New originals in my Etsy shop!

Over the last days I filled up my Etsy shop with new listings. Some are older paintings, some pretty recent.
I've had a serious studio sorting – just the thing one does before springtime starts I guess! Feels good to get things out of the drawers. Half way through this I realized that do this (and maybe need to do it!) to invite new work in.

For now here's some of my new listings:

First up here are two smaller watercolours that tie together well. "Color Energy 1" and "Color Energy 2" inject a generous dose of fresh colour to energize a room after the long grey winter.

And here is another floral watercolour – with a softer vibe this time:

"Soft Summer Bouquet" is great to bring an informal, relaxing summer mood to any room.

And I now have a new section for kids in shop! For now it is just three paintings, but I hope to grow it over this year. Here's one of the new listings: "The Adventurers" – they originally were painted as a placement design for kid's fashion but I think my little animal pirates are great for wall art as well.

Let me introduce you to the gang:

 

Tiger for sure is the captain. No adventure will escape his brave heart and sharp green eyes!

Little Rosella Piggie always looks on the bright side of pirate life and has a smile and joke for everybody, even in bad or dangerous situations …

and Benno the dog is a faithful and strong sidekick, the best friend any pirate could have!

 

 There's more in the shop, so feel free to have a look :-) Hope you'll enjoy!

 

Moon and sun and the valley – Inktober 2016, week 3

The third week of Inktober! I still enjoy it – most of the time ;-)

Sometimes I think it would be better to have a real theme … But on the other hand this way I enjoy that it is spontanious and often surprising for myself: I just sit down without thinking too much or researching and sketching beforehand, and I draw whatever comes to my mind in that moment.

Inktober 16 above was inspired by the beautiful Hunter's Moon that we had in that night.

As was the drawing below for Inktober 17: "Where do we go" – well I'd love to know! Who wouldn't!? Maybe the moon has an answer …?

As I was in a nighttime mood and had noticed a lot of moths in the garden on that evening, I did some of these for Inktober 18. Some of them are imagined, some a bit more naturalistic, but as well  drawn from memory.

This was the first time that I drew an Inktober piece before really starting the day, so I wanted to do sthg related to mornings. Roosters seemed fun - here is a little parade for Inktober 19.

On Inktober 20 I had accidentally stumbled upon some beautiful areal photography - like fields and villages seen from the sky - on Pinterest. So I wasn't surprised what came up when I later on sat down to draw: a little farmhouse scene with rooster and chicken.

The quick sketch of the valley railway below – for Inktober 21 – was drawn from memory after a bike ride along the river.

The last drawing for this week was as well inspired by the valley: "Deerjump" for Inktober 22. Biking homewards in the evening I met 3 beautiful deer, running and jumping across the path right in front of me and then through the meadow to a nearby hedge. But they didn't disappear, they turned round and looked at me for what seemed a long time … it felt like they were curious and as keen on observing me than I was on observing them :-)

That's it for today – now onwards to the final Inktober week!

 P.s.: For those who are not familiar with "Inktober": You can find a short explanation about it at the end of this post here.

Black Ink Nights (Inktober 2016, week 1)

So I decided to jump on the Inktober Challenge* again, like last year. Here's my first week!

Above is how I got started, drawing a little toad lily from our garden. For Inktober 2 the lily quickly morphed into a little night-time story, that then turned into a whole "Nocturne" series.

Nocturne 2 and 3 above were inspired by some evening hikes along our local river Lahn, as was the night-time scene for Inktober 5 below.

On day 6 I felt a bit uninspired, and turned to some floral/ garden motifs for help. The "Flutterby" drawing below might be a nice starting point for a pattern later on.

Day 7 continues with the "Nocturne" series. The black cat for sure is related to our own cat Dikkertje,  but I was really wondering where that ladder idea came from …? Then on the next day I realized that it was inspired by the view into our neighbour's garden, where a huge ladder for cutting the ivy is perched on a wall. Funny how the mind works!

Finally more black cat adventures with "A little night-time stroll" for day 8!
I am curious myself how this will go on … I have no real plan, I just draw what comes into my mind. Maybe I'll end up with a full night-time Inktober?

*(For those who don't know, "Inktober" is a drawing challenge happening all over social media. It was  created a few years ago to inspire people to draw and be creative. Taking part means to do (and post) one ink drawing per day for the whole month of October. Inktober has a huge response all over the world and you'll find many artists, designers or people who love to draw posting their sketches/drawings mainly on Facebook and Instagram. Just search for #inktober2016 and have fun!)

Reverting back to winter … and loving it!

Firstly I'd like to share a new (wintery) win:

Pretty chuffed that my little winter birdie made it into the top 30 winners of the Minted & Pottery Barn contest for kid's wallart! ! (Only just … on the 27th… but in nevertheless!) It will soon be available as art print – and hopefully will sell well in the next holiday season!
And I only learned later on that this was the biggest contest Minted ever did with over 600,000 votes!!! and more than 7300 submission :-o Good that I didn't know before entering … prob wouldn't have dared. So double happy over here now! You can see the gallery of all top 30 winners here.

