First illustration of the year

To get into the mood I started 2016 with this small illustration of a european robin! There is one of these little fellas visiting and living our garden every winter.

Competitions - putting yourself out there

Hello everyone! Apologies for my absence lately. I just wrapped up a big project (client work) and will soon get the time to start a couple of new illustrations! Thank you so much for your patience :)

First: I can't believe it has been four months since I wrote my last blog post!!! Time just flew by. Summer is knocking at my door and I hope to be able to write more, since summer is a time without client work. There are many subjects I would like to write about. Just to name a few: “Fake it 'til you make it”, “Two Freelancers living together...madness in a nutshell”, “Refilling your batteries”, “The imposter syndrome” .....

But right now I think it is the time to give you an update about WHY I was absent for four months!!

First I was engaged with clients work which I won't be sharing for different reasons. Second: I am engaged with rebuilding my portfolio. Polishing up some of my scientific work from the last two years and *drum roll* build a new portfolio from personal work for ... eh... hm... illustration. Like....not scientific illustration. Fantasy illustration I guess. In Dutch and German you would call it 'free illustration', which makes no sense in English, since it is just...illustration...without a certain field of expertise. Third: Sending out portfolios and solicitations and finally: Fourth: taking part in competitions.

When I finished my study I made a list of interesting competitions to take part in with my final exam and for future fantasy illustrations. Back then I just randomly googled for illustration competition, design, drawing, painting etc. Now I found a really neat website who does that for you and has a broad variety of competitions for you to chose from:graphiccompetitions.com

Over the last six months I have taken part in six competitions, although I planned to take part in thirteen competitions until this summer. Three of those didn't go through with their annual competition, making it ten. Out of those ten I decided to postpone two until I have better/more fitting work and missed two illustrations due to client work. All in all.... six out of ten in six months is still good. But let's have a look which ones paid of to take part in. I didn't make the first round in two out of those six (one of these did'nt come as a surprise), in one case I made in the 'selected but not hung'-section, in another case my work got in the exhibition, one I made the short list and the last is still pending.

Some of my friends ask my why I would take part in so many competitions. So here is why: Working from home, living in a small, but artistically overcrowded city, I think this is one of the best ways to get my work out there. Not that I would purely rely on taking part in competitions. It is something you can do next to networking and sending out your portfolio. I myself think it is a good way to showcase your work and (which is maybe even more important for me) to up my game. If I don't make the selection it is either because: 1) The quality of my work compared to the other illustration not good enough 2)It is not what the judges were looking for in this competition. The first reason wants me to become a better artist, the second makes me think about my target audience (aka the judges in the competition). But there is a third reason for taking part in competitions: Developing a thick skin for the right moments. I know quite a few people who would get discouraged when taking part in a competition and not making it in the selection, or not winning. Of course I don't like it either. But it makes me realize that it is nothing personal. It is not that the judges didn't 'like' my work (or me for producing it), it is just that there may be 200 or 2000 other works and just 50 will be selected. If there are 500 mermaid illustrations 1500 various illustrations and 50 submissions will be chosen, then it is just pure bad luck that you sent in a mermaid illustration. If there are just 5 mermaid illustration in the 2000 submissions your chances are a lot higher to get in with a mermaid illustration. For some competitions you may even want to develop a good technique how you present and when to send your work, as Dan dos Santos points out in his Muddy Colors blogpost: The Strategy of Submitting to Spectrum.

For those of you who are curious about my competitions and exhibitions: I made the 'selected but not hung' catalogue of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation: The Wildlife Artist of the year with this little fella:

I made it into the biennial exhibition of modern birdpainters, the MoVo, in Halberstadt, Germany with my Ara and the Blue heron:

(I just remembered that I didn't post anything about finishing my Green-winged macaw)

I couldn't attend the official opening personally, but a dear colleague, Lisa Pannek, took a picture for me!! - and I feel honoured to have my drawings next to the painting "Montagu`s harrier male preening" made by Paschalis Dougalis!


And I made it on the shortlist for the World Illustrators Award by Association of Illustrators and the Directory of Illustration with the illustrations of my final exam:

A new year begins

...or...has...nearly two weeks ago. Everybody knows how time just seems to run through your fingers, right?

