Another Icon!

Hi!

This autumn I took another icon-painting course, I felt that Luke wasn't all that happy with my last icon, so I gave it another shot with Luke the Evangelist! This time I had a full color replica by my side so I could clearly see what I needed to do. That was a BIG help!

I'm not completely done with it, I will do some writing on it later on and there are some small things that I will fix, but for now I and Luke are going to get some well deserved rest! Below you will see how it all came together!

Take care!

the repair of violins

Hi everyone!

This update will feature what I've been doing during this autumn. And as always there is a story... My older brother found this old violin in his house... it's built in Lidköping in Sweden, the 14th August, 1903, by E. Pettersson! If there are someone that's knows something about this Luthier it would be nice to here it! We don't know how long it's been laying there, our theory is that the owner has gotten a new violin and then taken some stuff from this violin.
This has been my first repair-work, and I have enjoyed it very much!

(sorry for my homemade violin-english...)

I've done  four new tuning screws/stämskruvar.
A new stable/stall.
Polished it.
Restringed it.
Put in a new sound-pin/ljudpinne.
Put on a new string-holder/stränghållare.
And constructed a new over-saddle/översadel.
Put on new shoulder-rest and cheek rest(?).

Well that's about it, yesterday I tuned it and it sounds good, at least in my ears! I played on it, mostly out-of tune but that's my fault and not the violins... at least my neighbors didn't bang on the wall...

Take care!

Here's some before and after pictures:

Hang-Ten!

Here is another of the basic-animation-assignments that I'm working on. This time it's a wave. We're also supposed to put in a boat, that's riding on the waves.

Take care!

Back to basics!

Hi!

I'm currently taking an animation class, here's what we're working on for the moment, and as always these are works in progress, as usual on this here blog! I'm taking the class to brush up on my animation-skills!

Last week I took another course that I will tell you all about later, when I have finished what I started there, it may take some time, but when it's finished, it will knock your socks off!!!

Take care!

Finest line ever!

Hi!

Last saturday I drew my finest line ever! It became the line of lines, perfect! It's the arched line in the center of the picture. Enjoy!

Take care!

Costume drawing

I'm currently taking a class in drawing and last week we had costume drawing, here are the three last drawings that I made. For the longer poses I thought that I should use my pencil instead of cole, but when I did the drawings I stuck to the cole and it worked out!

Take care!

No sketches!

Hi!

There's been no sketching this week because I've been knee deep in the psychology of religion and reading about mass suicides.

Take care!

A quick sketch!

Hi!

When I did last weeks comics-page I did some sketches first, a couple of days ago I caught a glance of one of the sketches and a I thought that it could be this weeks update. I  have previously been hesitant to put quick sketches like this on the blog, because I only want to show good stuff. But theres lots to see in a sketch so, maybe you'll be seeing more sketches in the future!

As you can see I didn't use the setting in this sketch, instead I chose to set the whole piece on the couch, because that's where I do my reading, perhaps that's why I fall a sleep, because I sit in a comfy sofa... so maybe I'll do my reading on a hard chair in the kitchen....nah!!!!!

Take care!

Studying religion

Hi there!

As you might know at this point, that what you see here on this blog, probably is a work in progress! Two weeks ago I posted a comics page about studying religion, and all was well, kind of, or so I thought. When I had posted it I knew that it needed some more work, so here it is again! I've re-inked it, did some lettering on the computer because my hand writing leaves a lot to desire. On the whole you might say that I touched up the comic. Is it finished? Probably, but you never know!

Take care!

The role of the Catholic church in horror movies

As you might have read on this blog I've written a bachelors essay on the role of the Catholic church in horror movies. You know the one with the sentence with the seven commas... This essay is now available on the university library of Gothenburg. You are very welcome to read it. You have to look for it, to find it though. Go to:

www.ub.gu.se

Choose "Publicera".
Choose "Sök i databasen GUPEA"
In the new window, choose "Student essays/studentuppsatser"
Choose "Department of literature, history of Ideas and religion/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion"
Choose "Kandidatuppsatser"
Write "catholic church" in the dialogue box, press enter and voila! There it is! You can also search by the Swedish title: Katolska kyrkans roll i skräckfilm.

Or if you find this route long and tedious you can just go to:

http://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/26829

It's in Swedish but the summary is in english!

Happy reading!

Take care!

The study of religion

Hi!

As you might know, I study religion. As a student of the aspects of religion I find myself reading books about the subject. The following comic page shows what sometimes happen.  This one is in Swedish but I think you get the general idea... this might be a work in progress, I haven't decided yet! And no, I'm NOT going to be a priest!

Take care!

Moonwalk

Hi there!

