Girl with bird and boy with whale

Last week I made two drawings to try out some techniques. Each drawing was made in about four hours.
At the first picture you see a girl and a bird.

Should you work with a colored outline, as above, or with a black outline usually depends on the picture as a whole. Below is the same design, but with a black outline. I have no clear preference ...

First I worked out the complete background in detail and then put a blur over it. Below the drawing without blur.

And some sketches ...

In the second picture you see a boy and a whale.

In this drawing I wanted to try some brushes. And also look at the light effects it in the drawing. Hereafter some sketches.

What I made the last couple of months...

The past few months I worked on many different projects. In this blog I will show some recent illustrations I made. In the case that material has not been published, I just show the sketches.

Each year, my great agent, Advocate Art provides a calendar for its clients and potential clients. This is my contribution.

Before I came to this drawing, I first had some other ideas...

... then I came up with some sketches... 

...made the final and now the result speaks for itself! My contribution is contained in a voluminous calendar full of beautiful work of the talented illustrators of Advocate Art!

For Oxford University Press, South Africa I made illustrations for a couple of stories. The ones below I did during the summer of 2014. In recent weeks (winter 2014) I did some stories more and I will show them early next year.

I completed a book for Benchmark Education Publishers of New York written by the American children's author Lori Mortensen. For now I can only show you some sketches.

For Identity Games of Rotterdam, Holland, I made some sketches and drawings for a children's book.

For Igloo Books (England) I made an illustration for a pitch. It didn't quite made it, but I'm satisfied with the result.

For publishing company Kwintessens (Holland) I made some drawings that will be published in spring 2015. These are two sketches.

Also for publishing company Kwintessens, I'm working on a big project. The following drawings are animated by Tom Verweij of www.tommotion.nl

Currently I am working on sketches for two books. The first book is for Hometown World Publishers off England. The book is about a boy, Jack, and he likes rugby.

The second book is a children's book for Clean Slate Press from New Zealand. The book is a classic story told again. It is a story set in Korea and is about a tiger that has fallen into a pit. In the next blog I can show some sketches of these books..

Books 2014

This year (2014) I made illustrations for 8 books. And the year is not over yet!

For Delubas Publishers I illustrated two books. The first book is called "The Flight of the puppeteer," and was written by Peter Vervloed. Because I'm heavily influenced by comics and cartoonists (Franquin, Jacobs, Herge, Munuera etc.) my illustrations have more in common with comics illustrations than you typically find in youth and children's books.

For Delubas Publishers I also illustrated "Collision Course" written by Piet van der Waal. When I illustrate I always alternate close ups with prospects and often I also use perspectives that are out of proportion. I like action in a drawing, so I always try to use surprising camera positions.

Both books are in stores all over Holland. They are also to be found in libraries.

Just before and during the summer of 2014, I worked on four books for Oxford University Press South Africa. They will be published later this year and I will show illustrations later.

Currently, autumn 2014, I'm working on two children's books. A book for Benchmark Education Publishers in New York that is written by American children's author Lori Mortensen. 

I'm also working on a children's book for a Dutch publisher. I can't show anything yet since both books haven't been published.

Along with science journalist Govert Schilling I work on our graphic novel. In spring 2014, we have completed about 100 pages in sketch. We are now in the stage that a number of pages (15 to 20 units) will be worked out as finals.  Examples of the pages are shown below, but they are not finished yet. The book will eventually comprise about 400 pages.