The nighttrain

Like in any other big city we saw some interesting weirdo's in Budapest. Like this guy:

But the craziest was the nighttrain back to berlin. From start to finish we were stalked by extraordinairy people that joined us in our compartment. I took some mental pictures and this sketchbook page is the result. We did not sleep much that night...

Bookcover

As a christmasgift a friend wrote a book for her motorcycle riding boyfriend in which she, the hedgehog, he (the fox) and their penguin are going on a journey. The motorbike and the penguin were specified:

The lucky guy is in for a treat!

(click to enlarge)

Bookreading

To promote the extraordinary thriller "Tu sei il male" (You are evil), by Roberto Costantini, my friend Santo Esposito organised an event. Roberto read from the book, The architect supergirls from RARE office visualized some locations and I drew 10 portraits of the main characters that were exhibited during the night and projected during the readings. On piano Angelo Pepicelli created a perfect atmosphere, adding suspence to the readings. It was great to be part of this multimedial event. The response from the audience and, most important, from Roberto Costantini himself, was really good

(photos by Fabio Esposito)

 Roberto Costantini reading and a young Balistreri projected.

 Cardinale Alessandrini on the wall.

 Young Michele Balistreri

  Old Michele Balistreri

 Angelo Dioguardi

 Cardinale Alessandrini

 Elisa Sordi

 Conte Tommaso

 Avvocato Ajello

 Colajacono

 Linda Nardi

 Marius Hagi

 The Italian cover is much nicer than the German translation.

The house was packed!

out of office

Hamburger SV

New illustrations for Germany's best football magazine 11FREUNDE. These people are the board of Hamburger SV, a most unlikely group of individuals who manage their club in unorthodox fashion. The client asked me to make the characters look like the actual people, but not too much to avoid possible trouble.

 

Except this last guy had to be recognizable, Jürgen Klopp. In the story he did not get the job because of his unshaved chin.

 

Stammtisch projects

Every fridayafternoon we have an illustrator meeting at a café where we do some sketching, catch up on eachothers illustrative adventures, have coffee and lately we have given ourselves a random illustration assignment for next week. We write on small pieces of paper a main character, a sidekick, an object, a location and a time. Toss 'em in a het and grab one out for ach category. The random combination forms next weeks assignment. These are the results so far:

Main Character: A lonely Scientist
Sidekick: His duplicate
Object: A timemachine
Location: On a rooftop
Time: Medieval times
another version can be found here

Main Character: A Sailor
Sidekick: A goat in a suit
Object: A wagon
Location: Under a table
Time: Goldrush era
Other versions can be found here and here

Main Character: Jesus
Sidekick: A princess
Object: A stuffed animal
Location: In a disco
Time: Near future

Sketching in France #1

KLM variations

I made an illustration for KLM to go with an article about upcoming changes in their pensionfunds and the effects on the future. The meters on the dashboard refer to the technical information in the article.

 "This new direction means lot's of changes..."

For the pilot's edition the client wanted a more serious version, so I cropped it a little:

And I cut out a few thumbnails for the indexpage:

Au Revoir!

I'll be sketching in France without internet acces untill june 10. Salut!



(above is a preview of my entry for the exhibition at Wostel with the Spätkauf Kunst Aktion people during 48 Hours Neukölln. Click fore info.)

Plants

German bio-food brand Lebensbaum commissioned me to draw a bunch of plants and herbs. This is the first set.

New sketchbook pages

Some new skribbles I did lately. Have to keep the ink flowing!

Function Creep

De Handhavingskrant asked me to illustrate an article about function creep. Function creep is the term used when an item, process, or procedure designed for a specific purpose ends up serving another purpose for which it was never planned to perform. Especially in the security branche this occurrs easily and should be discussed. Can a camera used for traffic monitoring be used for people observation? Can officials at a housevisit to a known delinquent check on his neighbours too? If function creep sprawls without concious justification it might become an uncontrolled monster...

 I thought it might be cool to create some sort of Godzilla, also an uncontrolled monster created by men. The first thumbnailsketches looked kind of shitty though...

 Luckily the client liked the idea and I sketched a beter looking function creep monster. When they gave their approval the fun could start!

 inking is always one of the best parts of the process. After that I scan the drawing and color it digital.

 Fits nicely on the page!

Finished!

The illustration for the new record by 'Allez Soldaat' is finished. This was a delight to work on. All the bandmembers and the soundtechnician are in it. I wouldn't mind being in that bar too!