drawing

The goofy croco sketch

September 1, 2016 Sonja

There are days I feel more like a housewife than a designer. After the holiday so many household chores needed to be done, I could hardly find the time to actually get back to work, even without having children…

For me the house needs to be clean and tidy before I can sit relaxed behind my desk, knowing all the time ahead is for me. Today all was set and done and what a delight. This is the result!

I made a last crocodile sketch in watercolour and now am ready to enter the world of wool. I’ve been in the world of wool this summer, but that was for knitting, look what I made! Now it is time for my dearest friend, crocheting. I am going to try some new stitches for this crochet animal to get a fabulous crocodile texture, so this will be an all new adventure for me.

And keep your #popkejoy photos coming, I have seen some hilarious ones already!

Art

And the sketch

April 21, 2016 Sonja

This is close to how I see my doggy. Rustic looking and playfull. My boyfriend said he looked a little like a stray dog. Does he? He might, I know, I like non-purebred mongrel looking dogs. They often just look a little bit more natural and silly than their pure-bred cousins, with a few exceptions of course. But all the same, like Gabriele, I fur sure love dogs with a more natural, wolf-ish look. And oh yes, my sketched dog looks exactly like a wolf now does he?!

I might have a problem though, knowing my first dog pattern was not at all a succes. Rhonda told me in a comment and I quote her ‘according to Lin Wellford, who has written books about painting animals on rocks, people who love cats are happy with any sort of artwork depicting a cat, but dog-lovers usually only want their specific breed.’ So therefor, I probably won’t satisfy the hearts of dog lovers with this dog either. I especially prefer a dog doll which doesn’t look a certain breed, exactly because I thought that would please everyone who love dogs and not just a few who like that breed. More being a cat person, I pretty much like any sort of artwork depicting animals and it never really occurred to me dog lovers could be more specific. But they probably are.

Let’s just hope for the best. Kids will like him for sure. Maybe their parents will be a bit more particular, but who knows, maybe this dog will steal any dog lovers heart, he is a dog after all.

Now let’s make him first….

Art

What’s coming up next?

February 1, 2016 Sonja

He is! I am designing an elephant youngster in crochet. When I started Son’s Popkes, I made all my favourite animals first. I worried a bit about what would happen when I ran out of them. But the worries were completely unnecessarily.

Even though the animals I am currently designing are not my personal favourites (I do love animals in particular and they can’t all be best-loved), I still ever so enjoy designing them in crochet. With every animal I make, I totally get sucked into the proces. How should I do this, what is the best shape for that. It always is an exciting thing to do and I enjoyed making every animal I’ve made so far.

This little elephant is already beginning to take shape. I am quite pleased with the head and ears I made and have a good picture in my mind of how to make the arms and legs. A crochet elephant is on its way!

Uncategorized

An upcoming bird pattern

May 29, 2015 Sonja

This week I began quietly working on a new pattern. It is of a bird! When we visited the UK, we also visited the Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire, hoping to see one of my favourite birds, a puffin. We tried to see them a few years back at a little Norwegian island called Runde, but with no luck.

This time, we did have luck. I saw a fabulous little puffin sitting on a nest. I only could see her through a scope, but so amazing it was to actually see one.

What a very special bird. I think they look like a mix of duck and penguin, but with a very special shaped and coloured bill.
Actually, I was planning on designing a rhinoceros pattern. But when I saw that puffin during my vacation, a puffin needed to be made in crochet. I have drawn a few simple sketches of the shape and size and already finished a prototype head. I’m rather excited with the looks, how thrilling!

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!

Art, Stories

Koji says hello!

April 1, 2015 Sonja

Normally, I make the sketch of a doll before I start crochet designing it. The sketch functions as a reference of sizes and shapes and basically is my guide. This time however, I only made the sketch just now, after I already finished the actual crochet animal. Now why is that?

Before I started working on this tiger, I was not sure about how I was going to make him. I had many options of how to design him. I could go for horizontal stripes or realistic ones. And should I tilt the head so the stripes would follow the lines of the crochet rounds better? There were so many options, I had to try it all. Then of course at some point, I found the right style for the tiger and went along making him.

Stopping then just to make a sketch was not going to happen. As soon as there is a sweet little face looking at me, I can not wait any longer to finish the animal.

Everyone here reading my blog has to be a little patience still. The pattern is not finished yet and pictures have to be taken too. In the meantime, enjoy the sketch of Koji, my glorious tiger. The pattern will be released somewhere next week.

Art, Chit and Chat

Illustration of an actual event

March 3, 2015 Sonja

Last week the most fabulous coincident happened. We were on a short holiday in a little cottage in the woods. Every so often I worked a bit on my polecat pattern, so I could release the pattern this week. I was just about to start on the tail when I looked outside and saw the most amazing thing, an actual polecat running passed the window, followed by a cat! Full of utter joy, I shouted to my boyfriend, who was taking a bath, there’s a polecat outside!!!

What a coincidence. A real polecat, while working on the pattern of one. They are not the kind of animal you see very often, especially in daylight, so what a pleasure indeed. I quickly made a drawing of the short and special moment. And yes, the rabbit was sitting there too, not at all bothered by that strange event. I do wonder what that cat was doing there. It isn’t a very common place for a house cat to hang out, disturbing all the wildlife. Luckily, the Polecat did got away safely.

Stories

White and fuzzy

January 6, 2015 Sonja

For starters, I wish you all a very happy New Year! My previous post was titled ‘It’s almost Christmas’ but that lovely period is behind us now. I had a jolly good time and still hear the Mary Poppins songs playing in my head.

I absolutely feel delighted to start the year with a new animal to make, a very wintery creature, the arctic fox. He will be very different from Flam the fox, as arctic foxes have much more subtile features. Their ears and noses are smaller than the ones of red foxes, to prevent them from freezing, and they have an incredible thick and fuzzy coat. I’m sure this little fox will have a brushed tail and maybe I will brush him all over to make him extra fluffy and soft. And if he asks me for one, I will make him a nice warm scarf like his red cousin.

For 2015 I have a lot of new creatures in mind. Hamsters and guinea pigs, a Mr. ratty, a polecat, maybe some more water creatures and much more. If anyone ever feels I am missing an animal, do let me know, I’m very curious what you think and maybe I will make the animal.

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!

Art, Stories

A pretty big cat

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014 Sonja

Last week I started working on my new crochet animal pattern, a crochet lynx. I am quite excited to make this animal. Before I start designing a new pattern, I always look online to see what other designers have come up with. First of all to be sure my pattern will be nothing like theirs but also just to see what is offered. When I searched for a crochet lynx pattern, there wasn’t much to find. This pattern might become rather unique, which makes it extra fun and challenging.

Lynxes are incredibly colourful animals. Their fur consist out of all kins of colour ranges and lynxes can also be spotted. To make the pattern simple and not to expansive for everyone to make, I will use three colours for this crochet lynx.

And one slightly silly note, I am quite awful in drawing cats. Drawing this basic sketch took me hours. I have no idea why that is, other animals aren’t a problem, but when I draw cats, they always look ridiculous. Fortunately this lynx does look fairly smart.