Get to know Luca

by Diana (mom)

Luca

The Looney Luca collection tells a story based on our real life son Luca. When you browse through the illustrations you can actually sort of get to know him a little bit. Facts about his ancestry, where he lives, about his family, what he loves, his hobbies and traits of Luca are incorporated in the drawings. Of course some traits are fictionalized or dramatized a bit.

We’ll share some fun facts with you. We hope you all enjoy the collection as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Looney Luca Fact 1

Luca is the middle child. He has a younger sister Elisa, and an older sister Sara. Sometimes they are happy with each other, but sometimes they aren’t. ;-). Sara also has her own NFT collection called ‘Classy Teens’ which she draws herself. You can find her collection on Open Sea.

Looney Luca Fact 2

Luca has partly southern Italian ancestry. From mother’s side his ancestors came from the Southern Italian town Napels and the countryside of Calabria.

The white outfit with the black mask stands for Pulcinella, an historic symbolic figure of the city of Naples.

His mother grew up speaking Italian and Dutch. She has special italian nickname for Luca: “Lucanino” or “Cicciolino” are one of her favourite names to call him.

Luca’s name is Italian for Luke. His father is called Lucas (we actually say Luc) which is the Dutch version for Luke.

Looney Luca Fact 3

Luca was born in the Netherlands. He has Dutch nationality.

Looney Luca Fact 4

Luca has red hair. He was even more red when he was born, but over time he became more orange / blond. He also has some freckles on his nose. His mother also has red hair and freckles.

Looney Luca Fact 5

Luca was born in Capelle aan den IJssel, a little Dutch town near the city of Rotterdam. The two white fish on a blue background is the symbol of the town and is its official city flag.

Luca was supposed to be born in Rotterdam, but Luca’s mom was sent to a hospital in Capelle aan den IJssel by coincidence, when suspicion rose that she had supposedly lost some amniotic fluid. In the hospital, a midwife noticed that Luca didn’t have much amniotic fluid left and she decided to induce the labour.

The town of Capelle aan den IJssel wasn’t unknown to Luca’s family. Luca’s mom spent her formative years in Capelle aan den IJssel, completing primary and secondary school there.

Looney Luca Fact 6

The first 5 years of his life, Luca lived downtown Rotterdam, the second largest city of the Netherlands.

Rotterdam is famous for its beautiful modern skyline. The historic inner city was completely destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt with modern architecture after the war.

His sisters and his parents are all born in Rotterdam, Luca is the only one who was born in another city by coincidence (see fact Looney Luca Fact 5).

Looney Luca Fact 7

Luca moved with his family 8000 km away, to a tiny island in the Caribbean called Curaçao, when he was five years old.

Flamingo’s, iguana’s and parakeets are common on the Island.

The Handelskade is part of downtown Willemstad, the island’s capital. The beautiful colorful buildings in Dutch colonial style are part of UNESCO heritage.

The Christoffelpark is Curacao’s biggest natural park with beautiful flora and fauna and of course the Christoffelberg, the highest point of Curaçao. Luca’s family loves touring the park.

The official languages of Curaçao are Papiamentu (spoken by the majority) and Dutch. Spanish and English are also widely spoken on the island.

Curaçao is part of the ABC islands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are neighboring leeward islands situated before the coast of Venezuela. The islands used to be part of the formerly Dutch Antilles together with three windward islands of Sint Maarten, Sint Eustasius and Saba (which was dissolved as a country in 2010).

Looney Luca Fact 8

Luca has been diagnosed with ADHD which seems to be a family trait. His mother and his older sister also have been diagnosed with ADHD.

Looney Luca Fact 9

Luca just loves to collect Pokémon cards.

Looney Luca Fact 10

Luca doesn’t really enjoy reading books, but instead he does love to read comic books! One of his favourites is Donald Duck. He also likes to create comics of his own.

Looney Luca Fact 11

He spends most of his spare time playing games like Roblox and Minecraft on his tablet.

Looney Luca Fact 12

Luca loves to watch game-influencers play Roblox and Minecraft on Youtube.

Looney Luca Fact 13

Luca’s room is actually most of the time a mess. ;-) The furniture in the illustration matches his real life furniture. Also, when he sleeps, he really likes to cuddle with a big stuffed-animal shark on his bed.

Looney Luca Fact 14

Luca wears glasses.

Looney Luca Fact 15

Luca likes to wear hats and caps in real life. He actually used to own a green dinosaur hat until he lost it someday.

Looney Luca Fact 16

There was a time that Luca dressed up as Mickey Mouse during the school's celebration of carnival.

Looney Luca Fact 17

His mom sewed a superhero outfit which he used to wear almost daily, until it was completely worn out.

Looney Luca Fact 18

Luca likes to play chess and he is actually quite good at it. He has chess lessons once a week. He refuses to play chess competitions though.

Looney Luca Fact 19

Luca recently has been watching the Harry Potter series on TV.

Looney Luca Fact 20

Luca has had a secret crush for 2 years. It is a girl from his class. Sometimes he admits it, other times they are just friends according to him. We are not sure what’s the deal with that.

Looney Luca Fact 21

Luca loves pizza, muffins and pasta (and more).

Looney Luca Fact 22

Luca loved the Eurovision 2022 act from Norway: Subwoolfer. He has made his own Subwoolfer mask out of cardboard and he just loves their song: “Give that wolf a banana.”

Looney Luca Fact 23

Luca’s dad created the NFT pixel art ‘Pig Punk’ collection, available on Open Sea.

Looney Luca Fact 24

Luca’s grandfather, opa Peter, passed away earlier this year and this loss made a big impact on Luca. Luca looks a lot like his grandfather.

Looney Luca Fact 25

Luca doesn’t wear braces yet, but he will be needing them quite soon.

Looney Luca Fact 26

Luca broke his glasses once when he was angry.

Looney Luca Fact 27

Luca tries to avoid doing chores, feeling easily overwhelmed by the task. He’d rather relax.

Looney Luca Fact 28

Luca likes to listen to music. Some of his recent favourites in his playlist are: “No friends”, “Muffin”, “Stefania” and “Give that wolf a banana.” (links toevoegen)

Looney Luca Fact 29

When he grows up he’d like to be an inventor.

Looney Luca Fact 30

Luca personally was involved in approving many of the final Looney Luca illustrations. He also shared his opinion when he felt some traits had to be improved, changed or added.

Looney Luca Fact 31

The character of Looney Luca was inspired by a character pencil drawing made by Luca somewhere in 2021. He was quite consistent in drawing this character in his drawings and one day his mother decided to turn it into a digital illustration, and this is how Looney Luca was born. You can read more about the creation of the collection in this article: The creation of the Looney Luca NFT collection