Blog

Welcome to the PetPet blog, here I will post the messages and news about PetPet.  

Updates on social media

Hi all,

I noticed I didn’t update this newsblog for a long time, this is because of two things. First: I’m not superactive as an illustrator anymore. I’ve been working as a teacher and coach now for several years and decided I only want to work for clients when the project/job really excites me. Second: I post updates on social media nowadays (even though not a lot either, but at least more there than here on the website). You can check my Facebook page or my Twitter account, see you there!

Global Game Jam ’17: Squiddy Squiddy Go Go!

 

Just like last year, I joined the Global Game Jam (a 48 hour jam to make a game), which took again place in The Big Building in Groningen.This time however, as a ‘real’ colleague, since I became a teacher/coach at the game development & design department at Hanzehogeschool!
So we joined as a team of teachers (with Ilja, Ivo & Ben) with a variation of skills and I was eager to work on (the art of) a fun game again.


The theme was ‘waves’ this year, and after the kick-off we quickly began to brainstorm, first on our own and then together. Combining ideas, scrapping others…it was a bit hard to choose even because we had multiple interesting concepts, for example something with walking on an island to escape from a tsunami, extreme rope/jump-skipping (with crazy levels), working with echo-location and then the one which we chose: something with creating waves.

Somehow I had ideas with animals in mind, so we ended up working with squids (because we needed big animals which can make waves…and just because it was funny)…which were big krakens at the start but they looked a lot tinier on the screen proportionally, which is why they became ‘squiddies’. The squids had to take down boats. I started out with a quick design for the squid and after that started on the animations for swimming and ‘waving’. I was quit tired that evening so left early for home (yes yes, lame-jammer, but a good night sleep is worth a lot).

    
On saturday we still weren’t exactly sure about what the game would be like, we first had in mind that the squiddies were competing to get the most boats down, and could fight eachother..but at some point it became just too simple and boring and we wanted to have more of a (funny) story behind it and make the game more fun and dynamic with lots of ‘dangerous’ things for the squids so it would be a lot harder to take the boats down. We then came up with that there was a boss-kraken who would swipe his tentacle around and from then on the story was that the two squiddies worked for this boss, who was a hungry kraken waiting for his food (the boats) and otherwise would eat one of the squids.

Next, we also thought of a shark and a war-ship with mines to make it a bit more of a challenge, I drew them but alas there was no time to implement it anymore. During a 2-day jam you really get to know what is doable and what not. But that obviously also depends per person and what their priorities are. For example, if I would have know that the bubbles in the water wouldn’t have been implemented, I could have made a more interesting background. But in the end I did have fun drawing the intro/story-shots and the boss kraken a lot as well :).

No prices this year for us, but I’m glad we made a playable game and glad to see multiple people have fun with it during the end-presentation. I was super-tired the days after, but glad I joined again!
You can play Squiddy Squiddy Go Go, download it here!

Not taking commissions

Hi everyone!
a short but important update: I’m not taking commissions until further notice!
There are some changes going on at the moment that make me think it’s better to take some time to focus on some other things.
That does not mean that I won’t make or share art & illustrations anymore though, but I probably have less time for it. I will let you know if/when anything changes and you can always mail me with your questions: (info[at]pet-pet[dot]nl).
Thanks for understanding!

Cave Pilot 55 kickstarter!

Cave Pilot 55 Kickstarter is online! You can now pre-order this really cool table top game by Kwatta Games, for which I made the art (not the graphic design though).
A box + 2 expansion sets is only €26 this first week. See: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1518863617/cave-pilot-55-the-arcade-card-game
Cave Pilot 55 is a card/table top game about bat-planes flying through a cave full of dangers, monsters and challenges.
I really had lots of fun creating the art for it, please take a look!
f58e176468d050006f5ae036a5fc0a52_originalAcid_expansion_teaser_new2Bat-plane_sheet_final_new_Itumblr_o5trj7P4ie1qi5tnho1_1280Check the Kickstarter out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1518863617/cave-pilot-55-the-arcade-card-game

Global Game Jam 2016

In the weekend of 29-31 januari I participated in the Global Game Jam. A team of teachers/lecturers from the Hanzehogeschool were looking for an artist for their team and I was thinking about joining the GGJ this year, so it was great that I could join them!

