Autumn: The Year's Last, Loveliest Smile

Hello, guys! You might already know that I am working on a little project for coffee bar Le Mustache. I am currently in the process of designing eight digital paintings of moustaches, two for each season of the year. My Autumn Moustaches are currently on display (So you better go grab a coffee and say "ooh" and "aah" before the season ends! :D). For this series, I'm using a rather abstract art style that I personally find very hard to describe, but I'm starting to feel quite comfortable with it!

I'm happy to announce that my series is almost complete. Winter is coming (Sorry, I just had to use that phrase!). I'm thinking of adding penguins with scarves, because that's something my brain always likes to associate with the concept of "Winter". Let's see how that will turn out!

There will probably no updates for a liiittle while, since I'm going to Japan next week. No worries, I'll be back, and I'll bring daifuku and wagashi for you to enjoy!

Leen

Autumn Moustaches, October 2015

Paint Tool Sai

The Big Draw #3: Workshop & Photo Diary

Good morning! You are now reading the third and final post of my The Big Draw series. On October 10, I gave a workshop for children (and my boyfriend, and his sister, because pourquoi pas) named "Draw with the Flow" in Le Mustache. We drew animals, moustaches, and anime characters on coffee cups. It was a 3.5-hour workshop with free entrance, but some of the children actually stayed with me from the very beginning until the very end. I have to admit, I was a little bit anxious to work with children at first (Excuse me, where is this kid's OFF button?), but these guys and girls were just extremely cute and polite! It was a great experience and I even got to meet Waldo - he was walking around in Leuven as part of one of the many events that were organised by The Big Draw.

Earlier that week, I was contacted by a journalist from Rondom Leuven, a regional magazine that gets distributed in over 75,000 households. They asked me (I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY THEY ASKED ME!1! BUT IT'S SO AWESOME!!11! CAPSLOCK!) to shoot a photo diary and write about my day at The Big Draw. I joined some of the activities in town, such as the Paper Jungle project in Gobelijn Strips, and took tons of pictures. Last week, Rondom Leuven dedicated one full page to my creative adventure. I feel so honoured! Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible. Le Mustache, Kunstwerkt, and Rondom, you guys are really awesome!

See you next time,

Leen

Pictures of my workshop and some of the activities we did in Leuven, October 2015

Photo diary in Rondom, October 2015

Oh Look, It's Coffee O' Clock!

Every student loves a nice, hot drink every once in a while, unless you're one of those silly IT guys (Yes, I'm looking at you, Niels). To celebrate the start of the new academic year, Le Mustache asked me to make two drawings for the nearby buildings of KU Leuven's Psychology faculty and Groep T. Obviously, there's no better place to load up your batteries after a long night of partying than Le Mustache. ;) Also, before I forget (IT'S ALMOST WINTER ALREADY!) I will upload my Autumn Moustaches next week, so stay tuned! :)

Leen

KU Leuven Psychology Faculty Advertisement, October 2015

Paint Tool Sai

Groep T Advertisement, October 2015

Paint Tool Sai

Our Final Fantasy

One month ago, my boyfriend Niels and I celebrated our 1.5 year anniversary (Yes, that's a thing!). I made a digital painting for him and printed it on a canvas. Secretly, I also wanted to decorate that empty wall in our office. :3 Don't tell him. (Well, he reads my blog anyway.)

When I started working last year, Niels visited me in Leuven once or twice a week. The other evenings, we would spend countless hours playing Final Fantasy XIV Online. I became a White Mage to make sure my lover would not get punched to death! After a few months of training, I joined Niels' static "Eurovision", a European gamer team consisting of 10 members. We would play together two or three times a week to fight difficult end-game bosses and make fun of each other through voice chat. :D Thanks to Niels and my friends in Final Fantasy XIV, I would never get bored after work!

This drawing features Niels and me wearing our Final Fantasy XIV main job's equipment, the White Mage robe and the Ninja gear. As usual, we're poking Moogles (KUPO?!). And I have no idea what the angry Chimera is doing there. :D The canvas looks pretty neat in our Final Fantasy-themed office. We actually have a huge Tidus (Final Fantasy X) wall scroll, as well. :)

See you again soon!

