Illustrations & paintings by Marjolein Caljouw

Wallpainting/Mural & sketchbook update

2012-02-20T00:15:00.001+01:00

These last weeks I've been working on a wallpainting in a store. It's almost finished, so the update of the total walldesign will be coming soon after the opening. Here's a sneak preview.

Here I'm sitting on a double scaffolding, the construction builders made it all happen. I have to say that it was quite scary to paint there, but after a while sitting/standing there, I could find my flow while listening to some music.

Pencil, coloured pencil on paper.

My elephant teapot, so happy that I found that.

Long days, short pencils.

I've bought this great encyclopedia for reference pictures. It's very useful for my new paintings. The shapes and colours inspire me to variate with leafs, colours etc.

Sketchbook

2012-01-29T18:11:00.001+01:00

Pencil, acrylics, colourpencils and fineliner on paper.

Close-up.

While I'm waiting somewhere or traveling I love to sketch in my sketchbook. Nothing planned, without a concept or anything. A lot of times I can use those sketches for other projects, because the spontanity brings new ideas.

Close-up.

Pencils, ballpoint on paper.

Close-up.

I start often with a red pencil because they are much softer than the graphite (but not so easy to erase) I like to draw on top of it with graphite.

This sharpner is so cute, bought it at Harolds.

Oscar de la Renta fashion illustration

2012-01-13T00:26:00.002+01:00

Oscar de la Renta, acrylics and (colored pencils) and pastel on Arches hotpress watercolourpaper.
30x30 cm.

Rough sketch, pencil on paper, 21 x 25 cm.

Photo's made by: Team Peter Stigter. http://www.teampeterstigter.com/

Designer: Oscar de la Renta

When I saw these outfits made by Oscar de la Renta, I was blown away. Especially the left one is so beautiful, with the doll-face and everything in white, with the combination of textures, just: perfect. I started to make an illustration with these outfits.

Under the photo on the site of Peter Stigter was written about (fake) fur and I wondered if these outfits were fake/real...Well, they have all kind of soft accesoires made from fox fur and rabbit fur on their site. Very dissapointing and uneccessary. More and more fashion designers are developing garments using fake fur. Prada, Vivienne Westwood, Victoria secret, Miu Miu, Michael Kors, Roberto Cavalli. Karl Lagerfeld even made a whole line!
I usually don't make statements with my illustrations. It's not that I wanted to make one, but when I was drawing, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. So if this is my first illustration with a statement ever...? So be it. To all the free furry animals!

2011 recap.

2011-12-19T23:04:00.001+01:00

I always like to take a little look back at the last 12 months at the end of the year. I'm kind of surprised... yes I am. The variety of projects, the amount of illustrations, I thought that it wasn't that much. I am so thankful for all the upportunities I've got. I also really enjoyed all the comments, questions...more than 330 people joined last year, whether it's on my blog, Facebook, Twitter etc. and I think that's great.

Here's a summary of 2011:
I've painted 2 objects, a Gerrit Rietveld Chair (didn't post the pictures yet) and a bracelet. I've made several dessins for Oilily, did some business illustrations, made 2 weddingcards and a weddinglogo, of course some fashion illustrations and fashion headers, a fashion invitation, 2 bookcovers from Jay Swanson http://vitalischronicles.com/ (still working on the second one). And made 2 handpainted wallpaper as you may know, one for Ludwig II in Amsterdam (I also made the logo) and the another wallpainting for the creative director of ID&T and his wife.

Personal projects:
I've also worked on personal projects, like I've joined the sketchbookproject with 30 sketches and collage, I made a promotional calendar, did some feminine illustrations and made 3 paintings (big, middle and small size)

Other nice stuff:
I did some interviews, sold prints, was featured on the Bjorn Borg site, Juxtapoz and several other sites, published in Jackie and Publish and joined Shop Around (Agency). What is also very exciting is that I've joined www.illustrationage.com as an assistant editor. Oh... and I changed my website design: www.marjoleincaljouw.nl

What's unforgettable is that I met James Jean (again ^-^ ), the artdirector of Pixar and Viktor and Rolf. These are incredible creative and inspire me to work harder, better, faster, stronger!

Fashion Week Illustree

2011-11-28T12:16:00.001+01:00

Bjorn Borg, pencil and Photoshop.

Commes Des Leroy, pencil and Photoshop.

Soapbubbles, pencil and Photoshop.

Exhale, pencil and Photoshop.

Swan, Pencil and color pencil on paper.

Beetle, pencil on paper.

Dior fragrance, pencil and Photoshop.

