a Brush with History

Green Steam, adventures along the German Track - A train journey through the early 20th century

2010-12-13T14:45:00.016+01:00

Publisher Sjaloom at Amsterdam approached me to create some artwork for a children's book written by author Gerard Sonnemans. This book highlights in short fiction stories the colourful history of an old railway line in North-East Brabant towards Germany. This line was known as "het Duitse Lijntje". Sonnemans used actual facts of the route and mixed them with fantasy.

I made several coverdesigns. Nevertheless the publisher decided to use none of them directly and made a cover like a mainstream travelguide; my last cover design was used as a standard image. For what reason? I don't know. What a pity afterall because my drawings were not only stronger but also better! Also because my motivation was and is that you are selling a children's book , not a travelguide for adults! This can happen also wether you are a good or less good designer/illustrator. The nasty side of our profession!

Hereby some of the rejected cover designs in early stages and in definitive examples and at the bottom the definitive design of the publisher himself...

The Medaeval world, a teaching package for primary education

2010-12-13T12:35:00.018+01:00

This assignment is intended for the last classes of primary school and the first two classes of secondary education. In relation to this package Heritage Foundation Brabant at Den Bosch in The Netherlands asked me to design for them an funny atmosphere using a clear style.

Purpose of the whole is to create a cheerful and familiar atmosphere, easy and pleasant to work with. The user can discover the world of the Medeaval world by simple tasks. My illustrations are not just a colorful addition to the whole but they also have a strong educational input.

Shoes for a slave

2010-12-12T19:09:00.014+01:00

This image was made for the book Shoes for a slave (published by Delubas 2010) and was written by Dutch author Joyce Pool. This children's book is about Suriname in the 18th century when slavery was common in the America's. The book tells the story of protagonist Baron, a young slave who regains his freedom by his master. Unfortunatly the owner doesn't keep his word an he gambled Baron, thus the boy loses his promised freedom. Then he gets a very bad new owner. Baron escaped into the jungle of Suriname, where he today is one of the most famous freedom fighters of all Surinamese history. Pool's book is based on the true story of a young slave with the same name.

The title "Shoes for al slave" refers to the new shoes that the young slaveboy receives of his second new master. The one who gambled the poor boy.

For this assignment I used Indian ink and gouache on Schoellershammer Duria drawing paper with less grain.

The Battle of the Grebbeberg - May 1940

2010-12-12T15:40:00.029+01:00

May 13, 1940 - Bullets ricochet off the walls constantly. Glass shards and splinters of wood flying around. Pavilion Grebbeberg is under heavy fire. The pavilion building served before the war as a cafe and guesthouse and is now used as a command post of Major Landzaat at the Grebbe Line..

After fierce fighting and heavy losses during the recent days a pale mixture of bravely men maintains and had gathered against the advancing German army. Major Landzaat and a group of men hid themselves in the wooden veranda at the front of the building. When the Germans tried to attack the pavilion at the right side attempting to bring a heavy machine gun in position, the major comes into action. In full view of the enemy Landzaat aimed at the German machinegun unit and shoot. Unfortunatly, we don't know what happened to him. Only his dead body was found later after the surrender of the Dutch army...

The pavilion building long before WO II

For this assignment a thorough investigation was necessary. First thing to do was to investigate how the pavilion building looked like where this battle took place. There were a few photographs exist of the pavilion but they were dated several years before the war. Also, a (original?) buildingplan still exist but also dated long before the war. So this dated information of the site gave us not a clear sight of it, unfortunatly. The witness statements and situation sketches of a number of soldiers recorded soon after the battle gives a glimp of the events but their visual statements like some drawings of te building together with their strategic positions in the building didn’t match overall with the buildingplan of the pavilion. Conclusion: apparently the building has undergone some renovations during its existence! The museum has also investigated the subsequent events which took place in and around the building during the heavy fighting. It was thanks to several witnesses a reasonable picture distilled to what happened that day. However, there are statements that contradict each other. We know, for example, not exactly which soldiers have been present at any position and at what point in the pavilion. Thus we don’t know where Landzaat exactly was, at different times during the German siege. What we do know is that he fast moved from one location in the building to another during heavy combat, primarely to encourage his men. At some point he must have determined that an end to the dire situation had to come especially since the heavy armored Germans had brought heavy artillery into position and threatened to destroy the entire building. Major Landzaat gave his men the choice whether to fight or to leave. But he would not doubt about it and decided to stay there and fight until the last breath. What happened after that is unclear. Later his body was found in the building which was completely destroyed...

The destroyed hotel near the pavilion somwhere during or after the war (?)

Despite the uncertainty about this fight I created a plausible "reconstruction" based on the various data I mentioned above. Although the fullcolor plate of the battle can not and should not be considered as a "correct" reconstruction of the moments described from the witness statements. It is also unclear how the building has look liked from the inside. Only the uniforms and weaponry are based on actual data.

Major Landzaat

The plate is signed on Schoellershammer watercolor paper, 200 g/m3 and painted with gouache and in the final stage digitally optimized and edited.

Shipwreck!

2009-11-12T21:22:00.011+01:00

About two and a half years ago I was commissioned by an english publisher to illustrate a pop-up book called "Shipwreck!".
It was quite an extensive job, consisting of almost 70 pictures, ranging from small spot illustrations of portraits in black and white to full-page (and some of them spread-wide) and full-colour illustrations with intricate brief and complete with flaps and pull-out tabs and little booklets. As icing on the cake the book was fitted with 4 pop-ups, which I especially liked to do, because for me this was the first time it came across ; these pop-ups were all designed by a dutch paper engineer, called Kees Moerbeek.

