Prelude

Hi, my name is Leen. I'm a 22-year old Flemish girl who lives in the beautiful city centre of Leuven (I'm originally from Limburg, but I fell in love with Vlaams-Brabant. No regrets.). I'm a MA in French & Spanish Linguistics and a MSc in Artificial Intelligence, and I'm currently doing doctoral research on pictographic technologies for people with cognitive disabilities. While I certainly love my job, I also care a lot about spending my free time in the best way possible: drawing, playing video games, watching series (Doctor Who, if you are reading this, please marry me), hanging out with my boyfriend (Niels, if you are reading this, please marry me), reading graphic novels and comic books, travelling, learning more about Japanese culture, studying foreign languages and programming languages, petting my cat Celesse, drinking white wine, and eating way too much sushi for my own good. Hmm, sushi.

I started drawing at the age of 3. My parents, having noticed how much I loved doodling around (and wasting incredible amounts of paper), sent me to a local art school when I was 6. During 11 years, I attended art classes on a weekly basis. I also took some additional courses on digital art, which was an upcoming art form, back then. I have been exploring digital art since I was 13 years old, and it has been my biggest passion ever since! Video games, Disney, Studio Ghibli, comic books and geek culture are still my main sources of inspiration.

While I have never been a professional artist, I have completed a handful of memorable projects in the past. In 2010, I had the honour of becoming the Dutch Official PlayStation Magazine's website's main comic artist. My comic series was named "Reset!" (because, well, things usually went horribly wrong with the main characters). In 2013, I was approached by the Flemish author Marc Geyens to illustrate a series of children's books, Dromeria. The second book (It's about a stork, who is also a mailman! How awesome is that?) will be released next month. And currently, I am teaming up with a local coffee bar to design fancy coffee cups. Because you can never have enough fancy coffee cups, right?

I created this blog to share my drawings, children's book illustrations, graphics, cupcake designs and cosplay props with the outside world. I am very thankful to all the amazing people who have recommended me in the past. But I am still learning. In fact, the learning process never stops. That's why I honestly appreciate all the (constructive) feedback I can get.

Thank you for stopping by. :) I hope to see you again soon!

Leen

Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, London, 2014