Experiment (2)

Last week I’ve been experimenting more on Ampersand bord. This time on aquabord.

It’s a panel coated with a special clay mix that sort of absorbs water like a fine paper. The reason why I wanted to try it out was the claim that watercolours can be displayed without a glass frame.

Now I’ve tried pastelbord and aquabord. Next is claybord and I will let you know which I like best :)

The drawings I did were done in Lukas Illu-Color pigmented inks and Derwent Inktense pencils.

Experiment (1)

Here’s a experiment I’m doing, working on pastelbord by Ampersand the first time :)

Secrets revealed

Finally I can show you what I’ve been up to a few weeks ago! I’ve been working on an adoption announcement for a Dutch family that adopted a boy from Kenya.

They asked for a realistic (pencil) drawing, combining both Kenyan and Dutch elements.

On the front you can see a big ‘M’ because the boy’s name starts with ‘M’. A loving lioness with cub and on top of the lioness the family dog. Next to the lioness and cub two stuffed animals, a zebra that the boy owns and to add something typical Dutch: Miffy (Nijntje)! In the back baobab trees, very common in Kenya. Up in the sky the star constellation Capricornus, the constellation the boy was born under. The lion cub grabbing at the stars was on the inside of the card next to some other drawings that I’ll post later.

I really enjoyed doing this commission and I’m glad the family was very happy with the result.

Dear Diary (6)

A few weeks ago I started to exercise, my way, my ‘I’m-still-having-trouble-with-my-burn-out-way’. My energy level is still not what I want it to be and I noticed my physical condition going down and my weight going up. So I though not to make it too difficult (I hate exercising) and thought about what comes easy to me.

‘Riding my bike!’ So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been riding my bike 4,8 kilometres in about 20 minutes back and forth from my home to the Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos) and walking for half an hour in between. Not sure how fast or slow I’m going, the term right now is while biking my legs need to hurt.

It really surprised me how easy it was to get accustomed to doing this every morning and I really like doing it! Both the biking and the walking. The walking turns out to be a really good start of my day, it eases my mind and it takes my mind to places I need to go to get my creative juices flowing. Now and then I take pictures and pick up stuff I find on the dirt road to draw later. Yay!