Gestern war der Andruck von Tata&Squack - Mission Elefant, immer wieder ein spannender Moment. Obwohl es Farbproben gibt, liegt mir viel an der persönlichen Abstimmung der Farben mit den Meistern an der Druckmaschine. Ein Glück sind diese sehr professionell und haben ein offenes Ohr für die Wünsche der Illustratorin. Die Farben für ein Kinderbuch müssen kräftig sein, aber für Afrika dürfen sie...
A few months ago a dear family member gave me the opportunity to write in his garden studio. It is a small house and a great writers retreat. To write and translate a children's book is a challenge which needs concentration. Like the first book, the new Tata&Squack will be published in three languages. The silence of the garden with a red squirrel as only distraction saved me from getting lost...
De herfstbladeren vallen, het is vroeg donker, de potten op het terras weer ingepakt in afwachting van de winter. Na weken alleen achter onze computers gewerkt te hebben aan de nieuwe Tata & Squack afgewisseld met Skype momenten, eindelijk weer eens samen, deze keer in Nederland. Dicht bij de natuur met eekhoorns op de carport hebben we weer genoten van dit live brainstorm moment. De nieuwe Tata...
The illustrations in my books are a mix of photographs, drawings and collages. The picture of the elephants on the left was taken by us in the Masai Mara on one of our safaris. I used it to illustrate the change of seasons in the savanna, where thunderclouds building up announce the rainy season. For the illustration I changed the background of the picture and the light on the elephants became...
We started taking pictures, when we made a trip around the world in 1992. Since then African wildlife has been the focus of our photography. What started as a means to share our stories with the people back home has become a profession for Tanja. She uses our photos to create illustrations for her children's books. In 2010, she started her own publishing company, twikga. We were lucky to travel...
We grew up in the Netherlands and moved to Germany in 2003. Together with our dog Duvel we now live in the picturesque Treppenviertel in Hamburg, along the river Elbe. Willem currently works at a ship-owning company. After a career in marketing, Tanja studied illustration design and started her own book publishing company, twikga, in 2010. We started traveling together in 1992, when we...
We have just returned from a trip to Tanzania and Rwanda, watching primates. The hikes were sometimes long and itchy, because of the vegetation, but we took some amazing pictures of jungle landscapes with chimpanzees, gorillas, and a lot of other animals. It will be a lot harder to fill the pages of this Phanhabs book, because the jungle hides it's inhabitants well. The tracks and the sounds...
Het nieuwe avontuur van Tata&Squack komt tot leven aan de grachten van Amsterdam. Na ons inspirerende werkbezoek aan het Samburu National Reserve in Kenia bekend om haar olifanten families, hebben wij ons teruggetrokken om het materiaal ieder op zijn eigen vakgebied te verwerken. In Amsterdam wordt de verhaallijn bedacht en in Hamburg worden de collages ontwikkelt voor de illustraties. Alleen...
