Before the year 2000 I made illustrations for cultural organisations and I also dabbled in (mostly Black & white) Fantasy Art for a series of Fantasy Role Playing publications and for an Action Role Playing organization. But as real life caught up with me, none of these activities came nowhere near of earning me a decent living, so I completely turned my attention to web design soon after the World Wide Web became a reality. For over 10 years I joined Lost Boys (LBi Belgium) to become web designer and later also the Head of their Design Department.

In 2010, I decided to not take LBi up on their offer of staying on in a new position and to go solo instead, as a Free-lance Web Designer / Art Director. This also gave me the flexibilty to restart nurturing my talents as an illustrator.

To get up to speed I have set myself an ambitious goal for the year 2011 (see below). But already 3 months after picking up my pencils, my efforts were beginning to show results. Apparently, illustrating is a bit like like riding a bycicle.

Being an illustrator means that you're able to produce decent work in a number of different styles. It's of course good to have one style you're really good at, but this may not block you from exploring.

In my first career I have used different styles and techniques for different clients. 10 years later, at the start of my second career, I'm not going to change that approach. There are benefits as the different styles tend to feed each other, with new ideas discovered in one style sometimes crossing over into another.

The disadvantage is that some potential clients won't understand what I'm about as my portfolio definitely has a schizophrenic feel. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Making illustrations doesn't just mean pleasing clients. You need to keep things interesting for yourself as well.

After the 10 year gap my first attempts at illustrating were mediocre at best. But two months later (in october 2010) I made the first real illustration in over 10 years. It's this portrait of the protagonist of the children's book that I started writing in 2011. In fact, being the first artwork of an acceptable quality, this portrait marks the start of my second career as an illustrator. Click the image to see the different creation stages.

As a writer I have published short stories in literary Flemish magazines. I also won second prize in the yearly short stories competition of the (now no longer existing) literary magazine Zulma. Modest successes, but enough for me to believe in my abilities of writing a decent story to go with the illustrations.

A second goal I had initially set myself for 2011, was the creation of a Fantasy style comic book. I have however come to the conclusion that I would never be able to finish either of my personal projects if I were to concentrate on more than one project at a time. So I decided to postpone the comic book until further notice in favour of the children's book.

If you like what you see on any of these pages, and if you feel my talents as an illustrator could well serve your project, be it a book, poster, magazine, booklet, T-shirt or website, don't hesitate to contact me. I have the artistic and digital skills necessary to deliver a professional end result that can be used for reproduction in many different types of publication.