Amstelpark sketchbook

I'm currently working on an illustration for the next issue of Unfold Amsterdam, which I'm really excited about! 

I've been inspired by the work of Roman Cieslewicz, who once said: 

"To me a picture could never be separated from the content"

I've also been invited to take part in a collaboration called The Exquisite Corpse Project, organised by the lovely Abi Whitehouse (who, along with Desdemona McCannon, creates Doodlezine).

Here are some drawings I made in Amstelpark:

This sami boy wears the four winds hat - the name comes from the idea that all the winds converge at the north pole.

My little mouth, my winter lungs

I'm making Christmas cards!


They are all based on reindeer and Sami culture. The Sami are the indigenous people of northern Fennoscandia (Sápmi), and their association with reindeer is recorded as long ago as 1000 BC when they were its hunters. By the 1500s they had turned to herding, and in modern day Norway they are now solely responsible for the reindeer herds.


According to Arcticdiscovery.com,


"Despite the use of technical aids like radio communications and snowmobiles, this occupation is still adapted to the herd's annual cycles."


I've been looking at early (1900-1920s) photographs of them and I am so drawn to the cosy-looking garments, use of patterns, beautiful hats and snow! But I'm aware that they have been misrepresented in the past, and I've been doing my research so that hopefully I do get it right.


I'm also inspired by Alexander Gronsky's series of photographs Less Than One, which I saw earlier this month at Amsterdam's FOAM. His images of Russia have a stark and graphic appearance, primarily because of the amount of white snow in them. Its worth seeing for yourself: http://www.alexandergronsky.com/


(I've been reading Tintin in Tibet too, which I should also mention features a lot of snow.)


And I've been listening to Bjork:





For this project I'm working with Indian ink and mapping pen on 300gsm gummed watercolour paper, and adding colour digitally. (I've been collecting autumn leaves during my cycle to work for some colours and textures to use.)


This weekend I'm getting some nice prints made of my work, and some cards and postcards printed too, so I will be setting up the shop very soon!!


PS: Here is the black swan of Amstelpark, Amsterdam:

He is a very handsome fellow, very friendly and inquisitive if you decide to sit near the lake, but also a bit of a coward - he can often be seen being chased by a gaggle of noisy ducks and coots.

Online shop coming soon - high quality prints, cards, badges, and original artworks will all shortly be available...watch this space!

Jazz (aged 11)

My Jazz. When I was sad, he would always find me. He would sit with me quietly while I painted, and sometimes he would let me draw him. He was a very timid cat, but he would look you right in the eyes. His brother, Hebe, would try to grab his tail when he walked past, and chase him all over the house. When they were kittens they washed each other. They were ill and abandoned, and my dad asked us which one of them we would take home, but of course we couldn't separate them. We picked their names from The She Book of Cats. Jazz was an "exciting cat". He used to sit cool as a cucumber and look at next doors dog through the wire fence and conifer trees while the dog went insane at him. He especially liked to be stroked on the forehead, on the spot just above his nose, and scratched under the chin. He would stretch out and we would stroke his soft belly and tiny ribs and he'd stretch even further, plucking with his claws. Some nights he would wake me up at 2am, miaowing and miaowing, and I'd call to him "Its alright Jazz!" and then he'd be off, back into the night. He just wanted to know we were there.

He was like a sleek black panther and I loved him.

(one of my illustrations from Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince, Illustrated Book, 2006)

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery 


This week I have been on a disability training course, learning all about conditions such as Autism, Aspergers and Dyslexia, visual impairment, physical disability, deafness, sign language and Deaf culture. It was really fascinating and I've learnt so much, so I'm planning to make some poster designs promoting awareness pretty soon.


The thing that surprised me most was discovering that sign language had once been banned worldwide (at the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, Milan 1880).


Also, it was only as recently as 2003 that British Sign Language (BSL) was officially recognised as a language in Britain, and many countries still do not recognise their own native sign languages. 


I really want to make some posters to draw attention to this, and to encourage more people to learn sign language, because I can see the importance of learning it myself.

I've been trying to design the main character's house for my comic book. I want it to have an art nouveau appearance, to reflect the theme of nature throughout the story. This is one of the houses I've drawn in my sketchbook. It still needs some developing. The script is coming along nicely, so hopefully I'll be putting up a few more images soon!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."


- Mark Twain

Animal Masks

I'm trying to use more colour in my work. These are some animal masks which will feature in my comic book.

Setsuko