Memory sketchbook

I combined the Christmas-present-tradition with some sketch practicing
and made a gift for my boyfriend.

i collected some photographs of nice trips we made together
and sketched them together in one book.
twenty sketches, some quick and others with a lot of colour, 
i tested some techniques and explored our faces with my pencil.

it turned out a nice memory book.
some scans from the book:

Postcard for the holy days

Yesterday, i finally completed a postcard for the upcoming holidays / winter days / christmas days.
it took me a while, i'm surprised by my own patience to draw again and again and again the same mittens. This is the result..

I doubted a while about the size, i think it actually was perfect size 120x120 (square)... But it's much more expensive for mail (you need special envelopes), so i kept the regular postcard-format. 
Do you think it's good to take this into account? 

The cards are in print now
(and for those interested, available from saturday!)

a tree

tree / crayon with special watercolor-effect

prince of Denmark.

to show you that i didn't disappear
(and i know it's been over a month since my last blog post...)
here's something i've been working on.
apart from this, it's been very quiet on the make/draw/design-side.
(i spent my time with a lot of work, drawing classes, and staring at a screen during the Ghent Film Fest).

but yesterday, i opened a new sketchbook
and a christmas/holiday/new year-card is becoming alive in my head.
more news next week, i hope.

so, this is a flyer for the long expected concert of my boyfriends band.
welcome :)

the cake party

last week, it was my birthday. (i like to remember it for some weeks :))
a good occasion for some cakes, i thought.
so i sent this invitation to my friends:

I spent some hours (or more like half a week-end) in the kitchen,

with my friends flour, sugar, chocolate and butter (mostly)

and with some stress moments 

(like this one below - happened several times.).

But i have to say: I LOVE BAKING CAKES.

The result was this table:

some party elements, and my at my best:

close-up of the best (and easy-to-bake) cookies in the world (i found the recipe here).

the chocolate cake is even more peanuts, i found the recipe here.

and i succeeded to make a really tasty, healthy lemonade.

Needless to say, it was a tasty sunday worthy party.

mmm. london.

birthday breakfast! with good coffee and french toast. 

white cliffs of Dover

as a birthday present, my boyfriend took me on a super short trip to London.
We went by boat (and missed the first one..) to Dover, and drove some hours.
It was quite a trip, but once in London, i instantly loved the city (i was never in London before!)..

and now it's clear, being on the road (and being on holiday, even if it was for two days)
gives me a lot of inspiration for drawing.

on the boat, i draw some strange impression of the white cliffs of Dover.

the fishing family / voor janne

last weekend, my boyfriend went fishing with his family (an old tradition)
in a super nice environment.
it feels like you're in the wild nature (although it's not far from a city),
there's a lake with a little house (size of a summerhouse, but fully and cosy equipped)

The house (property of his sisters boyfriend) is now for sale.. 
although i've been there only twice,
i think i will miss it. it has a special atmosphere, and an 'instant holiday calming effect'

i took some deep 'pure air sniffs' and
used my new pencils (they're great!!).

i didn't work on this sketches on my computer, so there's not much contrast. 
but in this way, the colors stay more like they are in my sketchbook. 
i don't like it when the scan changes the 'atmosphere' of my sketch...
(maybe you know some tips/tricks for this?)

(janne: ik hou de originele schets bij voor je!)

Residentie Melinda

I commute from home to work,
and sometimes, when it gets busy, i live some days in the city where i work.
which is really nice, because it's at the coast.

When i'm living there, i stay in a really calming, nice apartment.
Always good to be there, and have a good sleep and nice chats at the kitchen table.

These days, i'm staying there again,
keeping room n°1 occupied.
So i HAD to draw for Annemie and Bol.
Thanks!!!

ijverige ooievaars (pt. 2)

July was a babyboom-month. Before Jinte there was Hannah (and Idris, can't wait to visit him).
All this cute babies, curious to see them change in the next months!

ijverige ooievaars / busy storks (pt. 1)

I've been making some birth announcements lately.

This one i made for a very cute baby girl, Jinte. 

our new kitchen wall !

work in progress...

5 last random travel sketches

the holiday already seems ages ago,
but posting sketches kept me in a traveling-mood. 
mm.. sweden, norway, copenhagen. mm.. motorcycle and little tent. mmmmmm. kanelbullar.
however, i've had quite enough of posting only this travel sketches.
So next week(s)
i'll start to make stamps (for janne's project) 
and learn to crochet properly.

For now, some last random sketches to finish!

* fishes are fascinating!

saw a big jellyfish really close

at the aquarium in Lysekil (havets hus)

* in Norway, sheeps are everywhere.

even in the highest mountains, where i've no idea how they survive.

* norwegian speciality!

and they have the same shape as the waffles my mom used to bake.

i was fond of the 'waffle thursday'-promotion we found in a gas station. with strawberry sauce!

* bad weather day

a holiday in a nutshell : 

COFFE(E)NHAGEN

me, spotting animals

we often drove through regions with a big bear population

so i always was very focused,

kept my eyes wide open

and try to spot bears and other interesting wildlife (moose? reindeer? you never know...).

unfortunately, the only bears i spotted were at the (really cool) Gronklitt BJORN PARK 

i sometimes guessed it could be a bear. but it also could be a strangely shaped wooden thing...

Bohuslän + Skåneland (the idyllic southwest coast of Sweden)

after norway, we went back to sweden and travelled through the southwest. 
green hills, some sheep/cows, a little forest here and there
and behind this all, the sea.
(i love the sea)

such a beautiful coast, with postcard-villages
and amazing boats.
in the last sketch, i tried to draw some little boats and a ferry.
need a lot more practice.
a day in the port of G(h)ent, sitting in the sun
and drawing a bit sounds like a good plan...

lovely sleeping bags

mummy sleeping bags (that are not 'matching')

make you sleep like this..

or like this...

... so we developed our own sign language

First man i saw in Norway

After two weeks, we crossed the Swedish border en started our Norway-discovery. 

Really strange how this country border also seems a border between different sceneries.

From calm lakes, green hills and fir woods to the wild nature of Norway: 

high mountains, wild waterfalls, and men fishing in stormy rivers in the pouring rain. 

On the sketch it seems more idyllic, it looked much more dangerous than this. I need some practice in how to stop making things seem cute and nice in my sketches..)

* Our little travel itinerary part 1: Stockholm / Västerås / Gävle / Falun / Mora - Orsa / Leksand / Östersund

a strange camping hierarchy

i never used to go camping a lot
but last month i gained some camping experience.
it was cosy, 
and nice to be like a snail and have your home with you.

but it's also a whole new world of its own, 
a world of (above all) mobile homes, caravans and campers
of noisy gatherings, barbecues and 
paying too much money for too dirty showers,
and where there is (strange enough, i think) only little space for little tents..

snowy mountains #3

snowy mountains #2 + motorcycle

Snowy mountains #1

on swedish roads

after a day of driving (from Mora to Östersund, central Sweden),

and drinking coffees in cosy road restaurants 

and trying to spot a bear in the woods (while sitting on the back of the motorcycle), 

i draw this landscape.

it was a spectacular view that day:

enormous woods, deserted roads,

some snowy mountains far away, a few lakes and little rivers,

and once in a while some red houses.

oh, i love sweden.