When I received the free copies of the book I was very pleased, because the cover looked quite beautiful and had the appearance and feel of a ship's hull.

The book started off with a double gate-fold, containing an introduction and a brief overview of the history of shipwrecks from Egyptian times until the wrecking of the container-carrier MSC Napoli in the English Channel in 2007.
The front-cover of the right-hand side gate-fold depicted the USS Monitor, an ironclad ship that took part in the indecisive Battle of Hampton Roads in the American Civil War and sank in a violent storm in the Atlantic on December 31st, 1862.

The inside of the double gatefold had two small pop-ups. At the left-hand side there was a roman galley....

.....and at the right-hand side another small pop-up depicted the change in shipbuilding from wooden sailing ships to steam-powered ships made of iron.

The rest of the book held four chapters in which just as many more or less famous ship-wreckings were described.

The first chapter described the history of the Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII and until its completion in 1510 England's biggest ever warship.
It was named after Henry's sister Mary and the flower, which was the emblem of Henry's family, the Tudors.

The Mary Rose first saw action in 1512 in a battle against France when she cripled the enemy's flagship with a single shot from one of her 91 huge cannons.

The second chapter described the mutiny on the Batavia.
In my opinion the pop-up in this chapter was just spectacular and depicted the nightly wrecking of the Batavia in 1629.

The last chapter was fitted with a smaller pop-up of the Whydah.
The Whydah was an English ship, which was chased and captured in February 1717 by Samuel Bellamy, better known as "Black Sam", an English pirate who was active in the Carribean Sea.
A few months later the Whydah encountered a terrible storm. The vessel slammed into a sandbar and split in two, throwing the pirates and their treasure into the wild sea. Of the 146 pirates only two managed to save themselves. Black Sam went down with this ship.

Apart from the illustrations shown here, as I mentioned above, I made many more pictures for this book. In fact too many to show on this spot.

Although this book was commissioned by an English publisher, an English version was never published. Instead Shipwreck! was published in Italian, French and Russian.
Contrary to the Italian and French edition, the Russian one wasn't entitled Shipwreck!, but "In the stormy seas" and subtitled "History of shipwrecks".

In the time of the colonies-1926 Guerrilla warfare in Aceh

2009-10-20T18:39:00.013+02:00

Aceh, April 15, 1926 - In the early morning Batten lieutenant and his men marched through the jungle of Aceh. They are on their way to Sibadeh. The marechaussee walking two by two, lieutenant Batten well protected in the middle. The lieutenant is vigilant, because there are Achinese rebels in the area reported. When the brigade is approaching a dense area, Batten keep his pace. He orders his men to keep drawn their rifles and klewang and walk on slowly. "There" there! "the soldier suddenly shouts in front of Batten. Immediately followed by a salvo fired by the brigade in the specified direction." La ilah il Allah! "* sounds from the bushes from all sides and immidiatly after that Achinese rebels attacks their enemy. A violent fight breaks loose ...

* Allah is the only true God

This plate is based on true events happened on April 15, 1925. An event set in the aftermath of the great Dutch Aceh-war situated on the northern tip of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. This war began in the second half of the 19th century and was one of the longest and bloodiest in the history of the Dutch East Indian colonies. The Islamic Achinese saw their struggle against the Dutch as a Holy War and fought with death-defying. The Dutch claimed this war as an expansion of authority and state interest. Aceh was also for strategic military and economic reasons important enough to brought them under military control. As mentioned earlier, in a long-lasting fierce resistance. With the hard and ruthless approach led by general van Heutsz the war came to an end in 1903 with the surrender of the Sultan of Aceh. Despite the surrender, the war was not completely eliminated and the Achinese opposition fought until the mid-twenties of the last century.

Batten
On April 15th, 1925 Batten was just 25 years old, became a lieutenant after three years been served in the Dutch colonial army (KNIL). Nine months earlier Batten was promoted to first lieutenant. In the intervening months several significant uprisings took place in the Achinese region.

On his journey to Sibadeh he was warned a man. In his short report of this event he made to us a clear image of this bloody attack.It appears to be a careful report quoted from a horrific fight in middle of nowhere:

"... I saw a stooped Aceh rebel cutting into one of my men, who's lying on his back on the ground. I slammed and knocked out the attacker with two, three cuts. The very next moment I stood for another Aceh rebel who felt back pulling immediatly at my arm . On this short distance I feared a rentjong from him (rentjong cut or stabbing cut),
I stuck with him when my pushed my klewang into his body, while he hit my head with his rentjong. The battle was over now and I collected the brigade on the beach in order to get a clear view".

At the end of this battle the brigade consists of four heavy wounded and four slightly wounded. Batten has a significant head injury. On Achinese side were killed eleven men.

Corps marechaussee on foot
For tactical reason the marechaussee corps was conceived and founded in 1890. This to in order to fight the guerrilla with the same tactics used by the Achese. Light, but small units, initially armed with an imported European army weapon, the Beaumont rifle combined with a long bayonet. Later, after some reorganization marechaussee were armed with a short automatic rifle, the carbine with a klewang based on the native sideweapons but also on the european sabre to. Also the use of a new designed green colored uniform combined with bamboo hat with a wide rim. Initially the marechaussee earlier unified dark blue and a lighter blue alternative and wore a dark blue helmet with emblem. The green uniforms came into use after the fin de siecle and remained green until after the Second World War.

