Never too old to have fun like a kid.

IF: Soar

Click to enlarge

Who´s that on the horizon?
Armed werewolves, that´s who.
Wait until they soar into the night
sky with their feathery wings.

Oh boy, I am really stretching the
IF topic again. One day one of the site
admins will find out how badly I shoehorn
the topics onto whatever drawing I am
working on and drive to my house
to twist around my arm really, really
hard, and then tell me to be ashamed
of myself.

So, better leave a comment now
before this site gets shut down!
Also, I hope you had a nice christmas
or whatever have (not) been celebrating.
You know what I got?
A 20 CD box with everything
David Sedaris ever put on disc so
far. TWENTY DISCS. Over 22 hours
filled with stories read by one of the most
charming writers I know.

Rain, houses, smoke, street.

IF: Backwards (2)

click to enlarge

Monkeyboy loves to play
his recorded voice backwards!

IF: Backwards

click click click the image, not this text.

Sailing backwards.
Hurray!

IF: Small things 2

click to enlarge


Small things....
FIGHTING TO (ROBOTIC) DEATH!

IF: Small things

If you want this particular small
thing to be larger, why not just click on it?

I am working on almost every day during
december at my job at the coat check of a
local theatre, and it´s pretty hard to still
get some drawings done when I am at home
again. It´s either that I work early and have to
get some sleep when I get home again,
killing the rest of the day by not getting
fully awake again, or I have to work late and
can´t get anything done with work looming
further down the day.

Creative work is a very precious and
fragile thing I actually need a lot more time
for than I thought I would. But on the
plus side, I am really appreciating my free
time right now.

I like how pencil gets a smooth,
charcoal look to it when setting
the contrast settings to the extremes.

IF: The Zoo // The Headless Rider

click to enlarge

"Behold this wicked creature, and
you know you´re in the foulest
ZOO ever."

(I know I am shoehorning this weeks
IF-Topic very badly again, but please don´t
hate me for it. I can´t control myself.)

***

Headless AND only one-armed, that
poor guy. That horse had gone through
a lot of trouble, too. I really have to
press those illustrations out fast, Monday
is drawing near and I have to work four times
at the weekend. But it´s fun having to come up
with stuff quickly - when I can´t be doubtful
and hesistant, I seem to draw very efficient.
This is actually the first try at the headless
rider, without any sketches involved beforehand
(as you can tell by looking at the horse, but
neither do I have enough time to learn animal
anatomy, nor do I think anyone cares about this much).

(This is the old color version)

Another ANOTHER Yeti

CLICKETTI-CLICK TO XXL

I really wasn´t satisfied with my last
coloring of this Yeti, so I cleaned the rough
edges (which were more pretentious and lazy
than "expressive" and didn´t add anything interesting
to the linework), changed the colorscheme and
dimmed some black lines. I like this one a lot
better. Funny what a difference coloring can make!

By the way, this is my 200th post.

Another go at the Yeti

I am not going to draw him AGAIN,
that´s for sure. It´s a far cry
from the first version, anyway.
Monday is the Bologna deadline,
and I have three more pieces to go,
which means I don´t have any time to
think twice about keeping illustrations,
which is actually helpful and good.

IF: Superstition // Oni Ver. 2

Click to enlarge

My new version of the Oni.
Calling a part of asian mythology
superstition might be a bit of a stretch,
but, eh, well.

I´ve been too much in a creative hole again
lately, so I got back to my favourite, smeary and
cheap art too - the biro pen, and tried to
lose all of the tension, to just have FUN
drawing... I´ve been so uptight with
drawing lately for all the wrong reasons.

I hope you can see I had fun with this!

Best Of (or something)

Ah yes, a creative blockade,
just in time for the nearing Bologna
deadline. After a weekend of jobbing I was
happy to have two completely free days in front
of me, but I just produced for the rubbish
bin today.

