Image stories

Whoo another update! Didn't expect that, did you?

I'm posting another example I made for one of my classes in secondary school. I was told by my mentor to think of an assignment that lets the pupils (13-14 year old girls) replace words with images.

So I had them think up a very short story. I gave them a long list with words, from which they had to pick at least 3. These words they would have to make into images. Then of course they still had to think of at least 3 more themselves. I let the pupils help each other to think up stories, or if they were really stuck I helped them along a bit.

To make the assignment a bit more challenging, I gave the pupils 5 fonts they could pick from. They were told to copy the fonts by hand. Some did really well doing this and even picked the more difficult and curly fonts, while some others tried to completely ignore this part (I made sure they still copied a font though!).

This is the example I made to show them, which I let them try and decipher in the class. Sorry it's in Dutch, but I'll translate it for those people who can't read it.

Image story.

The text says: "The evil witch flew on her broomstick over the forest. Behind her sat her cat. In her hand she held an apple that had been injected with a deadly poison."


I will update again soon with another example I have made for class. Tomorrow is my very last day at placement, so I better go and prepare for it some more! =)

It's oh... so quiet...

Indeed, it has been quiet for way too long up here. I apologise for that!

It's not that I haven't had anything to post, it's just that I've been too busy to find the time to actually post it. Plus I always feel like whatever I might be posting isn't worth it anyway. =P

But I'm going to try and change that, so here is another update!
My placement is almost running at an end, with only one more week to go. Yay! Excited! I'll be happy when it's over, as it's been a bit of a stressful time. And I'm still wondering whether teaching is something I want to do right now or not. I have a lot of confidence issues I would have to work on first before I can stand in front of a class heh.

Anyway, for my placement I've had to make some example images. Not too many, for most I could use old drawings I had or things I found online. But here are two images I made or my placement.

Under the covers

This drawing was used as one of my examples in a class for adults. I was going to teach them about 'frottage' (rubbing with a pencil over a texture so you get that texture in your drawing) and used this as an example as to how you can integrate it into a drawing. The blanket was made by me rubbing it over the sole of a shoe haha. Done in coloured pencils, which is something I rarely work with so it was refreshing.

Long hair portrait

This one is an example I made for my 12-14 year old students in art class. Inspired by the film "Rapunzel", I let them make a non-realistic portrait of themselves with long hair/a long beard. They had to use oil pastels for this. The objects were added in afterwards and are either collage or drawn (though pretty much all the students just used collage). They had to pick either things they liked, or things they didn't like.

The red version is the original, the green and blue one I altered in Photoshop to show them the difference between the colours (green and blue create a bigger contrast). I actually prefer those (especially green) over the original haha.


Long enough post for now I think, no? I think so!

I will be trying to update more in the future, but as we know it's not something I can promise. I'm not good at keeping promises like that anyway. =P

Procrastination

A long and difficult word, procrastination. But it's something I'm very good at it seems. Whatever important thing it is I have to do, I always manage to avoid it by doing something else.

At the moment, I'm supposed to be writing up 7 lesson plans for next week, as well as write down observation reports and some other assignments due Thursday. None of that is done right now. Oops.

Instead, I have been busy building my website, as can be seen in my previous blog post. And the last two or three days I've been making some earrings again, with more supplies on the way to make even more of them!




I'll get my work done, though it'll probably be a last minute thing. But I'm used to it!

Graduated!

Hello everyone! Like the title says, I have indeed graduated. I am now a Master in Graphic Design! Though we all know illustration is where my heart is, I'm no good at graphic design haha.

But yes, 4 years are over and done with. And now I'm getting ready for another year where I will go on a teacher course. You know, just to make sure I can have some form of a job in the future, as being a freelance illustrator isn't guaranteed pay. =P

As promised in my last post, here are some pictures of my exhibition space. It's nothing too fancy, but oh well. Better than nothing! You can click the pictures to see a bigger version.

My small corner of the exhibition.

A glass cabinet with a papier maché bear, some linocuts and

my working materials and some sketches.

Some original linoprints on the wall.

