right here

So, allow me to share my latest epiphany: drawing buildings from my immediate surroundings - instead of wasting hours on the internet trying to find the right picture of the right building captured at the right angle - is a definite win-win-situation where a) I enjoy working on the illustration a lot more because of its personal nature and b) it helps me to appreciate my new neighborhood that as a result is really starting to grow on me now. Right. Catch breath. 
Never expect me to disclose actual groundbreaking revelations, and I won't let you down.

we have lift off!

On a daily basis I serve you icons in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. All credit goes to art director Lucas van Esch for being both patient and encouraging over the many many recent months. Could have simultaneously carried a baby to full term, but that wouldn't have made the papers though.. And these will! A selection:

grams

I made an illustration for Bright Ideas about Grams, the recently launched online Black Market for all your quality drugs, rifles, hitmen, hacking tools and what not. It looks like Google, even the logo is quite similar, but the difference is this search engine will only bring you the forbidden fruits. So I'm hoping it's as shielded as it's supposed to be, for I tried to gram every illegal service. Didn't order any crystal meth or deadly weapons though, just so this is very clear to anyone that might be inquiring into my whereabouts since this assignment.. I'm a mom yo!

intimate

My fourth illustration on the philosopher's big questions is published today in newspaper De Morgen. Philosopher Stine Jensen writes about sharing (or not sharing) personal information, which according to her is the big issue of the 21st century. There is an increasing degree in which we decide to share our privacy. The thing we might not be aware of is that it's actually traded, giving power and influence to politics and media. Journalism, government, businesses and even the law, they're all stakeholders.

So sharing the way this illustration came about might not be such a good idea. Considering it was while taking a shower. It used to be a lot more comfy when I was still in the possession of a bathtub, but texts stick perfectly fine to wet shower walls as well. And after all, it's just the thinking part that takes place here. For the execution I'm properly decent.

Now, I like to see a dealer try gaining power and influence by this piece of intimate information.

The illustration itself (less intimate) can be found on leoniebos.nl.

issues to keep you awake

Because of Belgium's month of philosophy several Belgian and Dutch philosophers were asked by newspaper De Morgen to write an article on the issue that keeps them awake. What is the big question of our time?

The first out of eight I had to illustrate was by Coen Simon, the question being How much fakery can society take? and is published in today's newpaper. 
Due to our new digital media, true & false can hardly be distinguished from each other, and even new digital systems themselves don't make things any clearer. However, the fact that there are technological resources standing between man and the truth is as old as man himself. Think Plato's cave. The role of the philosopher of our time is not bringing to light truth itself, but the ways in which they're established.

Anyway, I came up with an image where two well-known optical illusions are combined. Everyone knows the duck/rabbit and the trick it plays on our minds. Well, not everyone maybe. My four year old was so confused by the image, he took it to bed. I'm wondering, did it keep him awake..

does 'size matters' matter?

The question was: are men with wide faces more attractive for a one-night stand? 
Research indicates that the skull width of a man determines the woman's choice in partners. We prefer a strong, tough guy for our short-term-relationships. A broad head indicates more manhood, because testosterone affects the facial growth. Whether these testosterone-tough-toyboys automatically carry better genes for posterity has not been proven, despite the many studies on this issue.

But really, the actual question should be: who cares about these fucking studies?

license to print

Last day of my screen-printing-refresher-course. I just received my license to print. I'm good to go. True, the larger surfaces need some more practice.. But the small parts, I've got them covered. Note to self: stop covering yourself with ink.

allround, almost

After assembling an IKEA shelving unit and then hanging it absolute straight to non-perpendicular walls, wallpapering her entire bedroom with eerie precision and exactly one (1) roll of wallpaper, today she managed to create her first perfectly matched two-colour textile screen prints. One might start to wonder if there is anything this woman cannot do? Besides writing about more significant activities in the first-person.. Or taking sharper pictures.

( ) ( ) ( )

What is this, rejection-week?! I had one of my - what I personally thought bést - pieces shredded&chopped beginning this week. And, while still recovering of disbelief, just this afternoon another client called my icons-project (flaunted them in the blog below) into question. Much more gentle though (thank you from the bottom of my hypersensitive artist's heart) and I do agree I should chuck a few of them (the ones I didn't show you, for obvious reasons) and (yes) there is room for improvement. But still. That makes two rejections. 

Well you can't win 'em all. And besides that, all this misunderstoodness makes me feel inscrutable and.. artist-ish or whatever. Just don't make me feel it twice a week.

psssst

This project is taking forever to be published. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to give a few away now, don't tell anyone..

working my ass off

planet tropicana

Recently I was invited to participate in a publication made by Planet Tropicana, a new illustration platform founded by Dutch illustrators Sjors Tomlow, Ming Sin Ho, Levi Jacobs and Saman Dezai. They made a limited edition magazine, printed in a special 2-colour Risograph technique, that was presented at the RAW Art Fair in Rotterdam. Having worked with a Risograph-printer myself for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I know this is not an easy task. Certainly no job for the impatient. I think their efforts have definitely been rewarded, it looks great!
Cover-design by Levi Jacobs.

landscaping

Who needs a garden when you can draw one? Okay, not the same..

with love for Belgium

Mission accomplished. Monday the second illustration in de Morgen, and with that their chance to make up for the mistake. The game is on. No, just kidding. I love the Belgians, or residents of Belgium, equal.

day of hatches

Vandaag in de Morgen! (Today in The Morning, Belgian newspaper)
The Belgians retaliated after my words of warning yesterday, by not mentioning my name.. How am I to conquer Belgium when they don't know whose drawing it is?? I had to give them my ultimate punishment, which is forcing them to provide me with a lifetime of assignments. But so far I have not yet received their response..

preview

Morgen in de Morgen! (Tomorrow in The Morning, Belgian newspaper). Beware Belgians of the Dazzling-Dutch-Drawing! Love my alliterations, maybe even more than the actual drawing, but hey, it was a four-hour-chore :) 

glory to the cat

No my blog didn't die on you. I bought a house. It needed some attention.. But, I'm back in the game. And with that, I thought I'd let my new living room serve as a model. For the cover of newspaper De Volkskrant, themed peer-to-peer traveling, I wanted to show a hotel slash living room. 
This proved rather difficult with my current working method in which I'm trying to avoid all unnecessary elements. Because in this particular picture drawing the details would be essential to make the room more personal. I had to get past my 'thingies'-aversion and throw in slippers and coffee cups. That was hard, but I pulled it off because they were functional to the story. But then came the next tricky part, not to go overboard with the personal items because it should also function as a hotel room (unpersonal, tidy). You see my dilemma? I struggled a while but when I finally added the cat on the couch and the (hotel)key in the door I felt everything coming together. 

So. Enough words to illustrate my blog is still alive & kicking? The cat on the couch isn't though... Afraid the move did him in. Apparently he had a weak little heart. I'm quite sad about it, but glad he made the newspapers...