Smoetie: the story of a cat - parts 5 and 6 are out!

Finally they're out: part 5 and 6 of the Smoeties-series about Smoetie the cat and her 5 kittens... Each book contains 100 pages in full-colour, of which 50 watercolour paintings. 

Artwork is in watercolour, cover and interior design also by me. 

The stories are written by Magda Praet, a PhD in speech therapy.  They are suited for first readers. 
The books are available in the Dutch language but  translation-rights are still available for other countries ;-).

I illustrated the books, all together some 300 illustrations, in about a year and 9 months time. As teaching (in webdesign, graphic design and illustration) is my main job, I worked on it during evenings, weekends and holidays.

The two final books.

The backs of the 6 books.

"Smoetie has to choose"

"Famous Smoetie"

Smoetie and her kittens

A chair for Smoetie

Smoetie finds her way

Keep up, Smoetie!

 When I started the first book, it was already a while ago that I had done some watercolouring (or "aquarel" as we say in Belgium).  You can clearly see the difference between the first illustrations for book 1, and the last for book 6.  That's the nice part of illustration: you learn by doing, and you keep getting better as time (and practice) go by.

from the first book (3rd illustration I made)

from the second book

from the fourth book

from the fourth book

fifth book; night scenes are always a challenge

fifth book, already more variation in the natural elements

I also started to study other artists who use watercolour in their work, like for example Hermann (Jeremiah) , Beatrice Tillier (Bois des vièrges, Complaintes...), Jarbinet (Airborne 44), Delaby (Murena, Complaintes) etc.  
I'm covering some of these great artists on my blog (see "Comic artists that  I like"), but I don't know if they will be happy with me presenting them as my inspiration ;-).

And I forgot the most important part of this blogpost: on www.smoetie.be you can order the hardcover books, €14,95 each;-).