I made an illustration of lifestyle/ fashionblogger Leroy Aznam. www.commedesleroi.com
He had a nice picture of an air balloon on his site. I wanted to use this in the illustration because it's a beautiful object in the first place and it symbolises freedom. Because Leroy is a multitasker I drew a wajang doll (because he has indonesian roots) in the background with many arms. Because Leroy loves design I thought it would be nice to combine old art with graphic elements, like the dotlines and the bright colors.
Graphite on heavy weight paper. 42 cm x 29,7 cm / 16,5" x 11,7"
In the clean sketch I drew him twice but removed him later, because I thought it was stronger with one figure instead of two.
Graphite and Photoshop. 42 cm x 29,7 cm / 16,5" x 11,7"
Final illustration
I made my website with CargoCollective. I really recommend this online designing program especially for creative people who want to show their portfolio in an easy way. I can't tell you how happy I am with this new website.
Here's why:
Just by one click you'll see all my work together on one page. There will be no longer a long scrollbar.
Easy navigation. Personally, I don't like to wait for images to load.
My contact has a seperated from my artwork by a button on top. So much better than a list of words where people have to search for my contact.
It's very easy to update on Cargo Collective. They make a thumbnail for you and you can also select the time and year when you made your artwork.
By clicking on the tag under a photo, for example: "fashion illustration" you will get all those images. If you want to see all, you click 'view all'.
Videos can be uploaded easy. I love the way how everything moves when you click on one image. Wordpress had always trouble with this.
When you click on an image the other images move. This is the final cover for Jay Swanson. I changed little things like the eyes and the colors to give it more depth!
Here is another website by my fellow illustrator Mijke Coebergh from Rotterdam. I really like her style.http://www.mijkecoebergh.nl/ She has another template.
Writer Jay Swanson is publishing his fantasy trilogy soon. The cover is a scene of the book where a woman is floating in a capsule. Is it a really old woman mixed with a young woman, like she is preserved well. After the briefing I started with a thumbnail sketch and some keywords for the bookcover.
Clean sketch: Graphite and blue pencil on paper.
Because I didn't want to loose a lot of her face I made the mask half transparent, half metal. I wanted her eyes to be strong and beautiful.
Bookcover. Photoshop. (Needs to be approved. Not the final yet.)
Birdcages. Work in progress. I painted everything in acrylics first and here you can see I added layers in oilpaint. With oils I can make details easier, because the paint stays wet for a day (if you paint thin).
Birds reference and oilpaint. Winton & Newton and Old Hollands. In the back: Liquin and a paint medium. The oilpaints dries much quicker with these mediums.
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Birdcages in progress. Because I painted the little birds and the trees and the birdcages first with acrylics, it's hard for me to fix the background with oilpaint. Next time I'm going to paint from the back to the front...
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"Hein the skelleton" on the left. Although I changed a lot of the proportions of the skelletontwins I just use my skelleton puppet to look at all the bones.
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Birdcages in process. I used to work on my projects and paint when I had time left...
But that didn't work because other things always come in between. Now I'm working on my painting in the morning for a couple of hours, before I do anything else. And this helped me a lot.
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Albino owl twins. It's not finished yet, but I want to share it. Ballpoint with a little graphite on paper.
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A friend of a friend has this cute toilet towel holder. I don't know what kind of brand it is, but I would love to have this.
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Schedule for my paintings this year, 2011. Because I'm painting everyday now I wondered how many paintings I could make in a year...? It depends on the size of course and the difficulty of the painting. If I keep working 3 hours a day on a painting, I've painted 42 hours in 2 weeks. I think I'm able to finish a painting whitin those hours, but maybe this is a high expectation. We'll see.
Sketch of The Chic Muse. Graphite, color pencil, ballpoint on Moleskinepaper. http://thechicmuse.blogspot.com/ I saw her at the Mangosite and loved a photo on her blog that I used as a reference.
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Photo made in train. Work in progress. I just bought new set of mechanical Pilot color pencils. These are 0,7 so they won't break easily as the 0.5. I also noticed that you can erase them easier. But Steadler has more pigmentation.
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Close-up The Chiq Muse sketch in train. Graphite, color pencil and marker on paper. On the right mechanical colorpencils from Pilot. Kneaded eraser on the top.
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One of my favorite big artsupplies stores in Rotterdam: "Harolds" For the oilpaint I paint with Old Hollands now. They have different series, like A, B, C, D. And D is more expensive than A. But I have to say the quality is the same to me. I don't noticed a difference.
D.I.Y. jewelry. Left: Earrings for my mother. Middle: Shell with silver paint for a necklace. Right: Earrings for my sister in Spain. Text in the golden hearts:"made with love"
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April 2th I organised (together with another friend) a hensparty for my friend Rosa who is married today. We decided to do a jewelry workshop. They used the same beads from www.beadies.nl Besides drawing and painting this is another addiction. They have lovely stores with big drawers full of beads You can make your own combinations, that's why I love it.
Majdeline from http://www.musicandfashionstyle.blogspot.com/ asked me to make a header for her brandnew website, wich will be online soon: www.muscandfashionstyle.nl She does a lot of things. She is a model, singer, vocal coach, fashionblogger who also writes for online media, besides that she is beautiful.
