The analysis continues!

The analysis continues here, although I’m coming closer to finishing it. I think this is a valuable exercise, and I hope I will gain from it later on in the process.

Here are some pictures, unfortunately my camera is acting up so the drawings are much better, really, I promise... ;-)

Take care!

This photo actually works! The second drawing here and on to the "Justice League-ones" are from comics adaptations in an animated style inspired by artist Bruce Timm. I’ve taken these from two issues of Swedish magazine Gigant 3 and 4 from 2001. The drawings on Catwoman above are from an issue of Wizard.

 Here the camera decides to not participate...

On the second drawing above (on Batman), my reference was a paused episode of the tv-series "Justice League". This gave me less time to "get it right" so the following drawings are quite quicker and more in the line of studies. I kind of focused here on Hawk Girl because it’s a character that I know quite little about. Hawk Man is a character for me that pops up somewhere and is cool, I have to read something with that character...
The fact that I paused a tv-show sent me back in my mind to when I was a kid and paused "The Gummi Bears", to draw the characters from that show...

The second drawing above and the drawing below on Catwoman are from "Batman TAS" season one I think, a kick ass show...

Some drawings at last!

Finally I can show you some drawings, it was some time ago that was a possibility! Currently I’m looking at various designs for the character design for my projects. To do this and get to try out the style I analyze the style. You might also say that I’m copying them, but analyzing sounds better...!

These drawings will function as inspiration for the design later on. How the end result will be, remains to be seen... this exercise also functions as a way to try and improve my skill set, or challenge me if you will. I’ve been really inclusive when I looked at stuff that I like, the styles you will see here are mainly from animation and comics.

Here are some pictures on the drawings so far!

Take care!

It’s official, I’m now a bachelor!

This week I got my diploma from Gothenburg University! Have you seen something so beautiful?

I’m so proud I might burst at any second now! And as always here in the blog, there is a story!

When I went to high school or gymnasiet as we say here in Sweden, the probability that I were going to study at a university were on the minus scale, basically it was non existent. Then and there I was studying economics and I kind of quickly realized that economics were not my forte.

The years passed and in my early 20’s I began to think about maybe studying religion, not to become a priest or anything like that, just to get to know more and satisfy my curiosity. But I was quickly told that it was so hard and so difficult to do that. And since I didn’t thought of myself as an academic I thought that it was not for me. Around this time I also wanted to pursue this artistic career, that I later on did pursue.

In my mid 20’s I played around with the idea of having an artistic career and on my spare time taking courses at some university, where I lived somewhere in Europe; while working in a major animation studio...

Quite some few years passed and it becomes clear to me that this career in animation will have to wait, due to how hard it is to get in... I start studying and upgrade my grades, and here I anew start to ponder about these religious studies. I apply to some schools and I got accepted for two educations: religious studies in Uppsala and Fritidsledarlinjen at Sigtuna folkhögskola. The Uppsala one was full on academic and the Sigtuna one was not that academic but we did our fare share of studying and preparing for the working life. I chose the Sigtuna one because I didn’t feel like an academic...

The years passed and I worked with kids in the church of Sweden. A job that I liked which was also rewarding. I decided to finish my education and become församlingspedagog/Parish pedagog. So I returned to Sigtuna for my final year. That year was an important one for me for it gave me some time to put things into perspective. There we that studied parish pedagogics were also teachers for other students, where we looked at the five world religions.

I was very surprised because we had to get the knowledge ourselves and also to pass it along to our students, and how can you distill thousands of years of hinduism in one or two lessons, for example. I was seized by this question, and that made me to apply to the Gothenburg University and the program Religious studies and Theology.

In 2009 I started my academic studies and I liked it, a lot! But then and there it was only to be that one year, then I was going back to work. But after a while I decided to actually finish what I started (I want to do that). And the result from these endeavors can be seen on the picture of my diploma! I now got a Filosofie kandidatexamen med huvudområdet religionsvetenskap och teologi/Degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in Religious Studies and Theology.

And I’ve already started my graduate studies, and at the moment I’m planning what I’m going to specialize in.

So do I feel like an academic then? Well, the jury is still out on that one...! But I can truthfully say that I during these studies didn’t need to redo any exam at all, I passed them all and some with distinction!

So what can we learn from this then? If someone says that something is so difficult or so hard, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to succeed, you might just do that!

I’ve always held the academics in high regard because of how difficult their studies have been. Well, the only thing that was needed, was time and interest!

Well, I better stop now before the gods strike me down for my hubris...

Take care!

Sketchbooks

Last week I wrote about the sketchbooks I was making, this week I’m going to show the pictures! The technique is as always very simple: grab a pile of papers and make holes in them and bind them together with a string. In this batch I pimped them (kind of) with a colored paper as a cover. In the bottom I’ve got cardboard to make them sturdier.

The papers for these sketchbooks were free to take. It will be interesting to see how the format will feel, they are a bit squared...

These papers are from a pile of broken dreams and promises and wants, basically a pile of "shait"! But as sketchbooks or notebooks the will be dandy!

These paper were also free and yet another format, they feel more like drawing pads than sketchbooks.

When I was done with this batch I was amazed by the fact that I had made 11 sketchbooks, I thought that it would be three or four...

