

Berlin Looking South - Over The Linden
Before embarking on a nice holiday, which means a break and absence from the drawing board for a little while, I want to get an idea about “Unter den Linden” ("Under the Linden Trees"). I do this famous avenue and its many historical buildings such as the Brandenburg Gate, State Library, Humbold University, New Guards House, State Opera House, Hedwig Cathedral, the baroque Armoury and several palaces as well as the embassies of Russia, the US, France and the UK as a first ske


Berlin Looking South - 'The Federal Ribbon' (Band des Bundes)
Another round for the parliamentarian office buildings, Reichstag and the Chancellery. I add more detail to the buildings, do the complex road layout, take on the adjacent open green space along the river and its playful design of different levels and decide to include the new central station building across the river Spree.


Berlin Looking South - Into the Centre of Politics
draft sketches of the government quarter with new ancillary parliament buildings, Chancellery and the Reichstag housing the parliament I also do a first test for the level of detail with Friedrichstrasse station and a neighbouring office block. What really gets me going today is the intricate geometry of the new Elisabeth Lüders Haus housing office space for MPs. I just love working on details like the different levels, stairs, columns and the big glass cylinder penetrating


Berlin Looking South - First Steps in 3D Land
It’s a bit of a fiddle to get the feel for the right width of streets, alleyways and bridges to fit in lanes, sidewalks and tramlines. But attention to detail matters and it pays off to be pedantic here from the beginning. I start with Friedrichstrasse train station as it is in a very central position of the image and anyway, I always love those superimposed multi level transport lines crisscrossing a city by bridges and viaducts. Also, I want to make sure the railway tracks


Berlin Looking South - The Start
So, here I am starting the new year at the drawing board in my new private studio with a commission for a view of Central Berlin, the place I called home for about 10 years and which has changed a lot and evolved (as has my drawing style) since I last depicted it around the year 2006. A very exciting beginning of the year! The image shall have a panoramic format and naturally I want it to include all major characteristics (i.e. the nicely meandering river Spree and the elegan


Brand Licensing Europe 2017 at Olympia, Kensington
Seeing the first 1500 jigsaw puzzle with my artwork being published under license by Ravensburger reminds me of our first ever licensing show in October last year. Even though we already agreed the license for the world map before the show, taking a booth at this annual event was an important step to bring the artwork to a wider audience. I think it’s fair to say and not bragging (something I hate!) that we did attract quite some attention with our colourful stand, which made


Ravensburger 1500 piece puzzle - “our wonderful planet”
I am really very pleased and excited to see that the big and prestigious German publishing company for books, board games and jigsaw puzzles Ravensburger has launched its new 1500 piece puzzle with my illustrated map of the world under the title “colourful earth” in German and several other languages. In English it is called “cartoon earth”; well, that can probably need a bit more tweaking but hey, we’ll be getting there. Being German I grew up with Ravensburger games and puz