Dongen's website: https://www.sarahvandongen.com/
Sarah is a Dutch illustrator who creates "story-worlds" through drawing- an idea that I have been playing around with recently- and she is in fact a children's book illustrator which is the kind of genre I have been getting inspiration from for my last couple of pieces. She does a lot of daily-life observation drawings (something I have almost never done but maybe should think about doing) and likes to explore themes like food, gardens, social interactions, imagination etc. However, she also strives to depict deeper things such as loneliness, but in a more accessible way.
Her website doesn't include any label information for her pieces but from her children's book illustration section I found the following:
This is the first piece of her work that I saw. I was gathering images to provide me with inspiration or ideas on how I should go about doing m current, more whimsical piece and I really enjoyed the perspective, color and scene/setting of this drawing. Most of her pieces seem to be done in colored pencil but it is clear that she also uses either watercolor or gauche in addition. I think her use of media is very effective and over the summer, I would like to experiment with this kind of work. I think it is so magical, fun and cluttered in a good way- I find it very visually stimulating and engaging. I think our work is similar in this way in that my paintings are also very "busy" or detailed but it is how I prefer working.
This illustration is from the gardens and food section of her website. You can more clearly see her use of at least on other medium in this piece, especially in the wash of the door. I notices that I also gravitate more towards her pieces with an orange-blue complimentary color scheme, which is what I often use in my pieces as well because I think they are the complimentary colors that contrast and stand out the most.
I like this piece (also from the gardens and food section) primarily because of her use of a non-natural color to paint a grassy hill. I have been trying to work on getting better at doing things like this so I admire her use of this technique. I also love the funky, off-kilter way she depicts the house > good inspo for my own work.
I LOVE the flowers in this piece. The cat is also extremely cute. It seems like she used color pencils for the flowers closest to her to get more detailed and then used maybe gauche for the flowers in the back?
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