Early October

Nature fascinates me. It is so inspiring to see it change from spring to winter. Last month I went out and took a bunch of reference photos. It had been raining, as it does in the fall, and the small streams in the forest were raging with an overflow of water, washing everything out of its way. The leaf-trees had gone from green to yellow and orange, leaving a beautiful contrast to the dark and mossy pine around. The sun shone through the clouds and gave everything an almost magical golden touch.

My words cannot truly bring it to justice, but I hope that the latest painting I am working on will catch just a glimpse of the impression it left on me and on the same time continue on my ongoing Tomte-theme.

I regret to show you just a cropped teaser of the full picture at this time, but I promise to show more of everything as it progresses.

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Story of a Tomte (final)

I had some time to finish the details on this, not really anything new - just finalized. I have just started on the second piece in the series, hopefully I'll have something more to show you soon.

Fraggle Rock Boober

Today Jim Henson would have been 75 years old. I grew up with the creations of The Muppets and Fraggle Rock and they bring out a lot of memories even today. Boober was the character I remember clearest from Fraggle Rock. He was the coolest of them all. To me, Henson represents creativity and innovation. I am happy that his legacy carries on to inspire new generations, and this image, though small, is my tribute. May his legacy never die.

Boober Fraggle. Watercolour and Gouache.

Portrait of a Train Driver

Working on a rather fun children's game (that I cannot for obvious reasons reveal too much about at the moment), I got to do some character portraits. This of an old Train Driver that I became rather fond of...

I hope we'll be finished with the project soon enough to show you a small movieclip of it.

Story of a Tomte (part 3)

Have had a nice holliday; walking the forest, picking mushrooms, blueberries, raspberries... made new friends, met a frog and longhorned grasshopper, and on top of all that, I finished the watercolor work on my piece about a tomte! It has a nice warm classic feel to it which I don't want to change.

 

Now a few digital strokes are still going to be added in order to work out the values better, but as this piece is larger than my scanner I will have to send it off for digital photo reproduction. that will give me a nice crisp image without too much paper texture to work with.

Story of a Tomte (part 2)

I have started the watercolor process of piece, thought I'd give you some progress shots!

 

The underpainting done...

 

Started to work on the shadows...

Story of a Tomte

Continuing on the trail of Scandinavian folklore, I am doing a small series of images telling the story of a Tomte and his many struggles. Below are early images from the starting process.

 This was the second draft that I made, it explains the general idea of the image...

I then did a little more refined sketch that I will base the finals on...

And a quick value composition in Photoshop I will use as reference when painting the image in watercolor...

Utopia 54 (page 004)

Time for another page! I am seriously considering making a separate page for Utopia 54 soon. Reason being It is starting to dominate my first page!! The idea for this month is to put up some more sketches and drawings of fairy tale creatures though. Hope to bring your some interesting stuff soon!

Phoenix Vehicle Sketches

The Phoenix Vehicle is a Special Unit's Vehicle in Utopia 54. These were the first sketches that came to play after a small series of shapes/silhouettes I did a few years back. In the beginning it was more resembling a dragonfly, but after shaping the front like a beak and the lights were shaped as eyes, I decided to name it after the fiery bird I love so much: The Phoenix.

   

Utopia 54 (page 003)

And so it is time for another page! Hope you enjoy it. Page 3.

Dragon Tale (WIP)

This is a portfolio piece I am working on. Before a finished image, there are always a lot of sketches and scribblings, this time I wanted to do this digitally first and then transfer it to more traditional watercolor.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Utopia 54 (page 002)

It's Thursday and here's page 2 of "Utopia 54". hope you enjoy it!

Mirror, Mirror...

One of the most memorable scenes from the classic tale of Little Snow-White, is then the Wicked Queen is approaching her magic Mirror on the wall. As you might remember, not very long ago at all, I did a piece on Little Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves for the Grimm Tales Challenge over at the Art Order. I have continued on the story, and these are the most recent thumbs/sketches on the project.

 

 (Maybe it is silly to call these thumbs, because I rarely do any smaller sketches than A6 format, in this case A5 (8.3 x 5.8 in). The Wicked Stepmother Queen envy the beauty of Little Snow-White.

"Mirror, Mirror..." Had an idea to richly decorate the frame and let it reach from floor to ceiling, depicting creatures from the bottom of the sea to the skies above.

Troubled Joker

For the BioWare FanArt Showcase I made this piece about Joker, one of my absolute favourite characters in the Mass Effect Series. I was thinking of him as tired, worn-out and troubled. Always sitting alone in that big ship, always ready to work and always showing a happy face whenever someone drop by. He's the sidekick that saves the day, without him Shepard would have died 20 times over. Though a rush-job, this is my tribute.

Utopia 54 (page 001)

The first page is finished! The working title is now "Utopia 54", I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did creating it. I will  try to keep this up to date once a week, but as always it depends on the amount of work at hand.

