My concertina books are too long in size, so I have to show them  in smaller parts. Otherwise minor details are being lost. Each book measures 75 cm (29.5") with a height of 14 cm (5.5"). For this one, I only used black pigment liners, some watercolor for the yellow bits and I worked on cold pressed paper which, as you can see, has a rough surface.

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.

This cute small painting is by my maternal grandfather and is about a tragic event that he might have witnessed when he was a child. He tells a whole story in just one image. It has been painted in 1925, so between the two wars. I really love the color palette, with all the black-white-grey tones and then the small orange circle of the crescent moon.

Years ago, I made this portrait of my paternal grandfather but never finished it. The intention is to add his name and some other text, although I don't know what yet. Anyhow, I want it to have the look of art nouveau style, with some decoration added. This was one of the first times I used stippling to create a portrait. It takes many hours of work but the advantage is that you can work for very short periods now and then and to me it is most relaxing!

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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I'm always inspired by nature, by plants and trees. And I keep coming back to the poems of Emily Dickinson because she was also a lover of nature. Sometimes when reading one of her poems, in my mind, I immediately see  what the following finished page in my sketchbook will look like. This illustration was done in one day, couldn't stop drawing. It's not always going smoothly like this though, sometimes I start a project, only terminating it after a long time.
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A spread in one of my handmade books. I filled it with poems, beautiful texts and, of course, illustrations. Everything is about gardening, love for nature and words that make you feel good. Much needed while we are living through difficult times!

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