For the last couple of weeks I've animated a sequence where my penguin moonwalks! To get it right I've studied some clips of Michael Jackson on the internet where he moonwalks, and some other artists as well. I've kept the upper body quite still because that's how Michael does it, and he should know!
It's a cycle that I've panned across the screen, which doesn't sound all that time consuming to make, but in fact the camera had to be aligned according to the drawing for every frame! The software(s) I've used is pen and paper and Flipbook.

Take care!

A week of rest and relaxation!

I've taken this week off so I've only cleaned my apartment, read comics and watched films, a wonderful week! I forgot to put this in last weeks update.
When I sent my first demoreel around in 2000, I got this reply that I've saved, and it reads in part as follows in translation:

"...Forgot to say that I liked 'Min Pärla' alot, it had a fine spirit. It's not often that I see so different animation that gives something more."

As I've said I kept that one!

Since I will be back in action next week, there will be more to look at next friday.

Take care!

One year anniversary!

Hi there!

Yep, it's true, this blog has been up and running for a year now! Maybe it's time to do some thinking about what has been and what's to come. Perhaps there are some unspoken questions that needs to be answered? If you haven't already I recommend you grab a cup of tea because this post will be a longer one...
It's been quite active here on the blog, I've made more than one post a week, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that much, but I think that I'll continue with that even in the future.
There's one thing that I haven't really explained and that's why I switched from Swedish to English on this blog. An exciting way to explain that would be to write that I one day woke up and spoke and wrote in English! But that wasn't the case, the truth is that I saw that I had many international visitors and I thought that it's a shame that they don't understand the things I write, all the hilarities you know!
You might wonder what's the deal with the "Weekend update" title on the posts, well, it just kind of started that way and then I thought that it's kind of cool to use that because that's the title of a part in the TV-show Saturday Night Live, the best part! But as you see on the post today that is going to change, yep, it's true, we live in a changing world my friends!
I find it very rewarding to look back and finding that I've managed to make a post every week for a year, sometimes the post has been an animated sequence, sometimes (and more often) it's been an illustration of some sort. Without having some kind of goal like "I'm going to post a great illustration every week", I actually feel quite proud of myself, because every friday I've made a post for everyone to read.
A couple of weeks ago this blog got a sibling, namely my portfolio and demoreel-blog. That blog is a showcase where I show my finest work, here on this blog I can show sketches and what-not, but on the portfolio-blog only my best work will be shown. That is the idea anyway!
Sometimes my posts have been, short with a few words and a picture, sometimes it's been a longer post, and this post as you see will the longest one to date, and I'm not done yet!

Will it be a picture this week? No. Will it be a sketch? No. Will it be animation? Hell, yeah!
This is truly a treat for me and for you, what you are going to be able to watch, is a film with beginning, middle and end! And not some kind of drawn movement or a clip of some sort. No, this is a film, THE motion picture! Of course I'm talking about my thesis film project from my animation school, Diagonalakademin (Diagonal academy)! But before you enjoy it, I have to write something about it, as always there is a story! First of all I want you to know that I'm not making excuses for it, I just want to give you the whole story, kind of the extra material on a dvd-disc.
So, there I was in the beautiful city of Visby on the island of Gotland, the year is 1998. I'm studying animation! This is where the evening courses in drawing and painting and the preparatory art school led to! I'm studying animation, I'm fulfilling my dream of becoming an animator! I'm also young, and have lots of years ahead of me, I still have, but when you are 24 (as I was back then) it's so tangible. One week early in the education we had an assignment where we were to make an animatic, which is a filmed storyboard. I chose for my animatic to be a music video to the song "Min pärla" (My Pearl) by the Swedish pop group Webstrarna. Webstrarna was a group that I listened to a lot in my late teens. They stroke a chord in me that few other groups did. So I made this animatic, and a few weeks later I decided that I'm going to make this video! I don't know why but I didn't contact the group or the music company to ask for permission to use the music, I just knew that I had to make this film. About this time, I kind of land in the fact that I'm studying animation and film and learning to see films in another way, and I like it! I got seized by the film, and I'm going to make THE motion picture! So I begin to work on the film on my spare time, and trying to sort it all out. What I didn't know is that you make revisions all the time when you create something, like a script, you constantly make revisions until you are satisfied! So on my spare time from about february to december (which includes 8 weeks full time animation on the project), I'm working on this animation that's going to be my thesis film. Because I know that it's a lot of animation to do, since the song is 3.47 min long. In the world of animation that is a lot of time. But I thought that if I start work on it early enough I will be able to pull it off.
Then comes Boxing day 1998, I woke up in the morning, realizing that I have to scrap the most of the animations that I've done, and begin anew! I only kept one sequence that I animated autumn 1998, the rest of the animation is done 1999. Even though it hurt to begin anew, I think that was a smart move because my early animations was basically a pearl/ball flying around, and that's not too exciting... From january to may 1999 we worked full time on our thesis projects. So there I was going to make almost 3.47 minutes of animation in roughly five months! Thankfully I was still kept by the THE motion picture, so I started working on my new animatic and making new animations. Due to the amount of animation that I needed to do and the time factor, I had to make some decisions, that today when I see it, I'm not that comfortable with, to tell you the truth. But I finished it! And on time! The finished film has only been shown on our graduation december 1999, and it made a part of my demoreel january 2000, which was sent to about 10 companies in Europe. So it hasn't been shown all that much. Of course due to the fact that I "borrowed" a song without asking... Later I got in touch with the group and sent it to them, both on VHS and later on a disc. I haven't heard from them since...