This image was commissioned by the Army Museum, Delft

Operation Market Garden

2009-09-17T01:54:00.017+02:00

17 september 1944.

"As we reached the fields behind the tracks, the first gliders* landed there, right in front of our eyes. We didn’t dare approach straightaway, however, because when those giants come down it takes them a while to roll to a standstil. With awesome speed, they shot right by us..
If this was a movie we were right in the middle!
“Yes,” we shouted to one another. “Look at the markings! It’s the British!”
But then...
Oh lord! Liberation day had come!"

For my book “Uncommon soldier” I had an interview with Jaap Jansen, a Dutch eyewitness of the gliderlandings near Oosterbeek, prior to the battle of Arnhem.

"When everything had been unloaded, at least we were, the British gave us a lift to their assembly point. That’s how I got my first jeep ride, parallel to the railroad tracks.What a thrill!

There, at the assembly point, I also got my first English smoke. Perhaps it’s hard to understand, but to me that cigarette was a very emotionele thing. An experience to remember. After years of smoking home-grown or rationed ersatz – rubbish, all of it – I rediscovered the flavour of real tobacco. That is when it really hit me that our liberation had come.

Still dealing with those powerful first impressions, we heard the engines of other planes approaching. Their drone rose to a thunderous roar... to get a better view of proceedings we walked away from the trees, into the field, There they were...
And then, and then...
They came in, three abreast.
The men from the nearest plane jumped first. Then those from the centre one. Then those from the third plane. And so forth.
Man, what a sight that was! When I think of it... Hundreds, many hundreds of parachutes. The sky was full of them!
It was.. it is.. unbelievable.
That moment...
I still have no words for it.
Overwhelming, that is what it was.

And you want to draw that? You want to catch that in an single picture? I am sorry to tell you, but it won’t work. It can’t be done. There’s no piece of paper large enough to draw a sky turned green with many hundreds of parachutes. What a spectacle that was... hundreds and hundreds..."

And of course he was right. There’s no piece of paper large enough, no way to create this man’s emotions in paint.
But one can try... For the epic painting “The Armada has landed” I used a canvas measuring 80 x 120 cm.
Since the mid’s ‘70’s I have met and talked with many Arnhem veterans, stroled along the landingsites, driven the wartime jeep along the same roads the Airbornes used back then, read and collected anything “Arnhem Battle” related I could lay my hands on. So I didn’t need to spend much time on research for this painting, and I could tend all my energy to the image itself. Which was as well...
I started with a small A4 size sketch, in which the whole composition seemed allright and sweet.
But on enlarging, it just didn’t work out as it should, which, by the way, didn’t surprise me –it’s a common probleem.
The best way to overcome all this, was making enlarged photocopies of the sketch, cut out the separate details and shift those about on the canvas rearrange the composition . And a lot of shifting about it took..
On the painting: In the background of the painting one can see the railroadbanking along wich Jaap got his first Jeepride. For the exact position of the gliders I used contemporary aireal photographs. The painting self, took about 500 hours, using acrylics.

Work in Progress...

Jaap smoking his first English cigarette amidst the Airbornes

Hundreds and hundreds...

The battle over

The civilians were evacuated from the warzone. Here we can see some of them, leaving Oosterbeek along the “Stationsweg”, just passing the “Krugerlaan” dragging along the posessions they could carry, using wheel barrows and bikes without tires.
The Germans, having done their job, have a rest, enjoy the victory and the scene, smoking English sigarettes...

Acrylic on Canvas 60 x 80cm.

These paintings and more, are reproduced in my book
“Jaap Jansen – uncommon soldier” (english text)
ISBN 978-90-5492-221-6
Or (dutch text) “Jaap Jansen – ongewoon soldaat “
ISBN 978-90-5492-220-9

Both books are still available.
Book and A-2 size prints of the”The Armada has landed” are available at the Hartenstein Airborne museum shop in Oosterbeek.

Dutch Golden Age Part last

2009-08-27T10:23:00.000+02:00

The last illustration of the Golden Age series had to depict a master painter's studio.
Because I could choose from such a vast array of succesful and famous 17th-century painters I decided to draw the studio of a fictitious master painter.
Here he is just showing his progress on a painting to his customer, a rich merchant.
The interior of the studio is borrowed from an etching by Adriaen van Ostade entitled "de schilder" (the painter) from the Rijksprentenkabinet (Printroom of the Rijksmuseum) in Amsterdam.
And furthermore I looked carefully to a number of other contemporary paintings with the same subject, by e.g. Vermeer, Pieter Codde, Frans van Mieris the Elder, Michiel van Musscher en Jacob Ochterveld.
At the righthand side of the picture two apprentices are preparing materials to paint. One of them is grinding pigments and the other is making brushes.
There, where formerly portraits were commissioned exclusively by the nobility and the clergy, in the 17th century portraiture soared very high because of the growth of the wealth of the dutch merchants and gentry. Above the staircase we can see an example of this artform. It's a self-portrait by one of the most succesful artists of his time, Ferdinand Bol, who was an apprentice of Rembrandt.
Just like Van Leeuwenhoek from the earlier post, this artist is wearing a "japonse rok" as well.