Comic On the Drawing Table

I have started to work on my comic book novel. I won't be in any rush to finish it, as previously mentioned it is a long term project. I will upload progress every once in a while and the finished pages will be available online whenever ready, so make sure to keep an eye out if you're interested.

Cave Explorer

As a long term project I have been working on a Sci-Fi story which I have mentioned previously in this blog. I have decided to try it out as a web comic. Still in progress as I write this, I just wanted to post this draft from my sketchbook.

The prelude is almost done. It is my hope to have the first few pages published either here or on a separate page in a near future and I'll decide where to go from there. It is tempting to draw it digitally, but I'm still soft for traditional pen and ink. Maybe I'll add watercolors to it as well...

Leif the Lion

I was happy when I was commissioned to illustrate my first Children's Book, written by Anna Engquist about "Lejonet Lejf" (I am guessing the translation would be "Leif the Lion" in English). It will be published for the digital market this fall by the Swedish company Mind Vitamins. I was allowed to show some of the work here and write about it.

 

The requirements of the image were "City Park" and drawn with "Colored pencils". There are many colorful and old quarters in the cities here, so I picked out a few buildings for inspiration and started to sketch up the neighbourhood around the park in the story. The fun part was the challenge of using colored pencils again, I have not done that since the early school days (now it's mostly watercolors and digital images). I hope to show you more of the work done when it has been published.

Trolls Final

I am happy to bring you the final piece so soon. 

Details... I was painting the fine lines with a W&N series 4 size 0 brush, it has a really fine tip allowing me to go into great detail even if the paper size is not very large. I was working on a standard A4 size (about 8" x 11" I think) 240g acid free cotton paper.

 

As I have mentioned previously, this image was based on some writings and drawings I did years ago, I wanted to post the original image here as it gives me a good laugh today:

 

Trolls Pre Final

I am done with the watercolor stage, next will be color enhancements and polishing on some details in photoshop. I am overall happy with the progress so far. Next time I post it will be the finished piece.

 

Trolls update

I wanted to show you the current progress of the "Trolls" image.

This image have really sparked my creativity. More to come soon.

Trolls

Detail from another work in progress. In an old drawer I found parts of a script I wrote back in school, together with a bunch of sketches about the trolls emigrating from our world, never to return again. This drawing was inspired from that.

Little Snow-White (Final)

So, it's July already! I believe I have a lot of stuff stocked up to show you this month. With a few days left to deadline for the Grimm Tales Challenge over at the Art Order, I have painted the last stroke of watercolor on this piece. I wanted to tell the classic story of Little Snow-White and put it in a steampunk environment. I used a lot of brown colors to get a feeling of dust, wood and leather. I really enjoyed painting this. 

Little Snow-White

I started to feel guilty for not updating my blog the past weeks, so I decided to give you a look into what's going on. Over at The Art Order there is a Grimm Tales challenge that is coming to a close next sunday. I've been working on an image from "Little Snow-White". 

This is the scene where the dwarves find Little Snow-White sleeping in their house. The idea was to bring some slight sci-fi elements into it, but still staying true to the original story, so I decided to go steampunk. Though I don't think it is visible enough yet, I will finalize gear, costumes and back/foreground this coming week and finish it of with ink/watercolor. When it's done I'll post it here.

Apart from the Grimm challenge, I have been busy with a game and a children's book I've been commissioned to do artwork for. I got images ready for uploading in July, be sure to check it out.

Mystical Forest of the North

I have always loved Fairy Tales, and Northern Folklore. I grew up with tales illustrated by John Bauer, and his art have always fascinated me. I am currently working on a portfolio based on the environments around me; Swedish Pine Forests and all the lore that comes with it. 

I did these as I was practising watercolor techniques. It was hard to squeeze in any real detail as the paper size was no larger than 5"x7" (about 12.5x18 cm). Color enhancements was made in Photoshop.

Above: Gnomes have always played a big part in the fairy-tales I've been reading. Below: thumbs from my sketchbook of what's to come.

Desert Troops Concept work

As I continue to write on the story itself, I am still exploring the visual style of it. There is a lot of sand in this story, and thus I needed a battle-suit for the Desert Troops. I started out with Millie as she is one of the main characters of the story. Here is version 2 in progress.

  

 The drafts for this started in my sketchbook a few years back

The idea here was to give her a small cloak to make her stand out as an officer in command, however, I later rejected the idea as too many loose parts only tend to be in the way on the battle-field.

Éowyn and the Nazgûl (Final)

Finally it is finished and submitted. Thank you all that have been surportive during its creation. These are the words of J.R.R. Tolkien that inspired this piece:

"Backward she sprang as the huge shape crashed to ruin, vast wings outspread, crumpled on the earth; and with its fall the shadow past away. A light fell about her and her hair shone in the sunrise.

