djamilaknopf

666 Patrons!

I couldn’t resist making a stupid picture! But in all seriousness, thank you all so much! I don’t know what I would do without you. I‘d probably do some job that I hate. But instead, I get to paint whatever I want. THANK YOU. 🧡🧡🧡

Gameboy - Base Colours

I‘ve been playing with my new (old) iPad today! Now that I finally have some brushes that feel nice it’s getting to be a lot of fun. I continued on this illustration in Photoshop though. 😊

Gameboy - Work in Progress

Another big detailed illustration is on the way! I just can‘t keep it simple anymore. But I really love telling small stories in my artwork and I don’t know how I ever worked any other way.

Whenever I sit down and just draw a random face, I get bored and I ask myself what the point is. And I have so many more scenes in mind that I want to paint! I hope I won’t run out of ideas, fingers crossed.

Anyway, this one is an homage to my obsession with playing Pokémon on my Gameboy. I had the red edition and started out with Cha...

April Rewards

I just sent out the rewards for April via private message! They include the layered PSD and step-by-step images etc. for my illustrations "Midsummer", "Commute", and "When We All Fall Asleep". I totally forgot that I made that third image. I'm getting old. 

Everyone that signed up before the end of April should have a received the message with their reward OR a message asking them to check their payment option because they've been declined. If you haven't received either of those,...

Commute - Final Artwork

Yaaaay, I just finished this Illustration and it actually turned out better than I expected when I finished the sketch. I especially enjoyed working with all those blue hues and rendering the clouds. ☁️

I was hoping that I could include this in the rewards and now that I got it done in time, I absolutely can! So this will be part of the rewards. I’m sending them out tomorrow.

PRINTS: are available in my store for a l...

Commute - Base Colours

I got back from the Schoolism Live workshop yesterday and I‘m trying to get back into a regular work schedule. It was such a great weekend! So many amazing people. I was so happy to spend the days with our little gang: Luisa Preissler, Klaus Scherwinsky, Anna Steinbauer, Noe Ortega Tsuji and Michael Witmann (with one t) - all incredibly skilled artists and the best company I could hope for. And an absolute highlight was meeting Lois van Baarle, who’s just such a lovely person.

And I got some big news. Truly BIG. But I actually don...

Commute - Sketch

The sketch is done! This one was a lot of fun. The location is actually the Shimonada train station in Japan. I hope I’ll be able to visit it one day. It’s right at the see and looks beautiful. I have talked about this before, but taking the train has been one of those things that I’ll always connect with my childhood. We never had a car, so all my adventures started with a train ride.

I hope you like this. And seems like today is World Penguin Day! I didn’t know, but it fits perfectly.

New work in progress!

I don’t know why, but somehow I think girls with headphones and penguins go well together. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish the sketch tomorrow. There‘s going to be a train station and MORE PENGUINS. Don’t ask me why, I just had the idea and decided to go with it.

And I‘m looking forward to painting the sea in the background. I hope this summer I can take a vacation on an island and spend some time at the beach. I haven’t done that in so long! Do you have anything nice planned for your summer holidays?

Midsummer - Final Artwork & Print

Prints are available here, from 23 - 30 April. 🌸🌿

Ahhh, I’m so exited to share this! I know I‘ve said this a couple of times about other work before, but this is my new favourite illustration I‘ve ever painted. I’m just really really happy with it. And I hope you are, too!

Maybe you already saw me colour this during the Adobe livestreams. But I’m a weirdo perfectionist, so I went back and repainted the whol...

Midsummer - Base Colours

I made an alternate colour scheme during the livestreams with Adobe. This is the one I brought with me, just in case I‘d screw up the other one. But now, I kinda like this one better. So I might just do it all again and render the background a second time. Because I’m a weirdo perfectionist.

For all German-speaking folks: All three streams are available here.

🧡

Adobe Livestream! (In German)

In case you missed the stream, you can still watch the recording here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qg5xdj1fahk

🧡

When We All Fall Asleep - Final Artwork

I just finished the promo image for Adobe! Lots of fun and the concept actually worked how I had imagined it. That’s always nice! Now I’m dead tired, but I still wanted to leave this here with you before I go to bed.

The layered .psd file and everything will be included in next month’s rewards.

Have a good night/day! 🌙☀️

Patreon-only livestream on Thursday!

Lorena Lammer, Kim Myatt, Chantal Horeis and I are doing another livestream on Thursday, 11 April at 7 PM EST. We‘ll draw and chat a bit and we‘d be thrilled if you came to hang out with us.

