Festival dell´Oriente, la Spezia

illustration, sketch

festivaldelloriente_1colour

I have spent the last week in Italy. I spent a lot of time sketching, basically because my guitar had to stay at home. I will post some of the more conventional motifs later(picturesque hillside towns, bustling Italian street life and so on). These are sketchbook drawings from the Festival dell´Oriente. We went there because a friend of mine is keen on finding exotic music, I had to somehow spend the time so I started drawing people. The whole thing is a mixture between a bazaar where you can buy everything from incense sticks, Nepalese art to Apulian cheese, lots of martial arts and exotic performances, like belly dancing. The whole thing has slightly trashy but entertaining vibe. There are a lot of gems to befound, but the more esoteric part is just not my cup of tea. I drew the dancers waiting for their appearance, basically because they kept comparatively still (I had tried to draw some of the kick boxing fights before, but they proved too fast for me). I concentrated mainly on one dancer, who stood out, basically because she seemed to utterly enjoy herself, from time to time performing small bits. I have only seen small parts of their performance, because I had to leave but they were really good. It seems like they were the Halfa dancers or Shakti Dancers from Rome, but I am not completely. sure. There is a stray squirrel, which is a character design for an upcoming book of mine, that was on the page before. Italy is great. I only wish I could speak Italian… More to come.

Moodboards for Game Show

Animation, film, illustration, sketch

Moodboards for Game Show

These are some moodboards I did for Shine Entertainment one or two years ago. I think one of these game show wasn´t made, but it would have been the German adaption of an American show that has run for a while. The other one was called “Don´t drop the Money”. I don´t watch that much television myself, so I am not sure which broadcaster showed it (I guess it was RTL). By the way a very pleasant cooperation.

I only recently got the permission to show this. I don´t do this kind of work too often, but it is a nice change.

New Book. Tierisch Verliebt

comic, fun, illustration, Uncategorized

My new book which will be published in january 2015 but Amazon already shows it. It is full of stupid German puns, which can´t be translated properly I am afraid. It is about cute animals in love (moles, lions, goats, sheep, wolves, everything!)

 

http://www.amazon.de/Tierisch-verliebt-Derek-Roczen/dp/3845807563/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1409296497&sr=8-5&keywords=derek+roczen

Old sketchbook drawing/ Unknown Woman

illustration, portrait, sketch, Uncategorized
altesskizzenbuch_1

Derek Roczen Sketchbook ca. 1999

 

This is an old sketch from my time at art school which now seems ages ago. There were no mobile phones, it would still take four or five years before I bought my first computer. People were clad in fur and wild animals roamed freely through the streets of Stuttgart where I lived at the time.In a weird way this drawing is rough although there are lots of details. I don´t remember who this is supposed to be. The big stain in the middle came from a bottle of olive oil that leaked in my rucksack. This means that this particular sketchbook had been to Italy with me and the olive oil was a souvenir from Lucca.

During that time I never left home without a sketchbook. Sketchbooks are just great….

Frederick the Pug

illustration, Uncategorized
pugfriedrich

Frederick the Pug (aka Vicco)

This is something slightly stupid. A good friend of mine asked me to do a drawing of her pug dog as Frederick the Great as a birthday present (this is something about her originating from Potsdam where Sanssoucie, the castle where he is buried, is located). I hope she likes it.
Otherwise there is lots of commissioned work I am doing at the moment. I am seriously looking forward to do something more personal soon, but i t might take some time….

Pirates Comic

comic, fun, illustration, Uncategorized

“Pirat voraus, Käptn Klaus” has finally appeared:

http://www.amazon.de/Pirat-voraus-K%C3%A4pten-Klaus-St%C3%B6rtebeker/dp/3401600168/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1407684500&sr=8-4&keywords=derek+roczen

I take this as an opportunity to show one more page and the sketches I did beforehand. Those are an exception because I did the initial sketch digitally, which is because the layout was rather complicated. Normally I prefer ordinary pencil sketches.