My client approved of this rough without any corrections, so I worked it out in water-colour and made a colouring picture simultaneously.

Dutch Golden Age Part 4

2009-08-24T21:42:00.000+02:00

The subject of the fourth illustration of this series was "Scientifical discoveries".
One of the more important exponents of 17th-century science in the Netherlands was Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek. He was skilful in making microscopes and had at his disposal - by far - the best lenses of his time.
Here we see Anthoni looking through one of his selfmade microscopes with singular lens, studying his "kleijne diertgens" (little animals).
In the foreground , between all kinds of volumes, there are drawings of them, made by van Leeuwenhoek himself. We can also see a copy of the first scientifical periodical of the world the "Philosofical Transactions" published by the Royal Society of London, in which he made his observations public on March 25, 1677. This was announced on the cover of this magazine.

Van Leeuwenhoek was stimulated to publish his findings by no less a person than the great Dutch statesman and poet Constantijn Huygens (bust), who in his turn was a great admirer of the English pioneer of natural science Sir Francis Bacon (painting).
A precursor of Van Leeuwenhoek was Cornelis Drebbel from Alkmaar, who among others invented the microscope (left) and the submarine (drawing beneath the magazine).
Furthermore we can see several instruments refering to the overseas trade, as well as the "japonse rok" ("japanese gown"), kind of an imitated Japanese kimono, here worn by Anthoni
and which was very much fashionable in those days.
All of his discoveries were made in his study in Delft. He hardly ever left his hometown.
Through the open window we can see part of a house also painted by Johannes Vermeer in 1675 ("het Straatje", Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam).
In the background beneath the painting I added some food; a tribute to the beautiful 17th-century still life paintings by e.g. Floris van Dijck, Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda.
And finally, for the physiques of Anthoni I carefully looked at the portrait of van Leeuwenhoek made by Johannes Verkolje in 1686, ten years after his breakthrough.

Again, my client asked me to make some minor alterations. She asked me to remove the bust and change the portrait of Bacon for the one of Huygens, which I did accordingly.

And also this picture was done in water-colour.

For the colouring plate I used this detail.

Dutch Golden Age Part 3

2009-08-19T16:09:00.000+02:00

The subject for the third illustration was the VOC and its trade overseas. The VOC - United East-India Company - can be regarded as the first multinational.

I wanted to express the power of this company by emphasizing the size of its ships.
Therefore I chose a scene in which one of those vessels laid at anchor on the roads of the Dutch colony of Batavia (nowadays Jakarta in Indonesia) roundabout AD 1650, just when the crewmaster of Batavia returns to town after inspection of the ship, its crew and its cargo.
In those days Batavia was the most important transhipment harbour of the VOC. Small unloading-vessels are coming alongside to transport the goods to the various warehouses in town. Natives are offering the crewmembers fresh fruit.
The only way in which the warehouses could be reached was through a dredged and with dams protected fairway and a specially digged channel to the city's water-gate.
Because of silting up Batavia slowly but surely came to lie further and further away from the sea and through time the pier at the northern side of town reached as far as 2 kilometers into the sea.

As a reference for this picture I used a painting by Adam Willaerts from AD 1649 from the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam and for the small vessels I looked at an anonymous engraving "'t Inkomen van de haven van Batavia" ("Entering the harbour of Batavia") from "Gedenkwaerdige zee- en lantreize" ("Memorable sea- and landvoyages") by Joan Nieuhof from AD 1682.
The ship is modeled after the replica of the "VOC-retourschip" (returnship) Batavia, which was built on the Batavia-shipyard in the Dutch city of Lelystad in 1985-1995 and which can still be visited there.

My client thought this first version to be a bit crowded with ships; again too much impulses for the target group, so with some cutting and pasting I changed the composition a bit.

This version was excepted and again I used watercolour and some pen and ink to complete this illustration.

For the colouring picture I thought this picture would be far too difficult to colour up, so I selected a detail in which the size of the ship and the "confrontation" between the Dutch and native cultures would both be emphasized and at the same time there wouldn't be too many details to colour up.

Dutch Golden Age Part 2

2009-08-17T17:38:00.000+02:00

The second illustration was the siege of a Dutch town by the Spaniards.

I depicted the siege of the town of Alkmaar by the Spaniards in 1573, which is widely known as the event "where Victory began" (for the Dutch of course).

In the 16th century the Low Countries were owned through inheritance by the Spanish Crown. The towns of Northern Holland, like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Alkmaar en Hoorn, which were fast develloping, very rich and strategically important, revolted. This became the Eighty Years war or the "Revolt"(de Opstand), as we now know it. From "Alkmaar" on, the Spaniards gradually lost more and more of their influence and power in Holland.
In 1581 came into existance the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, which develloped with great speed into a maritime worldpower, which eventually caused the Dutch Golden Age (as it is called) in the 17th century.
Officially peace with Spain was reached only in 1648 with the peace treaty of Münster.

For this picture I carefully looked at "Het beleg van Alkmaar" (the siege of Alkmaar), a painting by Pieter Adriaensz. Cluyt from AD 1580.

But I turned around the perspective 180˚.
Where Cluyt offers us a detailed view in and from the Spanish camp, I preferred to show a view from the ramparts of the town.
Although in my picture there are clear references to the city of Alkmaar, such as the church and the coat of arms over the gate, I must confess that I stretched reality a bit; therefore this town may stand for any other Dutch town during the spanish occupation.