Secret, acrylics and oilpaint on wood.

Flowerqueen, pencil and color pencil on paper.

I entered "Fashion Week Illustree" so I'm posting a few of my fashion illustrations all together for the vote.

Design for handpainted wallpaper

2011-11-01T12:56:00.000+01:00

Close-up walldesign. Pencil on paper, colored in Photoshop.

The interior stylist of the creative director of ID&T and his wife, asked me to make handpainted wallpaper for their new house in Amsterdam. They liked the wallpainting I made in Ludwig Zwei, so I chose to keep the sphere the same. But every new assignment is an opportunity to explore, and I had a lot of ideas. Here are some close-ups.


Close-up walldesign. Pencil on paper, colored in Photoshop.

Inspired by the poem 'The butterfly's ball and the grasshopper's feast I used insects and small animals for the design.

Close-up walldesign. Pencil on paper, colored in Photoshop.

I love birdcages, I noticed that I draw/paint them a lot. I think it symbolizes the door to freedom. (Birds shouldn't be in there!)

Close-up walldesign. Pencil on paper, colored in Photoshop.

I'm going to use acrylics and oilpaint for this wallpaper. It are 4 panels all together.

Close-up walldesign. Pencil on paper, colored in Photoshop.

Click to enlarge the total walldesign.

Map of walldesign, made in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Here's a map for the room, so I'm able to see which part is the most important. It's also good to find out where the joints are to make them invisible.

New painting: Secret

2011-10-18T14:01:00.000+02:00

Secret, Acrylics and oilpaint on woodpanel, 30 x 40 cm.
I while ago I made some sketches for a serie of paintings with a feminine touch and a lot of organic shapes with a main focus on the face. I wanted to paint these on woodpanels because it's more sustainable and heavier than paper. This woodpanel has a thickness of 5 mm, which fits perfectly in the frame.

Close-up, acrylics and oilpaint on woodpanel.
When I changed the eyelashes into red, I liked her face more, because it just gives it a twist.

Close-up, acrylics and oilpaint on woodpanel.
I build the painting in layers of black and white, so everything had the same values. Except the jellyfish. This is something new for me, because normally I would through lots of colours in at the first fase. But now everything is subtle.

Close-up, acrylics and oilpaint on woodpanel.

www.illustrationage.com

2011-10-18T12:07:00.000+02:00

Screenshot of the site:
Thomas James, creative director and illustrator from www.illustrationage.com recently asked me to join as an editor assistant. The site shows interesting inspiring illustrations from illustrators all over the world. I love to contribute some of my own inspiration, because I love to collect illustrations and my bookmarks are overload with sites from artists.

Dior Midnight Poison illustration

2011-09-19T02:18:00.001+02:00

Pencil on paper. I saw a beautiful pose of a sweet girl on www.thefashionfrog.blogspot.com I decided to do something with it. I usually draw on very white paper, but I tried this old looking paper. The texture is different and gives a different feel to the piece.
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Pencil on paper. 21,5 x 42 cm. Because I want to make bigger prints of it I had to draw everything again.
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Pencil and Photoshop. 29,7 x 42 cm. I want to make more examples for advertisement. I would love to combine more products with illustration.
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Close-up. Photoshop.

Exhale

2011-09-11T15:15:00.001+02:00

Rough sketch, pink / blue ballpoint and pencil on paper.

Exhale. Pencil and red pencil on paper. 21 x 29,7 cm.

This is a sketch for a serie paintings I'm going to make. It's going to be a lot of faces and just a little bit of the body, because I want to concentrate on faces first. I've made several sketches with girls and nature, insects and animals.

Exhale. Pencil, red pencil on paper, added colours in Photoshop. 21 x 29,7 cm.

I drew her naked at first, but it became a pornographic image. Something that I didn't want...so I changed it into leaves.

100 Vogue hands

2011-09-08T18:42:00.001+02:00

Colored pencil and colored ballpoint on sketch paper.

I've drawn 100 hands for practise, because I think that hands are the most complicated part of the human body. I think I'm going to draw 100 feet too and make a collection of 100 bodies and 100 heads. Hope that helps.

Naturalis

2011-09-08T13:30:00.000+02:00

Together with my little sister I went to Naturalis. It's a National Nature Historical museum with 5.250.000 insects, 1.160.000 fossils, 440.000 stones and minerals, and lots of big and small skelletons and stuffed animals. A great oppurtunity to expand my reference pictures. The shame crab is very funny, the animals in bottles, the textures of the plants, special stuffed animals.

They will have circus animals since october so I will come back for that.

