During high school one of my classmates introduced me to Italian playing cards and in specifically to the glorious game of scopa. I immediately liked the artwork of the cards, with its denari (coins), coppe (cups), bastoni (clubs) and spade (swords). I've been playing the game ever since with my girlfriend and close friends. Whenever I go on a trip or a holiday, the deck of Italian cards always travels along. I've long had the idea of creating my own scopa deck, and talked about it many times with my friend Jan Hootsmans. We used to draw and write together during high school and we decided we're finally going to take this project seriously. Jan lives in Canada, so it's logistically a bit challenging, but we'll make it work.   
Above is the first step: a design for the coins, perfected in Photoshop from a sketch I did many years ago, when Jan was still living in Amsterdam.

I made a logo for IGLO - Internetowa Go Liga O!
IGLO is an online go league that was started around the time the covid-19 pandemic began. The league was created by Cezary Czernecki, supported by the Polish Go Association, and is now running its 9th season with 57 players competing. Participation is free of charge and most participants are from Poland and Ukraine, but anybody is welcome to take part. Each group consists of 8 players, in which each player plays against seven others, one game per week, The players compete to promote to the higher rated groups and, when results are suboptimal, can also fall down to the groups below. When a new player joins, he/she will be placed in a suitable group relative to their playing strength. IGLO includes regular lessons and game commentaries by top European players Stanislaw Frejlak 7 dan and Lukas Podpera 7 dan. 

A new monthly go magazine is born, called the European Go Journal. This is a great initiative by Artem Kachanovskyi 2dan professional, under the banner of the European Go Federation.
Artem got in touch with me earlier this year and told me of his aspirations to start the journal. His plan was to include a chapter on go-related art and photography in each edition and he asked me if I wanted to take part in it - as a way to make the magazine more interesting and at the same time promote my illustrations and Etsy shop. I agreed and chose "The Ear Reddening Move" for the first edition, an artwork I did on commission for the Latin American Go Congress in 2019. The artwork and a small background story about it can be found on page 35 of the journal. Artem also asked me advice on the layout and design of a magazine, and because of my experience as an author of go related articles and the 2016 European Go Yearbook, I ended up proofreading the whole journal. I also created the cover for the first edition, which features a beautiful artwork called "Hope" by French illustrator Camille Lévêque from Stoned on the Goban. 

The February 2021 edition of the European Go Journal is now available, free for download. The magazine will appear monthly in both online (PDF) and printed (paperback) form.
​If you want one or if you want to support future editions, please have a look at the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/europeangojournal

​The plan is for me to stay involved in the making of future editions of the journal. I will edit, proofread and design the cover. Artem has asked me to use one of my own artworks for the March-edition and I am thinking to make a black and white version of my go playing cat for the occasion.

For the go and cat lovers out there, I've printed mugs with my go playing cat artwork on it.
I only have 15 in stock, it's available in my Etsy shop.