Alkmaar was the first town to withstand the Spaniards, and on October 8th, 1573 "Victory begins at Alkmaar", as the saying goes.
In the bastion on the foreground we see the commander in chief of Alkmaar, one of the first "Water-Beggars" Jacob Cabeliau. On his leftside I depicted his right hand Nicolaas Ruychaver.
In the distance they see how the water approaches the town after the Governor of the Northern Quarter Diederik Sonoy had the dykes of the Zuiderzee pierced and the floodgates opened.
This caused the Spaniards to retreat, because they didn't like to get wet feet.

And also from this illustration I used a detail for a colouring picture.
By the way, the bridges towards such city-gates were always made of wood, so in times of war and siege the defenders of the city simply chopped them to pieces.

Dutch Golden Age (17th century) - Part 1

2009-08-17T11:07:00.000+02:00

About two years ago I was asked to do a series of five full-colour illustrations (42 x 28 cm), which were to be used for educational purposes for children with serious behavioural and mental disorders.
These pictures will be part of a so-called "teaching-chest" entitled "Discovering the Golden Age!" and will be printed on a 60 x 40 cm size. For the sake of colouring pictures, a black and white line version had to be made of each illustration as well.

Each of the illustrations had to depict a theme of this Dutch Golden Age. These are:
the Siege of a Dutch town by the Spaniards, the VOC, a Master-painters studio, Scientifical discoveries and Merchants and beggars, which I would like to present in this post.

Is this an existing market-place of an existing Dutch town? Not really, but the town-hall in the centre of the picture looks like the one of Haarlem and some of the church-towers and building-façades remind us of Amsterdam.
To depict the group of people at the left-hand side of the picture I used elements from paintings by Jan Steen, Jacob Ochterveld and Bartholomeus van der Helst, all well-known and very succesfull painters at that time.
At the background we can see the usual hustle and bustle of a 17th century marketplace, complete with oriëntal merchants, as we can also see on contemporary paintings by Gerrit Berckheyde and Johannes Lingelbach.
The regentesk figure at the front is grafted upon the portrait of Jan Six by Rembrandt.

For the sake of the students I had to make this first version a bit less crowded, because these children aren't able to handle too much impulses. And I had to change the face of the blind beggar at the right-hand side slightly as well, because some of the children might find it too scary.

After approval of this second version I could start colouring this illustration, for which I used water-colour.

I presume it's clear now where the illustration for the title of our weblog "A brush with history" came from!

And to conclude I made a black and white version digitally of a detail of this illustration for a colouring picture (DinA3).

Mimbres renegades

2009-08-13T10:38:00.000+02:00

During the Apache campaings several Apache band leaders continuesly fought their way into freedom. After the death of Victorio in 1880, Nana moved to the forefront in offending the US army troopers. Victorio's actions were known as the Mimbres renegades and Nana proceed in his track and follow up to held to the warpath. With hundereds of soldiers on his pursuit, he and his 40 warriors claimed more then 30 lives in less then 2 months. He later threw in his lot with Geronimo.

Eyes of the Army

2009-08-09T20:10:00.001+02:00

Serving as the eyes of the Army in the labyrinthine terrain of the Southwest, Apache scouts like these on this plate broke the resistance of their own people. Yet even their targets accepted the scout's role as reasonable rather then treasonous- a consequence of intertribal rivalries and reservation boredom. Although the hunted outlaw Apache accepted this particular role they often offended their own blood as well.
This plate shows some Apache scouts who are hunted by their own relatives. Apparently the scout troopers had themselves ran into an ambush. A situation that that probably wasn't the usual because Apache scouts had been generally very cautious. In the beginning uniforms were not equal worn as the common white troopers. Apaches often wore their own outfit underneath the tropper uniforms. Around 1900 the basic uniform of the Apache scout was as well as the same as their white fellow trooper. Images of that time shows Apache scout wearing equal like uniforms without any native clothing underneath.

Chiricahua encounter

2009-08-05T15:51:00.001+02:00

This plate is the first of a series of some free gouache-acrylic illustrations about the American frontier history. I produce these plates in my spare time. The American Native as a subject to illustrate is a ambition I already had in my early youth. In historical point of view these plates are based on true facts although somewhat romanticized.

What's the plate about? It shows three escaped reserve Chiricahua Apaches unexpected spotted by an American patrol and therefore attempting to escape. Location: somewhere around Northeast Arizona territory: today's Apache County. Because there is a broad dry arroyo between the two groups it would be difficult for the troopers to get to the other side in order to capture the 3 escaped Chiricahua who obviously are forced to ride two horses. But they obviously will probably get away. The uniforms and weaponry are based on original cavalry uniforms from around 1870 so this plate's subject is placed around that time. I have used (for al thes plates) some excellent reference sources written by William C. Davis and technical advisor Russ A. Pritchard. Also, the illustrations of contemporary Charles Schreyvogel, Frederic Remington and Charles Russell delivered some important visual resource for this. Further a range of references offered by several American historical institutions.

Imagine ancient Egypt...

2009-07-21T12:02:00.002+02:00

These plates were commissioned by Malmberg used for secondary education. In the first plate the perspective of the wall and the picto's on it are difficult to do because of the point of view of the watcher. Considering the perspective I choosed for a view from behind the Egypt painter so we just overlook his job as a watcher. In my point of view a good way to get involved in ancient history...

