From May 13th to June 4th my talented sister Philo Ouweleen will have a retrospective exhibition of her artwork in Galerie De Stoker at Witte de Withstraat 124 in Amsterdam. A big part of Philo's work is inspired by Japan and I highly encourage you to go and have a look if you are in the Netherlands. If you want to find out more about Philo on her website, click here or see the flyer at the bottom of the page.

​As part of the program, supported by Fonds voor West, there will also be 4 workshops that revolve around art on paper. Justyna Kleczar and I will give a workshop on June 4th in which we will teach the art of paper marbling. During the 2-hour workshop we will demonstrate different marbling techniques. With all supplies provided, the participants will have the opportunity to create their own original marbled paper that can be used for a variety of purposes, including bookbinding, card making and art projects. 

Yesterday, in preparation for the workshop, Justyna and I did a marbling session. It has been a while since we did any marbling so it was good to refresh our memory and check the quality of our supplies. Justyna also made some new combs by hand, which we tested out and they proved to be awesome. We took some pictures and videos to share on social media. You can watch the videos by clicking on the pictures below:​

The organizers of the Dutch Open 2023 commissioned me to make a poster design. The Dutch Open is the largest go tournament of the Netherlands, the replacement of what used to be the Amsterdam International Go Tournament. It attracts go players from all over Europe. This year the tournament will be held in the city of Leiden, from May 19-21 in the Denksportcentrum (mind sport center) at Robijnstraat 4.

My design features a view from the Burcht van Leiden to the Hooglandse kerk, two iconic buildings of the city. We see a traditional go board with 22 moves played out on it. This modern opening pattern is taken from a professional game between Mi Yuting and Ke Jie that was played on February 15th of this year (click here to view the game). The open doors invite us in.

I largely based my artwork on a photograph by Harry van der Krogt, who is an active organizer in the Dutch go community, the former manager of the European Go Cultural Center and a board member of the European Go Federation. 

This design took me several weeks to make, and it probably topped my Go Peacock drawing in terms of hours spent on it. It most certainly is the design with the most layers in Photoshop I have ever created.
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The poster will be used to promote the tournament online and will be physically hung at the location of the tournament. More details about the tournament can be accessed by scanning the QR code or by clicking here. 

I plan to make a version without text for my Etsy shop, purchasable as posters and postcards.
Below some zoomed-in details of the artwork.
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In the weekend of 3-4 December the Romanian Junior National Go Championship (Finala Campionatului Național De Juniori Ş​i Copii La Go) was held in Bistrița, Romania. Rodica Dobranis, one of the main organizers of the championship, had seen my artwork "Two Little Birds Play Go on the Feathers of a Peacock" on social media. Since the city of Bistrița is, among other things, known for its traditional peacock plume headdress, Rodica asked me if I could make my artwork into a logo for go club ACS Atsumi Dance, the host of the tournament. I was glad to do so. The go peacock was used on t-shirts, diplomas, mugs and other prizes for the children. How cool is that? Even a cake with my artwork was made! I am really grateful to have been a smart part of this amazing go event for kids. Thank you, Rodica, this is why I make go art.

Today I finished a drawing that had been lying on the shelf for some time. Before covid, so more than two years ago, I received a private commission from John, who'd commissioned me to make art for him twice before ("Salsa Dancing Tigers" and "Ski Jumping Penguin"). John always comes up with fun and challenging ideas to draw. This time was no different. The task at hand was to draw a peacock with go stone feathers. Later an extra criterion was added: two little birds, black and white as metaphors for the colors of the stones, would have to place the stones on the peacock's plumage, effectively playing a game of go against each other.

I'm a fan of Peng Liyao's complicated and tesuji-packed playing style (彭立尧, Chinese 8-dan professional go player) and so I decided to use his games for the go motif. I picked two of his game records and merged parts of their go positions, adding or omitting stones here and there. A black and white version of the drawing was created, and I placed it aside to think about the next stage: color.

Putting a drawing aside is a dangerous thing for me. I tend to work on an artwork continuously until it's finished, making optimal use of the flowing creative juices, because I know I need to. If I stop, life takes over. That's what happened in this case, too: other things took priority and the drawing ended in one of my many art folders. Luckily, John was in no hurry, and covid took away any urgency that was left.