A few prints with text, two original prints, my book (top picture)
and a "feelings meter" (bottom picture).

As you can imagine, I'm very happy to have this finished. Though chances are I'll continue the project and improve it, to hopefully get it published at some point (if I can find a publisher that is). But of course I'm hoping to also move on from here, improve on my art, find new techniques etc.

The road ahead is very long and will probably have many difficulties along the way, but I'm excited to walk along it and see where it takes me. =)

The book is finished!

Indeed, the year has ended and my final project is finished. The book is done. I have to say I'm quite happy with the result, even though a lot of things could be improved on. But that's always the case hehe.

Here is a file of my book you can flip through. Sadly the text is in Dutch so all you non-Dutch speakers will just have to come up with your own text heh. =P

Next thing I'll post is some pictures from my exhibition set-up, though for now I hope you enjoy my book. =)

Book test

I just had some fun trying to create a mini version of my book. I simply printed out the pages and glued them all together. It helps me to figure out how many pages I still need. Turns out I still need two more. Plus do the cover and title page and all that.
Days left: 2 and a half. So I better hurry haha.

But it's fun seeing your project almost ready. Here are some pictures for the mini book. Don't look at the crappy quality of it all, it's just a dummy.


Plus here's another lino that I did that I'm quite happy with. Too bad it'll have text going all over it, but oh well, nothing I can do about that heh. Good thing I can still post it here. =)


Once my entire project is done, I will of course post photos of it on here!

The end is in sight

It has been more than a month since my last update on here. That is way too long of course, but I have my reasons. The main reason being my dissertation, which has finally been finished, handed in and defended in front of a jury! I actually think I did pretty well, but I'll have to wait for my grades to find out for sure heh.

The end of this school year is coming closer and closer. I basically have about a week and a half left to finish my project. And at the moment it feels like I am still very far away from getting it done in time. But let's hope that with some late night working I can still get it done!

In the meantime, here are four illustrations from my project. As always, linocuts manually printed in three colours. =)

A circle of friends.

Song of goodbye.

Scream.

Out in the field.

Work in Progress

Received some good news this week: our dissertation has been delayed by about 10 days. Which means I have a bit more time to actually work on some illustrations too. Yay! And to celebrate this, I decided to update my blog with some work progress images. Well only two so far, but it's better than nothing, right?

Right!

I want to share with you the main characters in the book I'm currently trying to make. It's a book about a foster family and a little girl who goes from foster care to this new family. Below are the concept sketches I made of the characters.

From left to right: Bert and Sonja, who work in foster care. And then Merel and her bear Boris.

From left to right: Thomas, Annie and Frank, the foster family.

We've already seen Sonja and Merel in the finished lino I posted a while ago. Hopefully soon I can post some more lino prints here (once I actually get around to making them that is).

For now I have one more to share with you. I'm not sure yet if this is what it will end up looking like in the end product, but I'm pretty sure it will. Unless someone has suggestions for how to make it look better of course. Suggestions are always welcome!

About work and storybirds

It's been a while since I last posted anything on here. I have my reasons though, I really do! Well one reason really, and that reason is: school.
Things have been quite busy with me currently trying to finish my dissertation and maybe doing some illustration stuff along the side. Sadly the illustration part has been a bit neglected lately. But once this dissertation is done I'll move back onto my linocuts! (I have to.)

Here is a small preview of my next print though, for those interested.


Apart from that little message, I would also like to point out a pretty cool site for artists or people who like to create/read short stories. Thanks to my cousin I discovered the site Storybird, a site that lets artists upload their illustrations and lets other users use those to create short stories. There's not really any profit to get from it right now other than some exposure and funny/cute/nice stories to read, but it's a great concept! Here is a story someone made with the art I have uploaded at the moment.

Simply Me! on Storybird

If you would like to visit my gallery on there, you can click on the following image. And of course you can start creating your own stories on there!

By the way, the Flemish illustrator Sebastiaan Van Doninck - who has some wonderful illustrations - has a gallery on there too. Be sure to check out his work if you don't know him yet!