I’m actually an Egyptologist and mainly paint ancient artifacts, but I have a soft spot for anything to do with water (the great water… the sea). I could paint sailboats, octopuses, fish, and lighthouses every single day. I don’t know why. I wasn’t born on the coast, but I’m drawn to it.
Ps.: Some of it are available on ebay (link at the bottom of the page).
Nile geese have been around for thousands of years. Yes, they obviously come from the Nile, and they’re depicted in wall decorations in many ancient Egyptian tombs, but here in Germany, they’ve now made themselves at home. I was walking along the Rhine recently and was actually amazed that these very loud birds have become part of the cityscape. I think they’re beautiful. I love the various shades of brown and orange in their plumage and that funny “ninja eye mask.” 🤭😎
*Watercolor on cotton paper. Created as an illustration for a childrens book about ancient Egypt.
Today I tried my hand at painting stone textures in watercolor. It wasn’t that easy. There are warm and cool shades of gray. Smooth surfaces, rough ones, or chipped ones. Not all grays are the same. Wasn’t there even a movie about there being 50 shades of it? ;)
Today, I dedicated a good chunk of the day to painting and „knocked out“ a few illustrations I still had on my to-do list. The subjects ranged from pyramid shapes to an ancient oil lamp with a green copper patina—it was quite a mix. Right now, I’m racking my brain over how to illustrate the introduction to the „Mythology“ chapter—in addition to the depictions of the gods. Maybe the goddess Isis with her protective wings spread over a pyramid?
I discovered a great new type of paper that I just had to try out over the weekend. It’s PaintON by Clairefontaine. It’s very sturdy at 250 gsm and is supposed to “hold up” to watercolor painting. I was skeptical at first, but then I was totally thrilled.
I tried everything and incorporated all the techniques I’m currently using into a single piece: watercolor, watercolor pencils, pastel pencils, and ink. And what can I say—the paper is fantastic. It doesn’t curl, it doesn’t tear, and the texture for watercolor pencils and pastel pencils is wonderful. You can color beautiful, even areas, but you can also sketch with a pencil first and then erase it without the paper tearing.
I’ll definitely be painting on it more often. PaintON is also available in other colors, which I’ll most likely try out as well—for example, in a beautiful gray-blue or gray-green. The natural tones create such a subtle contrast to the bright pencils. I love it!!
There are days when I’m super creative and can barely keep up with putting my ideas down on paper. And then there are days like this, when I just want to mindlessly copy hieroglyphs. I use this time for simple, repetitive tasks like this illustration here, which is meant to show that the ancient Egyptians really did use every little bit of space on a building or sculpture to fill it with writing. Here, I first sketched out the hieroglyphs with a fine pencil.
I’m not basing this on original texts, but I’m trying to write authentic hieroglyphs and create a natural-looking script, since this is a children’s book illustration and not a historically accurate reproduction of an artifact. After the preliminary sketch, I fill in the hieroglyphs with pigments from watercolor pencils, which I then activate with a little water at the end to create an antique look.
Do you ever have those days where you just can’t get anything done, but still have to do something so your feelings of guilt don’t get the best of you? ;)
My color palette isn’t getting any bigger right now, and I’m fine with that. I’m currently experimenting with different techniques in my sketchbooks. And sure, not all types of paper are suitable for watercolors, but that’s exactly why it’s just a sketchbook—a playground for letting my creativity run wild, a place where I can simply put down on paper whatever ideas come to me.
And I love the shades of blue and brown on white, cream-colored, or cappuccino-colored sketchbooks.
And my motifs don’t change either. My love for the maritime world is reflected time and again in the fish, shells, octopuses, and so on, while my soul is somehow drawn to antiquity. I’m still searching for the right surface texture for my next paintings, and before I “dare” to tackle larger formats, I’m still sketching around a bit.
A simple sketch of the idea to inscribe an ancient Egyptian alabaster vessel with a message that means a lot to me. To bring it to life and connect it to the present, I’ve placed thin twigs with delicate blue blossoms inside it.
I’m writing a children’s book about finding one’s identity. What could be better than a SENGI as the main character—one that’s neither a mouse nor an elephant?
Right now, I’m gathering all the information I can find about this cute little animal and sketching the character.
Sometimes I just can’t think of anything to paint. I mean, I feel like being creative, but I’m missing that spark of inspiration. But mushrooms always work, somehow. Besides mushrooms I paint a lot (and I mean a LOT) of sea life creatures like fishes, turtles, octopusses, jellyfishes and so on..
I made myself a little sketchbook here out of scraps of my Arches watercolor paper. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that watercolors are wet—so wet, in fact, that the whole sheet of paper gets wavy. How do you handle your sketchbooks when you paint with very wet paint? Does that not bother you, or is there a trick to getting the pages smooth again? I guess I’ll have to spray them from the back with the flower spray bottle… but every single page? sigh
Maybe I’ll just leave it as is. Oh well… they’re just loose sketches. I really need to relax more.
