Ellen Vesters Illustration

07/09/2022

Click link for video.

As you may have noticed, I have been posting a little more irregularly over the past year. In the background I was working very hard on setting up a new business: my own academy! As you may know, I absolutely love teaching in drawing. At least as much as I love drawing itself. After having run Urlaub - centre for creative courses - for almost ten years, it was time for the next step: a school where long-term courses could also have their place. That became VENSTER Academy: the Academy for Illustration and Narrative.

Last Friday we celebrated an enormous milestone. After half a year of secretly starting up, VENSTER Academy could now start the autumn season in all its glory. Our year long course was launched, as well as a fabulous cooperation with Aad Goudappel and a wonderful team of teachers of the course that will be introduced to you in the coming weeks. Such a special moment!

How special that teachers Vyara Boyadjieva and Eva Hilhorst also came to celebrate, as well as my partner Bart Reinders and daughter who brought a bunch of flowers as a surprise

05/09/2022

Just before summer break - in the middle of a period of hard work - I took a lovely moment for myself and booked a painting lesson with the fantastic Buba from stilllife.studio.utrecht. Buba has created a little paradise, close to the centre of Utrecht: an art studio and meditation studio in one, where super chill cat Flo welcomes you. 
Just the sight of Buba's impressive antique studio cabinet already made it worth the visit. But... I came for painting lessons! 
I was allowed to indicate what I would like to see in the future and Buba gave me some very good instructions, so that at the end of the day I had - for the first time in years - painted again (I once, for a blue Monday - almost literally 😉) - studied fine art, where I also painted with acrylics).
Buba's lessons will soon start again, check out her website to book a session. I promise you that you will go home totally zen. 
(I'll be back soon myself, Buba!)

08/06/2022

• Portrait of Jan Rot •

It’s time this image gets a place on my timeline.
The world and more important - a wonderful family - has lost a great man this April.
I haven’t been able to find the right words.
Every line feels so trivial in this heavy loss my friend Daan and her kids had to suffer…
In this very huge moment in their life, hero(es) MaandagDaandag and daughter Elvis Rot asked me to draw a farewell card, portraying the love of their life…
Thinking about you and your lovely family every day, dearest Rotjes ♡.

Image was based on a reference image by Joep and Happymakersblog was indispensable in helping with the overall design of the card 🙏

04/04/2022

Mummy, I made my first reel! And actually loved matching my friend Vera Buitenhuis-van Groos’s cheery face to the music 😂.
We went sketching at Het Muzieklokaal yesterday and I tried to document some bits. Watch me destroy my lungs on some cheap but very fun blow pens from HEMA.
Go check out Vera's insta for some more sketching including a drawing of me and the blow pen 😅.

Superhuman Happiness • Drawing Lines

31/03/2022

Hello everyone, it has been very quiet here these past months. I needed some time to reflect, but also work my behind of 😬 on my new project VENSTER Academy!
There have been some new followers around here, so I thought I would introduce myself. Especially now that I had such a nice photo session with Pim Geerts 😉.

These past months, or rather years, I have been working hard on my very own illustration academy. And I can hardly believe the time has come. Where did this bold idea come from?
Long story short: I didn't go to art school when I left high school and that nagged at me for quite some time. Later in life, I finally applied and got in, but did not find the depth and guidance I was looking for. And then... I was admitted to the wonderful master's programme in Children's Book Illustration in Cambridge and graduated with a distinction. It was fantastic to be taught at such a high level with a focus on both experimentation and a thorough knowledge of the field. In the meantime, I myself had been teaching for quite a few years and I wanted to bring what I had learned in England here, to the Netherlands, and add my own sauce 😉 .
Some Dutch people may already know me from creative workshop centre Urlaub, which I started in 2012. Even though Urlaub had become a big player in the course landscape after almost ten years (> 1000 students 😮), I felt it was time for a next step and that is VENSTER! Besides the shorter courses that people are used to from me, this will be the place where you can also find longer, more in-depth courses by me and other much respected colleagues.
Expect honest and constructive feedback and learn skills that will take your work to the next level.

The focus on my own drawing has moved a bit more to the background now, but you can still count on plenty of drawing inspiration here. My love for drawing from observation has become an even bigger factor in staying sane these days 😉.

Thanks for all the love and support you have shown me during this journey. I so appreciate it!

Questions about my story or the programmes at VENSTER?
I'd love to hear them ❤️

📷 www.pimgeerts.nl

04/03/2022

43 ✨
Went on the loveliest trip from Dordrecht > Oostende > and today Gent. How I have missed Belgium!
No sketchbook, but good intentions to draw more again this year.

06/10/2021

Drawing the FC Donders statue at another outing with the Utrecht Urban Sketchers.

Thought I'd include some process shots this time. I always love seeing them in others posts, but feel a bit shy about sharing my own, because most of the time there's a whole next level ugly phase at the start of my drawing 😋.

Not so much time for drawing these days as I am in the process of developing a whole new art academy format. I don't know how I ever managed to found Immer Urlaub, because damn those nerves that get in the way of trying something new. But pushing through and looking forward to sharing more on that in the coming months!

16/09/2021

Another melancholic .morani_lifemodel during an earlier life drawing session at Henley School of Art.

08/09/2021

I love drawing from every once in a while: the concept of surprise streetview visits to foreign places (I believe it was introduced to me by the lovely ). It has been a life saver during lockdowns, and I am still using it in moments of drawer’s block.
This drawing was done during a mapcrunch session in Hong Kong, together with . Crazy camera angles are always a thing to manage, but also kinda work extra nicely sometimes! Making urban sketches like these will always be my favourite kind of meditation…

24/08/2021

New courses coming up @ Urlaub!
www.immerurlaub.nl/workshops

Onze site raakt alweer fijn gevuld. Ook de Cursus Prentenboeken Illustreren is er weer bij dit najaar!

Na een korte sabbatical zit docente Ellen Vesters Illustration vol nieuwe inspiratie. Laat je onderdompelen in de wereld van verhalen en werk deze herfst aan je eigen geïllustreerde boek. In zeven lessen werken we aan karakterontwikkeling, kleurgebruik, compositie en natuurlijk hoe je jouw verhaal het beste in beeld kunt vangen.

De eerste twee groepen hebben nog maar 1 plekje vrij, maar bij voldoende animo starten we er nog twee 🥳.
Èn... dit keer strijken we neer in het geweldige atelier van Het Kunstlaboratorium van Loep: dubbel 🥳🥳!

Ga naar www.immerurlaub.nl/workshops om je in te schrijven!

22/07/2021

Drawing on prepared paper (quickie with a very thick posca marker, because I’m crazy like that 🤪😉). I forgot to write down which dinosaur I was befriending, but I think it was the Camarasaurus?

Naturalis Museum in Leiden with

14/07/2021

Projecting some melancholy onto the gorgeous face of .morani_lifemodel during an earlier session at - the life saving, always delivering - The Henley on Thames School of Art