IFN: The Blues

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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!