This plate was painted with gouache on Schoellerhammer but some special effects were done by using Photoshop.

The following plate was done with gouache on Schoellerhammer.

Studying the comic character Alex, publisher Casterman

2009-07-20T16:29:00.000+02:00

Somewhere in 2007 I heard that Casterman was looking for new artists to continue the comic Alex. So, I have responded. The requirements were simple at least in my mind: design a number of stylesheet studies of the main characters and some combined drawings. Anyway I made a number of studies of the popular comic Alex all produced of course with the ambition to be one of the comic teams who continue Alex. One of the requirements was that Alex had stylistic match with the book "the lost legions".

However they wanted no designed plates but only studies of the main characters as they are shown here. In addition they wanted a similar style as Jaques Martin ever used in his early years. And only in black and white. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything of Casterman after I 've sent the sketches. Apart from these drawings, it's quite odd, I think that no example plates were needed after all. That is, in my view equally important as designing the characters. Note that all drawings are not excisting images simply taken out of the comic!

Anyway, maybe some other time I'll give it another try!

Bird's-eye view of the Roman army ambushed in German hostile country in the year 9AD

2009-06-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

In the year 9 of our era, according to Roman tradition three complete legions were massacred by Germanic warriors in a large-scale ambush in the Teutoburg Forest. The former Roman governor Quintilius Varus lead an army of about 15,000 Roman infantry, 800 or 900 cavalry man and about the same number of native auxiliaries and civilians. This number was about half of all Roman forces in those days which controlled the Rhine-border. This defeat was inflicted under the leadership of the Roman citizen and Cherusk Arminius. Arminius to believed had a large contingent of Germanic warriors which acted under his command acted extremely effective. Almost every man of 15 to 20,000 troops were slaughtred in only 3 days of heavy guerrilla combat and Rome believed that they were vanished of the earth. Their defeat ended immidiatly in a lifelong Roman control of the whole area east of the Rhine river and the hinterland west of the Rhine wouldn't conquered ever. Emperor Augustus thought that these 3 legions were doomed and so the legion numbers XVII, XVIII and XIX were never raised again and the remaining legionairs were formed in one new legion.

The site of this tragedy can be find (despite some controversy) in the area around Kalkriese, which is in today's Germany. In this area the last decades numerous archaeological discoveries were made which the event almost certainly confirm. One of the main arguments for this include the coins wearing the emblem of Varus and were made in year 9. Another argument is that no single currency so far bear a stamp after that year.

What's the plate about?
The plate shows a bird's-eye impression of Quintilius Varus' troops moving through hostile German country where they are brutally ambushed by german warriors lead by the German Roman Arminius. On the left the bog and on the right the last hill were the final attack took place (today known as Kalkriese) The plate was made in commission of Ancient Warfare Magazine.

For further reading and for understanding the very implications and reasons of this ambush you may read Ancient Warfare special issue 2009 and Tony Clunn's The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions: Discovering the Varus Battlefield - Savas Beatie, 2005 and Peters S. Wells' The battle that stopped Rome - Norton, 2003. Of course there are many other publications about this subject available and the following are recommended also:

About the Varus Battle
Joachim Harnecker
Arminius, varus and the Battlefield at Kalkriese. An Introduction to the archaeological investigations and their results.
Rasch Verlag, 2004 Bramsche

Wiegele Rainer (ed.)
The Varus Battle. Turning point of history?
Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2007

About the Germanic tribes
Ernst Künzl
The Germans
Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006

Herwig Wolfram
The Germans
Verlag C. H. Beck, 8 revised edition, Munich 2005

About the Roman military
Marcus Junkelmann
The legions of Augustus
The Roman soldier in the archaeological experiment.
Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1986

Marcus Junkelmann
The horsemen of Rome
Part I: travel, hunting, racing Triumph and Circus
Part II: The military use
Part III: accessories, Reitweise, arming
Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 3rd Auflage 1998

Marcus Junkelmann
Panis militaris
The diet of the Roman soldiers or the raw power
Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2nd Edition 1997

The Hermann Myth - history of reception
Gesa Essen
Hermann battles.
Germanic and Roman images in the literature of the 18th and 19 Century
Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1998

Rainer Wiegele - Woesler Winfried (ed.)
Arminius and the Battle of Varus.
History - Myth - Literature
Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 1995

Disaster Year 1672 - French forces retreating along the Oude Rijn in the Netherlands

2009-05-25T17:00:00.000+02:00

The subject itself describes a situation at the famous Old Dutch Water Line (Oud Hollandse Waterlinie) that took place during the Disaster Year 1672. In that year, all kind of dramatic events occurred in the Netherlands. This illustration itself was commissioned by the Army Museum in Delft and was made in 2007 by Peter Nuyten.

