Movember

Grow a moustache for a good cause: Men's health awareness

Illustrated calendar 2013

This is another project together with some of the Illustrators from Mainz / Wiesbaden. A calender for the year 2013. We sell it at our exhibition in Rüsselsheim for only 5€ (two for 8€). But of course you can contact me to get one too. My picture is for the month Movember ;-) It was made exclusively for this calendar. The business cards (made in a playing card size for every exhibitor) are for free.

Calendar layout by Martina Theisen and Christian Weber.

Workshop: Das illustrierte ABC

This was an artwork for a workshop linked to the exhibition in Rüsselsheim.
The illustrated Alphabet would bring Illustration and handwritten Typography together. The ABC is the core of our language. I planned to do a collection of illustrations to every letter in the alphabet. The participants would choose a few letters and at the end of the course we would present our work together. Every media can be used: ink, pencils, watercolor, acrylic paint, scissors and paper, digital...

It seems like it won't take place now but if you are interested please contact the VHS Rüsselsheim and ask for the Workshop: "Das illustrierte Alphabet" If we are lucky they will get it back into the programme.

"Making Of- Illustratoren in die Karten schauen" Ausstellung/ Exhibition

Together with 16 other illustrators from the Mainz/Wiesbaden area I currently have an exhibition in Rüsselsheim. It is called "Making Of" and therefore we show many work in progress sketches. Each illustrator has a different way to work and a different style. Childrens books are there as advertising or technical millustrations. I can tell you it is a great experience to see the wide range of our work. The vernissage was last friday and the exhibition is open until october the 20th. Here are some pictures from the vernissage. You can find more information on the page of the museum.
Stadt und Industriemuseum Rüsselsheim
The poster was designed by a fellow illustrator: Christian Weber

I hope some of you might be able to come to the museum and enjoy the beautiful work of 17 illustrators.

Sensor Magazin Cover

The cover of the September Issue of the SENSOR magazine. The title was "Modestadt Wiesbaden" I took the Schiller statue in front of the theatre and made it into a catwalk. Note the fashion bloggers ;-)
There is also a nice article about fashion designers from my area including my favourite label Vecona Vintage.I will tell you more about them soon.

It was a good experience to see my own work in all the shops, bars and restaurant in Wiesbaden. You can read the issue fore free here: Sensor Wiesbaden

Making Of: "Sensor" Title Illustration

Today I want to share some "making of" pictures from one of my latest works with you. It's the title illustration for a local magazine in called "Sensor". The topic was "Modestadt Wiesbaden" so it was all about local fashion. You can already see some pictures that made it into the final artwork.

Fashion Illustration for VECONA

Ladies and gentlemen I proudly present to you my new illustrations for VECONA. This time it is a 1930s leisurewear theme. Beach pajamas are wide legged pants that were established in the late 20s as resort wear for glamourous ladies. They soon started a craze and were part of the rise of sportswear to everyday fashion. Along with linen dresses and blouses with puff sleeves they are the perfect choice for warm weather. You can get the oufits at her website and make my illustrations come to life.

Illustratoren-Stammtisch Mainz Wiesbaden

Seitdem ich aus dem Ruhrgebiet in das Rhein/Main-Gebiet gezogen bin treffe ich mich monatlich mit anderen Illustratoren zu einem Stammtisch in Mainz. Zusammen ist eine Ausstellung im Herbst geplant. Ich halte euch auf dem laufenden!

Ab sofort bin ich auch auf der Seite zu finden:
Illustratoren Mainz Wiesbaden


I am now part of group of illustrators from the Rhine/Main Area who meet monthly and plan an  exhibition in autumn. I will keep you posted.

draw fast / die young... on tumblr

News:
I am on tumblr too! I use it to get my work to the people who wouldn't find it otherwise. The tagging/search works well enough for me. It's not the best tool if you want 100% control over your work and the copyright. But that's always the problem on the internet. Feel free to "follow me" if you have a tumblr too.

I might upload some random doodles in the future. So watch out and enjoy.

D*sney gave me unrealistic expectations about clothes.

