PORTRAITS

A new exiting project I've started to explore. More news soon.

Dark and Unnatural - 100 illustrations - New Book!

 

Donker en onnatuurlijk

Donker en onnatuurlijk (Dark and Unnatural) is a book compiling over 100 illustrations that were done in majority for film magazine Schokkend Nieuws. Concertobooks published it and the printing is gorgeous.

 

 

As a bonus it contains the animated movie Magic Show (2009) on DVD, written by Ruud den Drijver and animated and directed by yours truly.

Two new pages for Naomi Tales #2

Some of the many drawings I did for readers this year. Especially during the pandemic this was a nice way to be in touch with you.

 

Try out

 

There's one story that has been developing in my mind for some 17 years. Whenever I go on long hikes the story bubbles up. I enjoy spending time thinking it over. I never wrote it down. One day I will draw this story. It'll feature some biographical elements in an otherwise fictitious plot featuring the usual bunch of forgers. Last December I felt like trying out a style and mood to see if it would fit the story. It doesn't, at all. Back to the drawing board!

Meeting Pascal Rabaté

 

Drawings made for readers

 

Old work: The Bloodless

A picture book I drew as a young man around 2000 and self-published in a run of 4 copies a few years later. I couldn't find a publisher for this surreal, bleak tale about - I guess - the blurring of the lines between capitalism and socialism in our times. It did end up as a short story in the anthology Wat Fred niet wist (2004).

 

The story shares some themes with the movie Goodbye Lenin (2003), as was pointed out by people when the story appeared in 2004. My protagonist and his mother haven't left their appartment since the Berlin wall fell and fill their days by reading old communist newspapers and him dressing up as his father. I guess the feeling of 'ostalgia' was in the air then.

 

 

I was immodestly and foolishly under the spell of people like Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Joseph Lada, Picasso and obviously Frans Masereel. I was living in Peshawar, Pakistan when I made this as my girlfriend Tessa worked with Afghan refugees there. I remember bringing the art along on a long trip we did in Pakistan and India and me drawing further panels in the night trains we took. I got the idea for the drawing above at an art show in a church in Goa that warned against the abuse of alcohol. I'd like to see that Goan picture again sometime.

Paul Verhoeven

A new cover for film magazine Schokkend Nieuws. A portrait of our favorite Dutch director.

 

 

Some old work: Cloud, Castle, Lake

Some drawings from my first attempt at a long story, done while still studying at the art academy in Rotterdam in 1995 or 1996. Done as an exercise as of course I didn't have any permission to rework this Nabokov tale. It is interesting for me to see again today as I realize I've been somewhat consistent in my foolish artistic ambitions. I was mainly reading Moebius, Richard Corben, old Creepy's and Eerie's at the time (and I still do) but for my own work I choose to get entangled in my love for literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I drew the 15 pages with reed pen and Indian ink. It appeared photocopied in the amateur comic magazine Incognito and that was that!

Bumpy road ahead!

 

Leslie

A creature I've called Leslie. I drew the thing using the Balinese mask I found at the thrift a few months ago. Illustration for filmmagazine Schokkend Nieuws for a program with Indonesian horror movies at the Imagine filmfestival 2021.

Stad van Klei reprinted on the more appropriate size of my last albums, published by Scratch books. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The endband - Spaans Rood

The best part of making a book: choosing the endband. When I finally receive the samples to choose from, at the end of the production process, I know the book is really finished!

 

Fresh from the printer

Received a box with the new book on a beautiful autumn day.  

Spaans Rood

 The new book went to the printer!

Two pages from Spaans Rood

 I've finished my new book, Spaans Rood (Spanish Red) and it is due in November (in The Netherlands and Belgium). Stay tuned!

In preparation

Planned for autumn 2020, The Smuggler in Arabic (Nool Books).

L'Attentat

My graphic novel based on the Harry Mulisch book, soon also in a French edition.

Jungle River Boat - new exotica mix

I've been a long time collector of exotica records. Here are forgotten and obscure tracks in a mix I did inspired by Love in times of cholera.



Recorded from 78rpm

dennis farnon - a casual affair/don banks - revolutionary research 1/frank rothman - jazz mysterioso/steve race - sioux night ride/don banks - revolutionary research 3/eric delaney - midnight melancholy/dennis farnon - the last voyage/don banks - fear/russ garcia - border trouble/library 78 - african rhythm 1 and 2/nino nardini - melody tropicale/e. sendel - astronautics/Horst Jankowski - haunting melody/library 78 - mallets/dennis farnon - in piper's wood/ralph dollimore - toady/don banks - revolutionary research 2/Ivor Slaney - carrasco/nino nardini - laguna beach/sam fonteyn - design for mambo/Ivor Slaney - jungle flute/don banks - revolutionary research 4/dennis farnon - monday's child/J. Scott - percussion abstraction/wolf droysen - uneasy dream/J. Scott - percussion fast-ride/gert wilden - belly dance/don banks - revolutionary research 5/freddie philips - el souk

On the road

Naomi

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