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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#jokeboudens#letteringandillustration#quotes#feelgood#lettering#letteringandillustration#handwriting#letterfun

I've been trying out Posca markers and it was a fun thing to do, going on autopilot. There is only a limited color palette fot the fine tips range, but they are bright, opaque and quick drying. And colors can be applied on top of each other, even light colors on dark ones. Perfect for decorative art as shown on the picture below. I had fun making this pattern in my sketchbook!

Twice lavender. On the right side an embroidered piece from maybe twenty years ago. I used to be an embroidery teacher and this lavender in a pot was a design I made for my students to recreate. I came across it while searching on my PC and made this drawing yesterday.

This pencil drawing was made by my grandfather (1894-1967). It is a portrait that he made of his sister Anna. It is the only portrait I know of,  he was actually a landscape painter.  But I love this drawing a lot and in real life it has that velvety texture.

I have been teaching embroidery for over 30 years. One of the techniques in the curriculum was Blackwork. And, after so many years, this inspired me to fill two whole journals with drawn patterns. I started at the beginning of the Covid period and am now nearly at the end of my second book. I can recommend it to everyone: I think it is the best way to slowing down and relax! And it really is amazing how many different patterns you can come up with, just starting with a line, a dot, a square, rectangle or lozenge.