Link: https://youtu.be/BPiWyjPsTpM Please, don’t share this anywhere. It’s meant for your eyes only. 😊

🧡

When we all fall asleep, where do we go - Work in progress

I told you about the whole Billie Eilish contest, right? This is my sample entry I‘m painting for Adobe. There were these shapes in the description that were supposed to inspire the image, and to me they looked like water reflections. So here‘s what I have so far. I hope you like it!

And here’s the sketch:

The new tarot-inspired t-shirts are up for preorder!

The first design in my series of tarot-inspired t-shirts is The Fool. It features a careless moth flying too close to a flame.

The shirts are available only via preorder and won’t be restocked. The edition size is limited to the number of preorders.

Available until 14 April, 10 AM EST in my store.

In unisex & Ladies fit in sizes S, M, L, XL and XXL. Don’t forget that you can use your 10% discount code I sent you with the rewards. ...

New work in progress

I‘m still trying to get to all your lovely messages today, but the Patreon app is acting up a bit. So I actually never know if my messages come through or not.

Anyway, I started this new piece today. I‘m enjoying the more zoomed-in view a lot after doing quite a few paintings with a broader scope. When I was a child I used to lie in the grass and watch grasshoppers all the time, so this scene is very dear to me. I hope you like it!

Here‘s a little insight into my process that I usually discard, but I kept it to show it t...

March Rewards

I just sent out the rewards for March via dprivate message! They include the layered PSD and step-by-step images etc. for my illustrations "Childhood Memories", "The Smell of Rain", and "Hope". It's been a productive month, even with the big convention. 

Everyone that signed up before the end of March should have a received the message with their reward OR a message asking them to check their payment option because they've been declined. If you haven't received either of those, pl...

First look at the final t-shirt design

I posted a first draft of this a while ago and now, after getting some distance, I sat down and finished the design. I decided to get rid of one moth and to just keep one. I think it just gives a better read and more iconic shape. And I‘ve also had a lot of swirls AND dots going on, so I settled on one element: the dots.

This is the first in a series of tarot-inspired shirts that feature animals and the major arcana. I won’t be doing them in order though, because I already have a great idea for The Lovers! For thi...

Hope - Final Artwork

First things first: If you’d like a print of this, you can order it until 3 April, 10 AM EST in my store.

This illustration will be part of the rewards for March! I think you’re all aware that I absolutely love Japanese culture and I recently came across toro nagashi, a ceremony in which you float paper lanterns down a river to guide the souls of the departed to the spirit world. It wasn’t the first time I had h...

Hope - More Progress

The illustration is almost done and I think I’ll be able to finish it tomorrow. Today is the first day after the con that I actually feel like a proper human being again. My head had turned into mush and I was completely exhausted after half an hour of painting. But I did some yoga this morning and I’m getting back into my regular routine. 💪

I do have some exciting news for my fellow German-speakers: I’ll be doing three livestreams for Adobe next month, on 16-18 April. It’s pretty spontaneous and I’m super excited!! More d...

Hope - Base Colours

This might be the bluest thing I‘ve ever painted and I‘m pretty excited about it. I can’t wait to get into lighting and details!

Also: We’re at almost 600 members!! That’s over 100 more than last month, which is crazy!! It’s kinda hard to believe that you all are here to support me. I think the interview with Bobby Chiu brought a lot of new folks on board. Just the interview alone was HUGE for me, but seeing that you are coming here as a result makes it even better. Thank you so much!

And if you’re new: The next r...

First convention of the year is over!

As you might have read, I was at LBM/MCC in Leipzig over the last couple of days.

And maybe you‘ve also heard me talk about how nervous I‘ve been about this one. It was the first convention for me that required me to invest over 1000€ just to be there. So the pressure was insanely high! The first day I was running on 3 hours of sleep and my body was aching like crazy. Even though everything was looking good after day one, I still woke up that night feeling nauseous and with a knot in my stomach. It’s weird when your mind shoul...

Hope - Work in Progress

I’m spamming today! But I do have a new sketch to show you. This is going to be a night time scene, illuminated by the lanterns. And believe it or not, the hardest thing to draw was the freaking boat!!

Childhood Memories - Final Artwork

Prints are available for a limited time only: until 20 March, 10 AM EST in my store.

I‘ve already told you what inspired me to paint this scene and oddly enough, lots of people have told me that this reminds them of their own childhood. It’s really cool to see that I can create something that resonates with others, even though (or maybe because) it was personal to me. I enjoyed putting all the little details into this piece a...

Botanical Witches Zines

They’re here! After al these months I can finally announce that the zines are available in my store.

Here are some details:

148 x 210 mm / 5.8 x 8.3 in

The zine includes a selection of 26 ink illustrations created in 2018 during Inktober.

Each illustration was created with black ink. Perfect binding. The cover is printed on 300 g/...