So without further delay here is my thesis film: "Min Pärla"
Background, animation, editing, sound fx: P-G Lidström
Music: Min Pärla by Webstrarna. Text by Petter Eklund.
Webstrarna are: Petter Eklund, Ola Jameson, Jan Lundkvist, Sten Tjäder
Copyright 1992 Sonet Grammofon AB

Take care!

Weekend update!

Hi there!

For this week I've done an illustration with my raccoon character. I got the idea a couple of days ago, where I kind of saw him meditating, somehow. You'll see both the sketch and the inked drawing. To tell you the truth I didn't spend too much time on the background, so I might redo that. It dawned on me when I was done with the drawing, where is he? And I thought that he might be at the beach, because I find it to be calm and soothing when I stand on the beach and looking out on the horizon. The posture is named lotus, and since he (or she?) has both his feet over the other leg, he is not a beginner when it comes to meditating! In yoga the posture is called Padma-asana, if you're not that flexible, you can do a half lotus (ardha padma-asana), with only one leg over the other. Yoga is physical and mental training to get from ignorance to awakening. In hinduism/buddhism awakening is to realize that we live in a cyclical time/reality, where we are constantly reborn, according to karma. There's lots to be said and written about hinduism/buddhism, but I think I'll stop there. I'm not a buddhist just interested in history of religion! Whether or not raccoons use there tail when they do yoga I do not know...

Take care!

Weekend update!

Hi!

Another summer and another icon!

A couple of weeks ago, I went to an icon painting course at Nya slottet Bjärka Säby. We spent a week painting icons. This time I wanted to paint Luke the apostle, according to the Orthodox Church he made the first icon, so he is the patron saint of artists, he is also the patron saint of medicine, so he was a man with many talents!
I took pictures of the icon in progress, monday this week I finished it. Its great to try out a way to paint pictures that has so many years behind it. What you see here is my second icon, I will paint another, since I'm not sure St Luke is happy with this one I'm going to paint him another one! I'm currently searching for a great icon or picture of an icon that I can use as a model.

Take care!

Here I've drawn the lines with a paint brush. (I've turned the photo but it will not stay that way, don't ask me why...)

Here I've begun with the halo.

I've put on some more paint.

More details.

I've begun working on the face which is the hardest part, at least according to me!

More details.

Almost done save the frame and the text.

The icon is now done, the text says "The holy evangelist Luke". Now the icon will get some well deserved rest, at least 6 months, then I'm going to do some more work, like varnish etc.

Beginning of the week update!

Hi there!

It's been a short while since my last update, I've been out of town, but more on that in later updates...

This week I'm sharing a quick (relatively), economic, crafty, nifty and fun way to make your own sketch book!

As is the way with lots of things in my life there is a story behind it all, and even so with this sketch book. Last autumn I bought animation paper, since I want my animation paper a certain size, I bought a pack of A3 paper and cut them to the size I wanted, that left me with about 500 pieces of oddly shaped bits of paper, I didn't throw them away, because I thought they might come in handy...

In one of the drawing classes I took last semester we spoke about sketch books, that they needn't be expensive and leather bound and what have you, basically what you need is a small bunch of papers. So a couple of weeks later I made my first sketch book with the left over pieces of paper that I had. Even if this isn't rocket science I'm going to walk you through it:

1) My papers are 29,6 x 9,9 cm, I'm only giving you the measurements to give you an idea of the size of the book. If you want another size, go with that!
2) Fold the paper.
3) Make holes, I used a regular paper punch.
4) When you have a decent amount of folded and holed papers, take a string of some kind and pull it through the holes a couple of times.
5) Make a knot.
6) And voila, your own custom made sketch book!

