Sunday 30 July 2017

New Wall Art for Kids and Teens

Here's some new art or young people! Inspired by the Minted + Pottery Barn contest for kid's and teen's wallart I made a small selection including painting/ illustration and photography.

(Like always with Minted comps votes and likes are very welcome! Voting already ends tomorrow evening, Monday July 31 (Mid European time). So if you see something you like and want to help me to get it selected for the Minted and/ or Pottery Barn stores, please just quickly click on the image! That'll lead you directly to my submissions on the Minted page. Thank you so much! 
Please note: If you are not a Minted customer already, you'd need to set up an account on Minted to be able to vote.)


"Quick as a Bunny said the Beetle"

"Hello World said MissTurtle"

Here's some more info about my art:

For both illustrative pieces above I did the main characters with papercut and collage. Then I added the "scene" with crayon and put it all together digitally. A fun way of working!
As you might see by the choice of my titles I aimed for storytelling prints that prompt the viewer to weave  their own stories around the characters.
The sporty hare will be fab for any young athlete or sports fan. Whereas the turtle conveys confidence and curiosity and will be a great print for any child that is keen to discover and explore the world.



"A little Fantasy about Flying"


And here's two "airborn" prints. My "Little Fantasy about Flying" above is inspired by my love of airships and hot-air-balloons and shows some steampunk influences as well as a decent dose of whimsy.  It's another mixed media piece combining pen and ink drawings with gouache paint and a little bit of collage.
The photograph below was done in Zeebrugge, Belgium, one of the best spots for kite surfing/ surfing on the North Sea coast. I love the feeling of space, freedom and movement in it and think it would be a great print for a young person's room.



"The Evening Bath"

"The Evening Bath" above was bravely taken by a group of schoolchildren on the coast of the Isle of Wight, England. Bravely because the North Sea was very very cold on that day … (I'd tested it out myself before!)
I love this photograph because it evokes the carefree summer holiday feeling of childhood. And as well because of the contrast of that small hub of human energy against the huge turquoise and blue surface of the North Sea.



"The Midnight Flock"

"Nighttime Tidelands Gleaming Sea"

"The Sorbet Tide"

Speaking of the North Sea – the series of 3 photographs above was done on the North Sea coast of Belgium, and is called "North Sea Nocturne". We took a trip there in June, and I was fascinated with the bright nights of the Summer Solstice. The gleaming light was just amazing! I really didn't expect this, usually you only get these bright Summer Solstice nights a bit more up north. Probably it's the surface of the sea reflecting the light that leads to a similar effect like in Scandinavia. Anyway, I was intrigued, and took several long walks along the beaches late in the evening. These photographs all were taken close to midnight … I hope I managed to capture a bit of that dreamy and peaceful atmosphere.


"The Dreamy Palace"

The "Dreamy Palace" was painted with watercolour and gouache. It's inspired by the tales of 1001 nights.

"Rainforest Rythms"

The photograph above follows the current interior trend for tropical and green wallart. It's a close up of a palm leaf. I aimed to captured the leaf’s abstract organic forms and found two different rhythms that characterize the rainforest: sunlit, fresh and almost electric green on the front, dark, gloomy and intriguing on the backside …

That's it for today! I hope you like my selection. Fingers crossed … and thank you so much for any votes and likes!

Thursday 6 July 2017

How to have winter fun in June:

Well … all you have to do is to design for stationary! I am slowly getting used to the "design schedule" for Holiday cards. This year I didn't feel as much disconnected with the rest of the world as I did last year. And all that snow even had a cooling effect on some very hot June days :-)

The designs shown here are submissions to the current Minted Challenge for Holiday Cards. Like always with Minted comps votes and likes are very welcome! Please just click on the images, that'll lead you directly to my submissions on the Minted page. Thank you so much! Voting ends on Friday evening, July 7 … already … it's almost too late for vote asking … 

And here's a bit more about my designs:  


" A Holiday Stroll 1"
 

" A Holiday Stroll 2"

The two cards above both feature details of one of my watercolour paintings.



https://www.minted.com/design-rating/827781
"Angel Duo"

Whereas the sketchy pen + ink and crayon angels were done as part of an advent challenge a while ago.



"Anatomy of a Snowflake"

The snowflake design is for a corporate Holiday card. It was inspired by old anatomical/ botanical  drawings and provides a lot of room to add the company highlights of the year and a thank you + holiday message to the clients.



"Wish upon a Winter Star"

The inspiration for the two snow bunnies wasn't forest animals, but my own cat. I watched him observing and admiring the first snow of winter through the studio windows, obviously planning some mischief (he just loves snow!).
I painted this little winter scene with gouache and silver gouache.



"Christmas Ballet All Stars"


And finally a Christmas Ballet card that is just a bit silly :-)

I hope you'll like my card designs. And now, back to summer!!!