Also, fixed the portfolio page (a.k.a. got rid of simple viewer). Much better, no?

While working on new illustrations for De God Van Nederland (which you’ll be shown in due time ;)), I came across some old ones that I think I never put online, not even before the Great Website Crash of 2013. So here you go: some illustrations for an article on Geert Wilders, Job Cohen and Wouter Bos. I’m especially pleased with Henk and Ingrid.

A fox for one of my graduation books.

And of course, still working on various knitting/crochet projects. These are all clothes, as is probably obvious. Also, very unfinished, except for the blue one, but that one is for the husband and he refuses to model it *grin* There might be exciting things brewing in this area, but I’m rather reluctant to share too much too soon. It’s one of the reasons the website update is so slow coming, though.

Naast schrijf- en handwerkprojecten wordt er zowaar ook nog af en toe getekend. Nog twee sneak previews van illustraties in opdracht:

Daarnaast gebeuren er nog steeds vreemde dingen in mijn schetsboeken….

Hier was Jildau bij betrokken, maar dat zagen jullie vast al.

…tja.

Foto’s trouwens gemaakt met telefoon; hij maakt de kleuren een stuk feller en lichter.

A while ago, I got a delivery that pretty much made me drool.

These wonderful yarns (merino and alpaca wool) are the basis for a new project. The plan will remain secret for a little longer, but I can give you a sneak peek.

The yarn is wonderful to work with, especially the merino, which is baby soft. It’s really more of a winter project, especially since the colors were picked right out of the local winter landscape. I sure hope I’m going to be finished before the autumn sets in, though.

I also started this:

Can you guess what it’s going to be?

A long, long time ago, I started making these two dolls for a school assignment. I never finished them before the semester was over,  let alone used them for a stop motion animation, as was my intention when I started making them. I think. Mostly I just wanted to make something instead of draw something, and I always tend to gravitate towards fabric and yarn.

So these two did end up finished at one point or another, but I never showed them online. They sat in my parents’ window sill, sad,  alone,  forgotten… Until one day, my mother decided to use them as a subject for a still life. Suddenly, there was fame! Attention! Love and care!

Now, years too late, they will finally receive the attention of being featured in their creator’s blog. They went with a full out photo shoot, and I didn’t have the heart to discourage them….

So without further ado: meet Fukjoe and Piesmen! (My mother named them, please don’t blame me. She calls them a modern, or possibly a silly,  interpretion of Yin and Yang).

And finally, with their various portraits:

For a good look at these portraits – and a lot more art, visit my mother’s website at www.riaborneman.exto.nl.

I realized I never showed my graduation assignments here, aside from a lot of sketches that disappeared in the Great Disaster of the lost web account. So let’s start with one of them: a picture book for adults, written by my friend Sanne van den Heuvel of Welgeletterd and drawn, obviously, by me.

It was a lot of fun to work together like this. We worked in turn, meaning we both reacted to what the other had made and didn’t know how it would end until we were actually finished.

The scans are a bit paler than the drawings are in real life, but in the printed booklet this worked out in our favor. Not too fond of it in the computer version, but bear with me. If you want to see it in real life, ask and you shall be shown.

Click to read: Zwerver

Let me know what you think!

Okay, time to post a number of illustrations for De God Van Nederland! Photogrid and Dropbox abandoned me half way through so I can’t vouch for absolute symmetry in the presentation of these illustrations *grin* All of it done in india ink. I think I missed a few, but I like these best anyway.

Not in order of appearance!

You can guess the reason behind this subject.

Yess. I wanted to make a nice filmstrip out of this as well, but alas, evil photogrid.

Click to enlarge.

The current situation in the food service industry. I may or may not have misused my husband as inspiration for that evil grin.

Also, pretty cranes.

It might not have been a cold winter, but it was cold enough to warrant some blanket and pillow crocheting! So without further ado, this is what happened on some of the cold, dreary nights of the past months…

A blanket was made for lovely new baby girl Carmen, the daughter of friends of mine.

A blanket was also made for us! This was a lot of work, as you can imagine;  it’s only just now finished. I used left over yarn, as I’m sure you can see. Love how colorful it is, but the next time I think I’ll stick to a color scheme. It’s about 2 by 2 meters and I don’t think I want to know how much yarn went into this. The pattern is a simple ripple, you can find it anywhere online.

As you can see, it’s being used rigorously already.

We needed a lampshade in our bedroom too. Made this up as I went along. Unfortunately the bottom ring isn’t heavy enough to pull the fabric completely tight, as you can see. Not sure how to fix this yet, any of you have an idea?

Also, some pillows just happened to come into existence… No idea how,  honestly. Also none of that happened when I had better things to do. Really.

The flower pillow is deceptively easy. You can find the pattern here: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/blooming-flower-cushion.html
The other one is basic granny squares crocheted together.

Well, that’s it for now. Next time I might just finally post some illustrations!

A lot more happened this year besides drawing. I got married, for instance! And the wedding dress, or at least a part of it, was designed and made by my mother and me.

We started by making a few flowers in Irish lace (with thin cotton yarn).

The number of flowers grew…

And grew…

The wedding day came closer and closer though and we had to start putting the flowers together. But how? We didn’t have a pattern, so I decided to stay putting them together in a way that felt logical to me.

Still not a top, though. Time to put it on me!

Yay, we connected!

Still not quite right….

But eventually, just in time for the big day… done!

Tadaaaah.

Bit more detail: