Troll Studies

Last weekend I attended the Northern Light Workshop in Stockholm. There I learned a ton about how to develop my images further in two intense days of painting and listening to the combined wisdom and experience of Justin Gerard, Jesper Ejsing and Petar Meseldzija (not to mention all the talented students!).

One of the most important things I learned during the course was about how to plan your images from sketch to finish. Doing studies of the details before applying them to the final image. These sketches are a direct result of this.

In a hole in a tree stump...

...there lived a tomte. Since last year I have done a numerous amount of sketches and paintings on the theme of Nordic mythology. If time between commissions allow it, I am hoping to have the project done toward the fall of this year.

This is one of the pieces on the table right now.

And on the other side of the room, there is another one...

 

I have shown details from the picture above before. It is progressing slowly but surely.

I particularly enjoy the small company of Wights below the bridge. 

At the end of the month I am joining the Northern Light Workshop in Stockholm to further develop my techniques and imagery. The guest instructors will be Jesper Ejsing, Petar Meseldzija and Justin Gerard. Very exiting. I am going to post a few images and write more about the workshop when that time comes. Until then, there are more images to create.

Lionel the Lion

In july last year I wrote about my first children's book commission by Mind Vitamins about Leif the Lion. Now, as I am happy to see it have finally been published for iPad (in three languages!), I thought I'd show you some of the final artwork done for the book.

Lionel in the Park with ol' Grandma. 

Lionel together with his friend Bee.

The pictures in the book were drawn with watercolour pencils on 350gms cotton paper. It was a fun project to work on and I learned a lot about planning your images for interactivity. It also led to another commission (with a very different theme) I will be writing more about later this year.

If you are interested in the book, you can get it Here. 

Seven Gates

 It is always fun to receive a printed copy of the final product. Mirvi over at Askunge sent me a few reading copies of "De Sju Portarna" (eng. The Seven Gates") and gave me permission to show you an excerpt from it.

Above: At the table, a few reading copies

Above: Page 5 from "De Sju Portarna". Text by the very talented Victoria W Gustafsson and Annette S Panboon.

Progress. It is funny how things turn out sometimes. The illustrations were from the beginning planned as black and white and painted in ink, but changed to color in the end.

I had great fun during the entire project. Now off to the next one!

A Good Year

Happy New Year to all of you! 

Last year I mainly focused on my own projects and development as an artist, but towards the end of the year it got really busy when I got contacted by Askunge (publishing company). It was a great project to work on, including narrative illustrations as well as covers to two educational books in mathematics and problem solving. I am happy to show you the final covers below (I wish I had math-books like this when I went to school).

Watercolour and Ink

Watercolour and Ink

For more info on the books, you can read Askunge's blog here (article in Swedish). I wish you all a good continuation on the New Year as it progresses forward, remember the best is always yet to come.

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.