Fundamentals of character design Spring term

Conan

Endangered species

Recently I did this illustration for the project 'Endangered Species'. LINK
Endangered Species is a fun, engaging and visually rich endangered species interactive game which pushes all boundaries of today's digital device technology.

The game allows users to look after endangered animals in their natural habitat.  Users can collect and craft items using materials from the environment. Each time a different endangered animal is purchased a percentage of the purchase is donated to that particular endangered species. These donations can be viewed and tracked within the game itself.
Check out the website for this great project and find out how you can support it.

Caricature - art

From a young age I have been fascinated by the art of caricature. In art school caricatures were looked at as low art, and I wasn’t allowed to create caricatures there.
After school I got paid to do caricatures for magazines and newspapers.
Although I have always disagreed with the teachers who told me caricatures were not ‘real’ art, it is amazing how much impact their response had to how I looked at caricatures. After a while I even stopped drawing caricatures at all, because I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously as an artist.

When I realised I started to have the same viewpoint on caricatures as the people who forbid me to draw them in art school, I realised something had gone very wrong. I started looking at the work of the people whose work had inspired me for so long. Caricaturists, like C.F.Payne, Paul van der Steen , David Levine, Natalie Ascencios but also painters from long ago. Then I realised there is no such thing as high art and low art. A portrait artist looks at his subject and decides what he wants to express. he chooses what he wants to emphasise, wether it is shapes, colors, textures, attitude… A painter exaggerates. he makes you look at the subject like he does, by showing this to you with his painting. Over time painters have done many portraits in many different ways.
Some of the portraits that are considered ‘high art’ by some, are not much different than how I would have loved to paint a caricature in art school

because I'm happyyyy...

I'm happy to announce I'll be teaching 'fundamentals of character design' at CGMA starting this february. In the classes I'll explain my approach on creating characters by using shapes, gesture, dimensinal drawing. I'l combine technical instruction with playing, experimenting and most of all, having fun! 

Enroll

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