GIVE AWAY: WIN a little painting / giclee print / phone hardcase

I have a GIVE AWAY on my Facebook.
1st prize: Original painting 'Bird Braid' + smartphone hardcase of your choice.
2nd prize: One giclee artprint 'Exhale' + smartphone hardcase of your choice.  

H O W   T O  E N T E R ?
1: Like Marjolein Caljouw & MrPhone
2: Like photo and share.
3: Comment
The winner will be selected randomly 14 May. 

Bird Braid. This is the little painting you can win on my Facebook.

 

 Red pencil on heavy paper.

Anything ~ Little painting

 
Anything. Acrylics, ink and graphite on Arches hotpress watercolour paper.
12,70 x 17,78 cm / 5" x 7 " 2013.
Available: €100,- (around 131,- USD)

I wanted to make 5 little paintings and this is the last one of the serie with the theme "hair". I surprised me to see that I struggled with the one that I thought was going to be easy. And the one that started as a difficult one ended up nice and easy.
With Golden Fluid paint I don't need the white ink pencil anymore. Thin lines are possible now. 
In the picture that I used for reference I saw a little red insect inside of the flower and I thought that it would be nice if they walked out of the 'diagonal flower world' on the left top corner.  

I'm going to organize a little 'give away' soon,  so keep an eye on my Facebook page!

Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter.
www.marjoleincaljouw.nl

There was one painting I just couldn't finish, because I tried too many times to sketch on top of layers of acrylic and the paint makes the surface too smooth for pencil and it has a plastic kind of feeling to it. So it's not possible to blend properly. So, I scribbled on it and it felt good. Normally I don't do that, but this was a never ending story and now I can leave it alone.

Like a tattoo

 Like a tattoo.  Acrylics,ink and graphite on Arches hotpress watercolour paper.
12,70 x 17,78 cm / 5" x 7 " 2013.
Available: €100,- (around 131,- USD)
info@marjoleincaljouw.nl

Sometimes it's hard to draw on top of acrylic paint, because the layers have plastic kind of surface. So if I make a lot of mistakes it's going to be much more difficult to fix it. But if I use thin layers it works. So the challenge is to get it right the first time...

I've painted this one twice because I didn't like the first version. (you can see that one on the right) I like the sketch though.

Daydream ~ Little painting

Daydream. 
Acrylics, ink and graphite on Arches hotpress watercolour paper.
12,70 x 17,78 cm / 5" x 7 " 2013.
Available: €100,- (around 131,- USD)

Just like in my sketchbooks I tried to combine black thin lines on top of a coloured painting to give it more dimension.  

The flowers are drawn with a black ballpoint, the background is acrylics and the shadows are made with a mechanical pencil. I love the contrast of the sharp black lines against the soft acrylics.

Free Fall - Little painting -

Free Fall, acrylics, ink and graphite on Arches hotpress watercolour paper.
12,70 x 17,78 cm / 5" x 7 " 2013.
*This one is sold. But these are available for €100,-(around 131,- USD):
http://www.marjoleincaljouw.nl/Resist
http://www.marjoleincaljouw.nl/Daydream

I wanted to make several little paintings at the same time, so I can switch between images and... I am loving it. Quicker results, experimenting with colours and shapes. Really discovering new ways to paint and I can use that for my bigger paintings on woodpanels. 

Groupshow "We Are Bored" Amsterdam 5 april

I'm joining a groupshow "We Are Bored"

When: Opening friday 5 april, 18:00

Where: We Are Void Gallery, Ferdinand Bolstraat 1, Amsterdam.

With:

•  Dennis Lier http://dennislier.tumblr.com/
•  Fleur Bult http://fleurbult.nl/
•  Leoniek Bontje http://www.leoniekbontje.nl/
•  Lo-Fang (Matthew Hemerlein) Crazy talented:

~

Overload, little painting

 

 Overload. Acrylic, colourpencil and ink on Arches hotpress watercolour paper.
12,70 x 17,78cm/ 5" x 7", 2013.

I wasn't sure about the background, if I would make something in the front or light background details, but I think this is the best option.
 
I've drawn the cup with permanent marker and painted on top of it with Golden fluid acrylics and that worked surprisingly well, because it gave it a better sphere than the marker only. Lately I've been painting on top of ballpoint ink as well and I love the effect.

 If I would start over I think I would remove the cup because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it. But sometimes I just have to move on to the next piece, everything is a learning process.

Interview DPI magazine Taiwan

 DPI magazine Taiwan. The cover is by http://valeriechua.tumblr.com/
She has a cute blog so check it out!

It's always nice to see your work printed in a magazine,  but the asian font just made my day, wish I could write like that.

(Click image to read)

(Click image to read)

(Click image to read)

I recently started to use Instagram. If you want to see more updates, follow me there:
http://instagram.com/marjoleincaljouw

Illustrated Iphone covers

MrPhone asked me to join their project: Illustrated Iphone covers.
I wanted to make some covers for a long time, so glad there are now some covers available. 

There are 4 type of covers for now:
- A basic cover
- A cover for Iphone 4S
- A cover for Iphone 5
- A cover for the Samsung Galaxy S3

Here are the illustrations I have chosen:

Polar Bear. €25,- / around $32,65. Available here: MR PHONE

Goldilocks Zone. €25,- / around $32,65. Available here: MR PHONE
~

Home Sweet Home. €25,- / around $32,65. Available here: MR PHONE
~

Fall Deep. €25,- / around $32,65. Available here: MR PHONE

It's also possible to ship international, if you have any questions email me: info@marjoleincaljouw.nl

Hedgehog painting. (The Animal Kingdom)

Hedgehog, Acrylic, ballpoint ink on hardwood panel. 19,69" x 19,69" /50 x 50 cm.
This is a painting I made for The Animal Kingdom Groupshow at Gallery Nucleus.
It's available here:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/pieces/308

I wanted to paint the hedgehog because this animal looks so cute, but if you want to touch it, it would probably hurt you. I love this natural contradiction. Since I am collecting albino images (because they are so rare) I wanted to paint him white. And at the moment it's very cold in the Netherlands, so naturally I'm attracted to the cozy pose of this little animal surrounded by leaves as if he's having a wintersleep.

 Close-up.

 Often times I get inspired by pictures. Like, I can see nice colourcombinations or in this case I saw some bokeh, (the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light) and it looked like snowflakes. Since it's snowing in the Netherlands I added this to the painting.

 I was very happy when I 'discovered' that I could use ballpoint ink on the wood and paint over it with acrylic paint to reduce the reddish  ink glow it gives. Ballpoint is so sharp and fine that it gives a nice contrast with the acrylic paint.

Because acrylic paint dries fast I can easily build the painting with transparent layers.

 First layers with acrylic on the wood.

This is the first sketch and to give it some quick colour ideas and make a composition. As you can see I was drawing a sloth at first...

Sometimes a painting takes total new direction as you can see. I've painted a sloth, but my sister gave me some 'spot on' advice. (Like she always does) The sloth wasn't an interesting shape and the leaves suggests he's is having a wintersleep, so it would be better to make a hedgehog. And second: The sloth is an exotic animal who lives in trees. So...Bye bye sloth!

 Reference pictures I took outside (near my old house).