It's been a crazy year - filled with a pandemic, lockdowns and tight deadlines. Let's look back at what happened in 2020!
JANUARY
I was fortunate enough to enjoy a beautiful trip to the Maldives again, right before the pandemic had started in Germany. This has been my last trip until now. Maldives are the perfect place to calm down and forget all the work that is waiting for you at home. I guess I've been there for around 8 days or so and that was already enough to fully recover from all the stress and such. It's such an inspiring place, as you feel so lonely on these gorgeous islands with stunning nature! Honestly, there are so many things that inspired my art right after that trip!
It all started with snorkeling. I've been to the Maldives before, so I knew what was waiting for me at the coral reefs.
The coral reefs are incredible at some spots. But if you want to see the real beauty of the underwater world, you NEED to go scuba diving. It's the most amazing experience and you get to see some underwater creatures, you can't get to see in shallow water! I did an entire blog post about the art I created with all the inspiration I took from diving. You can find the Blog post here.
FEBRUARY
Back home, I received a copy of "Finni & Fredo - Was kann mein Körper?", a children's book I had illustrated during the previous year. It's been available for preorders in November 2019 and now I finally got my hands on a copy!
Most of the people who follow along on my Instagram know that I have chickens. Unfortunately, my dearest hen Frida passed away on February 20th. She's been very well known as my Sidekick on social media and I still miss her so much!
MARCH
At this time, the pandemic reached us right after celebrating carnival here in Germany. Carnival had been the last huge event I joined until now. I was supposed to go snowboarding in Austria in March, which got obviously cancelled. I got sick for around 2 weeks - no COVID though. Spent a lot of time at home as we weren't allowed to see anybody during the first lockdown.
APRIL
It's been quite busy at SCHOOL OF GAMES, the place I work part-time at. We had to switch to online classes and I also hosted our very first Draw this in your Style Challenge on Instagram.
During that time, I was also working on the second part of the Christmas children's book I did last year for My Best Book Publishing.
MAY
It was mermaid month - MerMay! Well, I was actually supposed to travel to L.A. and join Tom Bancroft's MerMay 2020 Art Exhibition at Gallery Nucleus. I also contributed an artwork to the show. However, that trip got cancelled as well. The show took place online instead. You can see the paper-cut artwork I contributed to the show on the right side here.
I wasn't able to join MerMay with an artwork every day, but I did a couple pieces throughout the month! Tom Bancroft invited me for an online live interview during MerMay's #tailtalktuesday on May 12th among other awesome #MerMay artists such as Chihiro Howe Takogawa, Amanda McFarlane and Mikel Mujika Amman.
Later, I also received a copy of the original "The Art of MerMay" Art Book I contributed a couple of Mermaid Paintings to. It's been a fun month, even though many things didn't work out as planned due to the corona virus.
JUNE & JULY
I've spent June and July quite relaxed - mostly at home enjoying the wonderful weather we had. My students had their summer break in July and I took care of the chickens for a couple of weeks. I cut my long hair short again, created my second Instagram Story Filter "Nature" with SparkAR and started running in between all the work I had to finish. I started collaborating with Adobe on a couple of nice projects too. I also decided to sell my apartment and move even closer to my family. I found a beautiful place and kept working hard on getting it! The organisation part took quite long as everything slowed down during the pandemic.
AUGUST
During August I've got invited to Adobe Max as an official Adobe Insider. I was supposed to join the event abroad, but also Adobe Max had to take place online due to the pandemic. We've all been watching the amazing talks live from home.
Adobe also made all the Adobe Insiders collaborate on a creative project in groups of 4 artists with all different skills. It's been a fun time and I really enjoyed this collaboration!
I created the artwork on the right to promote Adobe Max on my social channels.
SEPTEMBER
During September, the ImagineFX Magazine published an "Artist in Residence" article about me and my work in issue 190. I'm showing my workspace, which was integrated in my apartment at home during that time. I talk about my art, my inspiration and the things I keep in my little studio.
You can purchase a copy here.
OKTOBER
My apartment including my art studio was finally sold and I had to move out. Everything was quite tricky and I had to move back to my parents place. My new house was going to get a huge makeover, which would take a couple of months. COVID didn't make this easy - many deliveries came late or got cancelled. The new place will obviously also include a new art studio where I will be doing my creative works in! I expect to move in around February 2021. So from here on, I had no workspace anymore and stayed in a small room at my parents place.
NOVEMBER
By the end of November, the second Christmas Children's Book I had illustrated for My Best Book by the beginning of the year got published! I haven't received a copy yet, but I've seen many stories and pictures on Instagram. I'm really excited to get my hand on a copy soon. You can purchase the book here.
Also, my Master Class "drawing female characters" got published on 21Draw.
DECEMBER
In December I had the great pleasure to illustrate the Adobe Instagram Advent Calendar. Together with the German Adobe Team, we created a storyboard for the little girl called Lizzy, who's a passionate artist but gets confronted with rejection when she paints. However, Lizzy kept drawing and practising to become better. Sooner or later her mother will notice how important art is to her. You can check out the entire story on adobe's Instagram Account here.
That's basically it! Even though we had a pandemic, I can say I experienced a lot of wonderful moments and had the chance to work on some amazing projects throughout the year.
Thank you to all clients I've worked with in 2020!
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