Peter van Straaten - Een jongen en zijn boom

Today I bought the only children's book ever written by Peter van Straaten: "Een jongen en zijn boom" ("A boy and his tree"). It tells the story of John; a young teenager who moves with his mother to a new neighbourhood where he is constantly picked on by the other children. He finds piece in nature, and specifically in the comforting presence of a large tree. This tree -"his tree"- personifies in a way all the qualities John lacks and longs for: strength, piece and maturity.

I was very touched by the story, because it made me remember my own puberty when I had similar insecurities as John. This was incidentally the first piece of writing I read by Peter van Straaten, who is more celebrated as an illustrator than a writer. I've written about his illustrations before on this blog. Anyway, for those of you who understand Dutch :), go check it out!

On a different note: I will be moving to the United States in a few days, to study there for a year at a graduate school in Minnesota. I'm very excited about it. This will also mean that I will post fewer images or artwork on this blog, at least, that's what I expect. I plan on making a detailed notebook during my stay in Minnesota with lots of Peter van Straaten-meets-Ronald Searle-like drawings. So stay tuned!

Portret commission

Wow, I didn't think I'd see this one again, but apparently my parents had a copy of it on their pc. I made this portret commission a few weeks ago -with a lot of help from my father I might add. The execution of the piece was a nightmare from the start: bad photographs, bad colours and most of all it was to long ago since I had last painted seriously. With the help I received from my father it turned out very nice however!

Another go at pastel...:-)

It's mostly sketched on cheap-ass paper, but lots of fun!

More pastel!

More messing around with pastel

It's so relaxing to just doodle with pastel without having to worry about the result. And it applies to painting as well! This one's a sketch from a Thor screencap.

Warming-up!

A warming-up caricature of myself ;)

Pastel sketches

Finally something new!

I've occasionally done some drawing in the last few months. Almost like finding water in the desert. Anyway, there were a few portret assignments -one of which was done in acrylic;)
Here's a sketch I made before starting one of the portret assignments. Next are two storyboard sketches made for the animated project I'm working on with a friend.