's pop-up book with an educational aspect. Somehow I always happen to come up with something that is suitable for children even though I didn't plan that in the first place. All I knew was that I wanted to do a pop-up book! Oh well....

Anyway... let me introduce you to Miri! She's a peculiar little thing with huge glasses and a passion for taking pictures. The difference with her is though that she pictures reflections in puddles rather than the actual thing. So unlike other people Miri has a living room full of puddles and behind every puddle is a bit of history to discover.
Every puddle will introduce a different country. On the left side of these double page spreads there will always be some information about the country with a few easy phrases in the associated language and a short story of the history behind this place. On the right side there will be a picture frame where you can see the puddle with it's reflection, which you can pull open to see what's behind the puddle. You can see this in the pics below.

So this is the basic idea of the book, I can't tell you everything now where would be the fun in that! But I'll keep you updated :)

Thank you for looking!

1st living room and character sketch

living room pop-up dummy

sketch for 1st puddle frame

1st puddle dummy

Fashion and Illustration

Hey!

I once again had a chance to do some fashion illustrations for Amelia's Magazine. This time for the A/W collection 2013 for Ekaterina Kukhareva and Aminaka Wilmont. Two brands with truly great and feminine designs  I wouldn't mind wearing myself! 

Now I normally don't follow fashion weeks that much but every now and then I take a glimpse and it's most of the time really inspiring. I understand that fashion trends are very much subject to personal taste and sometimes I really can't understand the fascination or why someone would possible wan't to wear certain designs. Though at this point I start to think of fashion as fine art. It is a way to express something or yourself and must sometimes be looked at from an abstract point of view... I think. Not that you misunderstand me now, I don't mean to say all fine art is abstract but abstractions is a facet of fine art.
When I think about fashion illustration I found myself sometimes quite disappointed looking at the real thing because the illustration looked just so much better! Did you ever feel the same? 
However... here are the 2 illos I did and hopefully you'll like them :)
Thanks for looking!

Ekaterina Kukhareva A/W 2013

Aminaka Wilmont A/W 2013

Once upon a time...

... there was a teapot and a cup...

Book Cover for 'The Night Circus'

Hello again!

This is a book cover I did for my FAVOURITE book ever 'The Night Circus'!! You must read it if you haven't already it is just beautifully written. Anyway... here it is step by step :)

paper cut-out

 'Le Bateleur' with a spelling error :-o

 paper cut-out

 Final piece

It's a pop-up thing

Hey,

I always loved to do 3D things and then this pop-up workshop came along and what shall I tell you it was AMAZING!!! So I've done my own and written a bit of accompanying text for my pop-up's as well. I apologise for any mistakes I've not spotted and hope you like it.
Enjoy and thanks for looking!

Unexpected Happenings

Some Place, Somewhere, 1843

The first time it appeared when the sun had set and the sky turned black. In the middle of the woods, out of nowhere, a light bright as lightning strikes and a strange tower and what looked like a little theatre materialised. You happened to be there in these woods to witness this miracle.

Retrospect

The forest is quiet again. When you come closer to the tower there first thing you see is the little pond in front of it.  As you bend over the edge you stop in awe, as what you see is not just ordinary water. You see places and things not from this world and a faint music starts playing as you continue to watch the images appear and dissolve. Then you hear the ticking of the clock. As you observe it with curious eyes the numbers change to stars and the clock face changes. You recognise the image as you’ve seen it in the water of the pond just seconds before. You let your eyes glide down the tower to the door but when you stand in front of it, it won’t open so you turn and walk over to the theatre. There is a elaborate iron wrought fence just behind the curtain but there doesn’t seem to be anything behind the fence. When you stand in front of the gate the temperature drops slightly. You open the door of the fence and hidden behind it is an Ice Garden. Though it is not visible from outside the fence, as thought there is an invisible curtain yet you can feel the cold. Every tree and flower, every little thing is delicately carved from ice. The sheer beauty of this garden is taking your breath away.

Collographs, etchings and linocuts :)

Hello my faithful readers :)

A quick update on what I've been doing the last weeks.... I worked on several prints on the connection between people and cities. How it is linked and also how we can build a world we want to live in. So I've been looking at maps and houses in general. I hope you like what you see!

Comments are much appreciated as always.

the beginnings

playing around

lino cut - developmental work

1st etchings - developmental work

the way to the final image

houses are etching with collograph hands

only etching

  the collogragh for the final

final print :)

Abstract and not so abstract

Hallo!

It's time for a little update and since the deadline was yesterday I can show you the finished artwork for the book illustration for 'On Chesil Beach" and the "Abstract Book" we had to do.

I hope you like what you see and thanks for looking!!

First the two double page spreads for Chesil Beach!

Here is my little abstract book. We had to choose a text, which we had to abstractly illustrate and I've chosen "Fire and Ice" from Robert Frost.

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate 

To say that for destruction ice 

Is also great 

And would suffice.

This is the front cover.

Some say the world will end in fire

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Back cover.

Long overdue...

Hi all!

I know I had a quite extended summer break on my blog but I'll make it all up the next weeks, months,... erm ... years! :D
So this autumn is lino print time for a book project but there will also be an abstract book where you shall see first roughs soon and more.

For now I show you some of my lino carvings I did and two images for a project which will probably be called 'Exquisite Corpse / Beautiful Mind' and I'm working with x-rays there but more to that another time :)

This was the 1st linocut I did and yes I'm quite aware it looks a bit rubbish! 

Just scroll down...

That's the 1st proper one for the book (which is 'On Chesil Beach' btw)

now you wonder where the beach is huh!.... hahaha

no, I'm not that uncreative!

this is the 1st print
It's a map and illustrates the journey Florence made to visit Edward
It's not finished either!!

 All these are part of the 2nd image...

which will hopefully look something like that... but not b/w

and here are the 1st sketches for  'Exquisite Corpse / Beautiful Mind'

not much to see yet but I thought I show you anyway so don't be too judgemental pls

and sorry for the rather bad pic quality...