Series 4: Imagination (Selection)

Illustration Portrait

1. Pink Square Anthias (Fish)

I like to create something based on an obscure or underdog animal or person. In the aquarium the (Pink Square Anthias) fish struck me so much that I spent hours finding its real name. Matching the blue, red, purple and pink in the first piece of this series has been my toughest color challenge so far.

Illustration Self Portait

2. Self Portrait

My favorite way of seeing my own growth is making a self portrait. This second portrait is outdated by now, but was a huge improvement over the first.

Illustration Pool Table

3. Salvador the Sorcerer

Salvador was my first attempt at a full human body. The character had been in my mind for a while, so to experiment with making him real was very exciting. The piece is full of things I wanted to try: a new character, a full body, magic, a villain. This was one of the pieces that took longer to make, but I'm very happy with the result. He may just make a return someday!

Illustration Beaverage

4. Beaverage

One thing I don't shy away from is creating a visual version of a pun or eye-roll word association. With Beaverage I wanted to go for the cute "children's mascot" look.

Illustration Flatboy

5. Flatboy

I love videogames, and for a while I was too shy to make something related to it. With Flatboy I finally decided to combine my two favorite hobby's. Do you recognize the gaming system and game Flatboy is based on?

Illustration Dreams

6. Dreams

With creativity as the driving theme I decided to create a piece about space. Dreams is one of few pieces that I consider a major step-up to what came before it. I still made a few more pieces in the old style, but after that bunch the flat-art ended.

Illustration Quetzal

7. Quetzal

The quetzal is my favorite animal. When I was obsessed with animals as a kid this one bird stayed in my memory for all these years. I love its colors, its unique tail, the climate you can find it in. The quetzal is a perfect representation of my childhood imagination.

Illustration Melancholia

8. (im)Perfection

As the last piece of the last flat-art series (im)Perfection has a special place in my heart. Tao is always about life and death, good and bad or light and dark. This time, it's for artificial perfection and human imperfection.