Tuesday 29 June 2010

Monday 28 June 2010

Heart

Wedding

What a wonderful weekend. One of my very best friends got married this weekend. The weather was amazing (actually it still is), the location was lovely, (we had dinner in an organic vegetable garden) and we were all together. Around 1 o'clock in the morning the last song was played, we all sang together, looked at the gorgeous couple, and waved them goodbye. Some of us cried a little, others asked for another drink and sat down.

I cycled home with a big smile on my face. Just loving life. The whole city seemed to enjoy life to the fullest this weekend. In some place the city was still bustling of energy, in other places it was dark and quiet.

The wedding gave me such a sense of community: all these little kids running around, grandparents, friends of friends and even great-grandparents. Cycling home my city did not feel like a big city, but felt like a little village. Young boys were getting in their spray-painted VW-van. Some people were loud, another was very quiet and focused on cycling straight. Most of us on our way home.
All of us caught up in our own lives, our own community. I sat down at my balcony for a little bit, and looked at my neighbour across the street. At this time it was around three in the morning. It was quiet, except noise that seemed to be the noise of a vacuumcleaner.

I looked at her movements, ( I could only see her head and arms) but her movements seemed to fit with the noise of the vacuumcleaner.
She was vacuuming her livingroom. It was such a lonely image. To me that city seemed full of happy people. But she was vacuuming her livingroom.

But also,: this city gives you the freedom to vacuum you livingroom whenever you want to. There is nothing wrong with that.

And it struck because I felt like I was spying on her. I was sitting there, looking at her, the movements, her facial expression. I was sitting there in the dark and felt like I was intruding in her personal life.

But maybe it was the perfect ending for the day. This stranger, so comfortable with vacuuming her house at this time of day. She did not seem to care of the rest of her world right now and she was just happy in her little house, her home.

I went to bed, slept and just had my morning coffee.

Sunday 27 June 2010

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Spanish translation of Adrian Mole part II


Poland


I have visited Poland a little while ago. What a green, in some area's remote, beautiful country. The first evening we slept in an old horse-breeding farm. This is a pile of blankets in the room. Nice!

Thursday 17 June 2010

Nieuw Tijdschrift II



Illustration for the new magazine MissReal. I thought the illustration is a bit small, but hey, im not the graphic designer here. Im the illustrator and it was out of my hands. That how it is sometimes. For the dutchies among us: great magazine. Worth buying! Also really nice illustrations by Lobke van Aar.

Friday 11 June 2010

Nrc.Next van Vandaag


Illustration I made for the dutch daily Nrc.Next. I work for Nrc.Next as a parttime lay-out editor, and once in a while I get to make some cool stuff. Like this map of the Island of Terschelling. This weekend will be the start of a cool laidback theater festival, Oerol,. This map tell you where to go. I cut out all the little element with a scissors, scanned them in, and used them. I love old fashioned designing sometimes.

Thursday 10 June 2010

Nieuw Tijdschrift


Een nieuw magazine over échte schoonheid, wat een eer dat ik mee heb mogen werken. Het ligt nog niet in de winkels maar wel bijna! MissReal!

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Great Music

I love them, what a great, weird, emotional and energetic band. At the site of VPRO 3 voor 12, you can Yeasayers gig at Pinkpop (big dutch festival). This is the link. This is their blog.

Bob Dylan Tree



I've seen many amazing trees the last week. Old, big and wise,
yesterday evening I sat down at my table to draw. Whilst listening to Bob Dylan I wanted to do something loose, just with waterpaint. The result is this Bob Dylan tree. Words from his song ended up being the leaves. Mainly because I was bored with drawing leaves again. This works quite well. I noticed the last few years that even very random drawings are important sometimes. The make me aware of possibilities that I had forgotten about or possibilities that I just didn't think of.

Saturday 5 June 2010

Weekblad dit weekend




The subject of this illustration is hidden bars in N.Y. As always I had a lot of fun making this illustration and tried to be very critical towards my work. It worked, i'm very happy with the result.

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Stork


I've drawn storks before, but never ever actually seen one. Until yesterday. I'm staying in the polish countryside and from the window of my hotel I can see their nest. Dad is usually sitting on the roof, looking at possible danger (or just enjoying the view) while mum is sitting on the nest and patiently breeding the eggs.

Drawing