The "Waterlinie" (Inudation Line) was a defensive technique using waterflooding. This method was used military by many European countries even until the late twentieth century. The technique consists of manually "break" key dikes in certain areas of the land in order to inudate the land with water in relative short time. This had the advantage that little or no troops couldn't march directly through planned routes because the main roads were blocked by water masses for miles around. In this way, certain acts of war could be prevented and even bloody battles avoided. An Inudation line consists of a series of defensive works (partially) covered by inudated (flooded) areas. An inudation line is often a line of fortifications with inundation areas. The fortifications are located around cities and on higher ground. Land parts which cannot be put under water (Dutch:accessen). Only in acute threat, the areas were inudated.
The intention is that the inundation of water (approximately 40 cm above the ground) is conscious, which is impossible to pass by heavy infantry, but also too shallow to sail through. It is necessary therefore, to regulate the water very carefully. Farmers whose land were located in the flooded areas were set up and obviously not happy with these military actions. The line had not only protected against attacks by the enemy, but also from angry farmers who generally would like to sabotage. (The Dutch law had a clause to compensate angry farmers.)

The plate shows returning French troops,in December 1672 near Bodegraven and Zwammerdam. The problem for the Dutch was that the inudation line suddenly froze and that made it possible to pass it, but lucky for the Dutch the thaw suddenly went in. In the background a fire deck (a typical Dutch defensive) and as far as the eye could see inudated but frozen land but passable. The units on the plate are so called early dragoons, used as infantry, walk on the ground as musketeers (!). By then this type of soldiers are disappearing because of the development of the modern percussion rifle (the first real precursor of modern 19th century rifle) and the emergence of equal uniformed troops. The French are the first who introduced a composed and good (professional) army. The plate contains many historic details like the Weijpoortse mill and Wierickerschans (first made of earth and wood), the mud house, the uniforms, weapons, banners etc..

The Ferguut

2009-05-13T15:54:00.001+02:00

Just to keep myself busy in a period with few or no commissions, I started - somewhere in the year 1999 - working on a project called Ferguut and I'm working on it ever since. But only in quiet times of course!

(The) Ferguut is the title of the oldest mediaeval Dutch Arthurian manuscript of which only one copy survived through the ages. This unique manuscript is kept in the library of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. It is written in mediaeval Dutch and based on a french original called Fergus. The first half is a true translation of this Oldfrench manuscript, but halfway the anonymous Dutch author took the liberty of altering, deleting or adding elements in the story, but the plot remained unchanged: the troublesome, but ultimately succesful quest of the young knight Ferguut after his beloved Galiene.

In this project I was able to combine two longfelt passions, namely my admiration for mediaeval illuminated manuscripts and the Arthurian literature.
So I made a first illustration to a passage in which Ferguut has an encounter with a giantess called Pantasale, who guarded the white shield which provided invulnerability and what Ferguut was desperately searching for.
These are two details of the spread I made of this scene ten years ago.

And this is the illustration I made the other day of Ferguut slaying a bunch of pirates who offered to take across Ferguut and his horse overseas, but in fact planned to rob and kill him instead; but that's not what happened, of course.

The other illustrations I made in between the pictures above are to be seen on my website. Please check: http://tinyurl.com/plmxok
In these ten years I kept changing some of the illustrations, because in some cases I decided they weren't good enough. Thus, over the years the overall picture is constantly fine-tuned, as it were.

But I'm almost done - only four spreads to go - and the text is being written at the moment, so little by little I'm looking for ways to get this book published. So anybody with a serious offer or a brilliant suggestion is hereby invited to react.

The battle of Vlaardingen 1018

2009-03-28T14:22:00.000+01:00

Five years ago I was asked to do a series of illustrations for a new educational history method for primary school for an educational publisher.

One of the subjects in book 6 of this method was a battle which took place in the western part of Holland in 1018.

It all began with the settling of rather an insignificant little landlord at the mouth of the river Merwede, there where nowadays Rotterdam - more or less - is situated. This settlement was called Flaridingun; Vlaardingen as it is called today.
This landlord, Count Dirk III, controlled the commercial route between Tiel and England and therefore he levied toll on the ships going to and fro.

This was not at all to the liking of the Bisshop of Utrecht, who held these lands in feud from the German emperor, so the Bisshop complained and the German emperor decided to send a well-equiped army under the command of the Duke of Lorraine to teach Dirk III a lesson.
In the battle that followed, the poorly armed Frisians (as they were called) defeated the mighty German army, which could hardly manoeuvre on the - at that time - inaccessible, swampy terrain of the dutch delta, full of water-courses, dikes, swamps, puddles and ditches. As a result almost all soldiers were killed by the Dutch or drowned, while withdrawing in panic.

The Duke of Lorraine was captured and served as a hostage in the negotiations with the Emperor.

As a result of these negotiations the Duke of Lorraine was released and Dirk III was granted to levy toll.

Nowadays this event is regarded to be the beginning of the rise of the power of the County of Holland and for that reason it was included in this educational method.

Last year I was asked by the Archeological Department of the City of Vlaardingen to make a series of four illustrations depicting the early history of this city, and so it happened I came into touch with this Battle of Vlaardingen once again.
The illustrations were to be used for - and in - an archeological exhibition of artefacts found in the mediaeval town-centre of Vlaardingen. My pictures were to put these artifacts into a historical context.
For this commission I decided - and my client luckily agreed - to use the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, because it's one of the very few contemporary sources. Quite rich and beautiful though.

The first two illustrations depict the toll collection and the actual battle.

The other two depict the events which took place later on, because the story went on:

About thirty years later, the German emperor decided to send a naval fleet for a punitive expedition. Dirk attacked the rear of this fleet time and again in his light and fast boats. These attacks resulted in another great disaster for the Germans.

