I am working on putting together my portfolio of illustrations. I do have a portfolio on my webpage  CCillustrator  but I also wanted to put together my illustrations on a more A4 type of format which is easier to send in an email. It is so much fun to go through them and live in these imaginary worlds again for a while. It also makes me realize that every picture has a story but also room to make your own story at the same time.    

First week back in Düsseldorf after Easter break. It is beautiful here now more and more trees are blossoming and nature is going through the green explosion.  My creative week Beginning of April I saw on Instagram that Penstore ( Art store online) was arranging a talent contest. They were having kits you could order which contained 8 pens or pencils from international well-known brands. I didn't know before hand which pens or colors I would get in my kit but from these 8 pens create something using all of the pens and no others. I love challenges so I decided to give this contest a go and also so fun to try new pens and pencils which I normally would not use. During Easter in Sweden I was testing the pens on different papers and decided early to stick to my style with red Swedish country house, nature and my characters. Although looking on Penstore´s Insta #penstoretalents2023 people are so talented and I feel inspired but also I feel I am a child and my drawings not worth to be ...

 Happy new year and welcome 2022 ! I am hoping this will be another good year. I am aware that being in the middle of a pandemic might not be classified as an amazing year, but on a personal level I think 2021 was a nice year. The scare for the virus was higher during 2020 when everything was new and restrictions felt more dramatic. 2021 we were already use to having this virus present although invisible and how to handle restrictions testing and masks.  For my creativity and productivity 2021 has been great. With part of the year being home-schooling I had less time to think what to draw or what to make and why. I just had to create what-ever came to my mind to have some time for me and a feeling that I am "doing" something. I constantly had my watercolors and drawing pad on the kitchen table - only cleaned it way a bit when we were eating. I have tested new techniques, spend a lot of time on the same drawing and from that I feel I have developed so much this year.  Here...

Det började med ett tomt papper i A3 format Jag ritade en liten tjej och en planta för längesedan  Den blev liggande för att tjejen och plantan jag ritade varken blev bra eller att det fanns någon idé bakom  Några år senare ville jag måla nåt på större papper Tog fram blocket och tyckte att det kändes slöseriet att börja rita på ett nytt vitt papper när det fanns ett påbörjat blad eftersom jag inte riktigt visste vad jag ville måla iaf Så jag började rita dit nya objekt och fylla i färgen på tjejen och plantan  Hittade inspiration hos en svensk barnboksillustratör på Instagram ( jagjobbar) Lånade lite idéer och figurer  Fyllde på och fyllde ut med fantasigrejer och mycket färg  Det blev en flera kvällar mer färg och skuggor  Nu hänger den på väggen i Mila's rum  Så kan det gå till   

The down-side of living our life in an international/expat community is that good people and friends are leaving to go back to their home-countries or to move on to new expat destination.  Expatriate often shorten to Expat = a person who lives outside their native country.  This summer our good friends here in Düsseldorf which relocated here at the same time as us in 2018 moved back to England. We will very much miss the whole family but are hoping that we will manage to go and visit them post Corona pandemic. As a leaving present around Midsummer I made this illustration/ family portrait. 

From my sketchbook this spring in Corona times Homeschooling for 10 weeks + My first grader is listening carefully to us when we are trying to explain something Then she turned to us and ironically says " Listen to you Mr and Mrs Smartypants!"

There is some good things that has come out of this Corona lockdown and if I in this post would mention something I would say reading in general and JK Rowlings new book in particular. The idea to the story  "The Ickabog" JK Rowling came up with many years ago but it never got published because she had focus on other book project at the time. When this Corona pandemi came and put scare in to the world and lock us at home across the globe she decided to rewrite bits and publish it for free. It is a story for children not a new Harry Potter with magic no it is an entirely different story. Over seven weeks one or a few chapters at the time will be published. In addition to the story JK Rowling is encouraging her readers to illustrate the story and gives suggestions what to illustrate. Also an official competition for the drawings which publishers will pick for the printed version. I was very excited to start reading the story for the kids and together draw something from each ch...