The Global Game Jam is a weekend in which you create a game with others. The idea is of course that everything is created in those two days. This event is held worldwide, so it’s pretty awesome: games are made at the same time everywhere!

I was happy to hear that there would be a GGJ in Groningen this year, also: the location was fully booked in the end. There were lots of teams! Most of them were students, but some professionals participated as well. The location was in The Big Building, which is the old Post NL (mail) building. There was a relaxed atmosphere and every team seemed to be working pretty focused but also with room for some fun and distraction.

 
Awesome nutella bucket for breakfast/lunch & the panaroma view from our desks!

Jamming
This years theme was ‘Ritual’. After the kick-off we first started brainstorming individually about the theme and our ideas. When our last team-member arrived we shared our ideas and started to form multiple concepts and then tweaked some more until we were happy enough with it.

Every jam has diversifiers: things that give you some directions and constraints. While we had thought of a game design, we didn’t have much of a story or idea behind it so one of us came up with the idea to use one of the Shakespeare stories and create the game around it.
The rest of the weekend flew by pretty fast and working with the team was great. I had a lot of fun creating most of the art/assets for the game. While I do feel that I could’ve worked out things better, in ‘jam-mode’ I just use my quickest drawing & animation methods…you never know how much time you need after all. Luckily I had help from Douwe, who also drew some of the assets and extra characters.  Next time I’d like to think a bit more about the style beforehand, seeing as an artist I did have some time left. And not every asset I made was used, because the programming and designing part did take a bit longer and *poof* there is the sunday 15.00 clock deadline. But for a first-time GGJammer, I’m pretty happy.

Heart’s Ease
The game we made is called ‘Heart’s Ease’, which is a quote from the text of Romeo and Juliet. In the game you play as Romeo. Romeo dances so he can impress Juliet. With the A, S & D-keys you choose a certain dance-move. You have to face obstacles though: things in the courtyard, ballroom, other dancers or maybe even Juliet herself. If you bounce into the objects or walls, Juliet is less and less impressed and so you have to try to dance well enough to reach a specific tile/location of the level so you can continue the story.
The sounds/music were all made by our team, I was quite impressed by what my fellow team-members could do and also pretty cool to see what you can accomplish in only just two days.

Here is some art I made for it. I had a lot of fun creating the assets. Of course drawing something with fancy gowns and suits was lovely, but I had fun thinking of how to pose them for dancing moves, haha.

Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl

Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl  Art asset made by Petra - PetPet - www.pet-pet.nl

And here’s a cropped screenshot.

In the end I didn’t have a lot of time to take a lot of screenshots. There was a bit of a problem with the build/version the programmers were working on, just 30 minutes before the end of the jam, but that happens. At least the game worked and we had several levels with different locations of the story.

The Global Game Jam is not a competition, but it’s cool that they did give away awards at the end.
Guess what: our game got the ‘most innovative game’ and ‘best soundtrack’ award :D. The original music our team made did pay off and it was good that we had some people thinking about good game design! We also had people asking if it would come out on Steam or saying that it was the best concept to work out in a ‘ real’ finished game. That’s pretty awesome!

   

It was a cool, fun and inspiring weekend and I’m proud of what we made in such a short time. There were of course a lot of other games as well, you should check it out on the Groningen-GGJ website here!

Cave Pilot 55 art

So after the 1st kickstarter of Cave Pilot 55, they asked me if I could make the rest of the art for them. Hell yeah! Making art for this game is a lot of fun. So I’ve been busy with that the last months and now I can show you some of it. For example the rest of the bat pilots:

Pilot_overview_II

More of it I will add later to the Cave Pilot 55 portfolio page, but if you want to see more right now, go over to their website to take a look at the latest news!