Another 30 years later the strife came to an end, when an assassin of alledged Frisian origin killed the hunbchbacked Duke of Lorraine Godfried in Vlaardingen in the middle of the night while he was visiting the loo.

November last year I submitted this series in the annual competition of the Society of Illustrators in New York, called Illustrators 51. I submitted them in the category Sequential.
To my surprise my work was selected for the exhibition to be held in the Museum of American Illustration which took place last January.
The illustrations will also be included in the Annual book Illustrators 51, which will appear next April.
They also received a Certificate of Merit from the Society of Illustrators.

Aeneas

2009-03-22T16:39:00.000+01:00

De zwerftochten van Aeneas
Publius Vergilius Maro
naverteld door Paul Biegel
ISBN 9025107753

One of the 30 illustrations for the classic epos of Vergilius about the wanderings of Aeneas after he lost the Trojan War.
In this illustration Mezentius is riding around Aeneas, trying to kill him.
For documentation I used all kinds of archeological artefacts like statues, pottery and metal objects from the antique world.
The illustrations are made in AdobePhotoshop.

The capture of surgeon Verhoef during the Russian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte - 1812

2009-03-17T21:05:00.000+01:00

During the Russian militairy campaign of Napoleon in 1812, the Dutch surgeon Verhoef was captured by Russian Cossacks. The plate is based on its recordings in his diary. This illustration itself was commissioned by the Army Museum in Delft and was made in 2008 by Peter Nuyten.

For this "schoolplate" production, Mark van Hattem, curator of the Army museum in Delft conducted proper research. Nevertheless, I had something to do in respect of all details like the uniforms, the landscape and last but not least, the Cossacks. Unfortunately, there are no good pictures of Cossacks who lived around 1812. However, I made some study of them and had their looks based on several images which were made in Utrecht somewhere around 1812. Unfortunately the images were not as good as you might expect. Nevertheless, I used them together with some accurate paintings of Cossacks from around 1840 and some paintings of typical Cossacks who fought during the Great War of 1914-1918 and during the Russian Revolution.

Surgeon Verhoef kept a diary. There is also an original artefact such as a uniform coat (which was kept preserved well during the last 200 years). In 2008 the Army Museum devoted an entire exhibition to this man and his adventures in Russia.

What's this subject about?
This Dutch surgeon was "enlisted" or "employed" by the French army as one of the many militairy surgeons during the many campaigns of Bonaparte. In Napoleon’s army he held the post of chirurgin sous aide, which is about equivalent to ‘assistant surgeon’. Verhoef was ordered to take part of a team of nurses and doctors somewhere in the Russian frontline. His task was, among others, to move injured soldiers from one hospital to another hospital, this ment also from one village to another; a hell of a job. That's because the Russian offensives often forced the many local french military hospitals to leave the neighbourhood (or better: they fled), so they had to evacuate the wounded as soon as possible. During one of those trips they met a detail of heavily armed Russian Cossacks who were travelling through the country. These Cossacks took the surgeon together with his unarmed (!) squad of wounded privates as prisoner of war (POW). Later, the Cossacks set them free but forced them to leave behind most of their belongings. This after several hours of anxious moments.

What does this plate tell?:
I tried- with a copy of the diary in one hand, actually to show what Verhoef literally described in his little book. This scene with the scary-looking Cossack facing Verhoef itself is broadly in line with his words. The exhibition last year in the museum was also lead with 3 life-size figures depicting a similar situation, but a moment later, when the Cossack took the overcoat of Verhoef.

Used media:
For this 600 x 500 mm mat-painting I used gouache of Windsor & Newton together with Talens Gouache. I brushed it on Watercolor paper of Conté. In my opinion the paper does what it has to do. Of course, similair illustrations can be made with other media but I do love to work with watercolors because they are reliable and easy to handle (for a professional of course).

The painting is one of a new series of educational posters published by the Army Museum. My first painting for them depicts the french militairy campaign of Disaster Year 1672 which I will discuss later on in this blog. A third upcoming plate will be produced later on this year and possibly will have the Dutch Atjeh War or the Great War as a subject. Unfortunately the first 3 posters in this series were made by others. The museum now is seriously considering to let me produce new ones to replace these 3 in order to give this series a more consistent stylish look.

Check also for more detail:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Dutch/c_dutchsurgeon.html

Pop-up book Vikings!

2009-03-13T10:15:00.000+01:00

One of the more rewarding commissions I've been working on last year was a pop-up book called Vikings! for an English publishing-house. It was quite a job, because for this book I had to make about 50 illustrations in formats ranging from spreads of about 50 cm wide to small icon-like pictures, examples from both of which I hereby present a page.

"Landing By Moonlight"

2009-03-11T21:36:00.001+01:00

80 x 60 cm Acrylic on canvas
This picture was fun to do.
Got the idea after reading a pilot's account on his secret missions, flying resistance workers and secret agents (or joes) in and out of occupied France in 1943/44.

The clouds I sketched one late summers moonlit night, sitting on an upturned bucket in a meadow in the Ardennes, the groundfog leaving diamondlike dewdrops on the grass, making my feet wet and cold.
I tried to catch that atmosphere in the painting.

The plane is a westland Lysander III SD (Special Duty) fitted out with a 150 gallon long-range tank and a side ladder for quick mounting and dismounting.
1428 were build in Brittain, 347 in Canada, few survived. there's one flying in the Scuttleworth collection GB.