Josefin Sans

I’ve had the incredible privilege of designing and illustrating the album booklet for singer and songwriter Lia L. Shoshann, whose new album Josefin Sans has officially been released into the world.

This project has been living with me for months: endless pages of thumbnails, late-night sketching sessions and many phone calls.

Now that the album is out, I finally get to share the result!

Album Cover

The entire album is kept minimalistic, sticking to only black and white illustrations. I was nervous about how the black and white images would stand out on the dark background- but I am so happy with the result!

I love the look of the fine black lines on the warm, textured, latte-coloured grass paper.

Illustration for "Angi"

The booklet features eight song lyrics, each with its own illustration. The booklet also functions as a note and sketchbook with blank pages for you to fill with your own creative musings, doodles, or simply with the occasional grocery list.

Working with Lia was incredibly rewarding. We often spoke about motifs, moods, and symbols—about the songs' stories and how we each visualised the music.

Illustration for "Ahoi"

If you get the chance to hold the booklet in your hands, I hope you feel the same sense of connection I felt while drawing it.

To purchase your own copy, please contact Lia L. Shoshann:

Kontakt@lialshoshann.de

https://www.lialshoshann.de/

If you’d like a behind-the-scenes look at the illustration process and the collaboration behind the making of an album booklet, I’d love to share more—just let me know!

The Hallucinated Truth

I recently worked on a cover for a nonfiction book on flight. For the illustration, I researched the anatomy of birds.

I was in a time rush and struggling to find good reference images. One friend asked why I didn’t use AI for my research. Isn’t that faster and more efficient?

I responded that even if I ignored all the ethical issues, including stolen data, copyright infringement, and the environmental impact AI has, there is also the problem of AI inventing things if it doesn’t know the answer. How can anyone be certain that the information provided is accurate? There is even a term for when AI makes up its own "facts": AI hallucination.

My friend assured me AI had gotten better. To prove his point, he pulled out his phone and queried Chat GPT, asking for "a picture of the correct anatomical bone structure of a bird viewed from above". We both did not expect the generated answer to end our argument with comedic tragedy. This is what was spat out.

Image generated using ChatGPT-5 on 17.08.2025

There are many issues with this AI depiction. Just look at those bone feathers!

But it's been a while since this image was generated. And to be honest, I cannot exactly remember what my friend prompted word-for-word.

So, I decided to ask a second AI tool to generate an image. The prompt was "generate an anatomically correct photo-realistic image of a bird's skeleton viewed from above".

Image generated using Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) on 06.11.2025

To compare, this is my illustration.

The "mistakes" made by AI are evident in this example. The real danger is when the mistakes are not obvious.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) recently released a study showing AI hallucination in every third response. "Even if sources are provided and audiences want to dig deeper or check information for themselves, they face a range of obstacles, from sources which do not back up the claims assistants make to the sheer time it takes to disentangle and check the claims in a response" (Fletcher & Verckist, 2025).

Of course, AI has its uses; it is a good tool for data analysis. But it is not the tool for any artistic or research query. It is not a search engine, and it is not a designer.

If a human does not know the answer to a problem, they can research, reference books and studies or even simply state the inaccuracy.

AI will not do this. It lies.

Is my work a perfect depiction of a peregrine falcon’s anatomy? No, it is not. But I do not claim it is.

So what is the solution? I don't know. But I know what can help. Hire artists. Hire scientists.

Fletcher, J., & Verckist, D., News Integrity in AI Assistants (2025). European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved November 6, 2025, from https://www.ebu.ch/Report/MIS-BBC/NI_AI_2025.pdf.

Behind the Scenes - Halloween Owl

This Halloween, I spent the evening doing something a little different — creating an ink drawing of an owl perched on a pumpkin. It felt like the perfect way to celebrate the season: cosy and just a little spooky.

I began with a simple pencil sketch to lay out the composition. I like starting this way because it gives me room to play with proportions and shapes before committing to ink. The owl came together first — big, curious eyes, claws gripping the pumpkin's stem and leaning slightly out towards the viewer. As a reference, I used a picture from the nonprofit organisation Congress of the Birds, depicting one of their owl patients.

Once I was happy with the sketch, I started inking the main lines using a fine-tipped pen. This is one of my favourite steps, because it’s where the drawing really begins to take shape. However, it is also the most nerve-wracking step; there's no going back from here. Every stroke of ink feels deliberate and permanent.

After outlining the owl and pumpkin, I decided to add a frame of twisting branches around the edges of the page. I used overlapping lines and varying thickness to give the branches a natural, textured look — darker on the outside and lighter on the inside. This detail helped balance the composition and made the owl feel nestled within.

Next came a new experiment for me: shading with watered-down ink. I’ve never tried this technique before, but I wanted a softer gradient than what solid black lines could provide. I diluted the ink with water and applied it with a brush, layering the tones slowly. The grey washes added a lovely sense of depth and atmosphere.

Once the shadows were dry, I went back in with my pen to refine the textures — adding short, feathery strokes to the owl’s plumage and subtle hatching to the pumpkin’s surface. These final touches brought the piece together.

I ended up completing the drawing late on Halloween night, which felt fitting. Looking at the finished piece, I could easily imagine the owl as a chapter header in a novel.

This project reminded me why I love traditional art so much. There’s a certain intimacy in the process — the sound of the pen scratching on paper, the smell of ink. I’d love to create more ink drawings like this, experimenting with different animals, seasonal themes, and natural elements. There’s always something new to discover with ink — and that, for me, is the real magic.

If you'd like to see a short video on the process, visit me on Instagram or Blue Sky.