Cave Pilot 55 Kickstarter

Most of you probably already know through facebook or other channels, but the Cave Pilot 55 kickstarter is online!
Cave Pilot 55, a table top game where you play as a bat pilot and fly through a gauntlet cave.
The kickstarter is now online! If you’re fast, you can pledge and buy Cave Pilot 55 for €28 including worldwide shipping.


The game has been playtested a LOT and if you like board- and card games, I really recommend it.
Ofcourse, because it’s a Kickstarter project, it will only happen when enough people pledge and back the campaign, so please if you’re interested take a look!


It has been great to make art for this game, it gave me the chance to be creative with an original theme. I mean how cool is the combination of caves, bats
and steampunk-ish tech… pretty awesome!
More info and updates about Cave Pilot 55 and the creator Kwatta Games can be found on their website!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great christmas and a wonderful end of the year. May 2015 become a wonderful year full of great things and happiness Star! .

Now for some announcements: 
15 february I will be at Tsunacon (Rotterdam) selling my art prints, stickers, and some handmade cute/J-fashion goodies!
Tsunacon is a big one-day convention/event with of course things related to Japan and anime.

However, until further notice I won’t be having a table -like that-  at other events anymore coming year.
Why? 2014 was a nice year of trying it out, selling my art at several events. It was fun to do for sure!
But, except for one of them, they weren’t really successful enough for me to go on with it. 
One of the reasons is that the thing that sells the best is still fanart and even when I do like to make fanart sometimes, I rather have people buy my original art and I feel that a professional illustrator shouldn’t be selling fanart that much.
Also, last year I made less personal art than the year before and I feel that that’s not a good thing. I put less time in the things like creating pieces to show to publishers/future clients. Actually because I had some bigger illustration jobs (with lots of smaller illustrations to be made) and that combined with preparing for the conventions/fairs, I got pretty tired and had less time and energy for making personal pieces and I miss it. So it was nice to do this year, to try it, but I don’t think it’s something I should be doing. Of course I’m still selling things online, like at Society6 and RedBubble and my own Storenvy shop.

BUT I did some new things in 2014 that I plan to expand and continue with. That is creating fabric/print designs. I’ve had some really enthusiastic reactions and I hope to start selling dresses coming year..next to that I already offer commissions for people to have their own print designed and made by me (see this page for more info). I’m not expecting to make big money out of it, but it’s really great to do so why not.

Wish you all the best for the new year I am a dummy! 
Cheers,
Petra

❅ Kerstkaarten ❅

Het is weer die tijd van het jaar, december is begonnen en de leukste feestdagen van het jaar komen er aan (althans dat vind ik dan).
Door de jaren heen heb ik veel kerstkaartjes ontworpen, helaas had ik dit jaar niet de tijd om nieuwe te maken omdat ik opdrachten heb lopen. Maar ik heb nog wel mijn oudere kaarten bij Kaartje2go te koop staan.
Kaartje2go is een website waarbij je direct vanuit je luie stoel kaartjes kan versturen, kaartje2go zorgt voor de postzegel en het versturen, het enige wat je zelf hoeft te doen is  een kaart uitkiezen en er iets in zetten natuurlijk, betalen kan bijv. via PayPal of iDeal. Hier zijn een paar voorbeelden van mijn kerstkaarten (als je er op klikt kom je op de kaart bij kaartje2go terecht):

sneeuwpop-en-kat-onder-lantaarnlicht schaatsende-muisjes

snowy_owl_by_neesha-d5lo5p5

joy---sneeuwvlok noorderlicht

Alle andere kaarten kun je vinden in mijn kerstkaarten collectie.
Natuurlijk wens ik iedereen alvast een gezellige en mooie maand en uiteinde van het jaar 🙂 !
Maar ik zal vast nog voor het einde van het jaar een leuk overzicht maken van alle activiteiten van PetPet in 2014 dus tot dan.

