Top 10 New Year Resolutions from an artist // Happy New Year

A brand new year! Hopefully you have had an amazing NY eve, did some partying, cocktail drinking with friends or cuddle up with your family or loved ones. After weeks of making lists and taking time to reflect on the past year it is now time to make room for a new year. Make plans, start new beginnings and of course: new year’s resolutions!

I know every year I have a bunch of silly ones. Luckily enough I am pretty content with my life so usually my new year resolutions are not very strict, life altering or sudden. For this year I have made a series of illustrations to remind myself to stay close to who I am and what I want. They say visualizing your goals makes it easier to work towards them right? The past months have been pretty hectic, so many new things, a demanding new business, to worry about, I have to keep reminding myself to be a little more kind to myself. Add some things, remove some habits, balance my time. Here are some of my favorite new year resolutions for this year.



1 // Create something every day
As a designer this might be a little obvious but the past 6 months my days were filled with contacting customers, searching for the right people for our studio renovations, being busy learning new things to set up a new business, meeting with lawyers, trying to get money back on fabric orders, trying to resolve a ‘water’ issue, fighting for justice with a company who is handing out my designs to anyone. Well, I can go on for a while. But all this meant creating was not an option. An artists day only has 24 hours so for the new year I need to sit down and create again. Do what I love most. Start my day with a pencil in my hand. Definitely my number one resolution for the new year.

2 // Don’t work for assholes
Well, as I already mentioned above, working as an independent artists means having to deal with shitty things sometimes. Every year I try to let go of those who take advantage, are disloyal or just behaving like complete ignorant assholes, mind my vocabulary. I am pretty easy going and if you do something stupid and apologize I am pretty forgiving. Unfortunately saying sorry is a little hard for some companies. I have to remind myself: I will be fine without the drama. I rather work with people that have a heart. Bye bye!

3 // Travel
The most important thing in my life is my freedom. Starting a new business might come with some extra strings but I have to remind myself to take time to travel, soak up some new impressions. I am a worthless human being when I am trapped in a routine. I want to experience new things, challenge my own perspective. It keeps me sharp, clear, focussed and most important: inspired to create new things.

4 // Eat more ice-cream
I know right? Such a great goal! No, I don’t want to lose weight, or eat healthier. I pretty much exercise twice a week and eat pretty healthy home made food, fresh veggies, start the day with smoothies, you name it. But this past summer I went out for ice cream once! Seriously! So I do need to eat more ice-cream, treat myself a little. Don’t forget to spoil yourself sometimes!



5 // Write more
I love creating, I am not a very good writer though but I like how it organizes my thoughts and experiences. We do not take enough time to let things in. To experience to the fullest. I love writing down things to sit down and reflect. It is like taking pictures of moments. They will stay with you a little longer. I love sitting down to write blogposts but I am too busy to make them as in dept as I would like. So yes, write more, and take time to write.

6 // Go for walks
I don’t spend enough time in nature. And I love wandering around the forest, take a walk on the beach. Go out and clear my mind. So important! I do not have a significant other special peep to talk about and share my day with over dinner and I know that my mind will go get busy if there is no room to digest things. A walk in the park can do wonders. I should. I will go for a walk. Once a week. With or without company. So doing this!

7 // Smile to strangers
Don’t you hate it when someone looks at you and they try to ignore seeing you? they cannot look away any faster. Especially irritating when they know you personally. What the hell? Such a weird way of treating someone. Sometimes I can feel very lonely, I walk down a busy street. No one interacts with one another. That is definitely not me. I started smiling at strangers, just a second, a short connection can make a day a whole lot lighter. A simple smile makes such a difference. It even releases endorphins, natural painkillers people! Let's give it a try!



8 // Eat more Cheesecake
Cheesecake is my guilty pleasure. I used to meet up with my best friend over cheesecake to talk about life, and love and everything that would keep us busy. Eating more cheesecake means: spending more time with loved ones. Sit down and listen. Quality time with friends. Let's make it a priority again!

