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 

De Correspondent

Illustration for 'de Correspondent'  ( LINK )

Experiment

Sketch I did live at CTN for Tony White.
Find out oabout his project to keep 2D animation alive, and donate your own drawing: LINK

Illustration about organ donation

Illustration for 'De Correspondent' about the altruistic deed of donating an organ for a stranger.

The article refers to the biblical story of the good samaritan. This is why the donor is depicted in the style of a stained glass window. 

Here is a link to the article: LINK

Cowboy

I wanted to try something more cartoony... for some reason blogger darkens the images... Does anybody know why this is?

Pop-up house

I created these two concepts of Hansl and Gretl's hous as a popup book for a pitch. They were based on the two illustrations below. I was really fun to visualise this concept. The book however will probably not be made, since it is used merely to sell a concept.

The Boston Beard

I don't know much about baseball, but visually I was intrigued by the idea of baseball players growing their beards. This is not a specific player, just an imaginative character

Gregory Porter

Yesterday I went to a concert of the great jazz singer Gregory Porter. Here's my impression of him singing. Listen to his great music here: LINK