(Sorry this blogpost is in Dutch, since these cards can only be ordered from and to the Netherlands)

Fabric print design commissions

Some friends and family probably already know, but I’ve been getting really interested in Japanese fashion lately.lolirpint
I already created fabric prints before, those are available on Spoonflower. I’ve also been busy with a print for a Dutch lolita fashion store (Summer Tales Boutique) which is still to be revealed later.  I’m opening up now for commissions for those who are looking for their unique fabric print for their dress/skirt/other garments. Read more about it here!

Tomofair

A month ago from now, on 4 october, there’s a cool Japanese market called Tomofair,
in the indoor location ‘Jan Massinkhal’ at Nieuwe Dukenburgseweg 5, Nijmegen.
And I’ll be there selling my anime/manga art and some handmade kawaii accesoires.
Next to that you’ll find a wide range of..well everything that’s from Japan: Anime/manga/cosplay, fashion, food, sports and more!
A pre-sale ticket costs €2,50, it’s €5 at the door. Not a lot considering you pay a lot more for a convention for example!

Japanse Markt TomoFair 2014

Celebration giveaway!

Hooray, today the name is officially PetPet!
To celebrate the new name and website, I decided to do a giveaway 😀 !

You can win one of these:
– a custom charm (one of those things you hang on your phone or keys, I will draw and create it for you!)
– a print of one of my artworks of your choice (size depends on artwork chosen)
– a small (max A6) commission, for example a portrait, your pet or a cover for your facebook!

How can you win? By entering the Rafflecopter app below, you can do the following things: like PetPet’s facebook page, share a post on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or follow me on Twitter. You can choose one of these or you can do them all and have more chance to win.

Three winners will be chosen at the end (they are randomly chosen  by the app, but the more entries you earn the more chance you have).
If you do something, like sharing a post , you still have to let me know by filling in this Rafflecopter app, else I won’t know!
The giveaway lasts a week, plenty of time to enter I think. Have fun!

Hoera, vandaag is PetPet de officiele naam van mijn illustratie / art en ontwerp werkzaamheden!
Om dat te vieren houd ik een kleine wedstrijd waarbij je één van de volgende dingen kan winnen door dingen te delen en hieronder de Rafflecopter app in te vullen (wel invullen, anders weet ik niet of je iets gedaan hebt).
Aan het einde worden er 3 winnaars willekeurig gekozen, maar met hoe meer opties je mee doet hoe meer kans je hebt natuurlijk.

De winnaars kunnen dan kiezen uit één van de prijzen:
– een ‘custom’ charm (een hangertje voor aan je telefoon/ sleutels, ik maak er één op maat voor je!)
– een print van één van mijn werken ( grootte hangt af van de tekening die je kiest)
– een kleine tekenopdracht (max A6 formaat)  naar keuze, bijvoorbeeld een portret, je huisdier of een facebook cover.

Je hebt één week om mee te doen, hierna maak ik de winnaars bekend via deze blog, Facebook, Twitter en Tumblr. Veel plezier!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Events

Hi everyone!

At the moment I’m busy with an illustration job and after that I will be busy with some other things. Amongst them are preparing for some coming fairs and conventions (in the Netherlands)! So here’s an update of the list of where I’ll be the coming months:

Imaginarium Festival , August 23, Vijversburg (Friesland), www.imaginarium-festival.nl
This is a small fantasy festival in the North of the Netherlands and I’ll be there mainly with fantasy related art.

Tomofair (Japan-themed fair), October 4, Nijmegen, www.tomofair.nl
This is a fair/market organised by the people of Tomocon. Tickets cost only 2,50!
I hope to create more anime art, charms and also some lolita/fairy kei designs for this day.

MGC Experience , November 1, Utrecht, mgcexperience.com
This is a small one-day event with a Manga / Game / Comics theme , and I will also bring some anime-stuff with me to MGC of course.

Wonder what I’ll be selling? Come say hello!

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