In the last post I told you guys about my 'Happiness jar'. It is not just there to end my year in a good mood, but also to start the new year in a good mood too.
Of course there are the new year resolutions...BUT if you think 'Oh my, what a failure the last year was - I hope this new year is finally going to change some things' or 'I HAVE to work harder/more/get better, because last year was so terrible' it already puts you in a negative state of mind. I confess I am quite a negative person myself. The glas is mostly half empty and not half full. There is always this catastrophic chain of events in the back of my head of what COULD happen... although nothing has happened yet and nothing will happen and even IF something is going to happen...it is certainly not as bad as my imagination makes me believe.

For me it is very important to be positive. That's when I make good illustrations. That's when I will end up 'in the zone' while illustrating. Otherwise, I will not finish anything. There is always something to change, always something to do better and I didn't even start about taking big decisions. When you are in a negative place, you restrict yourself. You tend to be more aware of bad strokes and every tiny little 'mistake' is a failure. In the end you get so frustrated that you want to give up on this illustration. Maybe you don't even want to be an artist or an illustrator in that moment. Maybe you start to think 'All this is not for me, not when it is so hard to do it.' This is restricting, being to aware of what you are doing.

In my case, when I start with a positive mindset and I make a 'mistake' - or a happy little accident, as Bob Ross would call it - I just let it go. Maybe that stroke is not as you wanted, but let's see where I go from there. In the end it maybe fits in better than you thought. If it is really heading a direction I am not comfortable with, I just get a new piece of paper and start again, take the parts of the illustration I do like and then go on from there. Nobody knows and if you just let it go, it won't restrict you. The more you draw or paint, the more you practice, the better you will get.




'Talent is a pursued practice. In other words, anything that you're willing to practice, you can do.' - Bob Ross

So when I look at my notes from the 'Happiness jar' it makes me aware of all the forgotten tiny but precious moments. That puts me in a good place. Being in a good place, makes me free.

Ofcourse new years resolutions are still allowed! :) Such as: making more illustrations, being more active, losing a little bit of weight, drawing A LOT MORE, learn spanish, draw more and never forget: to be more positive!!

PS: That's what I am working on right now:

Polly wants a cookie!

I think parrots are very inspirational birds. Obviously because of their intense colours but also because of the pure variaty of them. Plus the go through big changes in their looks from hatching to being an adult parrot.
That's why I am at the moment busy with an illustration of a green-winged macaw (Ara chloropterus), also known as the red-and-green macaw.



Black and white sketch.



First colour pencil layers to give it some generall shape.



Details in the head are nearly finished!!

PS: You can also follow me for this illustration (or others) on Instagram: http://instagram.com/ankatsart_insta

Final year II

And...now you get the second part of the promised post!! :D

After I visited a parrot breeder, different bird parks and bird of prey centers, the collection of the biodiversity center Naturalis and of course the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish in Giessen. And making the first sketches to portray the birds I also had to study the important parts: The urogenital-systems of the blue-fronted amazon and the saker falcon.

Not only I had to see these parts to illustrate them in the correct way, but I even had to see them in their different states. First you have the juvenile urogenital-systems: That's when the birds never had been sexually active before. Then you have the active and the inactive urogenital-systems: That's when the birds are sexually active at the time of breeding season or not active because it is not their breeding season. Their sexual organs do change, active = bigger and inactive = smaller.
These anatomical illustrations have never been produced before so I had nearly no books I could rely on. That meant that I had to do many dissections to prepare the sketches for my illustrations.









For the representative of the Psittaciformes shown I chose the blue-fronted amazon because it is a common pet parrot in Germany. That gave me easier access to specimens of this kind. To illustrate a falcon and not another parrot species was important, because there is a big difference in the anatomy of the females of falcons, hawks and kiwis and females of other bird species. Due to evolutionary reasons most female birds just have only one functional ovary (the left one), connected to an oviduct. Kiwis, hawks and falcons have two. So that was an important aspect to illustrate.





Two anatomical sketches made during dissection.

Final Year I

So.... now you get the promised post about my final year!

It all started with a video on the internet. It showed part of a short documentary about a new method to inseminate birds which was used in the Loro Parque Foundacion. Since I grew up with two ornithologists/nature photographers I was hook in an instance. A brand new scientific project about birds and how to protect bird species with it. AND there were no illustrations produced so far for it. Just perfect!!
So I contacted the LOF in Tenerife and after a few mails and calls my application got forwarded to Prof. Michael Lierz from the Giessen University who actually developed the new method with his research group.
A few more calls later I was happy that I could look forward to start my final project in september 2013 in Giessen.

In september I started with studying the birds (and their urogenital systems) I would portray. I visited a parrot breeder, different bird parks and bird of prey centers, the collection of the biodiversity center Naturalis and ofcourse the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish in Giessen.






