Sketchbook #90

Started a new sketchbook. Number 90. 'Argh! Just when we were winning!'

 

Hotel Blanc

From my sketchbook. When i was thinking about what to give this post as a title, I thought of the song 'Hotel Blanc' by Edward Ka-Spel, which is one of the most surreal pieces in my collection.
 

Everything Hangs Together - the cover design

The cover design for my upcoming book. Again, it will be in Dutch only (sob). It is sceduled for the spring of 2025. The title translates as Everything Hangs together. The story is quite complex and I won't go deep into that, but basicly it deals with the tension between random chance and interconnectedness. IRL you do not want to accept much of the latter, bc that's paranoid. On the other hand, in narratives, random chance is perceived as weak.

 

More sketches / Working on Book #what lives under the bed

 Some sketches. Was talking with a publisher about my book idea, “what lives under your bed”. It’s a series of monsters that come out when the kids are mis-behaving, did Timmy forget to floss? The Garglflank might come out and swallow you up. Don’t eat in bed, or Ugly Ted might get the idea your friends, and come out  and eat up what’s left. 

It’s fun making things to scare kids. I hope to inspire them to do the same to each other. 

Live music in The Golden Glove

Page from my upcoming book. I could not resist the reference to The Golden Glove by Fatih Akin. (If you haven't seen it, it's about the grimiest bar in post-war West-Germany)

 

From sketchbook 89

 

After Tardi, after Frémiet

Emmanuel Frémiet was a sculptor from the 19th century who did work often depicting wild animals. Gorillas were only discovered in 1901. He did one piece which was most likely the direct inspiration for King Kong. Jacques Tardi used it as reference and now I do the same.

 

Doodles | October 23rd / 24th

 

Tintina remix

Page 4 (out of 4) of my contribution to Tintina and the Bilderberg Shitbox, remixed for a different purpose. It's kind of fun to 'remix' your work like that, as if to leave it to readers to figure out what was the real story and what the fake news. Musicians do it. And painters in the premodern age did it. (causing a major headache for art historians) It is also a theme: often, my characters clash over their worldviews. No-one knows the complete truth. They fall for myths and half-truths. It makes them more human (as bizar they might look). A hero who knows everything and does everything right, is boring anyway.

 

Tintina

Page 1 (out of 4) of my contribution to Tintina and the Bilderberg Shitbox.

 

Spooky Sheet for Inktober

 

Morning Doodles

 

Behold the daughters of the firmament

From my latest sketchbook. Found a chest with Ecoline watercolours again that was gethering dust in a corner. I used to use those in the past. They're too bright to my current taste, but in a sketchbook you don't set any rules for yourself and I kind of like the purple sky that came out of this.

 

Creatures and Other Oddities

 

Sketchbook 89

The front of sketchbook 89. White ink on black paper.
 

More Doodles

 

Unknown Threat

Two Days into Inktober

 Tryin to keep up with the holidays. Happy October to you all. 

Funshopping

My heroine Pola Kazoni having reached middle age by now, goes funshopping, but how much fun is that really? Background based on a photo of pre-war Rotterdam.

 

Getting Around

 

Dying Breath

 

Everything is Fine.

I’ve been gone for a bit, but everything is fine. Going through really old doodles from my sketchbook and remaking them. 

Totem animal

One of the ideas I am working on for a story is how characters should find their totem animal. The earlier on the evolutionary scale, the better. It seems logical for teenagers to have an amphibious totem animal, like frogs or salamanders.
Pola has a leatherback seaturtle as a helper, as shown in this flashback scene that takes place right after book numer 2 POLA ends. The turtle pops up when she is coming of age, so an aquatic reptile makes sense.
In theory, it would be posibble to have a human for a totem animal - but then you are a real idiot. (in the literal sense the ancient Greeks meant it) Well, it is a bit dificult humour so I will have it in the background only.

 

floep

 

Rendezvous at Cafe Bibberkop

 

Sketchbook 88 coloured cover

Kind of a repost. I felt the rare impulse to use colour again.
 

Assimilated Pazuzu guys

 

Pola Reading & Franz Kafka

 Leisure time for Pola Kazoni and a semi-serious attempt at Franz Kafka. I came across a paragraph on how he tried to battle a burn-out by gardening in Florian Illies' 1913. A fun book.

Cafe Bibberkop

From my sketchbook. With Til Brugman and Hannah Höch in the background.

 

Cafe Autodafe

Cafe Autodafe, where car afficionados meet. Sketch.

 

Sketchbook 88

Like it says on the label. The cover of sketchbook 88. White and black ink and ditto markers  on black canvas
 

Family Viewing

Family viewing. Study of one of my character's family background. Hondsdag (his name means dog day, which is randomly chosen) comes from money, his mom divorced and he has been living off his wealthy dad's allowance. Then the business was nationalised after a sweetwater-communist takeover, which broke his dad. In his later days. Hondsdag took to taking care of him. Then Hondsdag's secret crush Pola got a doppelganger in the multiverse who went to live with him and who took to plastic surgery at the doctor's that his mom chose to live with.

The narrative is getting a bit complicated, but that is how I like it. Besides, books are becoming expensive so a graphic novel should be worth several readings. Especially now.

 

Sine Qua Non re-edition

Woohoo, a new edition of Sine Qua Non, by The Hoochie Coochie in France. The first edition (2005) had not been available for years. This was my first venture into emulating medieval art into my work, and the one without other books such as Inferno, 1348 and All Saints could not have existed. Very nice silkscreened cover and expanded preface and afterword. 

Thanks to the Dutch Literary Fund, La Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Centre National du Livre for their generous support.

 

Kids like to see blood

 

Coming soon: Observator

My new book. Only available in Dutch, but what are you gonna do.

 

ONTsnapt

 

Jezuzulem, Pazuzugonia

 

Sketch in grey

Rough pencil drawing with a flat grey layer. I like the general effect, but haven't decided yet whether I would use it.

 

More from sketchbook 87

 

From sketchbook 87

 More recent sketches from book #87. These are embryonic ideas. Some may get used, other will be frozen. Among the character studies is Pola Kazoni's daughter as teenager.

Puberty, after Edward Munch

 

Dancefloor cringe