Drunken Sailor, Linocut

Sweater weather?

The weather is getting warmer and I have got a cold. Great.

Fashion Illustraion

First of all: I love fashion. You can see that in many of my illustrations. There is a beauty in good tailoring and it's so much fun combining fabrics, textures, pattern, colors.A part of my sketchbooks is filled with stuff like this. I just never get bored with it.

Das Spiel ( The game)

In the last post I mentioned the association with gambling. In a follow up project for the Promethiade poster I made a short comic without words. This is the first page. Zeus is a bearded rocker now and Prom-Boy is struggling as usual. A femme fatale Pandora is also there but it doesn't really matter who is who.


"Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine... "(Hank Wiliams- Lost Highway)

Promethiade poster

This is a poster I made for the theatre festival "Promethiade" which took place 2010 on the Zollverein Area in Essen, germany. Prometheus was a greek mythological figure. As a titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, he was only a half god. He stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals. The fire is a symbol for the civilisation and technology. Later Prometheus was punished with being bound to a rock and his liver was eaten by an eagle every day. He was immortal so his liver would recover and be eaten again the next day. The humans were also punished because Zeus didn't want them to have the fire (and the power of technology developed from that) so he send Pandora. Her gift was a trap and it released all the evils in the world. (hunger, diseases and so on...) but they also get something to make it bearable: hope.

I imagined him as a trickster, daredevil and gambler who tried to play with the gods and failed. It is told that he could see the future but did it anyway. He did want to give the power to the humans even when it would also bring them grief and evil too.

I designed playing cards with Zeus, Prometheus and Pandora. Each can be identified by their attribute. Zeus, the god of thunder and king of the gods. Prometheus with the fire and the eagle and Pandora with her box.

You can find more information on the theatre event here:
http://www.zollverein.de/index.php?f_articleId=5175

The pictures didn't come out of the production though. I went by my first association and an line in a Hank Willams song that reminded me of a guy who wents into misery with his eyes wide open.

Roald Dahl

 

Roald Dahl is one of my favourite authors. He is known for his childrens books but made some rather adult novels too.(nudge nudge)  The main thing about his work is a sense of humor that makes him quite unique to me. It's almost black humor but innocent at the same time. Also he really knowns how to tell a story from the perspective of a child but without getting naive or cute. The world is full of dangers even for children too. At the age of  eight he was caned by the headmaster of his school for putting a frog into one of the Jars of the local sweet shop. If you read his books the stories often are about a threat like this but in the end the children can outwit the cruel tormentors.

Later he was a pilot for the RAF in Africa during the Second World War.

I tried to make both sides of him visible in my portait. He looks like a midcentury gentlemen with his suit, whiskey and cigarette but also has a boyish look (maybe because of the big head?)

Now take one of his books and enjoy!

Evil Clown

 

Sketch for the villain in "Die Groszstadt" ...an evil ice cream selling clown. Maybe it is a clichée since John Wayne Gayce but I am sure the fear for clowns was known long before him. Archetypes work better for fairytales because they don't need long explainations. It's the same with horrormovies. Once they try to explain they are getting dull and boring.

Die Groszstadt - Part II

Maybe you can see it is also a tribute to George Grosz (1893-1959) hence the spelling in the original title. It doesn't translate too well into english because we have this funny "ß". George Grosz changed the spelling from Groß into Grosz because he wanted to let it appear less german and more international. Same with John Heartfield who was born as Helmut Herzfeld. I did just read that a possible translation for Kremers could be Chandler....but then again: What would Raymond do?

Die Groszstadt

 Hänsel und Gretel in der Groszstadt
 (Hansel and Gretel in the big city)

Excerpt from illustration project at the university, 2010, during the lectureship of Lars Henkel. We had to come up with a new setting for the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. So in the story we don't have bread crumbs, a wood or a witch. Not even a oven I did choose an early 1930s city and an evil icecream selling clown as the witch.

Sonntage

 

Sonntage (sundays)

Illustration for a personal project inspired by Sybille Berg