Color combination. (Beige, Pink, lightbrown)
At first I made a header with a figure with her photo 'as reference', like an interpetation of her. but I didn't realize that she wanted a realistic drawing of herself, so I made the illustration again, as you can see below.
Final Header.
Graphite on paper and Photoshop.
For the hair I used an effect in Photoshop, called: screen. You can change the colors of sketchline this way. I used it also in another illustration 'Hatgirl' and I love this glowy effect.
Graphite on paper and backgroundcolor in Photoshop.
This is a sketch of the lovely fashionblogger Iris from FashionZen (also from Holland!). She used the top of this one as her header as you can see on her blog:www.fashionzen.blogspot.com
I made this a while ago but I didn't post it because I wanted to paint it or make a detailled illustration of it. I will do that if I have more time besides my illustrationjobs. For now, this is the sketchfase.
I really love her style because she really has a mix between cute and edgy, vintage and yes, I like that!
Rainbows. Graphite on paper.
This is also a sketch from a while ago, because I wanted some more children illustrations. I made another illustration as you can see on my site: www.marjoleincaljouw.nl -->click editorial where I made a fantasy playground. It would be great if I could paint this in a children hospital.
Bunnyring. I've bought this cute ring at H&M. The bunny reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and I love that movie. Both old and new. Very happy with this.
First thumbnail sketches. Graphite and felt tip on paper. 21,0 x 29,7 cm.
A friend who lives in Qatar asked me to make an invitation for a fashionshow in Qatar with Dior, Love Moschino, Fornarina etc. First, I wanted to have a girl with casual clothes, but it it didn't felt right, so I changed the outfit. The combination of the man and the child in the middle looked like a 'boring family', so I changed the composition as you can see on the right.
I love the maxi dresses from the D&G woman fashion show summer 2011, so inspired by that I made the dress.
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Graphite on paper. 3 cm x 5 cm.
This is a really rough sketch, as you can see. It's actually a little thumbnail sketch, but i've made it bigger.
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Moschino platform sandals.
I chose these cute heels, because I needed some reference for the girl.
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Clean sketch, graphite on heavy paper. 29,7 x 42 cm.
The woman is getting the most attention now and I like the way the little girl is looking behind the dress. The wind is blowing off the roses of the dress, so that gives it a little bit of fantasy.
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Graphite on heavy paper and Photoshop. First color combination.
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Graphite and Photoshop.
Second color combination. I really love it when everything has similar colors, combined with one color that really stands out.
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I needed a nice artcase that I can carry around with me, because I do that everyday. Then I realised that my friend (http://www.rozemary.web-log.nl/)gave me a very very supercute iron case a LONG time ago. It was always a decorative thing in my room but i've put the shoe stuff out and now it's ready to be my cute artbox!
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My favorite art supplies inside my artcase:
#1: Mechanical pencils. I have 2 from Graphgear 1000 Pentel, I love them.
#2: Pentel refills, 2B is my favorite. And refills from steadler! They come in different colors and I just want to buy every color now because they are so nice! (watch out: they break easily)
#3: Caran d'Ache 4B 7B 9B for shadows.
#4 Eraser. Right on the top I have a little heartshaped box where I keep my eraser safe. Because it's a sticky one (like clay). If you know the english word, please tell me!
#5: Smudgetool. I just love this tool because you can make very nice shadows with this! It's made of a roll of paper. I've put some tape around it otherwise my eraser is sticking to it.
#6: Ballpoints in other colors, like red and pink because it gives nice effects to change from time to time. For my black ballpoints Bic is really nice.
#7: Black fineliner from On the run, 0,9, waterproof. It's good to fill larger spaces that needs to be really black and combine it with other material.
Stylescrapbook.Graphite. 21,0 x 29,7 cm, 300dpi.
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Stylescrapbook. Graphite & Photoshop. 21,0 x 29,7 cm, 300dpi.
Andy is a fashionista who owns the blog www.stylescrapbook.com.
She had a nice pink/red pants on her Facebookprofile picture which I used in this illustration.
Close-up Birdcages. 70 cm x 100 cm. Acrylics and oilpaint on canvas.
This is a painting where I'm working on right now. The skelleton kings (that's how I name them) were were painted 2 or 3 years ago, but I didn't know what to do with the background...
I'm learning every day how to solve the background-problems. So I want to make a forest (or something floral) in the background. They hold a keychain full of keys and release all kind of birds from the white birdcages.
Although I have little time for it, I want to paint one hour a day on it!
Oilpaint. Old (Winstor & Newton) versus new (Old Hollandsch). The oilpaint I've got for my 12th birthday I still have! This is a bad sign because I really have to paint more paintings!
I love it.
It gives me a happy feeling and I can paint really quick.
But somehow I always have to find time for this. That's why I have a lot of sketches and drawings.
Flowerqueen. Pencil and red pencil on heavy paper. 21 cm x 29,7 cm.
Maybe this is nice for a big painting later on!
Schedule for my paintings this year, 2011. Because I'm painting everyday now I wondered how many paintings I could make in a year...? It depends on the size of course and the difficulty of the painting. If I keep working 3 hours a day on a painting, I've painted 42 hours in 2 weeks. I think I'm able to finish a painting whitin those hours, but maybe this is a high expectation. We'll see. 