But before I got to my finished illustrations I had to make many sketches:



The Pelvis of an amazon parrot





and the skeleton of an amazon parrot (without and with the sternum)





First sketches of the urogenital system of the femal saker falcon.

10.000 is the number!

10.000 is my number of the day. 10.000 views since I started this blog! Just to bad that in the last couple of months I didn't write as much as I wanted to do.
But.... to sum everything up which happened in the last few months:

I finished my Masters degree and... after enjoying the summer for about a few weeks...it finally hit me: I am not a student any more!! I won't go back to academy after this summer!!
And I panicked... more or less. First I just didn't know what to do and after a while I still didn't know what to do.
Lucky for me I already had some kind of new assignment AND I had to get my administration together. When I was engaged with these things it made it easier to look for new clients, jobs etc.
But what I did do is to re-correct my master thesis and get a re-print of it.
And since I never posted a single finished illustration of it, here you go:

In the next post I will go into the details of making these illustrations and how that year was for me. But if you can't wait until then there is already a pdf version of it online.
BUT *drum roll* I am working on a brand new website which will include an animated view of my book so that you can turn pages etc. And until then I hope to have finished another bird-project I am working on just now!!

Next to that I am working on some other very nice personal and not personal pieces and projects. The personal ones I will use to participate more in various competitions! A great article by Donato about that can be found on Muddy Colors!! If you don't already follow that blog I tell you know to do so!!

And as a preview for the upcoming blog post the sketch of one of my personal projects:

Little pet parrot

Sooo.... things are sorted out. Summer vacation is knocking at my doors... This was the last year for me as a student. But more on how I finished my Master Programme in Scientific Illustration in tomorrow's post. This past few days I just enjoyed to relax, work in the garden and get some fresh ideas for new projects and illustrations :)

But now I want to show something which I worked on next to finishing my thesis:

A demo of a bird illustration: Forpus Coelestis:






And the finished illustration:

Flying forpus

Detail of the wing

Detail of the head

Sitting forpus


I showed the making of the Forpus coelestis at my Behance Portfolio review in Düsseldorf. If you are an artist living in NRW (or as I am very very close to it) I can just recommend to sign up for the big adobe event happening there next week!! You can register using this link: Adobe World Tour Registration


Tomorrow I will show my final thesis :) Stay tuned!

Deadline is near

....for handing in my final exam! And you can bet that I am quite stressed out about it. Now it is just about finishing everything in time and make it all come together. That is also why I have put my shop (and designing the new layout for it) on pause.

I thought it is time to show you some sketches and wip's! Here we go:

What you see would be a sketch of a saker falcon, some sketches of blue-fronted amazon's and the 'under-drawing' of one and the nearly done illustration of the other blue-fronted amazon. They will be used for different things in my publication (e.g. introduction...).
The rest will consist of anatomical illustrations, in-vivo and isolated urogenital system and a manual of collecting the semen and inseminating. More details soon! ;)

Flood

So i had this idea to just try to post everything from the summer until now in chronological order in a few entries.
Yeah...hm... sometimes you plan things... and it just does not work out that way ;)
At the moment I am overflooded with new and exciting and interesting things which are happening arround me!
That's why I decided to just post everything when it's done or whenever feel lik it and I hope that the past illustrations and back then exciting news will be all posted until december.



This is a new illustration of a red-backed shrike and the second illustration from the 'peekaboo' (temporary title) series. It is also published in my second bird series on behance: Birds II
There you can also see a new illustration of a hoopoe for a spanish agency.

Hope to be able to update soon with my old academy assignments and maybe even some new stuff.

But for now just a picture of me and Lima the Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle in Hellenthal.



I went to Hellenthal a great station for bird of prey in the Eifel in Germany to do some research and get some references for my master publication. There I could follow a day-long workshop on bird of prey and falconers. That's how I got to know Lima and even had a go in traning together with a harris hawk named Cora.

Long time no see

Hei guys,

I had quite a busy summer. Because of that I had to abandon my blog and some other pages for some time. But I am back now!!!

To get you back on track:

I finished the sheep illustration and went on with two rat illustrations :) One in colourpencil (which you can see right here) and one in line which still has to go through some minor corrections and will be shown in the next entry.

