Fabled Fox Has Moved To Social Media!

Hey, guys! I'm still alive! In fact, I've been making more new art than ever, and I even finished all my drawings for Katwalk. I have decided to stop writing blog posts, because I took my art to social media websites, in an attempt to reach a wider audience. So far, I'm very satisfied with the results! If you would like to see my new art (and some extra work-in-progress pictures!), please follow me on Facebook or Instagram. I hope to see you there! :D

Leen

On Whippets And Podencos

Hi, foxies! I have been doing quite a lot of art commissions lately! :) Recently, I have been hanging out with a lovely girl named Céline, who also happens to be Nami's godmother. Céline and her husband have two adorable dogs, a whippet called Dobby and a podenco called Floppy, and they commissioned me to make two illustrations for them to print on canvas fabric. The big idea behind this project was to give the illustrations a touch of "Hanna-Barbera", the animation studio behind Scooby Doo and The Flintstones, as Céline and Kevin used to love "Wacky Races" as a kid. With Kevin being a huge fan of airplanes, and Céline having a soft spot for Egyptian culture, we came up with these two cute ideas involving their two dogs, the Wacky Races cartoon, and all their favourite hobbies. I had so much fun with this! :D

Have a great weekend!

Leen

Floppy & Dobby #1, March 2017

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Floppy & Dobby #2, March 2017

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Time Spent Drawing Cats Is Never Wasted

Hi, guys! As you may already know, my mom and I will be publishing a brand-new children's book very soon, so I am currently working very hard on making the illustrations come to life! :) While most of the drawings will remain top-secret until the end of time (unless you buy the book, heh - did you see what I did there?), I'd like to share some teasers with you! You know, just because. You might want to know what's going on. And you might want to buy the book. *Awkward silence* *I really suck at marketing* *Does a silly dance instead*

Bye~!

Leen

Katwalk Illustration, February 2017

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Katwalk Illustration, December 2016

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Katwalk Illustration, January 2017

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Katwalk Illustration, January 2017

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I'm Bringing Sexy Bag

Achievement unlocked: design your first conference bag! The Centre for Computational Linguistics celebrated its 25th anniversary, and on top of that, we hosted the 27th Conference on Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands. Both events were a huge success: we attracted over 175 participants. I think the city of Leuven has never been this computationally linguistic before! We had a blast. I was responsible for designing and updating the websites and social media pages, handling the registrations, and designing the conference bag. Because every conference, of course, needs a sexy conference bag. My goal was to design a bag with a long life span - I hope it's the perfect bag for grocery shopping! :)

CLIN27 and CCL25 conference bag, February 2017

Designed in Photoshop

On top of that, my colleague Tom Vanallemeersch and I participated in the Shared Task on automated normalisation of Dutch historical texts. Our translation system turned out to perform quite well on unseen data. We even made it into the top 5, and we were asked to present the architecture of our normalisation engine at the CLIN27 conference. Welp, yet another scientific poster! It never stops. This particular design was inspired by historical texts and parchment - I really didn't have much time to think this one through, but it seemed like an obvious choice! :) Unfortunately, I was giving a presentation at another conference during the poster session. Hopefully, I can recycle this one soon!

See you!

Leen

CLIN27 Shared Task scientific poster, February 2017

Adobe Photoshop CS

Fantastic Pokémon And Where To Find Them

A few months ago, I joined a local Pokémon GO group. I used to be an active member, sharing interesting spawn locations, posting funny pictures of Pokémon hanging out around our famous landmarks (or drowning in a glass of wine), and making lots of new friends at the Oude Markt, where three lure modules would be activated aaaaall day long: having a beer, while talking to other Pokémon fans, while catching 'em all. Those were the days, I swear! :) It was back then when I also met a really sweet girl who loved Pokémon and art just as much as I do. Her name is Sterre, and we're best friends now!

