DRAWING DONE HARD

This blog is extremely old by now

2010-09-16T19:45:00.000+02:00

Hey there! What you´re looking at is my old

blog. Feel free to flip through it, but I just wanted

to let you know that this is where I put my

new stuff nowadays:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frederikjurk/

and also cross-posting here once in a while:

http://frederikjurk.tumblr.com/

and here is my "proper" domain, which

will most likely be finished somewhere around

2025:

http://www.frederik-jurk.de/

Thanks for visiting, enjoy! ♥

Drawing fiercely, posting slowly

2008-12-04T00:14:00.007+01:00

Actually, that´s not a lie!

I´ve been busy with some "real life stuff"
(because blogging takes place in the internet
and therefore is part of a digital cyberverse
blogosphere cloud computing dreamland and doesn´t
count as "actually doing stuff"), building our
Poste Aérienne blog (link at the top right!)
and drawing submissions and posters
for various projects.

So right now I have my own website,
this blog, our groups blog, and a Flickr
account, all of which is quite a task to keep
updated simultaneously.

As you can tell it doesn´t
work that well.

So yeah, this is some stuff I made.
I swore myself that I wouldn´t point people
to my Flickr account or our Poste Aérienne
blog, but nevertheless this is exactly what
I´m doing. I don´t really think copy/pasting
the same text on all three sites is very
entertaining to read, so I think that this will be my
intimate snotty homebase, and try to be more
professional on the other sites.

In other news, I bought Matcha green tea powder
to make green tea icecream with. It´s one of the
most interesting sweets I´ve ever eaten, and this
is one of the rare cases where I really am ambitious
enough to actually go ahead an try to do it
from scratch. It´s that delicious!

IF: Repair

2008-10-31T01:23:00.005+01:00

click to enlarge. Trust me, it looks shitty that small.

The winged monkey is beating up poor
Tin Woodman. Who´s going to repair
him afterwards?
---
This is also the submission for the recent contest
"Biester im Film" (Beasts in movies) that the new german
illustration magazine Jitter is holding. I was browsing
the net to get some other ideas than the obvious
Godzilla, Yeti, Dracula and whatnot, and stumbled
upon the winged monkeys from The Wizard Of Oz.
Man, what a cool concept - flying monkeys.
I mean, monkeys are already awesome
enough as it is.

What´s next?
A T-Rex in a F-16 jet?
(Free imaginary cookie if you
catch this reference!)

Visit us!

2008-10-10T19:57:00.003+02:00

If you´re at the Frankfurt book fair,
why don´t you drop by and buy a
little truckload of our stuff?
Inside sources told me that you´ll
get a discount if you buy all 5
Poste Aérienne books. AND you´ll
be able to score my new postcard
and my fancy business card!

Poste Aérienne Flyer

2008-10-09T11:08:00.005+02:00

You can see my stuff in four seperate spots here.
Can you find them all?

What I´ve been up to

2008-10-09T10:11:00.009+02:00

Quite a few people remarked that they
miss my blog entries, and to be quite honest I
started to miss them myself. So I will keep both
the Blog and my Flickr account up to date at roughly
the same time; maybe use Flickr for smaller stuff and
the blog for the "big" new illustrations.

These two pictures are the front and the
back of the promo postcard I´m going to
sell at the Frankfurt book fair, along with my
book. I´m going to be there all five days
along with Boris, and I´m wondering
what it´s going to be like.

The original drawing for my books cover.
Unlike the inside, this has an added blue color, and
I used black color pencil for this soft look. I had to
make a few cosmetic changes in order to fit in
with the typography, though. I´ll post some
pictures when I´ve got my hands on the complete
book. I really, really wonder how it will feel to
finally hold it in my hands completely finished
after all these weeks I´ve worked on it, and the rather
big gap between working on the last picture and
the finished book.

I also finished the "Anansi" illustrations but
didn´t get into the Figures Futures contest
catalogue. What´s a bit annoying is that you never
know how things went when you don´t get
anywhere in such a contest - did I get thrown
out at the first round? Did I ALMOST get in there?
What did the jury think of it? It´s really a weird
feeling not getting any feedback. But anyways,
I´m left with two illustrations I´m pretty satisfied
with, so there ;)

...and finally another illo from
my book, this is the inside of the cover -
fictional sponsors for a fictional race.

IF: Detach (2)

2008-08-20T19:17:00.003+02:00

click to enlarge

"Anansi detaches the wisdom he
collected."