So instead of brutally forcing it, which
only makes me unsteady and angry, and reluctant
to surrender, I flipped through my own little
back catalogue. Usually I have this strange,
unnecessarily perfectionistic habit of dismissing
my old work really quickly - for instance,
only very recent work is presented in my
portfolio (aside from bad web design).

I have the slight feeling that I did
better stuff some time ago, amongst
it many pencil drawings with lots of
neat colours and coloured lines.

I really need to print out some of this
and hang it up my walls, as a reminder
that I don´t have to start from scratch
each time I start a new drawing.

Changing my mind again (again)

Some doodles I did on the train to my
new job at the coat check of a small local theatre.
It´s pretty fun, though I worked quite a lot during the last
days. On the other hand, it´s not too stressful (apart from
the three minutes everybody wants their coats back instantly
at the end of the play), and drawing in the subway is
something I missed, strangely enough.

I am too used to my Uniball Eye pen to get back
to pencil properly, and I really can´t blame the pen
itself if my drawings get too stiff - it´s more in the
daily, consistent, joyous routine that makes my lines
more energetic again. There simply have been too
many days with NO drawing at all lately; and just
doing quick 10 minute sessions two or three times
a day make a huge difference.

Nulla dies sine linea, indeed.

Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

I am going back to pencil now again.
Much smoother, more fun.

New Yeti On The Blog

CLICK THUMBNAIL TO WIN FREE iPOD*
(*Must not happen)

A litte variation of my Yeti piece.
I have to do it again anyways, and I felt like
experimenting today, so I used the pencil
after a long time, and am surprised how much
livelier (is that a real word?) it looks.
It could, however, just be the fact that I
actually DREW this one livelier.
Argh - why is making art so complicated
sometimes?
I´m a bit confused on how to
continue, especially with the
Bologna Fair drawing nearer...

Also, two posts in ONE day?
It´s been a while!

Up in the trees

Comic artist Renée French had a speech
today at our school, and I almost missed it.
But after speeches from good artists I am always
very pumped and inspired. Her speech and especially
the question-asking afterwards was witty and
entertaining. I asked a lot of questions in my
famous broken, dialect-heavy german English.
I loved her work, and she published at
Fantagraphics among others, and as you may
or may not (may not is more likely) know, I am
a Peter Bagge (Hate! - Buddy Bradley) fan.

I´ve put a link to her site on the right,
please check her out (you SHOULD!).
Man, our school really is wicked awesome
sometimes. AND I ALMOST
MISSED THAT.
*self-punching to the face*

IF: Hats // You´re as cold as ice

A headband is a kind of hat too, right?
Also: Click to enlarge.

The Yeti. He needs no introduction.

Another illustration for my Monster
book assignment. I went for a blue colour scheme
here. In the former version, his scarf and the headband
had stripes, but it turned out to distract from
the other elements too much.

*SPECIAL READER LOVE BONUS*

If you are a long-time reader of my blog
(and chances are you are not), this yeti might
actually remind you of something I drew almost
one year ago. If you don´t remember what I am
pointing at, check this link.

Uuuh, just one day away from being
EXACTLY one year ago. That´s pure
coincidence, though!

Jo Jo Action!

Hey hey, a bit relaxed coloring
here. Like how I playfully run over the lines?
Do you think it looks good? Please say yes, because
it is a lot more fun (which means "less work").
I guess my whole style roots in not caring too much
about neglectable detailing or uptight rendering
(which, again, translates into "less work").
Kidding aside (I am only kind-of kidding here, though),
I love drawing LOTS, but I don´t like spending too
much time on a single piece - especially if it turns
out to be rubbish in the end.




Oh god, it´s "Yoyo" instead of Jojo.
Jo Jo Action is a bad, bad eurodance song by
"Mr. President" (the band, not the president) that
is so BAD that I won´t even link it here.
But since my quest for catchy, upbeat and
nonsensical 80ies pop music continues, I found
this heartwarming gem.
I found it while listening to the Aaron
Carter version for nostalgic reasons
(my little brother used to dance in our
livingroom to that and I wanted to get the lyrics).
"No more charades, my heart´s been displayed."
OH YES PLEASE.

