The difference between the amateur and the professional.

Yesterday when I was strolling around in the centre of Gothenburg with a camera to capture the moment in the inner city. A thought struck me, and it goes like this:

The difference between the amateur and the professional is that the amateur takes the first sketch/photo and goes with it, while the professional makes many sketches or take lots of photos and then choose one of those to continue the project.
A while back one of my friends showed some pencilled comics pages, which I thought were great. I suggested to dash on some ink and they would have been done! But my friend didn’t think so at all! He said that he wasn’t sure about the pacing of the panels and what not... while I was astounded over the fact that he wasn’t satisfied with the equivalent of the sistine chapel in comics... So in this story he was the professional and I was the amateur!
With lots of sketches or photos you can choose what kind of angle you want for your project, and it’s easier to choose the right one when you have tried them out first with a simple sketch.
It needs to be said also that the professional with his/hers experience can probably do a quick project with great result, due to the fact that they have the accumulated experience and the knowledge.

And that was my thought yesterday! I’m not sure if it is a water tight truth, since we are all different and all that, but I think that it has some truth in it!

Take care!

P.s It just dawned on me that this is why my current projects don’t move that fast, because I’m still sketching and trying out things... the character design is going slowly forward, veeeeery slowly...

International Animation Day 2014 in Gothenburg!

Fancy some animation? Off course you are!

Then I would suggest you to attend the IAD screening in Gothenburg, 28th October 18:45 at Hagabion!

International Animation Day, or IAD is an event to celebrate the very first screening of Émile Reynaud’s animated film, which took place in Paris in 1892. IAD is a global event with screenings all over the place. To learn more, check out the ASIFA webpage:

www.asifa.net

This screening will feature among others, films from locally based animators here in Gothenburg. And if that’s not all, these animators will attend the screening! So if you are keen enough you just might get to rub shoulders with live animators! We are planning to have a little chat with each and every attending animator, to get to know them a little more.

The featured attending animators are (drum roll please):

Jacob Stålhammar
Monne Lindström
Adam Boklund

We are also going to show some student films, so you will be able to see what tomorrows animators are doing today!

And if that’s not all, we will also show an international award winning short film!

So I hope you understand now, that you HAVE to be there!

This screening is a collaboration between:
Animation i Väst
Västra Götalandsregionen
Hagabion

For more information about Hagabion:
www.hagabion.se

For more information about Animation i Väst
www.animationivast.se

A published illustration!

Some weeks ago I got an email from Hagabion (a cinema here in Gothenburg). They needed illustrations for their upcoming program. The deadline was really tight, just a couple of days. I gave it some thought but none of the ideas took flight. But then I remembered that I had a quick sketch of a shark, that I had in my sketch book. So I took it, scanned it, and toiled with it in Photoshop, not that much if truth be told... and sent it to the cinema.

I didn’t hear from them so I thought they used some other illustration. Because I wasn’t the only recipient of the e-mail... This week I passed the cinema and I went in to see what kind of illustration they used... to my big surprise, they used mine!

I was extremely surprised by this, because usually assignments like these pass me by. The chain of events usually looks like this: I get a tip, I do an illustration, I send it and get rejected! That has happened quite a lot.

The sketch is done with a blue pen, you can actually see how I have searched for the right form and then taken decisions and then pressed harder with the pen.

Here are some scans of it, so you can see it in all its glory.

Take care!

My text in translation:

Illustrator, P-G Lidström
Jaws, (1975), Steven Spielberg.
A book I haven’t read, that became
a really good film; that got consequenses
for it’s "main character". The first
thriller that I took to my heart! A
cooler antagonist is hard to find...

www.pglidstrom.blogspot.se

Here I put together the two scans in Photoshop so you can see the whole shark.

The character design has begun!

Last week I finished the analysis! Which feels great. To my surprise it became quite the bundle of drawings. Even though I was the one doing all the drawing, it dawned on me just last week, how many there were!

During the design of the characters, I don’t think I will post scans of the pages; because I don’t want to disturb the process. But when they are done, scans will be posted!

Take care!

How to make apple mash, the comic!

It might be some months ago, that I got a tip that a comics publisher were going to put out a book with recipes from comics artists. At first I didn’t know if I had an idea strong enough for a book like that. To my surprise I did! Unfortunately the deadline came fast and I was out of town that very week. So I decided to do my pages the week after, and so I did! Because I thought that they had a few weeks to put it all together and so on... to my surprise they had already sent it to the printers!

So what have I learned from this? A deadline, is a deadline, is a deadline!

So here are my comics pages about apple mash! Although I think it’s kind of self explanatory I will provide a translation under the pages.

Take care!

How to make apple mash by P-G Lidström

Wash up jars!

Peal, take away the pips and cut the apples into small pieces.

Pour a small amount of water...

...and jam sugar!

Boil!

Well, boil asunder then you wretched pieces!!!!!!!!!

Aouch!!!

Pour the apple mash into the clean jars.

Put the lid on!
Boiling hot apple mash + jar of glass + lid =

Aaaaaooouch!! Raaaaaaahhh!!!!

Recipe
- Lots of jars.
- Lots of apples.
- Jam sugar, that you can mix with castor sugar, if you would like a looser mash.
- Put the apple pieces in water with lemon juice, (or a vitamin C-tablet) so they won’t turn brown.
- I tend to rough or play it by ear, the amount of kilos of apples and jam sugar, it makes it more thrilling...!!
- Good luck!

The final piece of analysis!

Finally I’m done with the analysis! Here is the last scan.

I’ve continued with the Spirou album Drömfabriken/Machine qui rêve. Sadly the binding of the album gave way, so some of the pages are now loose... The grade of the album went from very fine to (kind of) poor quite quickly!! (By grading I mean the scale that the comics collectors use...)

Sometimes it’s hard to estimate how long something will take, for this analysis I had estimated about 3-4 weeks... Lets just say it took longer than that...! But hopefully I’m going to benefit from it later on...I hope!

Next up is character design!

Take care!

Yet more analysis.

The analysis here has continued and I start to feel like a copy machine...!

Here are some new scans! This time around I’ve concentrated on a motorcycle because in one of my scripts, there is one... I’ve noticed that the motorcycle as on object is quite hard to get right...

On top is a drawing from the comic Joe Bar Team by Bar2 and Stéphane Deteindre, it’s a Ducati as I’ve scribbled beside it. Below that one and for the rest, are drawings from the Spirou album "Drömfabriken"/"Machine qui rêve", by Tome & Janry. This album is, according to me, by far the best looking and story wise it’s great! The story stays with you... It’s one of my favorite Spirou albums!

If my eyes don’t deceive me, the make of the motorcycle is Kawasaki, I haven’t yet looked up what kind of model it is, mainly it’s because it’s another make in my comic...

Below is a drawing from the front cover of the album.