And secondly here's more Christmas cards coming up! I have entered these designs into the current stationary challenge for holiday cards on Minted, so votes are very welcome, as always :-) Thank you so much!
(Just click on the title of the image, that'll lead you to my submission on the Minted site).

"Starlight Angel" (foil pressed)

"Watercolour Prayers" (non foil)

"The Journey" (foil pressed)

I hope you like them! Motifs and lettering were all done in brush and ink, which develops into one of my fave techniques at the moment.
Please feel free to have a look at all of my submissions here. Thank you!
And you can have a look at the foil pressed version of the Holiday card challenge here and at the non foil version here). 

Contest No.3: The Minted & Pottery Barn Kids + Teen Wall Art Challenge!

Wall art contests seem to come in threes as all good things do! The Minted & Pottery Barn Kids + Teen Wall Art Challenge is the third one on Minted since 2016 has started. Not sure if it is a good thing though … we are still waiting on the results of the previous two contest …
In this contest Minted + Pottery Barn are looking for art prints for boys and girls and for the whole age range starting with baby up to teenagers.
I am a bit exhausted contestwise but I just couldn't miss this one! Wall art for kids really is one of my fave subjects. It would be nice to build up a kid's collection on Minted. And to have a print been sold by Pottery Barn would be totally awesome! Well a girl can dream ;-)

So ok, I went ahead and submitted 16 pieces. Like always I will be showing you my faves here and I would be delighted to get your votes! Please just click on the title of the images, that'll lead you directly to my submissions on the Minted website. Thank you so much!

"Roaming Free"

I really love the playfulness and freedom vibe of this painting! It's a beautiful print for horse lovers of all ages. And it fits well to the brief as two of the themes asked for are animal prints and hobby themed prints.

"How to catch a Winter Star"

Two little winter bunnies in sweaters make a soft and tender nursery print for the holiday season – which is another theme asked for in the brief.


And here now are two fun prints for boys:

"Counting Crocodiles"

"Submarines Ahoi"

"The Craftsman" is originally an illustration done for a German fairytale. Works for both genders I think. I love the European and old times vibe of this one.

"The Craftsman"

Finally two romantic prints for girls and young ladies:

"Framed in Petals"

The inspiration for the watercolour print above came from Art Nouveau cameo brooches.

"Wake up in Flowers"

And this mixed media painting was inspired by our rooftop garden, that literally grows into our  bedroom windows in the summer …

I hope you like my submissions!

Want to see more? I have posted all my submissions on the "Voting now" page, so please just hop over there to take a look! Thank you again!

Hurray for the foxes!

Hello, here's a happy surprise! My little "Woodland Foxes" won! Hurray!!!
They came up on the 6th place in the Minted Child's Play Fabric Challenge (within the top 20 winners). Thank you so much everybody who might have voted for them!
Now the foxes soon will be roaming around on throw pillows to draperies to lampshades and everything in between for nurseries and kid's rooms! Really looking forward to see them on there :-)

If you'd like to know more you can view the winner's gallery here and read a bit about the inspiration for my woodland designs here.

Happy advent!

Now I wanted to do a painted advent this year. Like REALLY wanted to! But no way … like always in December I am far too busy with commissioned work. It's mainly graphic design projects at this time of the year.

I take my hat off to everyone who does an advent while working full time and full speed!!!
For me I think I will only manage to do this if I start early in autumn and work on it in advance …
Anyway, I wanted to share the bits I did for the 1st and 2nd of December. Happy advent everybody!

On another note the Cyber Monday sale at Minted is on still! 25 % off! It's extended until today (Thursday December 3rd) noon San Francisco time – which is 9pm mid European time. So only a few hours left … if you're interested my wall art hop over here NOW! And thank you so much everybody who already ordered :-)

#Inktober, week 3

Hello, here' s week 3 of my inky october! I love how my sketchbook is filling up. I'll be calling this one my "book of ideas" :-)

Seeing lots of Christmas decorations in the shops (already!!!) made me think of Christmas carols. I could just stop myself giving wings to the singing girl … no way! It's only mid October.

No idea why I love painting horses? They come up every now and again. Probably I am drawn to their movement and the feeling of travel and freedom they evoke …

On Tuesday I doodled some folksy flowers … and that kind of set the theme for the rest of the week. Once hooked, one idea led to another. I will certainly work on further with some of these …

Now onwards to week 4 …Halloween week! I bet there will be some spooky stuff coming up …

More inky stuff for Inktober 2015 …

… yes, I am still at it! It is fun mostly and I really manage to stick to my plan: to be spontanious, no planning beforehand, no gathering references. I just sit down and do whatever flows out of the paintbrush. Sometimes I don't know what to draw, and some drawings don't turn out sooo very good and then it feels a bit stupid to post them on Facebook … but on the other hand I've surprised myself quite a few times with what appeared on my sketchbook pages!

Here's my inky week:

My sketch from above is a little hommage to my childhood home as I had been visiting there. I come from a mountain region called "Vogelsberg" which would be "Bird's Mountain" in english. And no, there was no snow yet, but it was freezing cold …

And finally I ended up in the forest again … let's see where next week will lead me too!