After that I finished an anatomy assignment which is still being digitalized and a spread about the 'Double opozing z-plastic' which still awaits correction of the surgeon we worked with.
As soon as everything is ready to be shown I will post it here :)
Next to finishing my last assignments I moved together with my boyfriend in an old house which wasn't renovated since the 50's. Now I have my own workroom with enough space for all my stuff. A single workplace for digital drawing, traditional drawing and sewing ;) Pictures the next time!! :D

After I was just done with all of that I started my final exam at the clinic for birds, reptilians, amphibians and fish in Gießen (Germany). I got to do what I wanted to do: to illustrate a publication about the arteficial insamination of birds using the example of parrots and birds of prey. So I get to draw cool birds :P

I hope to be able to update the blog soon! With the remaining assignments and maybe some final exam sketches. Stay tuned!




PS: There is a new about section on my website!!

Way too much happening right now!!

My mum always says " If something is going to happen it will be very likely that everything is going happen at the same time."

So true, so true (mums are always right anyway :P).

At the moment I don't know where to start with. It is probably the best to start with what allready HAS happened:





A new creation!! This is Albert the MORUNCULUS!! As you can see a Morunculus is a more or less further developed Morlo. They turned to the upright walk and clothing! :)
This ones name is Albert (best pronounced the french way). He likes waffles with strawberries in the morning and insists on having an afternoon coffee-break with a different cake every day. As you can see he has a bit of a sweet tooth (I already told him that if his pants don't fit him anymore he has to make one himself!!) But I got him interested in fruit so hopefully this will be a healthy addition.

I hope that I will be able to show you more Morunculi this year. Albert is what you could call a protoype. As you can see in the next pictures he is slightly posable but I would have liked it to be more. This one will not be for sale since he didn't fully turn out as I expected AND I always like to keep the first of its kind (Morlo, Mini/Baby Morlo and now Morunculus). So if you are interested in buying posable Morunculi stay tuned.

Now I will tell you about all the stuff which is happening right now:

Right now I am preparing for an exhibition in Germany (Halberstadt im Harz). My first exhibition *yeah* :D
It is the 'MoVo - Moderne Vogelmaler' (Modern Birdpainters) and everybody participating has the chance to win the 'Silberne Uhu' (Silver Eagle Owl) as award. I figured that it was time to dare to sign up for one or two competitions this (and maybe every) year. That was my hint in my post "This year will be exciting.

You are probably curious which drawings will be displayed :)
They picked

You can have a closer look at these illustrations in the blogposts Bearded Bird, The Blue Tit and Three little Puffins. I am very happy that three illustrations were chosen. The exhibition will take place in June and I look forward to tell you guys everything about it.


Due to all this happening it could seem as if my final exam has taken a back seat. But it's not like that at all. I hope to be able to post some more details about my project this month. Before (and after) that I will work my ass off to make everything go down as smooth as possible!!! :D

PS: Four more Morlos to come. All finished just waiting to get good pictures taken and descriptions written!!!

PPS: Got featured on Drawing Served with my illustrations of the skeleton and abdomen :) Thanks to the person responsible for that!

The Blue Tit

Another bird illustration hope to make some more illustrations with this kind of idea. It is the perfect solution for my background problem and I try to finish another one until monday. Then I am also going to tell you why I am working so hard on illustration about birds!!!!



And....did you know:
We humans can not detect a gender difference in males an females of the blue tit. But research has shown there is a difference. The only thing is that we can not see/detect it with our senses. Males are coloured different in nearly ultra violet (a wavelength we can not see) and it even seems the brighter their crests are the more attractive they are for the ladies

I am reading a very interesting book (Bird senses - What it's like to be a bird) about bird senses everybody who loves birds just has to read it!!!! I have had the chance to meet Tim Birkhead and follow a presentation by him. If you ever have the chance to follow a presentation/reading - do it!

Three little Puffins

It is finished. Finally.



My first bird drawing with background and I am still not sure if I really like working with one or not... Some tipps for that? Without background (see the bee-eaters) I always have the feeling they are sitting in front of nothing....

But....no time to worry about this. Still working on other stuff, which has to be finished this week!! DRAW! DRAW! DRAW!

More updates soon! :)

WIP II - Three little Puffins

....or two. So far.

Another preview for my upcoming illustration "Three little Puffins" :




And a detail :)




Sorry for the bad lightening, was to impatient!!

WIP - Three little Puffins

As mentioned in the last post I rarely have the time to write or post anything at the moment. I am very busy, I am sorry for my readers.

But today I couldn't resist to show you a little bit of a private project I am working on right now:



Still working my butt of for the school assignemnts, the contests and for my online shop "Morlo's World". Some new Morlos can be seen there soon!!