Blog Posts - JOKE BOUDENS LETTERING

TORINO

16/10/2019

I've been very fortunate to host a workshop in Torino, Italy. A city that I didn't visit yet and I was pleasantly surprised by its beauty and its old history! Since I came back, I started a new concertina book about all the fantastic things I saw. Below, you can see a small map of the city center where I taught and where I stayed in a splendid palazzo. And how much I enjoyed drawing this map as precise as possible! I'm pretty sure that I'm going to draw other maps in the future.

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WORLD PET DAY

28/9/2019

Today is World Pet Day! I remember, when I was a child, my dream was to have a dog hotel. I was crazy about dogs, trusted all of them and was petting every dog I came across in the street. I was lucky, never been bitten. The whippet in this concertina book is so decorative, he was literally begging to be painted!

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STAMPS

4/9/2019

I love collections! I mean, I like to draw them. My father collected stamps although he was not a real philatelist. He could as well have collected posters, old soap boxes or match boxes but stamps took up less space. He only collected aesthetically pleasing stamps in terms of illustration, used font and color. Thinking of this collection, I started drawing my own. The aim is to make a new print for my Etsy shop. I finally used two of my new Microns that I bougt in America last year. I wanted to limit myself to two colors, orange and purple, colors that I usually don't use. In the end, I added a little gray watercolor to finish it. What do you think?

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BEAUTIFUL CAROLINGIAN MINUSCEL

21/8/2019

I love Carolingian minuscel! These letters are wide and round and it's the internal spaces of the letters that make them work so well. This is a piece from long ago. I'm still happy with it despite of the - sometimes - bad spacing. It was a good exercise for writing large scale. I used an automatic pen number 2 and ferric ink on thick Arches cold pressed paper.

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GARDEN PRINT

10/7/2019

With the floral explosion of an extraordinary spring, our garden is like paradise. I had the irresistible urge to make a painting of this abundant amount of greens and bright colors. So here is the final print! I'm very happy with the colors. I was inspired by our own garden but also by old Indian embroideries. These prints are available through my Etsy shop. Click on 'sale' to see more!

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JAZZ FOR CHILDREN

4/7/2019

Not my own work this time, but from my talented daughter. For her Master's project she worked on this children's book about jazz and jazz musicians. Since the target audience are children, she used animals alternating with musicians and charming short stories about their lives. There was also a CD included with songs from the book. Below some spreads of JAZZZOO!

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June 12th, 2019

12/6/2019

A while ago I posted a picture of my family tree on my mother's side. This one is on my father's side. On the left there is the handwriting of my great grandfather. He had to write a dictation in order to be admitted to become a customs officer. He passed the test! Below there is his picture and at the right some military papers. The oldest ancestor I found so far was born in 1652. I'll keep searching!

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May 29th, 2019

29/5/2019

A few weeks ago I was blessed with a group of enthusiastic students for a colored pencil workshop. A butterfly is, of course, a rewarding topic for study and spring is the perfect time of the year to do this. It's been two most enjoyable days where everyone learned about the different types of pencils, best papers to work on and best techniques to draw a photo-realistic butterfly. Using colored pencils is much more than just coloring, it's building up layer by layer and I'm sure that every student in the class can agree with me that working with colored pencils helps to create a feeling of calmness and Zen!

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SPRING GARDEN

1/5/2019

Our garden has never ever been so beautiful in all it's glory of fluorescent shades of blue: wisteria, bluebells, forget-me-nots, and the radiant white flowers of the Mexican orange blossom and the Solomon's seal. And each one of them has it's specific scent! We enjoy this view so much. Within a few weeks the garden will have a totally different look!

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HAPPY EASTER

20/4/2019

Easter = yellow. This greeting card says: "So much yellow" with a summary of yellow color names. I love this time of the year: it's getting warmer and the garden is at its best. The green will never be greener than now, the yellow daffodils shine bright and the blue of the bluebells is almost fluorescent! Happy Easter to all of you :)

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