Ever since, Sterre has been surprising me with random visits, presents, cookies, and art. She turned 26 in February, so I decided to give her something personal in return. I made her a Fantastic Beasts package, including a Newt Scamander Funko Pop, a "build-your-own-Niffler" kit, and a Fantastic Beasts logbook, in which I already drew 10 really cool Beasts (our pets, her boyfriend, and all her favourite fictional creatures). :) Each creature (I'm so sorry, Vincent!) was accompanied by a number of funny, random facts. Our goal is to fill the whole notebook by the age of 80. I wonder how many Beasts we will encounter in our lives!

See you soon! *Waves enthusiastically*

Leen

Fantastic Beasts: Sterre's Birthday Logbook, February 2017

Pencil on paper

Adventure Is Just Outside Your Window

Hi, foxies! Remember those animal-themed window paintings I made back in October 2015? Time sure flies! Mutlu, the owner of Le Mustache, turned out to be so happy with his coffee-drinking furry creatures, that he did not wash the windows until February 2017. That's right, 14 months later, my drawings were still there - although the fox' window had suffered from a very bad accident with a truck, and had to be replaced. That poor fancy fox!

About one month ago, we all agreed that our favourite coffee business needed a well-deserved make-over. Mutlu removed the old paintings - finally, after all these months, he had the chance to wash the windows. That must have been a very big relief, I can imagine! I worked all day long to paint a fox (In loving memory of the fox who passed away after being hit by a truck), a cat, a pelican, and a tiny snail. I swear, that fancy snail is definitely my favourite one. :) I had a lovely day - the friendly staff of Le Mustache offered me free coffee and bagels all day long. Heaven has a name, and it is located at Tiensestraat 129!

Shout-out to the friends who paid me a visit! Fernando, Andrew, Sterre, you rock! Let's have some more bagels and lattes together soon!

Bye-bye!

Leen

Window Paintings (Inside)

February 2017

Window Paintings (Outside)

February 2017

Me at Work! :)

February 2017

Fabled! You're Looking Quite Healy! *

(* Quote by my friend Meezel "Pauline" Moke.)

Hi, guys! You've already seen some of the progress pictures of my Thyrus weapon, but it's about time to show you the final result. :D Ta-dah, here are some pictures of my White Mage cosplay! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I have been healing and raising people at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Frankfurt and at the Made in Asia convention in Brussels... Okay, maybe I have not actually been healing and raising people, but some of them played along quite well! ;)

As you might notice, I decided to buy a new wig after the Fan Fest took place, because the blonde one seemed a bit too fake in natural light. The pink hair looks much better on me, don't you think? Who am I kidding, I'd love to have pink hair in real life!

Overall, I really enjoyed wearing this cosplay and stabbing random strangers with my Thyrus (I know, that's not what a White Mage is supposed to do, but I really had some epic fights out there!). The white robe is even quite comfy, thanks to the hard work of my mother and grandmother. Without their help, I would have been a naked White Mage with a cute wig and a cool Thyrus, and I don't think anyone was waiting for that to happen... Right?

I had a lot of fun with my friends at the Fan Fest, and I can't wait for the Stormblood expansion to release!

White Mage 1.0 at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, Frankfurt. My boyfriend and I managed to take a picture with FFXIV composer Masayoshi Soken. He has the best smile!

February 2017

White Mage 2.0 at Made In Asia, Brussels. My friend Sterre wore a really cute hand-made Ash cosplay! Unfortunately, the Pikachu refused to sit on her shoulder. :(

March 2017

White Mage 2.0 at Made in Asia, Brussels.

March 2017

This picture was taken by C-Flash Ninja. Check out his Facebook page!

March 2017

Oh, before I forget... Since we're talking about the Fan Fest, there's one more important thing that I should mention! Remember that one drawing I made for the Art Contest? Well, drum roll, my illustration made it into the top 10 again! Mission accomplished. I felt so proud when I noticed that people were taking pictures of my digital painting in the Art Gallery. Feels a bit surreal, you know? :D The winner of the contest has not yet been announced, but the other entries were simply stunning, and some of them really deserve the first prize more than I do! As one of the finalists, I received a really cute, limited-edition kitten hat for my character in Final Fantasy XIV, and that's basically all I ever wanted. ;)

See you soon!