To optimize the sketch book, you can have a thicker paper or cardboard in the bottom so it isn't so foldsy and bendsy. What's neat with this sketch book is that you can make it whatever size and how thick you want it. You can optimize it completely to your own needs!

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi!

I'm very happy to share this picture with you, although it is shot in beautiful back-light... This wednesday I finished the current work on the violin I'm making, so during the rest of the summer it will hang in my kitchen window to get some color. This autumn I'm going to put varnish on it, only about 12 (twelve) coats... Violin making is a fascinating work! Since I'm all thumbs this project has been some kind of a test and challenge for me, I started making it in autumn 2004, with hiatus autumn 2008-spring 2009. What's the most fascinating with violin making is that every part of the work is followed by an even more difficult part! Well, all that is behind me now and I just look at it with great pride. Since this is my first violin I've probably done every fault there is to make, so this is a learning-violin, and hopefully the next one will be more up to par, so to speak.

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi there!

Boy, have I a treat for you! Today I've created another blog, which will function as my showcase for portfolio and demoreel. It will not be updated as often as this one so for updates you'd better stick to this blog, and for your portfolio- and demoreel-needs you should go to my new blog:

www.pglidstromportfoliodemoreel.blogspot.com

Soon there will be a link to the right. This week I've started a new project called bits of animation, and earlier today I made some linetests, when they are kick-ass I'll post them here!

Take care!

Weekend-update 2!

Hi there!

Here's todays second update! This time I'm treating you to the second character-sheets that I wrote about earlier today. As you can see I'm giving myself some artistic license with the characters. These characters will be in a constant state of design and I'm probably going to redesign them when I have worked with them for a while. These sheets are kind of like a test drive for the characters, to see how they are to draw, and how they perform. So far I'm pleased with them and I hope they are pleased with me!

Take care!

Weekend update!

Hi!

Here are the character-sheets for my new characters; racoon and penguin. I haven't given them names yet, but that will come eventually. The character-sheets purpose is to see how the character looks through different angles and to see how they are constructed, later this week I've worked on other character-sheets with the characters in different moods and poses. I'm going to put them here when I'm done with them. I'm also treating you with a fast sketch that I did when I was searching for the penguin.

Take care!

Weekend-update 2!

Hi there!

I've just done two sketches of two new characters that I'm going to animate with. What you are seeing is preliminary sketches and a work-in-progress, what's next is that I'm going to do character-sheets that shows the character in different views and different moods. I've tried to keep them as simple as possible, to facilitate the animation.

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi!

In my last update I wrote about my essay and all the commas that I used, a friend of mine texted me this about commas:

The comma is an underrated tool. It lacks the abrupt conclusion of the point and gives the text a more streamlined character, with space for insertions.
(My translation)

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi!

Monday this week I defended my bachelors essay! In Sweden we call it "opponering". I have written about the role of the Catholic church in horror movies. The English title of the essay is: The role of the Catholic church in horror movies; A role theoretic analysis of the Catholic church in the movies The Exorcist and The Rite. One of my opponents remarks where that I had seven (7) commas in one sentence! Afterwards I was quite proud of that achievement! Here is the sentence as it was in translation:

Storytelling in film is basically made through two ways, aristotelical dramaturgy, is also called anglosaxical dramaturgy, a more careless name for it is "the 3-act", which means that the film has three acts, introduction, story, conclusion.

I've now written it in more sentences. But what's more important is that my essay passed! I got the grade "godkänd" which means that it passed. I'm not really sure what's going to happen now with it, but I'm going to post it electronically at the university library, but I'm waiting to hear from my handler. I'll write about it here when it is available.

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi!

As you've seen in earlier updates I'ven been working on some illustrations for the Deathpiglet quotebook. The quotebook is scheduled for released this autumn. This week I've changed one of my illustrations because it wasn't good enough, so here is the reworked cleaned-up sketch of quote no. 6: Plague and cholera? That's two wishes in one!

I'm probably going to tweak it some more before I ink it.

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi there!

When I showed last weeks update for my drawing teacher, we noticed that I wasn't quite done with it, so I worked on it some more, and here is the result:

I have mainly worked on the right arm, left shoulder, and head. Maybe I'm done with it now, what I can see right now is that my drawing is leaning a bit forward and the arc on his back gives him a bit of a hunch, and of course my drawing is a few percent smaller. Well, am I done with it now...? Honestly I can't say. I'm going to let it rest for a while and maybe, just maybe, I'm going to work on it some more.

Take care!

Weekend-update!

Hi there!

I've worked some more on last weeks update:

As before the original in on the left and my drawing is on the right. I made my drawing a few per cent smaller than the original, but aside from that I think I'm done wit it.

Take care!