a new sketchbook, film photography and more

Hello friends,

I hope you're well, and I hope the daily monotony of life hasn't caught up with you yet. I know I'm still in a bit of that end-of-year haze, and I hope to remain there for a little while.

New Sketchbook

Of course, this time of year provides a great opportunity to try new things or return to old, abandoned ones. So I asked myself what I was missing these days, and the answer was painting with proper, analogue paint, on paper. Not necessarily big pieces, but little vignettes and studies. I had put my brushes to rest in autumn, after finishing my calendar, and I turned to other projects instead. I did a bit more work on my iPad, which I also enjoyed, but I often get lost in the void of digital canvases. I find it hard to estimate how large my subject is going to be in the end. Do you get that, too?

Nothing keeps me as firmly grounded as the borders of a piece of paper. My drawings are quicker, more spontaneous, and have more personality. There's an effortlessness to it. The paints are a pain to set up, but once that's done, I cannot deny that the process is just much quicker and more enjoyable than any digital work. Every time I come back after a break, it just clicks: this is my medium. It suits me well and feels right. So I dusted off my Nicker paints (I even got a few blisters unscrewing the caps that were sealed shut with dried paint), and started a brand-new watercolour sketchbook I had bought last year. I remember thinking how urgently I needed it back then, but I ended up sitting in a drawer until now. So here are my first tiny paintings of 2025:

 I had fun with these.

Film Photography

I recently went through some old photos, and I discovered a few of myself when I was little, tiny even. One was taken by my grandparents on a vacation in Spain (the first flight of my life) when I was two years old, and I was in awe when I saw it. In the photo, I'm wearing a green hat and a white dress, my skin is more tan, and I'm sitting on a red horse in a playground. The image far from perfect: I'm blurry, the background is in focus, and the composition is a bit off. But I love the colours, the warmth, the noise. Old photographs are just so beautiful to me, especially with all their imperfections and the whole surprise factor of developing the film. Right now, we have a tendency to make everything sharper, cleaner, high definition, to the point of micro-managing, and eliminating all opportunities for unforseen results. I'm guilty of that myself, but I'd like to stop and embrace the chaotic nature of analogue media, in my drawings and in photography. So yes, I'm becoming one of those annoying vintage hipster vinyl-sounds-better types. And long story short, I bought a cheap film camera, and I'm excited to try it out soon! I'll keep you updated.

Another Thing

Lastly, I'm working on a short story at the moment. I started out short, but is growing into something bigger every day, and I'll have to see where it goes. The initial inspiration was the setting of a bamboo forest in winter, and it grew from there.

That's all for now.
Take care, and talk to you soon!