I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to leave things unfinished, and the drawing was gnawing at my thoughts for months on end. It was one of those things you know you still have to do, but somehow cannot muster the willpower for. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to commit to. One day in July I decided to finally get back to the drawing and ignore my fear of ruining it. After all that postponement, once you get going it's surprising how "easy" and pleasant the task often turns out to be. Not that I finished the drawing quickly though: I probably spent more hours on it than I did on any drawing, ever. Here is a little glimpse into the coloring process:

For me drawing is an experience of ups and downs. There are those rare drawings where everything magically seems to go the way you want it to, but more often than not I ponder, fret and experience mood swings galore. Justyna has to live through my cries of desperation: "Arrghh! The drawing is ruined!". "It's fine, I can't even see it." "Are you sure? It's right there. It's a huge mistake!". "Nah, come on, it's barely visible." I'm lucky that she is as understanding as she is and genuinely likes my art. She always reassures me and puts me back on track. 
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The key is to find peace in "mistakes" and learn to go with the flow. If I do that, the mistake often evolves into something else that becomes a part of the whole. During this particular drawing, the coloring process of the background was particularly stressful. I put so much time into the feathers and go stones of the peacock, and I was so content with the result, that the background had to be perfect. Because my expectations were high, anything I would have done would have probably disappointed me. I wasn't happy with the grass at first, and then the sunset seemed to make it better, but halfway through it felt like it was only making it worse. Sometimes you need some distance, and after it was finished I gained a different perspective. It also helped that everybody else seemed to love the drawing, so now I'm loving it too!

Bart Slijkhuis from go news website www.baduk.info recently interviewed Peter Brouwer and myself about our new go book Weird and Wonderful, Volume 1: Extraordinary Moves by Professional Go Players. Bart asks us about our discovery of the game of go, our videos for BadukMovies, the writing process of the book and our favorite chapters of this first volume in a series of three.
You can watch the interview by clicking here (redirects you to YouTube).

After more than a year of working on it, I am proud to announce the release of my newest book: Weird and Wonderful - Volume 1: Extraordinary Moves by Professional Go Players. 
I co-wrote it with Peter Brouwer and it was published in December 2021 by the Kiseido Publishing Company.

It is available as a hard copy on the website of Kiseido (click here), on the website of European distributor Schaak & Go winkel Het Paard (click here) and as an e-book in the SmartGo web store (click here). Soon it will also be available in other go shops worldwide.

This is the first volume of what will be a series of three books:

• Volume 1 on extraordinary moves from professional games.
• Volume 2 on unusual joseki, trick plays and techniques.
• Volume 3 on spectacular go problems.
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The cover of Volume 1 is designed by me and features a portrait of legendary go player Cho Chikun and a rare tesuji from one of his games that is analyzed in detail in the chapter "Double Ladder Breakers that Calmed the Gods".

Volume 1 is a collection of creative, bizarre, exquisite, rare and funny moves from professional play. Suitable for players of about 10-kyu to 6-dan level.
The book counts 246 pages and contains the following 18 chapters:

• A Time-Saving Move that Backfired
• Magic on the First Line
• Five Spectacular Invasions
• The Raccoon-Dog Drums its Belly
• Climbing on Broken Ladders
• Triple Ko? I Don't Think So
• Exquisite Attachments on the Second Line
• Golden Rooster Standing on One Leg
• The Dragon that Eats its Tail
• Double Ladder Breakers that Calmed the Gods
• Wonderful Wedges
• Chen Yaoye's Creativity
• Miraculous Escapes
• A Different Angle
• Subterranean Attacks
• Extraordinary Life-and-Death Tesujis
• Endgame Adventures
• Eternal Life in the Void

If you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section!

In winter 2021, the Chinese Weiqi Association organized an art competition on their social media platform Little Fox Weiqi. For the competition, artists were encouraged to create designs based around the fox in the logo of Little Fox Weiqi, incorporating references to the game of go.
"Little Fox Weiqi" stems from China's nickname for go: 木野狐 (wooden wild fox). In the announcement of the competition, the fox was described as "very clever, cute, lively but also naughty." The organization further wrote: "We hope to use the image of 'little fox' to show the elegance, kindness and wisdom of Chinese weiqi, and its powerful vitality and infinite charm."

​Inspired by the logo of Little Fox Weiqi (above), I made an illustration in the same cute and child-friendly style, using gradients for the red-orange-white fur similar to the original. I played into the classic qualities of naughtiness and shrewdness of the fox: my fox peeks at us from behind a beautiful wooden go board, smiling happily while simultaneously placing a go stone on the board with its tail. I titled my design "Cheeky Little Fox".

I ended up making two versions of my design which I both entered into the competition: one with my usual black outlines (above) and one without (at the beginning of this blog post).
On social media, opinions were divided on which version was better. Personally, I probably prefer the version without the black outlines: it is more in line with the logo of Little Fox Weiqi, and this change from my usual drawing style positively surprised me. 

All participants of the competition will receive prizes or certificates of honour. The winners should be announced in the coming weeks. 