 My last post was about green fingers and my new garden projects here in Düsseldorf. That made me think about what happens to me every time I enter a garden center. It doesn't matter in which country I am in, other costumers always think that I am working in the garden center and comes up and ask me for advices. I was sitting outside in the warm sun the other day and made an illustration of me and my garden center experiences. It has happened so many times that I am now expecting it when I enter a garden center. Last time was here in Düsseldorf a couple of weeks ago, a lady came up and asked me in German where she could find the strawberry plants and asked for some growing advice. I tried to answer her in German because for some reason I always feel flattered that people think I know a lot about plants and instead of saying "Sorry I don't work here and I don't really know " I always try to sound as if I really am a proffesional gardener even on a language ...

I got a new drawing pad from my uncle for my birthday in August with high quality papers and I got inspired to really work with colors in more layers and fill the whole page with details.  Also I came up with an idea to make illustrations based on seasons and traditions. Traditions which we are celebrating for long but also new traditions which we have picked up from our different destinations where we have lived and from here in Germany.  So far I have made October - Halloween a tradition which is pretty new to us - I remember reading about Halloween with trick or treat as an American tradition in one of my first textbooks in English when I was ten years old. Here in Kaiserswerth, Düsseldorf it is celebrated big time in the international neighborhood and so we have started to dress up and join the fun. November we are celebrating St Martin here in Germany ( will write a separate post about whom that was, how we celebrate and show the illustration) December - I have so ...

Thank you September you were good and welcome October! October I think you are my favorite month of the year apart from December, April, June, August and September.. Here in Düsseldorf the schools has two weeks off for Autumn break so we have that to look forward to and also I am going a weekend to Stockholm to see my family and see a musical. And the changes in the nature is just so pretty - transforming from green to yellow and orange.   I was doing some paperwork this morning but also had time to start a Happy Halloween illustration which I am thinking to turn in to a card somehow. I don't know how I picked this format - hard even to take a photo of it... I will find a way to show a better picture of it!! Also looking in my memory box and found some other October drawings 

This year we celebrated Swedish Midsummer in Düsseldorf.  Düsseldorf has a Swedish community which organize annually very nice traditional Swedish Midsummer. This year it was in Rosengarten down-town Düsseldorf. They had arranged Midsummer pole, games, quiz walk and Swedish fika that everyone attending brought some Swedish pastry, dessert or sweets to.  The weather was great and we had fun and for the first time we actually came in time for the dancing around the midsummer pole. 

Det har varit mycket åhh nej är det dagis idag inte bara det senaste året här i Tyskland utan hela dagistiden faktiskt. Det är mycket ska bara som 5-6 åring och behov om att påminnas om varje steg och varje moment för att få kläder på sig, håret borstat, äta frukost, bli färdig med frukosten och sedan borsta tänder, få på sig skorna, komma ihåg cykelhjälm och cykeln. Nu har nedräkningen till sommarlovet börjat och tack och hej till Mila's dagistid som snart är förbi Helt galet hon börjar skolan och ska aldrig mer gå på dagis. Så till hösten får jag tjata på en skolunge ist och dessutom börjar hon en timme tidigare då - herregud hur ska vi klarar det ?! Hur ska jag klara det?

This year is running so fast. It feels like yesterday it was February and  I started studying German here in Düsseldorf. Now it is beginning of June and I had my last week in school last week. Very happy that I decided to start studying and grateful for meeting great people and that I have learned a lot. Maybe I will continue B1 & B2 this autumn we will see.  From this semester in Berliner Allee I will mostly remember 1. The big German map that we used a lot. A way to get a leg stretcher and to navigate through Bundesrepublics and cities in this big country. Also interesting with a for me new view of Europe where focus is on Germany and where Sweden is not even included.  2. Our lessons with Nadia where she was playing us good German songs with poetic lyrics. The Goethe text we read and watched over and over. And all the art lessons where we learned art history in German.  3. The Kitchen with many clean up notes which was strictly not...