9 // Quit buying shoes
And suddenly I was and accidental shoe addict. I don’t like shopping, I don’t like trying on clothes, I don’t like brief trends and I am not someone you’ll catch shopping on a Saturday afternoon. But as a human being I kinda have to cover myself, with clothes. Somehow I always go home with new shoes. I should definitely stop buying shoes instead of clothes!

10 // Get a new kitty
Or make some room in my life for something cuddly. I have had a cat for 22 years and I miss a soft purring creature that makes my house a home. But I am also a little anxious to commit. I might have some issues with commitment nowadays. Hmmm. Get a new kitty might be the first step to healthy commitments again.

A designing process // A brief step by step // From a cold crystal winter hike to a collection of woman's accessories

Since the cold weather is kicking in this week I thought it would be a good idea to talk a bit about my winter inspired collection, a series of designs I have worked on during the winter, and talk about the process of creation. From a walk through a cold winter forest to a collection of woman's accessories. From start to finish.

Last year I was asked to make another collection for Veritas Belgium. I just came back from my trip through the backwaters of India when I started the process of designing a new series of surface pattern designs during the freezing cold winter days of 2014.

With the raw images of India still in my head and after some winter hikes throughout the cold Dutch nature I started my research for this new series of prints. The first step is choosing a material. Usually I start drawing with a pen or pencil, but for this I felt like using a more raw material to make my drawings. Ink and dry brushes to represent the sharp edges of a winter day. The raw outline as an intense reflection of my present being.

White paper & black ink
I always start my drawing process on white paper with black ink. Color is something that will be added in a later stage. First I try to find a shape to represent what I want to create and what I feel. A combination of those two. The new collection should have a little look and feel of the collection I created a year before. This collection should be a logic follow up on what was already made. But a year later there is a different perspective to translate into the new design series. What I know already is that I want to use the raw intense emotion of the cold weather: create a translation of this raw winter woodland. The harsh shapes, clean crooked branches and cold winter weather vegetation.

100 pieces of paper
Finding the right shape for the foundations of the design takes up most time in the designing process. Searching for a base shape can take up to weeks. This collection was made with Indian Ink so that means I will have to be patient until the wet ink is dry too. This process of painting still is a pure translation of how I feel. Thoughts only get in the way of creating a pure output at this stage. How I look and feel can be brought back into simple shapes and if that shape is found I try to improve it and start repeating it until I feel it is just right. That means ending up with piles of paper with similar repetitive shapes. Painting is like a meditation. No thoughts only conversions of emotions translate to paper.



In search of composition
After finding the basic shapes the process begins of making the analog drawings into one colored vector shapes. My scanner is my best friend in the studio and is making a lot of working hours. Luckily for this process I have an assisted digitalizing the work. For this particular series of designs I have created almost a hundred pieces of paper filled with ink drawings. All these shaped will be imported into one vector document. From there the search to a strong basic repeat starts. Making combination of shapes, create layers add little textures and detailing. Another shape will evolve from here. The final prints should be related to one another but also need to have a design that is strong enough on itself. Should the shape be smaller of larger. Should a basic repeat be companied with a more tossed and contrasting composition?

Balancing colors & new compositions
Adding colors is the next step. Shapes can have a very different feel if you combine colors. Will the shape be strong enough? Will details fade or will they be too aggressive? Usually I start out with a few color schemes. Swatches I put together out of a pack of Pantone cards. For this series of designs I also had some color input from my client to work with and I will have to be looking for the right balance of working on a trend and creative a Little Smilemakers design without losing the authenticity. With a selected color scheme I will add the digital color.

When the colors are integrated into the repeat the files will be prepared for the sample printing process. That means the designs will be send to the client who will produce the final product with the print. At this stage the samples will result in small color tweaks. And then it can take up to a year to finally see the entire collection as a whole. But when it is finally there it is time to celebrate!