Nina Aerts

Nina Aerts is an illustrator born in 1982. She lives in Antwerp. She creates drawings, cartoons and the occasional piece of art.

Even as a child, she used to draw on anything she could find (including her grandfather’s tax papers), but she didn’t study fine art – she studied languages instead. It wasn’t until she was around 35 that she realised she wanted to do more with her drawings, and she tentatively began taking on her first commissions. As a self-taught artist, she regularly struggles with imposter syndrome, but little by little she began to feel – most of the time, at least – like a proper illustrator. In 2023, her first book, Ter Wereld, was published by Pelckmans: a children’s book for both children and adults, featuring drawings of animals, plants, trees… all the things that inspire her too.

Nina is deeply fond of the craft of drawing: the sound, the smell and the immediate authenticity of pencil, paint or ink on paper or card. Although she sometimes works digitally, she prefers to create her illustrations using traditional methods; paper, pencil, eraser shavings, scraps of paper and paint splashes adorn her drawing table – and usually her fingers and clothes as well.

What she creates is entirely a reflection of who she is: a cheerful melancholic, a rational dreamer, a thoughtful lover of the absurd. Someone who thinks things over at great length before making an impulsive decision. A meticulous collector of unticked to-do lists.

But above all: curious and always distracted by all the beauty in the world, as much of which as possible she wants to preserve. On paper – tangible yet elusive, fleeting yet eternal, if only for a moment.