Liesl van der Hoven | Children's book writer and illustrator

My three little pigs

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

Over the past few days I’ve been working on these charming little piglets, and two of them turned out to be French! Have a look and let me know what you think!

Little sleeping piglet

Magritte's pet piglet

Chic piglet with umbrella

Posted in Children's book illustration, Creativity, Drawing, Fairy Caravan, Freelance illustrator, Greeting cards, Illustration, Inspiration, Painting, Sketch blog, Stationery, three six five | 2 Comments

Michelle Ainslie interviews me about starting a career as a freelance illustrator working from home

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

Dear readers, I have to apologise once again for being so quiet recently, but it is because some very exciting things have been happening. I’ve successfully completed my first freelance illustration job, and I have some very exciting plans up my sleeve with my illustrations.

I’ve also been asked to do an interview on a very lovely lady’s blog! Michelle Ainslie is a writer and creative coach who helps connect creative solopreneurs with their personal meaning and calling, empowering them to make a unique difference in the world and thrive financially. If you’d like to read her interview with me, please click on the image below:

Click on this image to read Michelle Ainslie's interview with me about starting a freelance career as an illustrator

Keep watching this space for more on my plans – I’ve got some very exciting news that I will be sharing within the next couple of months!

Posted in Children's book illustration, Freelance illustrator, How to become an illustrator, Illustration | Leave a comment

Illustration Friday – Intention

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

Illustration Friday - Intention

Emily had no intention of turning the frog into a prince. Princes were stuffy, and full of nonsense, and all they wanted to do was put glass slippers on your feet and kiss you. No, what Emily wanted was a friend to ride bikes and climb trees with…

Posted in Children's book illustration, Children's story, Creativity, Drawing, Greeting cards, Illustration, Illustration Friday, Inspiration, Sketch blog, Stationery, three six five | Leave a comment

three six five

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

A friend of mine recently launched a fantastic project called three six five – the aim is to do something creative every day for the next year. As I would love to improve my drawing skills and also draw more, I asked if I could join and his answer was “yes”! Yay!

To find out more about the project you can click here.

I have decided to concentrate on quick sketches because my time is limited. Also, because I don’t want to duplicate the three six five blog, I won’t be posting all of the sketches I do for this project on my blog too, but I’ve decided to share my very first sketch for this project below. This is a huge project to commit to but I’m really excited about the benefits that this will have for my drawing skills!

Boy in a pot

Posted in Creativity, Drawing, Fairytales, Illustration, Sketch blog, three six five | Leave a comment

Valentine’s bunnies

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

My husband and I were both born in the Chinese year of the Rabbit, so I decided to depict us as two romantic bunnies for my Valentine’s Day card to him this year. Below you can see the illustration I made for the card:

Valentine rabbits

Posted in Drawing, Illustration, Sketch blog, Stationery, Valentine's Day card | Leave a comment

Sleeping baby bunny

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

Here’s a sleeping bunny I drew after being inspired by this YouTube video. I finished the actual sketch last week, but only had time to play around with it a bit in Photoshop this evening.

Sleeping baby Bunny

Posted in Baby shower card, Creativity, Drawing, Illustration, Inspiration, Sketch blog, Stationery, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Illustration Friday – Highlight

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

The birth of my sister’s baby in the year of the dragon will be a highlight in 2012!

Illustration Friday - Highlight

Posted in Baby shower card, Creativity, Drawing, Fairy Caravan, Greeting cards, Illustration, Illustration Friday, Inspiration, Sketch blog, Stationery | 2 Comments

Bring on 2012 Year of the Dragon!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

In my previous post I showed you the rough work for the picture I was working on for my sister’s new baby boy. I’ve just completed the coloured version of the image, and I’m very pleased with the results. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing a completed image – especially when it ends up looking just like the image I had in my mind when I started the drawing!

I have a good feeling about the year of the dragon – it has certainly started off well! I hope it will be a wonderful year for all of my readers as well!

Little dragon rider

Posted in Baby shower card, Children's book illustration, Children's picture book, Fairy Caravan, Greeting cards, Illustration, Inspiration, Sketch blog, Stationery | 2 Comments

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Liesl van der Hoven

2012 will be the year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology, and our family will be welcoming our own little dragon when my sister’s little boy arrives at the end of January/beginning of February.

To celebrate this exciting event I am working on an illustration for my new little nephew. Below you can see the rough sketch, I will show the final version as soon as it is ready!

Little dragon rider

Posted in Children's book illustration, Children's story, Drawing, Fairy Caravan, Greeting cards, Illustration, Inspiration, Sketch blog, Stationery | 3 Comments

Bookbinding Workshop in Stellenbosch

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Liesl van der Hoven

There will be a bookbinding workshop at the Visual Arts Department of the University of Stellenbosch on the 10th and 11th of December – please click here for more information.

Posted in Children's books, Creativity | Leave a comment