Leen

A print of my digital illustration in the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest Art Gallery in Frankfurt.

February 2017

Dromerian Dreams

Hi, guys! It's Throwback Friday! ... Okay, I'm lying. I simply forgot to write this update, so I'm doing it today. For real. Bear with me guys, bear with me.

The really cool art-related "news" that I definitely wanted to share with you, is the fact that I was an invited illustrator at the Boekenbeurs in Antwerpen, Belgium's biggest book fair, back in November 2016. Even though I had not illustrated any new books since the release of "Dromeria: Lode" in 2015, Het Punt decided to give me yet another opportunity to sign the Dromeria books and draw a bunch of happy animals for little kids (Kids these days seriously have the weirdest "favourite animals" ever, I tell you!). It was a great day, and I am already looking forward to the release of Katwalk!

Bye! :)

Leen

Boekenbeurs 2016, November 2016

Katwalk advertisement, November 2016

Flo sketch, November 2016

Magic Is Something You Make

More practice! I drew some of my favourite fictional characters in my sketchbook while watching RuPaul's Drag Race on Netflix. Yes, that's the perfect lazy day! :) So here's some My Neighbour Totoro, Rise of the Guardians, Spirited Away, and Final Fantasy VII for you! Great practice, great fun. I am currently finishing the White Mage cosplay together with my mother and grandmother. I'm so happy it is almost done, but I'm already thinking of my next project! :D I guess I can never sit still when it comes to creativity! If only it would burn more calories, that would be awesome...

See you soon!

Leen

My Neighbour Totoro, December 2016

Ink on paper

The Easter Bunny (Rise of the Guardians), December 2016

Pencil and ink on paper

Spirited Away, December 2016

Pencil on paper

Aeris (Final Fantasy VII), January 2017

Pencil on paper

Once Upon A Dream

Hi, guys! I'm not much of a reader (Believe it or not, language students who only care about linguistics DO exist!) - in fact, I'm an absolute barbarian when it comes to literature - but I really love collecting all sorts of concept art books. My library expanded significantly when my parents and grandmother gave me five (I repeat: FIVE!) more books for Christmas. The albums in the The Art Of series have generally been highly praised and considered "essential coffee table merchandise". Looking at all these beautiful pieces of concept art always inspires me to practice some of my favourite animated characters' body language and facial expressions. Can you recognise all the characters? :D

See you!

Leen

Disney Sketches, January 2017

Pencil on paper

The Minion Collector

Hey, guys! Just a quick update to show you one of my latest illustrations: The Minion Collector! I made this drawing for the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest Art Competition (Man, that's quite a mouthful!). The winners will be announced at the Fan Fest, which will take place in Frankfurt next month. Last time, at the Fan Fest in London in 2014, I made it into the top 10. Square Enix displayed my illustration in the art gallery for the visitors to see - it was a huge accomplishment for me! I really want to be one of the finalists again this year, so fingers cossed! :)

This scene depicts my character, a tiny Lalafell, with some of her favourite in-game minions: a Moogle, a Fat Cat, a Nutkin, and many others. I spent quite a lot of time picking the right colours in order to make sure that the result is visually appealing. ^_^ I hope you like it!

See you soon,

Leen

The Minion Collector, December 2016

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Here's My Raise Spell, So Come Back Maybe?

Guys! GUYS! I finally did it! I finished my very first Worbla-based cosplay weapon! Say hello to my Thyrus relic. This used to be my character's main weapon in Final Fantasy XIV until the Heavensward expansion came out. With the Thyrus appearing on most official FFXIV artwork, it is probably the most iconic White Mage weapon in the game.

