artwork

A Son’s Popkes postcard!

November 12, 2019January 30, 2020 Sonja

For a long time I thought about offering the Popkes artworks I made, some as Christmas cards, as postcards. I never actually dared to do it, until now! After many friends and crafters told me I really should give it a try, I decided to have my favourite winter-themed artwork printed as a postcard, how exciting! You can now order ‘A Popkes winter wonderland’ as an A6 postcard in my Etsy shop. I decided to offer a single card ($1,85) and sets of 2, 4, or 6.

The postcards are printed on 350gsm sulfate cardboard. The front is semi-glossy and the back is matte, perfect to write on. They are professionally printed in the Netherlands. On the back in the bottom left corner you’ll find a small graphic and info about the artwork. There is plenty of space to write on.

These cards feel like a classical winter animal tale. They would make a perfect Christmas greeting to send to your loved ones and friends or a lovely wall decoration to brighten up your room! If you are a Popkes fan, you know who’s on this card, but to those of you who don’t know, this postcard features Flam the fox, Finse the rabbit, and Falun the badger. For years it has been a tradition of mine to paint an original Christmas card to send to my family and friends. Before I started Son’s Popkes, I painted funny scenes featuring Santa experiencing bad luck. But when Son’s Popkes became a success, I realised it would be great fun to make the crochet animals the main characters of my Christmas cards. At some point, I even started painting more Popke artworks, where the animals are doing all sorts of things in their natural environment. Who knows what their next adventure will be?

Where to buy?

You can purchase the cards here. Keep in mind that if you order these in December, they will take longer to arrive because of the Christmas rush.

If you have questions or remarks about this postcard, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Art

Lazy Koji

April 25, 2015 Sonja

This time I did not announce I was working on a new Son’s Popkes artwork, because let’s be honest, the last time the illustration did not turn out as I hoped. Fortunately, my latest illustration featuring nothing else but Koji, has become the artwork I fancied and I am proud to present it here.

It is simply titled ‘Lazy Koji’.

Together with my autumn Popkes artwork, I posted a ‘painting process’ slideshow. I think it is fun to show you how an illustration comes about.

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I must admit to myself, I like crocheting better, find it less frustrating. That is rather curious, as I have been drawing practically since I was born. Crocheting I have only been doing for five years now. The thing is though, when working on a painting, I can come to a certain point where I absolutely do not know how to proceed. It drives me nuts, I totally think I can never make the painting as beautiful as I fantasize, so what is the point in continuing?

For this illustration, I can show you exactly when that was, as it happens, after the second pic. There still was a lot of blue in the image and I had no idea what to do next. I just did not see it and felt like stopping. I took a break, thought about what to do and decided to just fill in the blank spaces with the colours I though would be right. And that helped. The painting now had the right mood, and for me, when the mood and colours are set, I can fill in the details and so on. Just look for yourself how much difference it made.

Maybe blue as a background colour was a bit poorly chosen for this painting and I should have started with a yellow background, but in the end, I did get it right!

Stories

It’s almost Christmas

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 Sonja

Every year, I make a Christmas card. Before I started Son’s Popkes, I used to paint humoristic illustrations of Santa having bad luck. Now, with Son’s Popkes, I have this fabulous new subject, my crochet animals. This year I thought long of what to paint. At some point I started thinking of taking some nice pictures, because I still hadn’t got the right idea for an illustration.

But then the idea finally was there. What about ice skating Popkes? That was a very fine idea indeed, so I started to sketch about and after some time I finished this Christmas card.

The painting is titled ‘A Popkes winter wonderland’ and is painted with acrylic paint on an 18 x 24 cm canvas board. I’ve grown very fond of this painted version of Falun, he looks so utterly adorable.

My Christmas holiday has started now. I’m going to enjoy it by finishing the book I’m reading, Roald Dahl’s ‘Going Solo’. My boyfriend and I like to go hiking in this wintery weather and in the evenings we will be watching our favourite movies. I always look forward to this time of year and wish you all a jolly good Christmas and a happy New Year!