IF: Trick or Treat // Oni

click to enlarge, or else I´ll GRÖÖÖÖAAAAAAR


"TRICK this Oni, and he´ll
TREAT you with his club!"

Another day, another shameless plug of
fitting my own work it into the recent Ilustration
Friday topic. But hey, it IS pretty easy.

An Oni is a japanese ogre-kind of creature,
and the first dedicated piece I did for my
own project, which will be some kind of
monster encyclopedia-styled book. Making
our own books is the assignment at our current
class, and while I know that the idea of doing
a monster book isn´t revolutionary by any means,
it´ll free me from making up a cheesy children
story - I am not a good writer (or lacking any
pratice at least), so I´ll pour all my love for
weird creatures in it.

It´s going to be
about the more unusual monsters though,
some northern and eastern european fable
creatures, asian ones, maybe some african
characters... It should have at least some
part of educational purpose. Or maybe not.
I just wanna have as much fun as possible with
this, which is the only way to guarantee a maximum
of quality in my eyes - I wanna make a book I would
buy myself (kinda like those bands that say they
make the music they would wanna listen too, which
is both simple and genius at the same time).

And check out Amy Brown by the new
link on the right, she does very good lighthearted
stuff, and what I find most fascinating is that it
seems so natural and unpretentious, very joyous,
just like art gets when you try to do something
that´s fun to you.

IF: Grow, take two.

click to enlarge...or something.

Growing up - peculiar times.

That´s not me. If that was me, I would
have short hair, a bleached hair streak,
and a black-and-pink Gameboy belt bag.

Not nowadays of course, I mean back
then. Thinking about it, the Gameboy bag
was kinda cool. If I still had it I could wear
it "ironically". And get beaten up.

IF: Grow

click to enlarge

When will this boy ever grow up?

...

So what´s been happening lately besides
me not updating my blog? Well, I decided to ditch my
penciling attempts (not penicillin), since the approach
to do rough pencil sketches and tracing them on
transparency paper didn´t work out the way I wanted.
It might be a handy and effective technique to some,
but I noticed how much more I love bold, direct
drawing. Sketching and tracing is NOT FUN.
It feels like it´s killing the random elements
in my lines - the small dents, the weird curls,
the overall rough-around-the-edge touch
to it. So, there. Back to the old school, so
to say.

Mango chutney, ginger, ghee (clarified butter),
spices, mung beans, chili. AWESOME.

Also, I am getting into indian style cooking
lately. I never used to cook anything (beyond pasta
and water for my tea), and I think being able to cook
at least a handful of delicious, nutricious dishes is
a basic skill everyone should have. Taking some rough
ingredients and make something that beats
processed food out of the can by a mile always
fascinated me, and since I love mushy, spicy food
like many indian varieties, I thought I´d start
with something completely new:
Curry mung bean "dal" with mango chutney
and basmati rice. Worked out well, I ate this
three days in a row. And it´s cheap!

Also, please check out two new additions
on my link list. I still have to add Jeannettes new
text blog from Japan.

IF: Extremes

click to enlarge

Katla, emerging from primitive
times, is an extremely cruel
monstrosity.

I am also extremely stretching the
IF topic again.

This is another illustration for my
Brothers Lionheart submissions
for Bologna. It took me almost a day to figure out
a proper head - the monster in the book is
clearly described as a dragon, but I hate
dragons with their schmaltzy fantasy symbolism,
they remind me of half-naked women and He-Man.
So I went for something that looks like a cross
between a dog and a snake (well, that´s what
it turned out to be anyways), but I like how it
looks a bit weird and scary. I mean,
who still finds dragons scary?

Comments extremely appreciated.

