Ulrike Kittel fell in love with my raccoons and asked me to illustrate her banner that was hung up during the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt bicycle race in Frankfurt, Germany. Ulrike is an artist that makes quilted baby blankets and her work can be seen on her website.
Good news! I have the pleasure of announcing that three of my illustrations have been given an award of excellence in the 2008 edition of the Lux illustration and photography competition organised by the AIIQ , CAPIC and Infopresse. Every year Lux chooses the best among projects submitted representing work produced by Quebec illustrators and photographers. Congratulations to my clients La Presse, laglisse.ca and Ritzenhoff! All the awards can be see in the Lux special issue of Grafika magazine on the stands now or on the Lux website soon.
All the koekjes and noten are gone! My daughter Audrey, who is raising funds to finance her studies in Holland, has achieved her objective with this campaign. 2800 gourmet nut and butter cookies and 25 kilos (55 pounds) of sugared pecans sold in just 4 months. There are a few people who have put on a few extra pounds as a result… PS : for those of you in Europe to whom we have promised a bag or two, don’t worry. Audrey will make an extra batch which we will deliver personally!
The beer mug I did for their Seidelbier line shows a bar scene in the woods. The raccoon seems to be a tad worried sitting there between the two larger animals. One of the aspects of Ritzenhoff that I particularly appreciate is the possibility of using gold and silver in the designs. I try to use those colors whenever I can – in this case the color of the beer and the crowns – because they give a luxurious quality to my cartoon inspired animal characters. I think it is a bit like pop art, elevating the everyday to another level.