I try to make a family portrait of me an my family every year for Christmas and new year With this year edition I want to wish  Happy new year 2022 !!  I also added this years edition of our family Christmas picture 

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. 

 I was planning to make a family portrait of good friends of ours who are celebrating their 40's birthday. So the other night I started a skiss of the family and their farm and animals. Always easier when I know the family to get the right elements and objects in the illustration, but also a little nervous to make sure I do them justice. And even more nervous will they like my illustration. This is how the drawing started with a glas of rosé And the following morning I got great company of Mila who also wanted to draw and paint with me while rest of Team Nikolovski was out biking This is the final version of the family at Fyrö Gård And framed ready to for party and to be handed over And here it is hung in their great big barn where they had organized great party 

Happy 4th wedding anniversary  to us!!  Best four years! So grateful we met and were brave enough to follow our hearts and strong feelings for us and got married. 

I have been drawing so many family portraits lately and finally I got around to make Team Nikolovski family portrait. Started with a draft and then from that added inc and watercolors and more details. I love the process but now it needs to rest a little until tomorrow when I am hoping to be able to continue the finishing touch.

We moved from Prague exactly one year ago. I was very sad to leave in fact I don't think I have ever cried so much over a place. It was a hard time for us as we felt very lost in all the new and the changes. A year has past and after a pretty though period it feels like we are out on the other side and we are little less lost and much more positive all of us. It was great to head back to Prague in this positive spirit. I will write more and show some pictures in my next post. Just wanted to show a family portrait I made of friends. Always nervous to give a family portrait away when its not been asked for. I hope they liked it and can find some similarities at least in the setting.

Most of my illustrations are based on myself, my family or other people around me and the scenarios are either self experienced or heard of. Lately I have been asked to draw family portraits. A great privileged mission which is fun, scary and challenging in a great mix. I want to capture the family ( without being able to make it photo like) as well as the surroundings to make it a fun identification of that specific family. I will put together a collage of my family portraits I have done but for now I start to present an illustration I made while I was in Sweden in October. A great friend of mine ordered a portrait of her sweet family. It was a fun mission to try to find artifacts and details that makes the illustration to fit them and who they are.