I made this Thyrus for my White Mage cosplay, which is still an overall work in progress. I am getting a lot of help from my mother and grandmother because, honestly, I really suck at sewing and stitching. But the robe is almost done, my Miqo'te ears have arrived, and I already bought the perfect pair of boots. :D Things are starting to look really good!

I highly enjoyed experimenting with the acrylic paint. I haven't used real paint since high school! Following Kamui Cosplay's wonderful advice, I applied highlights and shading to some areas to create an illusion of depth. My parents also bought me three amazing tutorial books from Kamui Cosplay for Christmas and I really can't wait to start working on my next Worbla project! Yay!

See you soon,

Leen

Thyrus (FFXIV White Mage Weapon), January 2017

Worbla, foam, and acrylics

Cupcake Level: Nintendo-Senpai Noticed Us!

Don't you just love the Pokémon Sun and Moon games and anime? I certainly do! :D I have been a huge fan of the Pokémon series since 1999 - that's when the first games came out in Europe - but to me, it is also a very big relief to see that finally some interesting changes were made to the franchise! Don't get me wrong, the concept of Pokémon never gets old, but the new games have such a captivating storyline, are way less predictable (No more gyms, but surprisingly funny and challenging fights against Totem Pokémon and Island Kahunas instead), and offer some much-needed improvements over long-established, outdated gameplay elements, such as those pesky Hidden Machines that used to take up all of your Pokémons' move slots. Blegh, evil Hidden Machines.

Along with the Sun and Moon games and anime, a bunch of new Pokémon were introduced, and some of the old Pokémon were given a "regional variant" or Alolan form. So, of course, I had to invite my good old cupcake team over to my house in order to consume a lifelong supply of snacks and cookies, enjoy hot chocolate with marshmallows, and design and create another colourful series of Pokémon-themed cupcakes! Eva, Lisa, and I made Pokémon Sun and Moon cupcakes, including some of the new Alolan forms, while Sam decided to do his own thing. ;) His loss, because - believe it or not - Nintendo Belgium somehow discovered our cupcakes on Facebook, and shared them on their Instagram account! :D Well, most of them. Not Sam's cupcakes, of course. That's what you get for being stubborn, Sam! In any case, this is probably the highlight of our cupcake career. *Takes a bow*

I'm looking forward to our next cupcake adventures. :D And if all goes wrong in life, my friends and I will open a cupcake store, I swear.

Bye, guys!

Leen

All cupcakes. Made by Leen (first row), Eva (second row), Lisa (third row), and Sam (last row)!

Rowlet cupcake (Pokémon)

December 2016

Litten cupcake (Pokémon)

December 2016

Alolan Raichu cupcake (Pokémon)

December 2016

Oh Christmas Tree, Your Ornaments Are History

Merry Christmas, guys! May this Christmas bring you all the love and friendship in the world! :) Don't forget to stuff your faces with delicious food!

2016 has almost come to an end. So much talent has been taken from us this year (Alan Rickman! David Bowie! Carrie Fisher! Please come back, and we will give you Donald Trump in return!), racism is omnipresent within our society, and the terrorist attacks have been hitting very close to home, but I still think that 2016 was one of my favourite years so far. Living together with my boyfriend makes me incredibly happy. I made a bunch of new friends, and my old friendship bonds are stronger than ever before, with many of my best friends making life-changing decisions, and allowing me to support them from the sidelines. I finished a lot of challenging projects, and I am starting to feel more satisfied with my own art style and work. And then there's my PhD thesis, which is... a work in progress! Well, I really can't complain. :)

Before I forget, here's this year's Christmas illustration! From me, to you, and to anyone who can relate to this. Because cats and Christmas trees will always be a very dangerous combo.

Happy holidays!

Leen

Happy Holidays 2016, December 2016

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White Mage in Progress

Hi, foxies! I am very excited about one of my latest projects, so please allow me to tell you all about it. :) I am currently working on my very first Worbla cosplay weapon, a Thyrus relic weapon from the online game Final Fantasy XIV. I have to admit that I have been dreaming of crafting my own cosplay props for quite a while now, but to be honest, I really had no idea where to start. You know, these weapons look so real, and I don't exactly have an armour smithy in my backyard. Well, turns out you don't even need that!