Tyrant

I decided to participate in this years
Bologna childrens book exhibition, our school
sends submissions for this together. There is a
certain size and a fixed number of pictures needed,
five to be precise. I will submit my first
Brothers Lionheart illustration, the second one
(the boy in the bed) is a bit weaker, so I will
do four new ones. Deadline is around October 30,
so I should be able to get this in time. Above
is Tengil, an evil tyrant.

I don´t really know what to expect from
this exhibition thing, but I guess the best is to just
make good stuff and don´t think too much about
what this is all about. It isn´t enough time to
create something completely coherent, so
those five pictures will be a bit all over the
place, in terms of stylistics and also how
closely they reflect the text, but whatever -
maybe I will win some people over with
"carefree charisma". Or something ^_^

IFN: The Blues

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Whenever this guy feels the blues,
he listens to his old records...
in stereo.

I started using ink on tracing paper
over pencil sketches for this one, instead
of my usual "just go at it and see what happens"
method. Worked pretty well, I wouldn´t be able to
do something like how the arms and legs interact without
any penciling. Sketching stays cheap this way
(regular copy paper), and if I want to make
something proper out of it, I just put a sheet
of this nice, milky tracing paper over it
and go into the details.

Now is the time

I am REALLY trying hard this time to get
a real good, proper and professional work rhythm.
Which means: No more empty-headed internet browsing
for hours and hours, no more slacking, no more wasting
two thirds of the day. I am trying to get more
passionate about drawing. Good old Bobby Chiu
is right - you can´t wait for things to grab you
by the ears. Really getting into the groove
of things takes dedication, something
I´ve been lethargically avoiding for
far too long already.

And you MUST check out Nora Krug,
a german illustrator who is also very
successful in the US. I have to say that I don´t
get inspired by other`s work very often,
but this stuff really set me on fire.
Ah, a new idol! That always feels great.

Nora Krug (CLICK NOW OR
I WILL HATE YOU FOREVER)

No title is a title too (I guess)

Click here and scroll down plz

I am a member of the german
Illustratoren Organisation e.V. now,
which is, well, a organisation for illustrators in
Germany. Illustrators from all of Germany can
organize there. So if you are living in Germany
and are interested in illustrating AND organizing,
you can organize with us at the Illustratoren
Organisation e.V.! (Most Illustrators who are
organized there are from Germany, by the way.)

They already sent me a thick package with all
sorts of information material plus the access data
to my account there. Now I have THREE sites
I have to keep up-to-date, and I hope that my blog
won´t suffer too much from it, as it is the
non-business side of things.

Don´t drink and type

I managed to spill beer over my keyboard.
Obviously it didn´t like it. It stopped working

completely that evening. On the next morning I
could type somehow, but instead of normal letters
all kinds of weird symbols appeared (as if several
ctrl and alt buttons were pressed simultaneously).

I tried to dry it with a hairdryer, but that didn´t
help. Opening it up didn´t either, as the beer got in all
these tight places that are impossible to reach. The sugar
in it was really bad for all those circuit, it seems.

So a new keyboard, then. Apple just released
new keyboards along with some other Apple stuff
I don`t care for, and those are ultra-flat aluminum
surface ones. These are costing 50€ instead of the
30€ for the last-gen ones.

So there you have it. This keyboard is
so flat that I can hardly feel the keys sitting on top,
and they have completely different pressure points,
but I THINK I like it. Or wait, having paid 50€
just because I couldn´t control my arms flailing
around knocking over the can I HAVE to like it,
right? I would have bought cheap non-Apple
ones, and I am not as brand loyal as Apple
users seem to be, but all of the ones they had
at the store we´re blindingly ugly.

This reminds me, I used to eat potato
chips over my cassette player when I was kid,
which destroyed them pretty efficiently.
I went through maybe three or four of those
until I stopped my destructive behaviour.

THIS IS A BLOG, READ MY
POINTLESS DRIVEL PLZ!

