'rosine' - back to basics

i have a room of my own now. it makes such a huge difference. it's so good. it's a space to be undisturbed, a space to think in ways i can't do at home (no mommy thoughts), a space to expand, to be quiet... to be loud, a space for expression. it's freedom. the freedom to let it come. whatever wants to come.


   

the first thing to come back is rosine. without digital revision this time. so i'm back to the basics: paper, pencils, ink and water colours. no photoshop, no fb, even the reception for my mobile phone is bad. it couldn't be better! for the last two weeks i've been working on these five illustrations. they are going into the 'mostra degli illustratori" competition of the bologna children's book fair. for me working without digital tools basically means i don't have tools for correction. it's braver because everything counts. every line will just be the way i draw it. it's honest. the beauty about it is that so called 'mistakes' often make the most interesting pictures in the end. it's an amazing feeling. like i didn't do it, i was just the one to hold the pencil.

'from my sketch book' - the summer in germany

there was not a lot of time this summer left for drawing. but there was lots of time for harvesting apricots in the garden, for baking 'apfelstrudel' on a daily basis and plum cake (if you can pronounce the word, which is 'zwetschgendatschi' your german is perfect! or you try samuel's version 'knatschikuchen'), to take walks through green meadows, to see friends and to wait for the stars to come out and the hedgehog rustle through the grass at night .

'my cards' - stamps

i just love stamps! the ones i used for these cards are simply cut out of rubber foam using scissors. and off you go stamping away, spreading the love!

i print all of my cards by hand. colour, texture and placement of the motif vary from card to card. so you will always get an original! all of my cards are printed on recycled paper. 

my cards are available at the following shops in hongkong:

Ellermann

36 G/F Tung Street

(just off Hollywood Rd.)

Sheung Wan

the bookshop mccm creations

G/F HK Arts Centre,

2 Harbour Road

Wanchai

'my cards' - time

this is a book my great grandmother else wenz-vietor illustrated almost 100 years ago. it is a famous children's story called "der kleine haewelmann" by theodor storm. a boy called little haewelmann uses his night gown as a sail to drive through the night and ends up in the sky with the wise old moon. every time i look at the book i'm astonished how little haewelmann looks so similar to my children!  

these two cards are for the arrival of a newborn baby. they are a homage to my great grandmother. i used the same requisites: chubby baby, big fluffy duvet, watercolours and ink (else preferred a sepia tone though).it's so humbling how the past and the future connect in this big circle of time.

this is my favourite page of else's illustrations: "shine old moon, shine for me!" the boy cried. and they drove out of the forest and over the fields until the end of the world, and from there directly into the sky....

'my cards' - cutting paper

an invitation card in the process of cutting ... 

i love the way the shadows play ...

need a break? tea or coffee for you?

so many possibilities for collage... in the end i go for the paper lace. (see below) 

cutting an image out of paper means reduction: details are simply cut off because the lines cannot be too thin. midtones of colour are reduced to black&white. what remains is light and shadow, surface and contour. i love it. at its best it's the essence.

this card is clearly inspired by our four legged room mate!

these cards combine my new love for paper cuts with my old passion for stamps.
these are portraits of my two children;-) 

'the blue ball point pen phase' - from my sketch book

'the blue ball point pen phase' - my first children's book

this is the first children's book i've done (apart from the ones i did as a child:) my husband and me spent our first family holiday on 'la gomera', a beautiful island off the coast of africa. lucia, our first born, wasn't even a year old at the time. i only had one of these cool 80's ball point pens with me, which you push down and then ball points in different colours pop up... and here we go: all blue, red and green!