Leen

Our Final Fantasy, September 2015

Paint Tool Sai (printed on canvas)

The Big Draw #2: Picto

Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for this sudden increase in page views. I sincerely hope you're not all bots. And even if you are, I actually really love robots, so you can stay just a little while longer. :3 This blog post will be dedicated to my second big activity for The Big Draw. On October 8, my colleague Ineke and I were asked to give a university course about my PhD project, "Picto". Picto is a text-to-pictograph and a pictograph-to-text translation system designed for people with a cognitive disability. Want to know the best part? We actually gave this university course to people with a cognitive disability! Best students ever. I swear.

Of course, this "university course" was an interactive one. :D I prepared several puzzles, games, and brain teasers, and we allowed the students to guess the meaning of various Sclera pictographs. The students clearly had a lot of fun (and so did I)! They all left the building with a big smile on their faces. I couldn't ask for more. I'm incredibly motivated to continue working on this project!

I will upload the final part of my The Big Draw blog series next week, but you can still expect another drawing or two this weekend. :) Hope to see you again!

Leen

Picto university course, October 2015

The Big Draw #1: Window Painting

Hi, guys! I've had the most awesome week. :D The Big Draw, the world's biggest drawing festival, finally came to Leuven. Thanks to the lovely people from KUNSTWERKT, I was involved in some of The Big Draw's main activities. I would like to dedicate my first The Big Draw post to "The Big Window Walk", a really cool project under the organisation of the very talented Sarah Vierstraete. More than 100 artists made window paintings for the many shops, bars, and restaurants in the city centre of Leuven. And everything looks so darn good.

Mutlu from coffee bar Le Mustache asked me to do his window, so I took one day off to make my painting. It took me more than 9 hours (Not including the 5 hours of preparatory work!), but we're very happy with the result. :D In the end, I didn't have enough time to draw the fancy pelican, but we do have a fox, a cat, and an owl. They all have a moustache and a cup of coffee. The reactions of the customers have been pretty overwhelming for me. Mutlu even got interviewed by a radio station! Overall, it was a great day, filled with great coffee. :)

I have been incredibly busy with art-related stuff lately, so you can expect many more posts soon! :D Until then, stay tuned.

Leen

Preparations for the window painting, October 2015

Paint Tool Sai

Full window painting, October 2015

Cat window painting, October 2015

Owl window painting, October 2015

Fox window painting, October 2015

You Can't Outrun Me, We Both Have Short Legs!

Just a quick message to show you the final result of my Amethyst (Steven Universe) cosplay! I wore it last week at the F.A.C.TS. convention in Ghent. The purple body paint took me aaages. The most difficult part of aqua body paint is that you need some water to apply the paint, while trying not to remove it at the same time. That's crazy, right? I'm not sure if there are better ways to become a purple human (Eat a lot of eggplants?), but it still looked really good in the end. :D

Steven Universe is not really popular in Belgium, but I did meet quite a lot of people who wanted to take a picture and shared their love for Steven with me. :) I encountered a Barnacle Boy (from the Spongebob series) who got all excited and kept screaming "OMG, IT'S AMETHYST!" to a very puzzled Mermaid Man. It was really funny. :D A few days after the convention, I submitted my pictures to the Original Steven Universe Cosplay Blog. The response has been amazing. Steven Universe is really a big thing in America, and realising that people love your Amethyst cosplay is such a huge compliment!

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to my next cosplay challenge. I really want to start working on that Princess Garnet - White Mage (Final Fantasy 9) outfit, but I might also do a little Ramona Flowers (Scott Pilgrim) experiment soon!

This week, the Big Draw is coming to Leuven. I am involved in some of their activities. On Tuesday, I will be making a huge window painting for Le Mustache. My colleague and I are giving an interactive "university" course on pictographs for people with a mental disability on Thursday. And on Saturday, I will be organising an art workshop for children. It is going to be an amazing week, so expect pictures soon! :)

See you next time!

Leen

Amethyst Cosplay, September 2015