The Optimist is a digital cultural magazine. Martien Bos from the Optimist asked me to make an illustration for a short story. This story was about a christian girl who first comes into contact with a world outside of her small christian world.

I mainly zoomed in on the curiosity of the girl, but also the shock she experiences. In the drawing I tried to make a cocktail of pop culture, doubt and christianity. It is a pity that things cannot go hand in hand, and that one thing can exclude the other. Even in the modern world in which we live.

The Optimist interviewed me and you can read it here

Stichting PRINT organizes projects and activities focusing on Dutch graphic design and typography and creates meetings between designers, the public, students and clients at various locations in the Netherlands.

This organization approached me to deliver a share to their calendar book. I was assigned a date and had to make a drawing. It didn’t have to have anything to do with that specific date. So I drew a pair of buttocks in jeans.

Check out Stichting Print here

Tijdschrift Ei (Magazine) approached me to make an illustration with three poems. The poems were about tattoos, dangerous fish, Yakuza and cannibalism. I have summarized this in a delicate way in this character.

Check the poems here (Dutch only)

This was my reaction to the fire in Notre Dame.

Neverland Magazine asked if I wanted to create within the theme ‘JOY’. He specifically asked to make it a rancid and dark whole. Something that is confrontational, but at the same time also has great appeal. I looked for contrasts and came out with BDSM and the Fiat Multipla. Maybe it’s a bit extreme to say that the Fiat Multipla is extreme, but it’s an incredible shape. A shape that probably looked beautiful on the drawing board, but is a disappointment on four wheels in the physical world.

Check out Neverland Zine

Nivon approached me to design the cover of their magazine De Toorts (The Torch). The magazine has been in existence for 95 years and has its origins in a workers’ movement. So my challenge was to make it look like it was from the 30’s.

I started collecting information about Nivon through conversations with my contact. Based on that information, I created a very accurate image archive that I could use as reference material.

I started drawing from that archive. The situations I drew I could immediately link back to activities that Nivon organizes.

It was a challenge because I had to make sure it had the feel of 1930s wood carvings. I started with pencil and after digitizing everything I printed it on old paper and added new lines. Lines that are almost identical to the lines of wood carvings.

The end result is something I’m proud of.

Check Nivon out here

Follow the Money asked me to illustrate one of their articles. The article was about shadow companies that act as companies that mislead governments and tax offices. This creates so-called tax paradises. My idea was to draw all kinds of empty fishing boats floating around. A huge and rancid oil tanker sails right through this. That oil tanker has the same colors as the fishing boats. This shows that they belong together. Periscopes can be seen around this situation. These periscopes represent the institutions that are committed to the oil tanker, but only find empty fishing boats.

I made this drawing after contacting the artist The Legendary Tigerman. We had a conversation about getting it printed on a t-shirt someday, but it didn’t. Fortunately, a very nice illustration remains.

Heimwee (Homesick) is a magazine founded by Het Huis van Zeker (Utrecht-based illustration collective). The magazine was created to visually capture the Covid-19 crisis and to give stories and experiences a stage.

De Volkskrant approached me to illustratie a large spread for an essay by the well-known Dutch writer Arnon Grunberg. The essay is essentially a treatise of the book ‘My First American’ by Lore Segal. In this book, a young girl from Vienna, after emigrating to America, gets to know a black intellectual with whom she falls in love. She gets to know America through the eyes of this man. The essay addresses the question; to what extent is being in love the same as emigration? The illustration I made with it was very well received.