Painting Mask I

2011-09-01T17:31:00.000+02:00

Mask I. Close-up face. Oilpaint on woodpanel.
Still in process, I'm working on this painting in very thin layers. They are dry within one day.

Mask I. Close-up ring. Oilpaint on woodpanel. (in progress)
The woodpanel is sand down first so the surface is very smooth now. I prepared it with Polyvine to make it smoother, but I'm going to try an acrylic medium next time.

Mask I. Close-up bird. Graphite and oilpaint on woodpanel.
Here you can see how the sketch look like without the paint. To get thin lines of paint I paint a stroke with a small pencil and blend it with another dry brush. This is a nice method.

Mask I. Close-up of the flowerheels. The heels are inspired by Prada. I saw some Prada heels with flowers on the back but from hard material. These look soft and I think it fits my painting because of all the floral details.

Oilpaint and on the left my favorite medium. I use this to make the paint smoother and it makes your paint dry quicker. It's looks like a gel.

I joined Shop Around

2011-08-28T23:02:00.000+02:00

Recently I joined Shop Around. It's an Agency for Illustrators, graphic designers, animators. They work on all kind of cool projects, so I'm glad I joined this agency. Here you can see my profile with images the artdirector chose. I think it's interesting to see how an artdirector looks at all your work and makes a selection.
http://www.shop-around.nl/print/illustration/project/marjolein-caljouw#top

Sanding & Sketching

2011-08-23T23:16:00.000+02:00

Sketches in my sketchbook.

Pencil and colored pencil on paper. Close-up.

Pencil and orange pencil on paper.
Pencil and collage on paper.

Pencil and collage on paper. Close-up.

Pencil on wood.

I bought a sanding machine for my big woodpanels that I have left from my last project. I painted on wood before but I didn't sand it down, so now the surface is really smooth and that's much better. I used to paint on canvas a lot and although it's a light material it also bounces back and forth if you paint. Wood is stabile and much smoother which will speed up the process.

The bad thing is that it's quite heavy.

Pencil on wood.

New painting: "Birdcages"

2011-08-18T12:18:00.000+02:00

Birdcages from Marjolein Caljouw on Vimeo.

Here's a little video about my new painting: "Birdcages".
If I'm looking at a painting I always want to see close-ups, to view all the details, so that's why I made this video. Also, to show a little process of my painting.

Acrylics and oilpaint on canvas.
100 x 120 cm / 47,2 " x 39,4 "

I painted the skelletonkings a long time ago (I think 2 years ago) I didn't know what to do with the background, but one time it hit me. They are walking through a forrest and release some little birds from birdcages. I wanted to make the birdcages to look a little bit unnatural/spooky.

Ludwig Zwei Wallpainting Amsterdam -Final Pictures-

2011-08-14T14:35:00.002+02:00

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

Me in Ludwig Zwei.

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

Here is a part of the wallpainting in the back of the room. On the left side there's a smoking room and on the right there's a little wall that seperates the 2 walls. The couch is made of dark green suede leather wich match wonderful with the wall.
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Photo by: Roland Pupupin

Here's the right side of the wall, this is also in the back of the cafe/lounge club. The bathtop has little golden parts in the wallpainting. I like the designer chairs because it's inspired by a vintage nightclub from Paris.

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

Here you can see how the 2 walls in the back look like.

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

This is the longest part of the wallpainting. On the right there's a DJ booth. Look at the lamp, isn't that cool?

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

Here's a little close-up of the wall. The little twinowls are also the logo of Ludwig Zwei now. As you can see in my last post.

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

I think this is my favorite part, because I like the deers. On the right are the snails where the moths come from.
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Photo by Roland Pupupin.

The lights give everything a nice sphere. I coated the whole wall with Polyvine varnish. It's very mat and it's very transparent, so you don't see that it's varnished.

Photo by: Roland Pupupin

The lights change by color if you put them on. They are all handmade by Els de Jong. I think she did an amazing job. Her site www.apart-ontwerp.nl

Opening Ludwig II, Amsterdam

2011-08-07T00:34:00.007+02:00

As you can see in my last posts I was very busy with painting wallpapers. It was for a wall in Ludwig Zwei, a new gaybar in Amsterdam. It took me one month to paint 9 pieces of paper so it was very intense but I'm glad I finished it before the opening.

Photo on the left: The sticks are holding metal plates to the sealing. Photo on the right: I painted the different pieces of paper together, because it didn't fit exactly.

I will post photos of the total wall later, because I have to varnish everything, but here are the pictures of the opening: