<![CDATA[JOKE BOUDENS LETTERING​ - Blog]]>Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:29:11 +0000Weebly<![CDATA[TRAVEL JOURNAL]]>Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:45:53 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/travel-journal8707974Nice memories of a memorable trip in the south of France and experiencing a lunar eclipse! My travel journal is gradually getting filled with amazing adventures all over the world.
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]]><![CDATA[RHAPSODY IN BLUE]]>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:38:39 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/rhapsody-in-blueAlthough my favorite color is yellow, I also like blue in all its different shades. And since I love patterns, the link was quickly made  to  draw  a range of vases, plates and Chinese porcelain. The philosophy behind also matters: being busy drawing feels like Zen meditation, where the goal is to achieve a state of inner peace and clarity. 
]]><![CDATA[SKETCHBOOK]]>Wed, 10 Sep 2025 13:24:53 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/september-10th-2025A glimpse into one of my small Moleskine sketchbooks. The only material I used here was a black fineliner. The texture of the paper is pleasantly soft and quite thick so that the ink doesn't bleed through. I love working in black and white but, on the otherhand, I am very fond of colors. Next time, I'll be posting some colorful pages in another Moleskine sketchbook.
]]><![CDATA[JEF BOUDENS]]>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 08:07:10 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/jef-boudens8953167Here are  some beautiful calligraphy pieces by my late father Jef Boudens, dating from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Mary White (English calligrapher) wrote the following  in The Newsletter of The Society of Scribes and Illuminators from 1982: "The thing that first strikes you is the incredible crispness of everything he does, whether lettering or illustration, and his superb and invigorating sense of design. One cannot generalize about his work because it is so broad in content, but he often uses variations on Gothic and Uncial forms and, of course, Humanistic Cursive, all used in an individual modern way.... There is complete harmony between the letters and any decoration he incorporates. The two together make one whole. The decoration, if simple, often has a wood-cut character." 
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]]><![CDATA[SKETCHBOOK]]>Sat, 10 May 2025 09:22:21 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/sketchbook3579545Here are 12  spreads in my Moleskine book. All very different besides maybe the patterns. I still do a lot of lettering but calligraphy pens are not in the picture anymore. Nowadays, I mostly use fine pigment liners, gouache, watercolor, colored pencils and Posca pens.
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]]><![CDATA[CHRISTMAS]]>Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:08:57 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/christmasTo all my followers, wherever you are, I take this moment to not only wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, but also to thank you for all your support and encouragement throughout the year, be it on FB or IG or wherever! I'm looking forward to a great inspirational 2025 and may all your wishes come true! 
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]]><![CDATA[SUMMER GARDEN INSECTS]]>Wed, 02 Oct 2024 11:13:20 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/summer-garden-insectsIn early summer I started this new project. I was going to make a new concertina book about insects in my own garden. So, every day for more than 3 months, I have been strolling in the garden, looking for any small creatures. Armed with my phone, I took pictures of snails, bees, bumblebees and beetles, butterflies and spiders, flies and mosquitoes. At first I was afraid that it wouldn't be possible to encounter a wide variety of insects but in the end, I'm quite happy with the result! Until now, I may be proud of the amazing amount of 72 different creatures with the most poetic Dutch names.
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]]><![CDATA[PORTRAIT]]>Wed, 15 May 2024 08:26:58 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/may-15th-2024What to do if you are out of inspiration but you, at all cost, want to put that pen to the paper? My solution is to copy a nice black and white photo. You don't have to think a lot and meanwhile you keep busy! I first drew a grid with squares from 1 to 1 cm. I did it on the photo and on my paper. After that you can start filing in all the squares just as you see it on the photo. Here I used stippling. Stippling is a drawing technique in which areas of light and shadow are created using nothing but dots. The basic idea is simple: for darker areas, you apply a greater number of dots and keep them close together. Then for progressively lighter areas, use fewer dots and space them farther apart. Below is the picture of my mother.  Underneath is my grandfather, the first portrait I made, using this technique. I realize now that the one with my grandfather was a lot easier to draw.
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]]><![CDATA[1989 LETTERING EXHIBITION]]>Thu, 28 Mar 2024 14:55:16 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/1989-lettering-exhibitionThird  International Calligraphy Exhibition in Bruges, 1989.

For several years, an exhibition about lettering art was set up in a beautifully restored house in a small dead-end street in Bruges, Belgium. Every three years, during summer, people could visit this internationally renowned exhibit and enjoy a magnificent setting. If I'm not mistaken,  there have been 8 exhibitions in total.  A select gathering of internationally renown calligraphers and letter carvers as such had never happened before.   
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From left to right:

Top: Eric Marland (UK)-Oswald Schelstraete (B)-Sepp Jacob (D)-Oswald Schneider (D)-Jef Bultynck (B)-Werner Schneider (D)-                              Kristoffel Boudens (B)-Zhang Din (CH)

Bottom: John Skelton (UK)-Sarah More (UK)-Claude Mediavilla (F)-Els Baeckelandt (B)-Elmo Van Slingerland (NL)-Goedele                                     Soetewey (B) - Jef Boudens (B)-Pieter Boudens (B)-Christine Wagner (D)-Joke Boudens (B)

Not in the picture: Will Carter (UK), Kevin Cribb (UK), Gerald Fleuss (UK), Gaynor Goffe (UK), Roger Gorrindo (F), Franck Jalleau                                                (F), Jean-Claude Lamborot (F), Jean Larcher (F), Nadine Lebacq (B), John Nash (UK), Hannu Paalasma (SF),
                                          David Parsley (UK), Tom Perkins (UK), Katharina Pieper (D), Leonid Pronenko (USSR), John Stevens (USA),                                                        François Thivolle (F), Jack Throwbridge (UK), Ernst Vollmer (D), Mary White (D) 

A small selection of the exhibited work:

                                                                    Elmo Van Slingerland                                                                                                                                                    Werner Schneider

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                                                                                                                                                                              John Stevens

                  Kevin Cribb                                                                                 Kristoffel Boudens                                                                                                       Tom Perkins

                                                                                                         Sepp Jacob                                                                                                                                                                      Pieter Boudens

                                                                 Katharina Pieper                                                                                                                                                                               Sarah More

                                                                       Christine Wagner                                                                                                                                                            Leonid Pronenko

]]><![CDATA[JUST PENCIL]]>Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:01:16 GMThttp://www.jokeboudenslettering.com/blog/just-pencilA simple pencil drawing can be so satisfying. Slowly and carefully drawing, focusing on the area just below the pencil, observing every detail of the subject. I try to draw every day. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist is the architect of the notion of  FLOW, which is “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” And an old Chinese saying, quoted by David Hockney, says: “Drawing needs three things, the heart, the hand and the eye, two won’t do.” 
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