A fart a day keeps the fail away.

Hello~ I'm Mei-Li Nieuwland, an illustrator and artist. I post illustrations, sketches and occasional rambles here. www.liea.nl | Archive | Shop

[liea]

New illustration for Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu, for an article on the role of imagination in the research & design phases of urban area development. With cases from OMA and MVRDV https://www.gebiedsontwikkeling.nu/artikelen/lees-de-zomereditie-van-gebiedsontwikkelingkrant-2020/

[liea]

My comic on synthetic virology is out 🎉 It's a relatively short one, just giving a brief introduction to the state of this field, but a lot of love went into it 💜 It's also my first time trying some motion graphics 🎥🍿 This comic is part of Drawing the Times' 'VIRAL' special: six different graphic journalists exploring six different topics related to this theme. You can read my contribution (Dutch and English versions) and Merel Barends' comic on viruses (Dutch) here. The other stories will be added over the coming weeks. Thanks once again to the Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten (fund for special journalistic projects) for supporting this work. 🙏

[liea]

Two swallows. Finishing up my comic on synthetic virology. This will go on the dedication page.

[liea]

Trying to process 2020.

[liea]

Happy Easter 🐇 The charm of this kind of painting to me is... Either it works out the first time*, or you have to wait for the 1000th time (which in my case means never...). No sketch, living on the edge. It always makes me super nervous and super calm at the same time. An exercise in becoming at peace with a high chance of failure, and doing it anyway. * Not saying I'm anywhere near good at this yet but it looks like rabbits that aren't too deformed so I'll take it ✨

[liea]

Happy birthday dearest Noëlle :) 31 flowers young today 🏵️🌟

[liea]

[liea]

Spread for gebiedsontwikkeling.nu on how philanthropy in urban area development comes with tricky manoeuvering about who pays and who decides. Also appeared in the paper version and was featured on the cover :) Link to the article (Dutch) in bio.

[liea]

Dip pen practice. Hunt ex-fine bowl pointed 512 & waterproof matte india ink.

[liea]

The year of the Metal Rat is almost here :) (Saturday Jan 25th). Upon showing a wip of this, a friend said "ohh, I feel a feeling of adventure :)" haha... I thought it was very cute. Wishing everyone a good year, with an adventurous feeling here and there, but also enough downtime with family, friends, and most importantly: yourself 🍵 I usually include the animal from the last year in the illu, handing over the baton so to speak, as this cycle feels like an infinite relay race to me. This year it was pig and and I'm very sorry because it's hands down the most awful feature I've ever done 🙈... A big part of my 2019 was about my love-hate/anxiety-love relationship with New York. So it seemed only fitting I'd use this metal + rat theme to pay homage to this intense but inspiring city. Have a good one everyone :)

[liea]

Ink study of a war horse sculpture.

[liea]

Ink studies. The original is a 3 meter wide folding screen by 吉田博. Must've used a gigantic brush for it. Mountain looks like it has cleavage :|

[liea]

Scenes from my window on a cold and rainy day.

[liea]

First ink of the year 🖤

[liea]

To birthday infinity, and beyond~! Done for the invitation for a private pajama party weekend getaway deluxe✨ (which honestly looks like it’s going to be the absolute best party for laid back ppl that money could ever buy~ 💗💆‍♀️🍵🌊 🥂) Have a fabulous week, everyone :)

[liea]

Banner illustration for an article that appeared on Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu, about involving citizens and other local parties in the urban area development process. Everybody's halping~ GO.nu is part of the Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft.

[liea]

Part 7: We're in week 21 of the Hong Kong protests and more than half of all HKers now indicate having absolutely 0 trust in the police. My (not so) hot take for today: the real problem isn't actually the police.

Throughout my teenage and adult life I've always been fascinated by the mechanics of alienation. In fact, a large part of my undergraduate /and/ graduate thesis was about this. I can't imagine how alienated HKers must feel by now, considering literally every other person on the streets feels unrepresented by those charged with the task of protecting them, and wielding a monopoly on legal violence.

Thanks to everyone who donated to this project. Sometimes I just look over the little encouraging messages that some of these generous strangers left me, and it gives me a lot of extra motivation to continue the work 💖 . If you'd like to donate, you can do so here. Thank you!