A few years ago, I made this spread in my big Moleskin sketchbook. These are all excerpts from a wonderful diary that my maternal grandfather left us. I picked some fragments to write down about him going to America with his family when he was only 17, but also about his experiences  during WW I when he  just returned from there. 

Now I'm working on a new concertina book about this America adventure, rearranging the fragments into another size of paper and leaving out the war-section. I added a small family tree for better understanding.

I like to draw plants in a medieval way ánd I love this poem from Edwin Morgan about strawberries. And so, the two came together in my sketchbook. Don't know if I'm going to add some colors or not, what do you think?
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I started a new pattern journal on June the 20th 2022 after having finished 2 other journals. It is a challenge to invent over and over new patterns. In my first two books I used only 2 colors, yellow and black and orange and black. Here I try to use 3 colors, grey, orange and apricot, not always possible as you can see!

This cute little Chinese doll in kimono has always been on the shelf in my bedroom since I was a child. Drawing it was the best way to try out my new Posca pens. I choose some matching colors and here we are, a new page in my sketchbook!

Two pages in my sketchbook. I have been re-working a stamps collection and chose for a limited color palette of 3 colors: orange, blue and light blue. I'm inspired by existing stamps but don't copy them. Some details are left out, certain fonts are adjusted and, anyhow, colors are customized. For orange and blue I used fine microns, light blue is executed in colored pencil. 

This space control toy in bright turquoise blue dates back to ca. 1950. I'm planning making many more drawings of old toys because  of a sense of nostalgia.  No one better than Bill Bryson to describe the spirit of time of the 50's and 60's:
"I knew how to relax in an armchair in more than one hundred positions and on the floor in approximately seventy-five more. I knew what the world looked like when viewed through a jelly-o lens. I knew how things tasted, pencil ferrules, coins and buttons ..."
This passage comes from "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid", a book from 2006, describing Bill's youth growing up during the 1950s.  Highly recommended! For this drawing I used some Posca's and I refined the details with colored pencils.

Recent painting of our 'granny' who turns 20 next year but still looks young! I painted her, as well as the background, with gouache and added some pattern using different cheerful Posca colors. 

I'm into blue and white pottery these last few months. It's not that I go crazy over Chinese bone, but I admire those artists from the distant past who were incredibly talented and inventive and I love to immortalize their art in my sketchbook. The illustration is accompanied by an inspiring text about beauty from the book 'El Profeta' by Kahlil Gibran.
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