Tools of the Trade

I'm not making as much new Stoffer + Blik products as I would like to. I am hoping to find a little more time next year to do so. My hands are itching for carving new stamps and designing new cards.

But I have just added an extra item to the shop. This is a postcard of an illustration I made for my own portfolio site. As you might know I am a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, so I have a portfolio website for self promotion. This website was thoroughly updated a few months back, which resulted in a lack of time for other things. And... this illustration. Tools of the Trade: pencils, nibs, a tablet, macbook and some pantone swatches.

If you are a creative like me, you'll probably recognize the tools!

The postcard I made, you can find right here. Only 1,20 euro. For all you creative folks out there!

Draw My Recipe

Happy news: I have launched a new website! And it's all about drawing recipes.

I already did that of course under the label Stoffer + Blik. But I decided the recipes deserved a little extra. So I came up with the name 'Draw My Recipe' and a new logo that you may have seen on Instagram. Along with that I just launched www.drawmyrecipe.com where you can find lots of examples, many happy-customer-reviews and all you need to know to get your own recipe drawn by me. You should go check it out! But before you go... I have some more news.

A former colleague of mine just opened (today!) a brand new store slash lunchroom in Voorschoten, called Bij57. And you may have already guessed it: my Stoffer + Blik goodies are for sale there! The store is absolutely gorgeous in pastel greens and filled with beautiful high quality products and one of a kind vintage finds. You'll want to have all of it, so it's a bit tricky going in there.... Another reason to visit is the yummy coffee, lunch and breakfast she's serving (I designed the menu. I know what's on there, believe me).

The photo below is made the evening before the official opening. I haven't seen it all finished by daylight either...

Non related to Stoffer + Blik, but also lots of fun: I painted the logo of Bij57 (it's huge, you should see it ;)) on the wall in the store. And I also hand lettered the opening hours on the door and a couple of words on the window.

So there are two places you need to go:

One > www.drawmyrecipe.com
Two > Bij57, Schoolstraat 57 in Voorschoten

Oh and.... if you order a custom recipe via my new website, before the end of November, you'll get a 10% discount! Just so you know. Perfect timing before Christmas right?

Enjoy! :) 

The start of a little Natural History Collection...

I had an interesting offer from a (a real one, stone and everything) shop recently that wanted to sell my items. I might go ahead and do that... I will let you know the details when it's actually happening. As a result I took the weekplanners out of the Etsy shop. These were to be customized and therefor unfinished. I decided to finish them and use those to be sold in this shop. Sorry about that. I will add new ones in a short while!

The other thing (also a result of this in a way) are these new items in my Etsy shop: mini posters. Maybe you remember the grasshopper linocut. It needed company, so I cut a beetle out of lino to start a little 'natural history collection'. I cannot really call it a collection when there's only two pieces, can I? But it's a start. I used both stamps to create these mini posters, A5 sized. They're actually printed with blockprinting ink, rolling and all. No stamping ink this time. And the color is so gorgeous! It's a deep blue that really lies on top of the paper. 

I made a couple, limited and numbered. They're all different and completely handmade and unique artwork. Two are in the Etsy shop, the others are reserved for the 'real shop'. You can get your hands on #4 right here and here.

Minimalist love card

For all you not so corny lovers out there who secretly do like Valentine: a minimalist love card. Simple and elegant! I stitched three X'es on a double white greeting card. 

I only have one right now, but I'd love to make more!

Be the first and get it here

Hand Lettering - making a poster

As a graphic and editorial designer I've always had a thing for letters, fonts and type. And as an illustrator I love to work with them as well. Drawing letter forms makes you really look at them as shapes and not so much as characters. It gives you the opportunity to play around with them and make them interact in a way they could not do as a type.

Hand lettering is very popular right now and it's hard to miss these days. I've been getting more into lettering myself. I took a calligraphy class (which is not the same as hand lettering, but it is related of course) and I have been taking online courses in hand lettering. Practice, practice, practice.

The popularity comes from the renewed love for creating things, handmade things in a world that is becoming more and more digital and fast. It's nice to slow things down and really pay attention to what we have in front of us. To make, but also to see. Having something handmade feels like a luxury. It's something that is made with care and passion and is almost always unique.

One of the classes I took in hand lettering resulted in the quote poster below. The class was about drawing a word in your own letters, in different phases. Then vectorizing them in Illustrator and play around with color to make a postcard.

I decided to challenge myself a bit more and I used a quote to make a poster. Also I didn't want it looking too slick, so I decided not to verctorize, but keep the wobbly shapes of my hand drawn letters. So I used Photoshop instead of Illustrator (even though I should probably do it in Illustrator next time, just to get to know the software better).

So what I did after deciding on the quote was determine what words I wanted to emphasize.
In this case it was YOU and STRENGTH. To balance it out I made NOBODY big as well.

I roughly sketched in the letters, making sure to center everything. There should have been a version before this, but I decided to get more into detail on the same piece of paper. You see I've been erasing and shifting things.

I took a fresh sheet of paper and used my lightbox to trace what I liked about the last one. You see I changed some embellishing, added serifs at STRENGTH and generally cleaned it all up a bit.

 

Even though the pencil sketch above (2) wasn't exactly right yet, I decided to start inking it anyway, knowing I could change some things around on the computer. The G in STRENGTH is too thick and the bottom of these letters don't align very well. There is some weird thickness in the B and the D of NOBODY and the O looks more like an egg. The AND in the center is too high and a little small. Well. Hallelujah for Photoshop.

I cleaned up the letters, added some depth by using drop shadows. Again, I added and removed some of the embellishments, played around with the colors and voila!

Tile design in lino

Today I made this linocut with the intention to make it a pattern. It's like a floor tile you can just keep turning and repeating to make a pattern. This way you get a big result (and a big print) with just a tiny piece of lino. I love how it turned out and now I want to design my own bathroom tiles!

I started out with flamingos, but that was bit too detailed. Maybe later, when I have more patience ;) I decided on the fish. I made a mess (as usual) smudging the ink all over the place, but hey, it turned out pretty nice.

It's not perfect and that's what I love about handmade stuff. I do intend to make the next one a little neater and print it neater too. I think when I design in on the computer, transfer it to lino, I will get a really good connecting pattern. Without losing the handmade feel. I guess that's next.

Below you see a bit of the process: sketching, transfer to lino, cutting and printing.

Jeeujh for this weekend

I woke up yesterday morning. Jeeujh for that. And then I checked my FB timeline and was surprised to see my set of illustrated recipe cards on there. EtsyNL had shared my product as a nice way to be eating healthy at the start of the new year. Jeeujh for that too!

That made my stats of the Stoffer + Blik shop go through the roof. Last time that happened Dutch creative handmade paper things magazine Flow mentioned my webshop in their Saturday Market section on the website. That was also a giant jeeeujh!

I'm having a great weekend, I hope you are too!