Above: Stuff I did recently.
My portfolio is working now,
nothing there you didn´t see here,
but you can check it out nevertheless.
And as always, the pictures are in no way
related to the text, but it might be funny to
pretend they are.

Something involving a knight (!)

Finally got to work on my portfolio
in a burst of willpower. Not uploaded yet,
as it is still in the "pictures won´t show up
and links don´t work"-construction phase.

Autobahn

Urrgh. I really need to get back into
the working groove again. I ditched my sketchbook
drawings and am using plain printer paper again,
which will hopefully move me away from trying
to make nice and tidy sketchbooks to more expressive
experimentation again. That´s the good thing about
inexpensive working materials: You can just go ahead
without caring about producing rubbish too much.

I guess everyone has a small stack of
hyper expensive watercolor paper at home that´s
been unused for years because you were afraid
of spoiling it. That´s like collecting toys
AND KEEPING THEM IN THE BOX.
Really, what the funk?*

*Please don´t sue me, internet police!

Super Agressive Soccer Bloodsport

A bit overcompensating for
over two weeks of absence right now.

I decided to give you the contents
of Jeannettes package in small bits
instead of all of them at once.
So this time, it´s the drawing on
the outside of the envelope.

Missing in action

I´ve been a bit sick in the last weeks, with
a very annoying, slimy cough and feeling tired.
It´s getting better recently, and now I can finally
get to the desk again without feeling sick and
wishing I was in bed.

This is a drawing my friend Florian
made for me while in business school.
He says it´s like a throwback into puberty being
into some sort of school again, with a proper
teacher, a proper class and proper boredom and
trying to stay awake for the next 50 minutes.
Apparently, this is portraing me being in hell,
but I don´t seem to care that much, really.
I even have rosy cheecks! How bad can hell
be, after all?



And I even got published in the meantime.
Well, sort of. This was part of the Hamburg
section of the nation-wide published DIE WELT.
It´s the programme part with my PR imagine
in it, so it isn´t a proper illustration for that newspaper,
and therefore without any money involved. It seems
our school has very good public relation muscles, and I
was pretty surprised to see my first printed work
in such a big newspaper already.

It also motivated me to finally continue
with my portfolio and all that, so
GO! GO! GO!

Another one

This is the second illustration I will submit.
It´s the brothers soul which returns in the form
of a dove (or crow/chicken hybrid mutant in this case)
to tell his brother he is waiting for him in the other world.

I just kept the colour scheme from the first one,
which fits this one quite nicely, too, since they will
be shown both in one frame at our exhibition.

Bröderna Lejonhjärta

This week is completely dedicated to our
next big exhibition. This time around it´s the
celebration of the 100th birthday of the swedish author Astrid
Lindgren. Now I don´t know about other countries,
but Lindgren is easily the most well-known childrens
book author in Germany (and I assume in Sweden or
Skandinavia as well).

I picked the story "The Brothers Lionheart", and
if you haven´t read it, it´s about a sick little boy that
is about to die soon, and his older brother is soothing him
by telling him that they will meet in a far away land
after his death. But then their house catches fire,
and his brother saves him by putting him on his shoulders
and jumping out of the window which kills him but saves
his little brother.

Now that his brother died before him, he finds himself
alone and miserable. He also feels that he deserved to die
instead of his more popular, healthy and attractive brother who
saved him. But after one night, he suddenly finds himself standing
in front of a porch, free from his sickness, and joining his brother
who has been waiting for him in the world after death, the world
he kept telling his weak little brother to take away his fear of death.

It´s a very moving story, and I was a bit
concerned to not be able to put out material that is
appropriately sensitive. But I guess it worked somehow.
I am doing another one this week, so that´s two for our
exhibition, and three more to submit to the Bologna
Childrens Book expo in fall.

Intermission!

Just too lazy to post, not too lazy to draw.

PS. Still no post about Jeanettes package.
But it´s coming!