Last July, I decided to sign up for a Worbla workshop in Antwerp. Our host was no one less than Mistvein (Robbe), a surprisingly young cosplayer who has already won tons of national cosplay awards. The workshop took place at a traditional glassworks atelier, where Mistvein's assistant Cookiepie (Tim) creates the most beautiful glass art pieces. Believe me, these two guys are amazingly talented, so please give their fan pages a well-deserved like! :D I learned so many things at the workshop and I am very grateful to Robbe and Tim.

Worbla is a brand of non-toxic thermoplastics. It can be shaped by hand and it is self-adhesive when heated - basically, all you need is a regular heating gun. It can be painted with just about any paint. The most difficult part of crafting cosplay armour and weapons is carefully cutting the EVA foam before applying the Worbla, but once you get used to it, it's not that hard at all.

In fact, you just need a lot of patience. I made this Worbla weapon at home in about 20 hours time (four sessions to cut the foam and heat the Worbla, and one more session to apply the white primer). I am currently painting the weapon with acrylic paint, and I can't be happier with the result. I really look forward to finishing the Thyrus and wearing my White Mage cosplay at the FFXIV Fan Fest in February!

See you next time!

Leen

Thyrus (FFXIV White Mage Weapon) Work in Progress, November 2016

Foam and Worbla

Why Scientific Posters Are Dangerous For Me: A Brief Essay

Hi, guys! I completely forgot that I really wanted to share something slightly more scientific with you. Put on your nerd glasses and see what happens when you ask me to give a scientific poster presentation at a conference workshop (*SEM at ACL) in Berlin. You might already know that I really enjoy designing scientific posters for Academia (Read all about it here and here!), but it looks like things are getting a tiny bit out of hand now. My latest poster looks like a fricking coffee table. It has an apple, a cup of coffee, a notebook, a magnifying glass, and some Post-It notes. Oh, and the results of my research are on there somewhere, as well.

To be honest, I can't stop laughing when I think back of the moment when I put up this A0-sized poster during one of the conference's coffee breaks at the Humboldt University. I grabbed a cup of tea and watched my poster from afar, only to see conference delegates flocking to the poster. Some people even started making pictures! And while I actually wasn't supposed to give my poster presentation until the next coffee break, I simply had to approach the secret admirers and ask them if they wanted to talk about my research. I stood there for almost three hours and it was my best poster presentation experience so far. The feedback was amazing! You see, I really take my job and research very seriously, but I guess it doesn't hurt to bring some colour to our world. :)

See you around~!

Leen

*SEM Poster, August 2016

Adobe Photoshop CS

I'm Silently Correcting You're, Errrm, Your Grammar

Wow, did anybody say "update"? ... Okay, I guess nobody said that. But I still have some catching up to do, so here you go! :) I'm afraid I cannot show you my latest children's book illustrations just yet - however, there's still some stuff I need to upload here.

If you're a frequent visitor of my blog, you might know that I have been working closely together with my favourite coffee bar in town (No, I'm not only saying that because we're teaming up!): Le Mustache in Leuven! If you're not a frequent visitor of my blog, you should really get your lazy butt to Le Mustache, order a Hippolatte, and then we'll talk again.

Anyway! At the beginning of KU Leuven's academic year, it is always important for shops and bars in Leuven to attract brand-new customers (Read: young, innocent students). Last year, Le Mustache and I joined forces to create two cartoon ads: one for Groep T, and one for the faculty of Psychology. The illustrations were very well received, so I got to make a new one this year. :D In fact, this time, the cartoon was addressed at students from the Arts faculty - and that's my faculty! I couldn't help but make fun of the erroneous spelling and grammatical gender of La Moustache: we are language students, after all. And in case you were wondering, Le Mustache's spelling is obviously a silly joke! :)

I hope you like it!