This is an illustration of an african folkore
figure, Anansi the Spider. In this particular
story he collects the wisdom of the world in
a calabash (a container), then tries to hide
it on top of a large tree. He binds the
calabash to his stomach, but he keeps getting
stuck in the tree. When his son points out
that he needs to put the calabash on
his back to get to the top, he realizes
that the wisdom he collected did not
make him wise, so he releases the wisdom
back into the world.

You can see older versions of this
one on my Flickr account if you like
(link to the right). Hope y0u like it ;)

IF: Detach

2008-08-16T01:59:00.005+02:00

click to enlarge

"Plane detached! Mission to sun commencing!"

This is inspired a lot by the works of
Martin Tom Dieck and Markus Huber. This is
my usual Uniball Eye finelines, but the grey
shades are made with a Faber Castell
Polychromos black color pen.
I like the more chunky and slightly
metallic feel it gives the drawing.
(I used a slighty similar ink
wash technique some time ago.)

Hope you like it ;)

Oh, and from now on I´ll posting
mostly on Flickr since it´s a lot easier and
more comfortable for viewers. I´ll keep posting
my IF submissions here, though.

IF: Enough

2008-07-22T02:48:00.004+02:00

Please click to enlarge

"Enough of that terrible noise!"

---

Also:
I´m on Flickr now!

IF: Fierce

2008-06-29T22:47:00.014+02:00

click for large version
(Please do, it looks pretty crummy in
such a miniscule resolution...)

Drawing fiercely! Too bad one of
the light bulbs is broken...

My schools annual exhibition is approaching,
and I´ve been asked to make one of the posters
for our classes rooms. I did this one in a larger
format than usual, and it shows in how much more
detail than usual I crammed in there. And somehow drawing
animals heads is much more fun than human faces to me...
I think I find the shapes involved more interesting.

I also did some work-in-progress shots
of it, to give you a little peek into
my work routine (Haha, "routine"...)
(You can enlarge each of these as well.)

I actually did the head first the day before.
I usually do the heads and faces on a separate sheet
and then cut-and-paste them.

I did this piece on two seperate sheets
because it´s easier to scan it this way.
There is also very little penciling involved,
just a few vague orientation lines.
This way I stay more flexible and
I improvise A LOT to keep things
exciting, and also because I am lazy.

Skribble, skribble, doodle, doodle.
This is my favourite part because
at this point I usually can see whether or not
it´s going to be any good, and I can lose
myself in the details. Very relaxing.

Here you can see White-Out (called Tipp-Ex in Germany, though
in this case it´s actually a Pentel correction pen, very handy!)
and the cut-and-paste marks. Things can get pretty messy
after some time because I started to cut and paste
a lot more ever since I make more complex drawings.

After I finished drawing by hand I scan it all
in, clean it up in GIMP (a free Photoshop clone, I can´t
be bothered to spend truckloads of money for software
I just use for basic coloring and editing), add some
simple color and draw in the white parts,
the letters in this case. A very efficient and
timesaving work routine; I did this piece in half
day while catching up with the Euro cup soccer final on
the radio. Getting a proper idea, however, takes
a lot more time, and I guess I got lucky in this case ;)

Hope you enjoyed my little tour!

IF: Punchline

2008-06-14T23:05:00.005+02:00

click each to enlarge. Please, I encourage you.

Punchline, eh? Here´s my punchline for this
weeks Illustration Friday:

"Who let the dogs out?"

And what dogs they are.

I like the first one better, but overall
all these black elements were a lot of
fun to do. I tend to do a lot of scribbling
and adding details, so putting in more
solid black parts adds to the overall
contrast. I only did that once before,
here.

I´m thinking of picking up regular
posting again from now on, the deadline
for my book project is somewhere end
of July or August, so I have still
a lot of time to finish that AND draw
some other things on the side. I just
needed to do something with a little
color again. Hope you like it.

Instant gratification

2008-05-27T18:26:00.004+02:00

A little illustration I did for the creative
writing class project long-term readers might remember.
It´s going to be made into an audiobook, and there
were some texts without illustrations. The one I
received was about a man writing his wife
about live in Paradise, and the part that
stuck most in my head was that everybody
has a little button on his or her nose, that upon
pushing creates a wonderful orgasm.

So, yeah, this is what you see.
The rest of the text is pretty earnest,
but really, you can´t have something like
an orgasm trigger on YOUR NOSE in a text
and NOT illustrate that, right?

