an Artist with a Journal
“There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say.
The words just jolly it along.
It’s always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.”
David Bowie on expression
Latest Activities…
The Superstar Generation
The Superstar Generation, ink, charcoal and oil crayon on paper, © Mandy van Goeije, 2019 Some images speak for themselves, so let me not ruin it by writing about it.
How waterproof are my inks?
At the moment I'm completely into waterproof ink because I'm drawing and writing a lot of Tanka. It's something I like to do when I have a lot on my mind. Limiting myself to just a small number of lines, a small number of syllables, forces me to boil my thoughts down...
“Balance”
Storytelling with a message Making art, to me, is visual storytelling. Sometimes it is literally a way of telling a story that already exists. And sometimes it is a way of unearthing a story that lay hidden somewhere in my subconscience, somewhere in my fingers,...
And some more activity…
Drawing Table Hack
Photos + Video Slanted worktops save the day. And the Neck! People who draw a lot know that the neck and the shoulders need to be spared. Working on a flat surface inevitably causes problems in the long run. And still all artists know the pain because many of us don't...
Absolutely wonderful new Watercolor Paint: Aquarius
Watercolor face I did with the Aquarius paints, Queen of Hearts The Discovery A little while back I ran into the Jane Blundell's blogpost about Aquarius watercolor paints by Roman Szmal. I had never heard of the brand before - which isn't crazy, for more and more...
What’s on My Desk?
A second blog post in two days?! I must be on a roll again after such a long period of quietude... For today's post I let myself be inspired by my friend Marit Barentsen who takes part in "What's on Your Workdesk". I was a bit tired of working on an illustration...
Storytelling with Comics
Comic(al) Attempts You'll probably know me from my online courses, my art or my visual journals. Those who've been following me for a longer time, may know that I actually also have a thing for drawing comics. A wish, mostly. And I have actually made some comic-style...
Make Art & Help the Earth!
Today the wonderful Art Package Art for Earth is launched, 25% of which is donated to Treesisters.org. I am one of the contributors with a brand new online course + bonus e-book!
Super-exciting news!!! New online course + project coming up next week!
I can't believe that six weeks have passed since I last wrote on my blog! A lot has happened in the mean time and I have even more to tell you. New online course, e-book AND project launch! This coming 3 April an Art Bundle is launched that I've created a totally new...
Morning Collage
Kickstarting the day I am currently refurbishing my website and to be honest, it's quite a boring job and I long to paint. But since both websites and painting are time-consuming activities, the painting will have to wait a bit. A few days I crept behind the computer...
GiveAway winners and…a new one in prep!
And the winners are.... Tosa &Michelle M. Heindl Congratulations!!! Please e-mail me your names and addresses through my contact form on my website and you will be sent your watercolor package asap!!!...
My great love: granulating watercolors
When granulation becomes a style Over the years my watercolor painting style has varied greatly in appearance. But underneath the variety really boils down to three branches: I do stylized illustrated Tanka in ink and watercolor; I do illustrations based on...
Watercolor Starter Kit GiveAway and unboxing
Dear readers, today I have something really nice to start the New Year with, a giveaway! But before I start, I want to wish everyone a very inspired and colorful 2019, of course! Unboxing request A few weeks back I was asked if I'd like to unbox a Watercolor studio...
“Projection”
Philosophy and a cave Lately, I've been reading a lot of philosophy and science. Mighty interesting! And bound to find its way into my journal. One of the concepts I ran into last week was Plato's allegory of the cave. It basically says we human beings are poorly...
Long time no journaling…
Long time no journaling Gosh, it's been such a long time since I was here and since I'd journaled. It sounds like a boring cliché, but I was busy. Before I tell you about what's been keeping me so busy, let me start by sharing the journal page I finally got to do last...
“What’s wrong with being personal anyway? Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”
– Meg Ryan in “You’ve got Mail”