Chasing the bird

I like to compare art-skills and talent to chasing a beautiful bird. The bird stays hidden very often, but if you put a lot of effort and patience into it, sometimes you will see the beautiful colourful little bird. This sensation of finally seeing the bird is so awesome, that you now try and catch the bird. But when you succeed, and put the bird in a cage, the bird will die. The only way to achieve this incredible feeling again, is to let the bird go, and start over, trying to find him again.

There is no golden rule, no shortcut, and no way to own the recipe to good art. It starts with a need to express yourself, and every single time, you have to start the journey, and try to spot the colourful bird, just to let it go again…

Der 7te Zwerg

Tailer

Past weekend 'the seventh dwarf' premiered.
I worked on this project both on character design and visual development. I was lucky to work with the late Harald Siepermann, (known for his character designs for disney's Tarzan and Alfred J. Kwak)

I attached some of the designs I did.

Fundamentals of character design

I'll be substituting David Colman's character design class for the summer term. I hope to see you there. You can enroll using this LINK

Splat!

The Master Lecture

Illustration for 'De Correspondent'

This was a fun illustration to make, even though I had very little time to do it.  Here's a link to the article  LINK

Bliss book cover

Final illustration with typography for the third book cover in the Bliss Bakery series

Preliminary sketch for the third book cover in the Bliss Bakery series

Another sketch for the third book cover in the Bliss Bakery series

Color concept for the third book cover in the Bliss Bakery series

Final illustration for the third book cover in the Bliss Bakery series

Jason Seiler

Caricature of fellow artist Jason Seiler

THE MASTER LECTURE

Good news! I just launched the website for the event : THE MASTER LECTURE
This October John Nevarez, Stephen Silver and Wouter Tulp will speak and teach about their work. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to meet with some of the industry's most talented artists. At the end of each lecture there will be the opportunity for Q & A.  Visit the website for more information!

This is the link for the facebook event page: LINK

Anatomy

I'm still doing my anatomy studies. These are some arm-studies. I gathered the information from anywhere I could find it.  Anatomy books, Magazines, Michael Hampton, Francis Vallejo, Medical apps, Glen Vilppu... Who needs an art school these days?

Ellen

Selfie

Studies

sketch

Plein air march 29th Maashaven Rotterdam

Gouache

Jockey

Life drawing session Breda March 22nd 2014

Some results from the sketch session 2.0 in Breda. The event was organised for the first time by talented illustrator Robin Keijzer. It was great fun sketching with many talented artsists from Holland. More info on the event here: LINK

Plein air

Yesterday's plein air painting. I was a challenge, painting this heavily backlit situation.

If you love somebody, set them free

A few years back, I drew this illustration. I liked the concept and decided to do an oil painting of it. My son was so kind to pose for me. The otriginal is 60 x 80 cm.

Sketch

Little sketch for a calendar illustration based on a childrens book.

Take your time

Social media are a great addition to our daily lives. People from all over the world can connect quickly, revolutions agains dictators are established, and we have access to all the information we need instantly.

For art students it is a great time to be alive, because they have access to online instructions, resources and knowledge one mouse click away. Finding the information you need and connecting with people has never been so easy.

But these social media can also give us a distorted view on reality. The fact that everything is at the tip of our fingers, can cause us to get the impression that anything is available when we want it.  Some things take time. We can see a post on facebook of a work of art that someone has worked on for te years, look at it for a minute and scroll to the next post. The time the artist invested in his work and the time we spend we consuming it is out of balance.

I see many artists struggle with this themselves. Seeing new and amazing work everyday on facebook, twitter, behance and so on, gives them the impression that they are never doing enough. They try to keep up with every new hype that comes along, and try to crank out as many sketches and doodles as possible.

I think for art to be meaningful, it has to come from somewhere. You have to spend time to let it evolve, make decisions, make mistakes, try again, use experience and practice to develop a concept and execution of what you want to create. 

The problem a lot of students face these days is that it becomes less important to invest so much time in something that is not ready to be shared online yet, because the result of something that you worked on a long time is consumed just as quickly on the social media as the quick scribbles. 

I think that it is good to be inspired, get information and schooling from the internet. But I don't think facebook should be determining the pace of your work. The challenge is to balance between making sure to get your work out there to get noticed and get work, but not to become a slave to the internet, and just take the time you need for developing your art.

doodles...

Interviw at ChrisOatly.com

Recently I was interviewed by Chris Oatley. I'm happy to announce that the interview is now online and can be found here: LINK

Don't forget to check out the rest of Chris' website. He has a great online art academy, where you get the most personal online learning experience.

Exploring new media

I bought myself some markers and took an old sketch, and this is what I ended up with. I really like the way markers can add color to a sketch leaving the sketch intact. I'll definitely will be using markers more often!

Happy new beer!

Chris Oatley's artcast interview

I'm happy to share this interview. Chris Oatley (www.chrisoatley.com ) asked me some questions, and I was happy to answer them. I hope this is inspirational to you.
Click here to listen to the podcast