Digging through not fully used sketchbooks (I normally have about five active and sketch in random ones, that I find the first) I found these friends. I could not remember how I draw them and why. Then I saw the date 23.02.22 and no wonder I completely forgot I ever draw it.

The picture hooks competition has always been my favorite and inspired me to have great time illustrating one single phrase. It is not a marathon, just one or two picture. What a joy.
This time the theme is “What’s inside?”, and here is my entry. One should show a character before and after opening a parcel.

Here are some linocut snowmen. When printing the words, I either missed one or another letter or printed it upside down. I would never be able to be a typesetter a hundred years ago!

Some illustrations from the book about reading books. There are so many different ways!
On a bench…

…or upside down…

…or on the beach…

…and many other to find out in the book by Paul Ruble

Some of the projects I am working on are especially exciting for me, because very, very strange things happen in these stories. I love such stories. This spring I have been working on such a story, and even though the project has not been completed yet and I am not sure if the book will ever be published, I believe some of these pictures deserve to be published, at least here.

So here is the main character, Badger, the famous nature photographer. He is trying to find the Great Eyed Deer and make a photo of him.

On his way in the forest he meets many crazy creatures. Like this hare.

Of course, at the end of the story the brave badger finds the deer. But before that, he has to deal with awkward situations and unpredictable forest inhabitants.

I am intensively learning the German copyright at the moment along with other aspects of the job, that have nothing to do with my beloved pencil, ink and co. So far, this only does good to me and helps me better understand the worth of illustrator’s work.

One of my discoveries is that according the copyright law I am allowed to show illustrations, that have not yet been published! Not knowing that, I have never shown some illustrations, that somebody ordered from me, but then decided not to publish. Oooh, that feels more like these works belong to me. They actually do.

So vois-là, one of my old works. This was a story about a ferret who learned how to disappear.

For the first time, I would try to build a blog here. Not everything fits into the Instagram format, though very informative in a way. Here I will tell something about my workflow, share sketches and challenges of my work.

One of the books I have been working on lately is “Mich taucht ein” (“Michi dives in”). It is picture book teaching the kids not to be afraid of water, enjoy the process of learning how to swim. All that with a help of stories, quizzes and tasks. Somehow I am getting more water-related projects — and I love that.

Here is Michi being shy and Mr. Pimrock, the master of swimming: