Hi folks. The second quarter of 2014 proved an incredibly busy one for me, doing book promotion abroad and trying to make ends meet being a free lance illustrator at the same time. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get ANY work done on my new graphic novel project, which is burning somewhere in a drawer now, waiting to be completed. I’m experiencing some setbacks to finance the project, I mean, I literally have to take time off from illustrating to write and draw the book. I’ll keep you posted on its progress right here, so check back regularly if you’re interested. Summer is at our doorstep now, so I have some time to reflect and look ahead on other future projects. I had a lovely chat with the people over at Rubinstein Publishers. They carry the license for the Little Golden Books here in the Netherlands and we talked about the possibility of me doing one. I had been walking around with this idea for a children’s book for quite some time, a territory in illustration I haven’t yet trodden, so this seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up on. I’m in the preliminary stages of designing the characters and drawing style. I set the story in Finland, the country where my mother was born in, just to do homage to my roots for a change. I’ve made a piece featuring the main character, a little brown bear, just to get my head and hands around this new retro graphic style I’m planning on using. It is a work in progress, so nothing is definite yet. Wanted to share it here with you anyway.
June 24, 2014