By the way, the book is progressing pretty
well, I´ll see if I post some more samples
later on. Until then, posts here continue
to trickle rather than flow ;)

IF: Electricity // WIP

2008-05-11T01:33:00.005+02:00

click to enlarge!

Hi-tech racing steering wheel,
consuming tons of electricity.

Guess what? This one will enlarge upon
clicking it, too!

I promised myself to not post any new
pieces from my upcoming book, but I thought
I could at least show some updated material.
(These engines below are new, actually, but I
just couldn´t resist.)

Click this image for free health insurance!*
(*Does not have to be true)

So after I noticed that the most recent
pieces had a lot more black parts in them and
were much tighter in general, I decided to do
something I NEVER did before: Modifying drawings
that I thought were "finished". Going over them a
second time had pretty interesting results, as you
can see if you compare them to the last post.
It´s much darker now, with more cross hatching,
and the steering wheel got a huge redesign.

Maarit gave me a very valuable constructive
criticism on my pieces in progress -
just had to mention that. She just updated
her blog after weeks and weeks of silence,
so go check it out!

IF: Wrinkles // Intermission

2008-04-27T03:52:00.009+02:00

click to enlarge

(Trust me - it sucks at this size)

"Racing at top speed will get your

suit all wrinkled and sweaty."

--------

I am a bit sad to say that this will be the

last post for the next few weeks as I am working on

my first book that is going to be self- published with

other books by a small group of like-minded people.

The working title

is "Velo City" and it´s a no-text, 16 pages story

roughly about high-speed racing, full of exaggeration

and stylization. I am still not sure how it will turn out

or what exactly will happen, I´ll rather let the

ideas grow while developing scenery and
characters for it.

These two samples are a little peek of what

it MIGHT look like in the end; I´m quite

satisfied with the stylistic approach - still pretty

rough and sometimes wonky lines, but overall

a bit slicker and more details than usual.

By the way, all of the sponsor companies are

made up, and it´s highly unlikely you´ll get

every one of my little references ;)

Anyways, so long for now, maybe I´ll throw in

some little progress shots, but don´t expect anything

big in the next few weeks. Yeah, I know, millions

of devoted hardcore readers crying out all at once.

Colorful theft

2008-04-19T02:30:00.001+02:00

Do not buy this book.

click here

IF:Fail // Bologna Fiere 2008

2008-04-10T00:48:00.006+02:00

click to enlarge

"I will never fail."

This is a character I plan on using in a small
book I am working on, it´s going to be self-published
as part of the edition Poste Aérienne that
my fellow artist buddy Boris is starting together
with a friend of him. It´s going to be a roughly
half-letter sized booklet, with a the only
colour being bright blue on the outside.
I am not 100% sure yet but I plan on making
a series of drawings roughly centering around the
topic "Velocity". I´ll keep you updated on
the progress!

WELL! BUTTER!

I also just retured from the Bologna Childrens
Book Fair in Italy. Huge fun, a great group, haven´t
been on the actual fair not even nearly enough
to call this a "business trip", but had a lot
of fun with all these great people and made
some new friends along the way.

VOTE FOR ME AND GET PUNCHED

Also, please check out the work of
Julia Gruner. Aside from making great
paintings and even better photography she´s
a lovely person and usually supported me when it
came to sleeping on park benches in various
italian cities. It´s nice to have vacation buddies
that are equally lazy as me.

BONUS: An arrow made of cold cuts.

...and the mandatory "Dear god,
how can this place be so beautiful" photo.

IF: Heavy (2)

2008-03-18T17:56:00.005+01:00

click to enlarge

Heavy music, heavy speakers!

You know what´s also heavy?
Having a stye above your left eye.
It´s not as painful as it´s annoying,
and I look like I had a stroke, with one eye
just a little bit more closed than the other.
Alternatively, I look like somebody had
punched me in the face, but very tenderly.

Thinking about it, having a stye isn´t
that heavy, it´s merely a little inconvenience.

IF: Heavy

2008-03-16T20:39:00.001+01:00

click to enlarge

Kraftwerk on heavy rotation!

IF: Garden

2008-03-12T17:50:00.002+01:00

click to enlarge

My little garden.

IF: Leap

2008-03-03T02:31:00.003+01:00

click to enlarge

First being leaped over,
then leaping himself.

