1 – To Start, tell us a bit about yourself where you were born and where you live…

We were both born in small villages in the Netherlands, we had an extensive view but besides this not much to do… that’s where the imagination started :) We both did art school (St.Joost in Breda), this is were we met. After we graduated we both moved to Tilburg and we still have our studio there together.

2 – How did you get started in the arts?

We both started drawing from an early age, perhaps this had something to do with the rather boring neighborhoods we lived in… and it rains a lot in the Netherlands so when we couldn’t play outside we sat inside to draw. We actually didn’t really plan ahead to make our ‘job’ out of drawing but somehow we both ended up studying illustration in art school, doing the thing we liked most.

3-  Where do yo draw your inspiration from?

From a lot of things! Old books and posters, decorations and illustrations from the middle ages to the nineteen seventies. Internet is a big inspiration source, we spend a lot of time there :) Looking at great work by nice artists on websites like flickr.com and, of course, this website :) brings a lot of inspiration as well. Besides that, we also love big cities, collect all sorts of toys and second hand and retro stuff, records, old photo’s and such. So that probably inspires us us well.

4-  Can you describe for us what a regular day is like for you?

I guess not as exciting as most people think…

We have breakfast after we walked our dog and go off to our studio which is 10 min from our home… we usually take the car because Bowser (our dog) comes with us every day :) We arrive around 11am. After a mug of coffee for Tummie and tea for LouLou we start checking and answering our email, visit blogs, check forums, flickr.com, etc etc… wich can take some time. Then we start drawing or sketching, most of our time we spend behind the computer. Around 2pm we have lunch with all the other people who have a studio in the same building. After lunch we walk the dog again and get on with work. Most of the time we leave our studio around 8 pm. Back home Tummie makes a delicious meal (LouLou always hopes it’s one of her superb oven dishes :)  In the evening we surf the internet some more, draw in our sketchbooks, play computergames, watch tv and throw Bowser’s ball. And then we go to bed, which is usually later than planned so we can’t get up in the morning and end up at our studio at 11am again :)

5-  What is your most common approach for completing a project?

With most of our clients we have email contact and we discuss the project and what they like via email, sometimes by phone. Then we start thinking, sketching, making a nice rough and send it to the client, wait for feedback and if everything is ok we start working out the sketches on our computer. That’s about it really.

6-  Out of all your work what is your favorite piece and why?

This would be pieces :)

Last year we’ve been very busy (we still are :) launching our new plush and accessories called ‘The Tummie Friends’. We created this together with Bubu co from Hong Kong who deals with the production. It’s a lot of work, but we are very proud of the result and enjoy it a lot!

If you want you can check them out at http://www.thetummiefriends.com

7-  Is it easy to make a living in the work that you do?

The first few years wasn’t easy, we both had other jobs next to our illustration work. It takes a while to get some recognition and find clients who trust you enough to do bigger projects. But the last couple of years we are doing quite okay and luckily we can make a living out of it :)

8-  Who is your biggest influence?

There’s a lot of artists we like varying from comic artists, classic painters, graphic designer and there’s a lot of likeminded artists, and errr… hmm… we can’t just name one, there’s to many. Sorry.

9-  How important is technology for the work that you do? What tools could you not live with out?

We definitely can’t live without our computer, our wacom and the internet… but if we really have no choice and all this will disappear in some mysterious way… we’ll probably manage if we work on our painting skills a little :)

10- How important is color in your work and why?

We hate color… as you can see in our work… nah… just kiddin’ ;) It’s very important… colors can help to make things ‘pop’ and nice colors make us happy too.

11- Whats your favorite color?

Our favorite color to work with changes from time to time. At the moment Tummie is really into pink/ green combos and LouLou enjoys orange-red combined with cyaan.

12- Where can people get in contact with you?

Send us an email, you can find this on our website

http://www.loulouandtummie.com.

you can also contact us trough Flickr.com

http://www.flickr.com/echslectir

http://www.flickr.com/tummie

or LouLou’s twitter:

http://twitter.com/echslectir

or they can drop by for a cup of tea at our studio.