THANK YOU friends & followers!

Hi everyone,

Now that I have a new Animation Works website/blog I will probably stop posting on Blogspot. I hate writing this, but the fact is, I am spending way too much time on social media: wordpress, blogger, facebook, youtube, twitter, and so on (and with most of them I have two accounts). I did some quick math the other day and realized I'm now spending a full day a week (and probably a little bit more) on these sites. Too much of a good thing, obviously ...

Anyway, some of them have to go and I'm afraid this blog is one of them. Which is a bit sad, because I love blogging. I love the whole network of artists, love the pictures and stories which are more personal than quick facebook posts or tweets. But I have a blog with my new site now, and it makes sense to stick with that one.
So, to my followers and fellow bloggers: thanks so much for all the fun and inspiration and your positive comments! It's been a real boost for my confidence, and my artistic development. I have bookmarked all your blogs so at least I can visit from time to time and see all your wonderful work.

Hope to see you again, on my new AW blog, Twitter, LinkedIn or Vimeo, because those are the media which I will continue to use. The Facebook pages for Book of Aderyn and Animationworks will also stay online, and I will check them regularly.
All the best to you Bloggers, keep up the great posts, and keep in touch!

Comic strip

Saw my very first comic strip in print yesterday. Wasn't perfect or anything, but it still gave me a nice tingly feeling, and a taste for more! Here are some more sketches,  I'll post the whole thing soon.

Monkey Business

I'm working on a short comic strip. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I'm also really enjoying it, because there are monkeys in it! These are the first designs, made up of my three favourite monkeys: he's got the build of a chimp, the beard of a gibbon, and the colour of an orangutan.

Malmberg stuff

Today I received some 'adventure packs' from Malmberg, with some of my old and new illustrations of Naut, Meander and Brandaan. I made some snapshots of all the books and printed stuff thrown together.
Books, brochures, holiday magazine, DVD-rom, Planet earth DVD, pagemarkers, rulers and stickers. School doesn't sound so bad anymore :)

Ezekiel's Vision

Ezekiel's vision of dead bones coming back to life. At first I thought of some more poetic way of visualizing it, but the image is so powerful I decided to just draw it like it's written.

Song of Songs

Golden City

This is an illustration for the Children's Bible project, but I drew inspiration from memories of my trip to Tuscany, two years ago. I remember the bricks of the old cities almost turning gold in the late afternoon, the hills sunken in deep green shadows ....

New Doodles

Added some more character doodles to Friday's post. The Hercules-style woman worked out well, I'll try and make a nice colour version one of these evenings. If I have time that is. The days may be getting shorter, mine seem longer and longer ...

Studies & sketches

I haven't done any life drawing in years, and it's starting to bother me. So I just made up a pose, and tried to figure out how arms twist and bend when you touch fingertips behind your back. Might have been a bit too ambitious, but I enjoyed it.

Book of Aderyn Blog (Dutch only)

Illustratie voor een nieuwe blog die ik net gestart ben. Het Boek van Aderyn is een serie fantasy/ avonturenboeken voor jonge lezers. Van het eerste deel, De Adelaar en de Koning, is de tweede druk verschenen. Deel 2 is nu in de maak, en later dit jaar hoop ik daarover meer te posten!

Bezoek de weblog van Het Boek van Aderyn

Malmberg in Tokyo work in progress

Wow, look at my drawing on this massive billboard in Tokyo! Alas, not. But, it's a nice idea. I'm still smoothing edges and working on the lighting to get the picture more convincing, but it's sort of working already. Oh, the writing on my poster are actual Japanese translations of the names Naut, Meander and Brandaan.

Malmberg Skating Colour version

The coloured version. I added the flyover because here in Dordrecht there's a skating circuit under the freeway too, and it sort of adds to the whole urban feel. I tried to give it a grungy quality, almost as if someone made the picture with a mobile phone. I like the action and lighting, not sure of the colours.

Illustrations of Old Testament stories by Arjan Wilschut for a children's bible by Willem de Vink. Colouring by Timo Visser and Arjan Wilschut. Hope you like it!

Another Children's Bible trailer, this time with New Testament illustrations.
Illustrations by Arjan Wilschut, colouring by Timo Visser and Arjan Wilschut.

Florian Satzinger

I don't usually post work from other artists, especially when it's ten times better than my own work :). But I'll gladly make an exception this time! My good friend Chris Evans sent me this beautiful book: DUCK: Birds and Pencils and Sundry Things and Hobs by one Florian Satzinger. It's not a story as such, but a wild and awesome collection of duck sketches in crazy flying machines and other fantastic adventures. Have look, it's great!

Check Florian Satzinger's weblog Paperwalker

Comic House: 25 years, 75 artists, 100% quality!

Comic House, the agency I'm connected to, celebrated their 25th anniversary this year. I'm very proud to have worked with them for almost 20 years now, and I'm flattered they used a Meander drawing for one of their anniversary banners. Send your congratulations to Comic House here or visit the website.

Malmberg Boekenlegger (Dutch only)

Deze gratis boekenleggers van Brandaan, Meander en Naut liggen vrijdag op verschillende plaatsen in Dordrecht: de kantine van de Pabo, kinderboekhandel de Giraf en de openbare bibliotheek. Dus wie er eentje wil: let goed op, ze zijn zo weg. (Aanstormende) docenten of andere geinteresseerden die te laat zijn of te ver weg wonen kunnen natuurlijk ook altijd contact opnemen met de uitgever, Malmberg

Explore!

2nd of a series of 10 new illustrations for Malmberg, featuring Naut, Meander and Brandaan on new adventures!