        Out of the wreck rose the black rider, tall and threatening, towering above her. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he let fall his mace. Her shield was shivered in many pieces, and her arm was broken; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill. "

I had great fun during this challenge and I learned a lot! Furthermore, here is a picture of the final pencil work for you:

Previous posts on this piece: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Éowyn and the Nazgûl (part 5)

Time is really going fast now. Last week before deadline. I decided that when I puzzle the final together in Photoshop I really want to maintain the feel of the original painting, but I also wanted to add some more texture to it, so I started to work on a separate piece in pencil, with the hope that when it all come together it will look great. I took a shot of the progress (sorry for the quality!).

Now I just got that dreaded sky left to draw (shivers)...

Éowyn and the Nazgûl (part 4)

I'm almost done with the lower half. I am not very happy with the sky however, so might do a repaint of it seperately. I have added Snowmane and a hint of King Théoden in the forground.

 I made a speedpaint of the changes before I painted them. I believe the sky will look something closer to this. It feels less busy but still frames the image. Final remains to be seen though.

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhand is a movie of which tale I never get tired of. Thanks to Tim Burton's excellent directing combined with his unique visual style, perfect casting and a fantastic soundtrack by Danny Elfman, it got me hooked from the first time I saw it.

  

Not too long ago I discovered a blog called Scissorhands 20th. It is a wonderful tribute to Edward Scissorhands 20th anniversary where invited artists have contributed with artworks of their own visions of the movie. It brought back a lot of good memories, and this inspired me to make my own piece. So I picked up the ol' DVD and watched it again, put on some Danny Elfman music to get in the mood and got down to work. This is the result.

Éowyn and the Nazgûl (part 3)

So, the under-painting is almost done. Soon I'll be able to put more shadows, colors and details into the picture. Thinking of adding some some more patterns in cloth and armor, but it remains to be seen how much I'll add to it. It is still possible I'll add a part of Snowmane in the forground.

Read previous posts on this piece here: Part 1 and Part 2

Éowyn and the Nazgûl (part 2)

Sorry for not updating sooner. This Art Order challenge have really gotten to me. I am currently past the stage of sketching and have started on the watercolors. As you can see, some changes have been made since the piece was drawn in part 1.

I removed the hood on the Witch King and added some more armor details to Éowyn. I changed the direction of the Witch King's head to make him look more leaning forward than before and I have removed some of the cloth. 

When the piece is finished I'll have more pictures of the work in progress for you.

Indiana Jones and Marion

I have always enjoyed the Indiana Jones movies, the adventures, the action, the romance, the mysticism. I did my first fanart when I was 8 years old, and I had not even seen a whole movie yet. A few weeks ago I picked up my Indiana DVD-box and felt it was time to watch it again, and after that came the idea to make this:

Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood escaping the explosions at the digsite of Tanis. The idea was to frame them with the black smoke in the background. I came up with this angle as thumb no 3. After that I started to roughly sketch it up... A selection of the progress below:

 

 From left to right: 1.Rough sketch (PS), 2. Pencils with first color wash, 3. Watercolor Progress, 4. Finished Piece (PS). 

Éowyn and the Nazgûl

I joined The Art Order recently and was really motivated to join in on the "Eowyn and the Nazgul challenge". After about 7 drafts I started to get that feeling of "satisfaction" with the work done so far. I decided to ink it, but there is still a long way to go. Here's a shot of the progress for you :)

I will post more of the progress when it's done.

The Fighter Sketches

The Fighter, work in progress. Thought I'd show you some sketches this time, not just finished stuff. To me, looking in other artists sketchbooks can many times be more inspirational than to look at the finished work. Getting to know the work behind the work sort of speak.

The Trees of My Days

I have always been fascinated by trees. Each one is just perfect in its own way, and if I wander the fields somewhere and see a lonely old Oak, I can't but stop and feel like home... 

The background I made for this blog was put together by three paintings I had made where I was trying to reflect this, as shown below:

 

This was "The First Tree". Believe it or not, but I was sketching on this over a period of about six years+. It was the first page in my artbook of thick A3 watercolor pages, and I refused to start on the next page until it was finished. I wanted every detail to be there, every leaf (the very reason it took such time!). But in the end I felt it was not necessary to do so, and when I started to feel finished with the pencil work I was afraid to ruin it by coloring, because I had not been working that much with watercolor during that time. However, I took the courage to color it in 2010, and there it goes, "The First Tree" on the hill...

 

"The Field" was painted as an addition to "The First Tree" especially for the blog, and as soon it was done I continued with the third image in the series:

 

"The Second Tree" (original name, I know!). It took about half a day to get the second and third image done for the photoshop work to create the background. Now I'm not sure if I even want it as a background on the blog, but i will leave it be, for now :-)