Cincinnati Gives / Raising Generous Kids

I love doing editorial illustrations, and I think this is one of the sweetest ones I got to draw so far! Cincinnati Gives is an annual magazine produced by Cincinnati magazine and the article is about getting children involved in helping with charity work. Here's a peek into my process: As you can see, I initially submitted two different pencil sketches for the art director to choose from. Then I inked the illustration on paper, scanned it and coloured it digitally. (The last image is a screenshot from the article on the Cincinnati Magazine website , you can read it here!). Cincinnati Gives  is out now.

Schweizer Familie / Kids Protest

Another really fun editorial illustration for Schweizer Familie magazine. I love that commissions get me to draw things I may have never drawn otherwise - like this fun children's demonstration/protest!
Here's another peek into my process as well, showing the pencil sketch that I sent off for approval, the ink-on-paper illustration, and the final version (digitally coloured in Photoshop). The image at the bottom shows what the final illustration looks like in the layout. If you're interested in reading the whole article, there's an option to subscribe to the e-paper version of the magazine here: https://www.schweizerfamilie.ch/e-paper-lesen/

Arlington Magazine / The Thing About CSAs

Hello & happy Monday! If you know me, you know that I LOVE vegetables, so drawing this illustration for the current issue of Arlington Magazine made me feel so lucky to be doing this as a job. My illustration is accompanying an article about the advantages and disadvantages of CSAs (weekly veg boxes), written by Holly Scudero.

The first image is the finished illustration, followed by the initial pencil rough I sent off to the art director. There was only one change I was asked to make, which was to change the cucumbers in my sketch to okras. I definitely think it's much better with the okras! All my illustrations are inked by hand on paper and I work pretty neatly, so the third image is just a scan of my ink drawing. Once the drawing is scanned, I colour it digitally and in this case I also added some hand-made watercolour texture to the big lettuce leaf. Finally, at the bottom you can see how the illustration looks in the layout of the magazine. Here's a link to the article as well, if you're curious!

I've already shared the illustration on my Instagram, but a blog is such a nice platform to share a bit about the process behind it and since I am determined to get back into blogging, this is one thing I am planning to share more of. Do you enjoy this kind of post? Suggestions are always welcome!

Schweizer Familie / Questions Age

I recently drew this illustration for Schweizer Familie magazine, about the age when kids start asking lots of questions. I got to draw a talking cat and so many fun details - what could be better?

Cincinnati Magazine Baby Guide / The A to Z Guide

Here are some illustrations I drew for The Baby Guide Cincinnati. You can read it online here. My favourite to draw was the scared pregnant lady with the giant calendar. I didn't know that parental leave is so different from country to county. That's one of the things I love about being an illustrator, you learn new things and interesting facts all the time while getting to draw all sorts of cute things!

Good Magazine / Christmas Cover 2016

At the end of last year I illustrated my 4th Christmas cover for Good Magazine!  It's been a while since Christmas now, but Christmas illustrations are among my favourites to draw, whatever the time of year. There are many things I don't like about real-life Christmas, but I've always loved story-world Christmas. It's always so perfect and cozy! When I was little, I always re-read the Christmas chapters from my favourite books over and over at all times throughout the year. Astrid Lindgren, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder - they always write about perfectly snowy, cozy Christmases. I still love it.
This cover illustration is picturing a scene of carol singers in front of the Dubai skyline. I added some of the roughs/sketches so you can see a bit of how it came together.

Frankie Magazine / Calendar 2017

I'm so thrilled to be part of this year's Frankie Magazine calendar! Above is a photo of the calendar, as usual it's huge and gorgeous and printed on wonderful paper. Underneath is a picture of my ink illustration which originally appeared in my colouring book and the coloured version I created especially for the Frankie Calendar.
The other wonderful artists in this calendar are: Esther Sandler, Joel Penkman, Miju Lee, Janet Hill, Monica Ramos, Cornelia Li, Sandra Eterovic, Ashley Ronning, Choi Mi-Kyung, Daniela Dahf and Alessandra De Cristofaro.

227 Plus Magazine / Die Geschichte eines Weihnachtsgeschenks

At the end of last year I drew this illustration for Sal. Oppenheim's 227 Plus magazine. It's always a joy to work with them and their magazine is beautifully designed! This was for a story about a tablefootball game given to refugees as a Christmas present.

Glamour Magazine / Max Lip Balm

Do you remember Max the cat, the character I illustrated for the Korean beauty brand Too Cool For School? He looked pretty satisfied to have his own page in the January 2016 issue of German Glamour magazine. And with a true cat friend on the cover!

226plus Magazine / Perspektiven Schenken

Another festive thing I drew last year - this was for the German 226plus Magazine.

Good Magazine / Cover Illustration

I love drawing Christmassy things so I was excited to be asked to do the December cover of Good Magazine again! The year has started very busy and now that I'm getting around to catching up with this blog. Christmas seems ages ago. Especially with this warm winter we're having - some magnolias have started to blossom and there are daffodils everywhere. But one can always dream of tea and cookies with penguins.

Pattern Project / December 2015

Happy New Year! This is my final pattern round-up of the December patterns. Mushroom Girls, Little Santas, Christmas Trees and Little Piglets. As usual they're available here, in my Society6 shop. There won't be weekly patterns in 2016 but I'm planning to keep this blog updated more regularly with new work. Stay tuned!

Mollie Makes / Hold Your Horses

My 'Hold Your Horses' phone case is featured in the German edition of Mollie Makes magazine as part of their holiday gift guide! It's available here: http://bit.ly/pferdemaedchen, as well as a lot of other products with my illustrations. 

Frankie Magazine / Anne Of Green Gables

After a super busy two months, I'm finally catching up on blog posts! This beautiful issue of Frankie Magazine with the beautiful cover by Monika Forsberg came out a little while ago. Inside you can find my cover for Anne Of Green Gables, one of my all time favourite books! I am forever sad not to have glorious ginger hair and freckles, but at least I get to draw them as much as I want.