Concept sketches

Plein air sketch

Sketch of a street in Rotterdam. These houses will be demolished soon, and have been neglected for a while now. You can see nature taking over. I loved the light when I decided to do the sketch here. It was cloudy, occasionally raining, but also sunny from time to time, which gave the backlit grass a vibrant coloring.

Alice

The painted illustration. Gouache.

Alice in Wonderland

Exploring style and technique for illustrating the adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
The illustration could use a better storytelling concept, but gives me a good idea of the mood and illustration style I am looking for.This sketch depicts the scene where Alice finds the key on the glass table, which opens the small door. This is very much the style and feel I am looking for...

Plein air

Vijverlaan, Rotterdam. Gouache.

Gouache sketch

Sesame Street

I painted these illustrations for dutch sesame street.

Albayrak

Illustration for 'Vluchtelingenwerk' magazine. The story is about Albayrak's policy on refugees.

Sketch

I am working on a new book. I am exploring new directions for children's book illustrations, experimenting with distortions and perspectives. I work on this project in my spare hours, that I don't have much... progress will be slow, but it gives me the opportunity to put in some extras, that ofthen cannot be added because of deadlines, budgets or other restrictions....

Norway

I spent two weeks in Norway. It is a very beautiful country with very inspiring landscapes....

Plein air 29-06-2009

Gouache and watercolor sketch. I had to work fast because of the setting sun.

Plein air

Quick gouache and watercolor sketch at a factory.

Portrait sketches

Gouache sketches.

Plein air 01-06-2009

I have been wanting to do a sketch of this site for a long time. Besides the difficult perspective, I had a hard time watersketching, because I was standing on a windy and bouncing bridge, constantly being disturbed by curious pedestrians and a quickly moving sun.
Sketching on the spot is a great way to come up with color keys, that are almost impossible to create when working from a photograph. Being a part of the environment you are painting, lets you make descisions that are essential to capture mood and atmosphere.

Quick sketch

Very quick sketch at the Zuiderpark today. The small size of the sketch forces me not to go into detail. I took little time to create the sketch, so I had to make descisions fast. This kept me focused on the main values of the composition.

Urban gouache sketch

Even an ugly city like Rotterdam can be fun to draw. I am using a very limited palette, using only ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, chinese red ,violet and white. Using a limited palette gives you the oportunity to get creative mixing colors, and the image gets tied together.

Belgium

I spent the weekend in Belgium, Ardennen. The weather was beautiful, and the environment beautiful. These are a few gouache/watercolor sketches.

Moleskine gouache sketch

I lost my moleskine sketchbook some time ago. After weeks of searching and hoping to find it, I decided to forget about it and buy myself a new one.... These are my first gouache sketches in it...

Pauw en Witteman

Editorial illustration

Illustration for a story about a woman going back to work after having a baby. Gouache and pencil.