Hasse D.D.
Jamina Van Maele
About
Jamina Van Maele (°1999) In 2017 I graduated from my secondary school studies in Social and Technical Sciences and began the search for an appropriate course of study. Thus, I decided, without any prior training, to venture into the creative program Illustrative Design at Sint Lucas Antwerpen and immersed myself completely in the world of drawing. After three years of hard work, kilos of paper and liters of paint, I achieved the diploma with which I can call myself an illustrator. I am still trying to carve out a path for myself in the illustrative world and therefore started a Master's in Visual Arts in 2020.
Project
For my master's thesis, I created an illustrated narrative children's book this year called 'Hasse D.D.'. I quickly knew that I wanted to work around a pressing problem in children and thus came across the still unfamiliar theme of the nine-year phase. This is a phase in a child's development where many fears and insecurities can occur. Characteristic of this is that the child feels it is growing older and losing its imagination, while it does not entirely want to yet. I then started my search for a suitable writer who wanted to provide me with a text. I eventually found Els Hoebrechts, a former editor and author of about fifteen children's books. Together we came up with the story of a nine-year-old girl named Hasse who loses her imagination and must overcome great fears. With this, we hope to bring more attention to the theme so that it becomes more discussable for both parent and child. Throughout Els's writing process, I simultaneously began illustrating, which created an enjoyable process where we could mutually influence each other's work. And so a book was created consisting of 29 spreads with illustrations present on every page. These were made with pencil, ecoline, and cardboard printing and subsequently edited via Photoshop and InDesign. Towards the end, I also sought advice from a graphic designer who wanted to help set text to match the illustrations. After a couple of trial prints, I finally had my book printed at a printing bureau, after which I bound and covered it myself.