This December my go mugs are flying off the shelves!
Earlier this year I had my first batch of go mugs made, featuring my go-playing cat. A month and a half ago or so, they sold out and I decided to order more with the upcoming holidays in mind. I then also added two new mugs to the store, sporting my go turtle and butterfly. Recently, that batch also ran out! The cat was the most popular, but the turtle also did really well. Only 3 of the butterfly mugs remained.
Today the third run arrived: 15 cats and 10 turtles are now back in business. I chose a fourth design to print on mugs as well: the raccoon-dog that drums its belly. Unfortunately those turned out too dark and too unsharp, so I won't put them in the shop. I am currently getting that misprint rectified and I hope to have a proper version of the raccoon-dog mug up online soon.

If you are interested in my go mugs, have a look in my Etsy shop by clicking here.   

After many years of walking into any thrift store we stumbled upon and looking for treasures, Justyna and I have decided to take our passion to the next level: we've started a shop with vintage and antique items! The shop is called Vintage Kadijk, inspired on Hoogte Kadijk, the name of the street in Amsterdam where I grew up. I've created above logo for the occasion, featuring the typical shape of the houses on Hoogte Kadijk and a brown-red cat in loving memory of Chan, who lived there with my parents, my sister and myself.

Currently there are 19 listings in our shop and plenty more to come. Have a look by clicking here. 
If you see an item that you like, but you have questions, feel free to send us a message.

On the picture below you see some examples of the items you can find in our store: these are recent arrivals and we are working on slowly putting them in the shop one by one.
Happy shopping!

They say that all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, not long after finishing the October issue of the European Go Journal, my work for the magazine abruptly came to a close after nine successful editions. If it were up to me, my designing and proofreading work for the Journal would have continued on for a long time, but it is what it is. 

The last three covers I created can be viewed above, and in more detail below, for which I used artworks of three different artists: Alizée Chabin (France), Aleksandra Khokhlova (Russia), and Gonca Mine Çelik (Turkey).

Alizée Chabin (Kalyptane) made two illustrations especially for the occasion, adorning the Journal's front and back. In the Art & Photography chapter of the August edition, she writes:

"The painting that I made for the front cover is titled “Feeling Cosmic”. We see a go board, standing on top of the cliffs of Saint-Georges-de-Didonne. The position on the board shows the final game of the Transatlantic Professional Go League between Ilya Shikshin 4p and Ryan Li 3p, reviewed in this issue. In the distance, the historic warship “L'Hermione” from the 17th century, whose home port is Rochefort, sails off. I took some liberties in the drawing: the landscape is missing the wooden fishing platforms on the seashore and the plants in the foreground don't actually bloom that way. The painting for the back cover is titled “Le Phare du Bout du Monde”, which translates to “The Lighthouse at the End of the World”. It shows the lighthouse off the coast of La Rochelle, which is a replica of the one in Patagonia (Argentina)." 
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The September cover was special in the sense that it is the only one to date that has a front and back that blend into each other, since they are part of one and the same artwork. I stumbled upon this drawing on Aleksandra Khokhlova's Instagram, and she was kind enough to let the Journal use it. In the magazine, Aleksandra explains where the inspiration for this artwork came from: 

"This illustration depicts my impressions of a go tournament. Before making it, I took part in
the championship of Siberia that brought together around 50 go players with all kinds of
personalities: loud and silent, brave and careful, self-confident and modest. I wanted to capture
all of this, and so in the breaks between my games I drew sketches in my notebook. After the
tournament I colored them at home, and a new artwork was born.
To engage with this artwork, you can self-reflect with the question of “What kind of go player
am I?” Are you a brooding kangaroo, a happy ferret, a cocky bird, a doubting monkey, a beast
that watches, or a hare that sits with its back towards everyone?"
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For the front cover of October, I used a drawing by professional illustrator Gonca Mine Çelik that I'd first spotted in a Turkish go magazine called Taslı Yol ("Stony Road") a few years ago. In the Journal, Gonca describes her artwork, titled "Emotions of Go":

"I struggle a lot during a game of go, and this drawing illustrates how much of a struggle the
game can be. Go is a real challenge to one’s character. It provides so many ups-and-downs,
and pushes you to your limits. One moment you can feel very happy, then very sad the next. To
handle that, you need to be strong mentally. I think every go player will recognize this sentiment
and might even be able to identify with my illustration."

 
For the November edition, ​​I had already asked Ofer Zivony (Israel) to create a portrait of Stanislaw Frejlak 1p, the freshly promoted professional go player of the EGF. I also contacted Zoé Constans (France) for the December edition, and I had plans to use a wonderful illustration by Clémence Bécaud (France), sent in by her husband Hugo Maussion (who created the cover of the July edition). My hope is that you'll be able to see their artworks on the covers of future editions.

My art lives on inside the Journal for just a little longer. In the November edition, all subscribers that receive a physical copy will also receive a Christmas card with it, designed by yours truly. There are six variations of the card, making each one a limited edition collector's item (see below). 

So long, EGJ, and thanks for all the fish!