Aimée Sketchblog

Gooseplay

Aimée van Drimmelen — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:16:52 +0000

The illustrations for Gooseplay are now finished and the book will be self-published in the coming months. Here’s the final cover image and a few more colour illustrations. Learn and see more on my website.

And here are more of those originals drawings I did for an earlier incarnation of the book, years before I became an illustrator. Why do I keep posting these??? Well, I find the evolution in composition, style and technique interesting. And maybe I’m just a bit sadistic… sigh

Love to Patti

Aimée van Drimmelen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:02:45 +0000

I recently finished reading Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir about her and famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s early years in New York City. I’m sure you’ve all read it by now. It’s a beautifully written and inspiring story despite the sad ending. GOOD Magazine editor Ann Friedman sums it up well in her review for This Recording, “…it’s also “our story”—Patti and us. Patti and every woman who has felt within her a desire to create.” So true.

click images to enlarge

Ladies

Aimée van Drimmelen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:38:04 +0000

The one new year’s resolution or whatever you want to call it that I seem to be coming through on is to draw more people. Drawn from photos I’ve been collecting in my “Ladies” folder, with ink on crappy paper with pleasing results. A couple are stars… Recognize anyone?

It’s Super 8 time.

Aimée van Drimmelen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:59:06 +0000

I haven’t made a Super 8 film in about five years (woah), and the reason these two lovely ladies are on my desk is that I’ll be using them for a new short animation project I’m about to start work on very soon.

Digging them out got me all excited. I used to be a regular participant in the Montreal Super 8 Film Festival, where I made this film amongst others. Super 8 film cartridges are three minutes long and festival rules meant all editing was done in-camera, ie. figure out your shit, shoot it and screen it no matter what. Once I got in a bike accident while shooting but that’s another story…

For this project I’ll be filming backgrounds for my animation. I look forward to the touch of “real film” aesthetic it will give my piece. Speaking of which, is it ironic to take a photo of Super 8 cameras with a cell phone set on fake “old” photo mode? If so it wasn’t intentional, but appreciated in hindsight.

Freedom Flight

Aimée van Drimmelen — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:40:43 +0000

Here’s another image from Gooseplay, the book I’m illustrating for my uncle (described in this earlier post). I thought I’d put it up today in honour of the real golden eagle I just saw while walking my brother’s dog in Vancouver*. It was huge, and hung out in a tree for a bit before the crows bothered it away. I believe that’s the first golden eagle I’ve ever seen in real life. So here’s a scene from the book where one is freed from captivity and goes for a fly to celebrate.*

* [Ed's note, turns out it was more likely a juvenile bald eagle, and not a golden eagle after all. Oh well!] And here’s my original illustration from waaay back (cringe):

A card for baby Elpi

Aimée van Drimmelen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:26:24 +0000

It’s tradition in the Netherlands to send a card to friends and family announcing when a baby is born. I was commissioned to do this one for my cousin Marten and is wife Puck, to announce the arrival of their daughter Elpi.

It was a fun little project, especially receiving my card in the mail all the way from Rotterdam. Felicitaties!

Bird Count 2011

Aimée van Drimmelen — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:45:41 +0000

We were having a little party last month and my brother gave my friend’s sons the crazy idea of counting all the birds in our place. It took them a looooong time, and I thought I should post their OFFICIAL results:

In case you can’t count, that’s 75! And I even think they missed some.

Qualifying bird imagery included but was not limited to:

a drumskin…

a tray…

a penguin…

that eagle again…

and images from my animation…

Great job guys. Now, who can top it?!? Bird count 2012 is ON.

“You Get This” (Briarpatch)

Aimée van Drimmelen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:14:02 +0000

Here’s a cover image I did for the January issue of Briarpatch, a great Canadian magazine based in my home town. The article is about how community organizations increasingly bear the burden of responsibility for sectors of society that are actually the responsibility of government. (Click to enlarge)

Backhomes t-shirts

Aimée van Drimmelen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:26:37 +0000

My band The Backhomes will be playing a small show for friends in Montreal today. In honour of the event we designed some tshirts that were screen printed at the Olio Artists Cooperative in Victoria (where I’m excited to become a member this year).
Note the two different kinds of screens used in this project…

The lettering is directly inspired by Old Kraftsman, a series of vintage instruments made by Kay Guitars, including my beautiful guitar (on the left below) and lapsteel where the Old Kraftsman logo is kind of visible…

If you’d like a tshirt send me an email.

Best wishes for 2012

Aimée van Drimmelen — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:45:58 +0000

A little “moving greeting card” for 2012. Times are tough, and there is lots to worry about. We all feel the weight of the world on our shoulders these days, as we should. Things need to change. But we can’t let ourselves worry and fret to the point of debilitation, to the point of paralysis. Never stop dreaming of the world you want to see. (Viewable full sized here).