Leen

KU Leuven Arts Faculty Advertisement, September 2016

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Falling Leaves, Pumpkins, and Inktober

Hi, guys! Have you ever heard of the Inktober challenge? Inktober was created in 2009 by mister Jake Parker as a challenge to develop positive drawing habits. Now, it's a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year. Inktober consists of 31 themes, one for each day of the month.

My friend Xavier, who is usually not that much into drawing but did find the courage to accept the challenge, asked me to join him in tackling the 31 Inktober tasks. Well... To be quite honest, I started much too late (I think it was October 14 when I made my first sketch), and I'm not even sure if I'll ever finish this project. However, it would be silly not to share my first doodles with you, because some of the themes somehow forced me to think outside of my comfort zone. :) I think the illustrations are rather funny and cute, and I hope you like them too.

See you next time!

Leen

Inktober Challenge #1: FAST, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #2: NOISY, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #3: COLLECT, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #4: HUNGRY, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #5: CRY, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #6: HIDDEN, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #7: LOST, October 2016

Black pen on paper

Inktober Challenge #8: ROCK, October 2016

Black pen on paper

The Princess and the Knight

Hey, buddies! It's about time to post some new updates, don't you think? I haven't had much time to share my latest creations with you, but rest assured! Art and cosplay are currently taking up all of my spare time, and that's exactly the way it should be. :3 While most of the recent Katwalk artwork is - unfortunately - top secret material, I still have a lot of other creative stuff to share with you, so don't run away just yet!

About two months ago, I got an email from a Flemish girl named Sara. She is currently engaged to a very sweet boy called Bruno, who recently became a policeman. In order to congratulate her hubby-to-be on his new position, Sara sent me the following art request. She asked for a Disney-style drawing of Bruno (wearing his cool, new uniform, obviously) and herself (wearing a wedding dress). The caption of the illustration says "Liefde is... elkaars dromen waarmaken" ("Love is... to make each other's dreams come true") - first of all, because joining the police corps was Bruno's biggest wish and Sara supported him in every possible way to make his dream become a reality, and secondly, because Sara wanted to marry him and Bruno proposed to her. Aww!

On a side note, do you remember that Undertale drawing from a few weeks ago? A big Facebook page called The Undertale Fandom shared it with their followers, and it received more than 300 likes! That's a personal record, for sure. :)

Stay tuned, more updates are following very soon!

Leen

Sara and Bruno, September 2016

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A Tribute To Undertale

Hey, guys. I'm afraid I have become one of them. You know, an Undertale fangirl. I played the game three months ago and, needless to say, I had a heavy-hearted and lonely feeling after watching the credits (Music by Toby Fox, characters by Toby Fox, WHOLE FRICKING GAME by Toby Fox. Fabled Fox loves Toby Fox). Finishing Undertale is like finishing a really great book: for a second, you don't know what to do with your life anymore...

That is, until you discover the fanbase. Thank God for the Undertale fanbase! There's art, stories, comics, and Facebook pages. Undertale proves that you don't need fancy graphics, 50 hours of gameplay, or the help of famous voice actors to win the hearts of the masses. The Undertale universe goes well beyond our wildest imaginations, inspiring thousands of gamers to get creative and make the black-and-white 2D characters come to life.

So, here it is, my own tribute to one of the greatest RPGs of all time! It took me about 17 hours to finish, but I really enjoyed every bit of it. From top to bottom, left to right, you may recognise the following characters: Flowey, Muffet, Napstablook, Asgore, Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Toriel, Asriel, Papyrus, Sans, Frisk, and Temmie. I also put in a little hot dog and spaghetti reference. :) I'm really proud of this drawing, and I don't say that often. I hope you like it.

I completely forgot to update this blog, so I will be uploading more drawings soon! :)

Leen

A Tribute to Undertale, October 2016

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