I think that it is a brilliant way to make something out of almost nothing. And it is so easy to do, that it’s almost no reason not to! There are a whole range of sketchbooks out there that one can by, some are cheap and some are expensive. But why spend your hard earned cash on something that you can do yourself, out of discarded pieces of paper? Sure it will take some time to make them, but if one looks at the cost per item, there is no excuse. For these eleven sketchbooks I bought four sheets of colored paper. The string I had and also the cardboard, and of course the papers. I’m making an estimate here, but the total cost per item might be around 3-4 SEK, labour not included though ;-)

Alright they may be a bit rough on the eyes but then again they are sketchbooks, not fancy drawing pads with quality papers. In these books I will write down ideas and make sketches, and not do final line drawings. The fact that they are not fancy makes it easier to bring them along or have them in my backpack. The functionality is extremely high!

This week I finally got started drawing, currently I’m analyzing various styles that I can be inspired by when I start with the character design, pictures will follow!

Take care!

Stuff going on!

My updates have been somewhat erratic lately, hopefully I’m back on track now!

The illustration about the draughtsman’s habits wasn’t done, there’s a shocker..! I’ve tweaked it a bit, enlarged the pictures so you don’t need so search for them with a magnifying glass...

Last week I read my scripts that I’ve written lately, all of them are done save but one. When I read it, it was okay, but I want it to be great! The main story works, I just have to work it all out with the characters... I think that what the script needs is some rest and relaxation and then a day or two to sort it all out!

Currently I’m making some sketch books, pictures will follow, soon...

Take care!

The Draughtsmans five (bad) habits.

This was (kind of) an assignment that got thrown my way... We had seen some fun illustrations in the form of edutainment. I got this pass and I tried to do my best with it.

I’m not sure if these are bad habits, but they are all true!

Paper and pencil nearby
I think I’ve written about this before, as of now I’ve got sketch books laying in strategic positions in my apartment, so that I always got a sketch book nearby, so I can write down that idea or do a quick sketch.

Yearning to draw
Actually I heard this from a friend, that said that sometimes she couldn’t stop herself from drawing someones nose, if that had an interesting shape...

A sound relationship to pencils
This is definitely true for me, and I also saw this in a documentary where an artist dropped one of his paintbrushes in a manhole, so sad and so fun at the same time! If you have a favorite pencil then you want to use it, and when it breaks... let’s not go there...

Difficulty to get payed
This is very true and very sad, just because it is an illustration or something creative people expect you to work for free, more or less. A personal memory comes to mind... I had painted this watercolor that got some interest from a very small magazine. They wanted to publish it, and I told them my prize (I had looked it up what I could charge), and then the editor said to me that he had a friend that could do that for free! Although it was a very small magazine, with a very tight budget, I still think they could have offered me something... this was many years ago, for now I don’t really mind to do work for free if I get some compensation or if I think that the idea is especially good. I think you have to go to yourself, if you are okay with it or not. I mean for every assignment you do, you get experience that you can use for the next one.

Close to inspiration
I’ve written about this before, about the elusive inspiration. Yet another personal memory comes to mind... I was in a middle of this project and my time was limited and I didn’t know what to do. So I took a shower and all of a sudden I got this brilliant idea of how I could proceed with the project.

So is it done then? Well...sort of, I’m done with it for now, if I want to tweak it a little I can do that, but for now, it’s done! It’s a low rendition.

Take care!

The real and the not so real.

A couple of days ago I saw the film Mademoiselle Chambon (1). While watching it I began to think why it appeared to be so real, or believable.

In my latest course we have discussed photography and that the staged photograph can be as strong a messenger as the more documentary photography can be. Even though the staged photograph might not be as real as the documentary one, the message might be better transmitted with a staged photograph.

In literature there is almost always a mix of true events and fantasy that is mixed together into something new. For literature to be successful it needs to connect to the reader, somehow. Because we do not read something that we don’t like to read, if we do not need to... The writer must get the right mixture of the real and the un-real and transform that into something believable. It’s easier to buy it, if it’s believable.

One of my favorite films is An american in Paris (2). The film is so good that it needs to get its own post... so I might return to it!
I’m fascinated by it because the only shots of actual Paris in the movie is the very first shots of the film which are taken from newsreels or travel journals of some sort. Directly when we get to Gene Kellys characters’ building where he lives, we have left the real Paris for a Hollywood soundstage. The film is staged in Paris, but is recorded in Hollywood. This is not something new in the film business, but I’m fascinated by it none the less.

A city like Paris that has been written about and painted and photographed over the years, might be a bit difficult to get a handle on. Because the image you get from reading, and watching films and looking at paintings might not be what you encounter when you actually get there. The image and the real collide. The same can be said for New York or any other city that is featured in books, or TV or films.
There is no wonder that the image and the real collide when one is actually real and the other might be a total fantasy. I’m really in for a surprise if I’m going to Paris and hoping that my stay there will be like the film An American in Paris... I’m not saying that it might not be like that, lets just say that the odds are against it...!

In conclusion, believability is based on actual facts, and fantasy mixed together into something new. The mixture is then read or watched and connects to the reader/viewer, where an image is formed. I think that the film Mademoiselle Chambon contains a great mixture of believability, of facts and fantasy that connects to the viewer, at least to me. And also great performances from the actors, that probably draws from their own lives, when portraying their characters.

Take care!


1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285246/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)
2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043278/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)