Rita Fürstenau from Germany makes beautiful prints and illustrations. As Rita’s always busy with work – she also holds illustration workshops and has her own publishing company with two friends – she has created lovely workspaces for herself, one of which is in a Swedish country house. In her blog, she tells us more about her work and life.
Hi there, my name is Rita Fürstenau and I live in Kassel, Germany. Besides working as a freelance illustrator and surface pattern designer, I also work as an arts pedagogue and, together with two friends, I run the independent publisher Rotopolpress. This is where most of my work is published, and where you can find my illustration booklets, paper games, posters, postcards, sketch booklets and some printed textiles like tea towels and tote bags.
Today I want to give you a peek into the places where I work.
At home I share an office with my husband Christian. This is where most of my days start and end. Here I work on my illustrations and design projects. Our cat Bruno is always around and a good working companion.
In addition to my main desk, I have a little work desk too. Christian built it in our former laundry room. It’s the perfect place for thinking and sketching.
At Rotopol, I share a studio with my colleagues Lisa Röper and Michael Meier. Here we work on freelance jobs as well as on personal work. We also work together on some illustration projects.
Besides our studio, the Rotopol headquarters include our publishing office and our retail store with an integrated gallery for contemporary illustration.
We also have a screen printing workshop. Most likely this is where you’ll find Christian and myself on the weekends.
I also work at Kassel’s art school for children and teenagers, where I give workshops on comic drawing, illustration and screen printing to people from the ages of three up to twenty.
And because I never really stop working, I have one more desk. It stands in our country house in Sweden and is my favorite drawing place. Luckily I’m able to spend a couple of weeks there during the year.
In the forthcoming weeks, I will show you a bit more about our work at Rotopolpress, my drawings and a project I’m working on at the moment. If you’d like to see some more of my work before that, you can visit me at Rita-fuerstenau.de
Until next week,
Rita