IF: Multiple

2008-02-23T14:40:00.004+01:00

click to make it REAL BIG!
(Because it looks a bit crap this small)

7427 giant work unit with multiple
heads. Those heads are a weak point,
but thankfully it can repair itself.

IF: Theory (4)

2008-02-19T22:51:00.004+01:00

click to enlarge them all

Basic drawing 101.
If you still have any questions,
contact me via the comment section.
Please recap after use.

IF: Theory (3)

2008-02-19T20:01:00.005+01:00

click to enlarge

...but is this all just a theory?

IF: Theory (2)

2008-02-16T20:56:00.005+01:00

click to enlarge

A german proverb says
"Grau ist alle Theorie", which means
"All theory is grey", saying that only
putting things into practice creates something
worthwile. I thought that those posing dolls
always had something very theoretical
about them.

IF: Theory

2008-02-15T17:02:00.003+01:00

click to, you know...

I have no idea what is happening here.
Nope. Not even a theory.

This is a t-shirt design I made
for my girlfriend for our anniversary,
which also happens to be Valentines
Day (aaaaw!). It´s the first time I ever
printed a shirt and I am quite happy with
the outcome.

The only problem I have with it is that the
shirt themselves are a bit transparent, and the print
film around the drawing makes these parts whiter
than the rest of the shirt. Ah, anyways.
If you read this and you happen to be living
in Hamburg, they were made by Eindruck,
a very nice little shop with friendly guys
working there.

Also, please notice that this drawing is
done in my one style, it´s called "effort".
Where most people use pencil tracings, I

just drew and cut and pasted a lot of times.
I even manipulated many thing after scanning
it, including completely drawing the tail in GIMP,
but to my surprise you can´t see all the surgery.

I really have to invest more time into
my drawings before I consider them "finished".
This also means not being as lazy as I used
to be, but on the other hand, doctoring on work
in progress is a lot easier than actually STARTING
a new drawing. Also, using glue and scissors is
a lot of fun. Digital and analogue - best of both
worlds!

IF: Choose (3)

2008-02-11T13:16:00.001+01:00

click to enjoy

"So many heads to choose!"

This is a pretty old piece I did
originally for IF "Mask". I still love
this drawing, it´s one of the few ones
that actually feels like a solid part of me,
so I wanted to share it with you again.

Its weird how I try and try and yet
rarely do something that comes close
to this to me. Maybe I should hang it
up my wall as the only picture and
meditate over it a whole year.
I don´t know if dissecting a
picture like this will result in anything.
Maybe I should take a couple of my
all-time favourite pictures from all
artists I know and try to get behind
what makes them so great.

Because really, when do we ever
do this? We know what we like but
we can´t say why. But there HAS
to be something.

IF: Choose (2)

2008-02-10T17:24:00.001+01:00

click!

So much music to choose from.

This is actually a t-shirt design I
made for a friend of mine. If you look
really hard you might be able to see
her name.

IF: Choose

2008-02-09T15:09:00.001+01:00

click to enlarge

So many stars to choose from.

I actually made this drawing in my
bed this morning (noon is what I call
morning) right after waking up.
This happens maybe two times
a year. Finally I can brag about
my self-discipline ONCE! Whooo!

Ah yeah, on regular days I "check
my emails" for about two hours a time
three times a day and generally waste
my time like... erm... like someone
who is wasting his time really bad.

I am working on it, as you can see.

IF: Blanket (4)

2008-02-07T23:45:00.001+01:00

ARGH! Last minute submission!

IF: Blanket (3)

2008-02-05T13:42:00.000+01:00

click it for full enjoyment

An old drawing from 2006.
Usually I am against recycling old
material, but I liked it so much that I posted
it. And look, he´s wearing a blanket as
a cape! I like how quirky it is, something
that I lost in a way recently - the carefree energy.
That has to come back!

IF: Blanket (2)

2008-02-03T16:23:00.001+01:00

clicking things will make things bigger

I wasn´t satisfied with the submission
I did yesterday at all, so here is a wildly
different approach. Hope you like it.

IF: Blanket

2008-02-02T02:04:00.001+01:00

click it purrleaze

There seems to be quite a load
of stuff under this blanket!

_____

I recently installed a Statcounter
on this blog and it was very interesting
to see from where people are visiting my
blog, take a look at the country list
for instance:

I was pretty surprised to see
Russia and the Arab Emirates so high
on the list. But there is more, you also get
to check from what sites people come from
when they come to your site. For instance,
I found this:

The site is called kak.ru.
Can´t read Russian, but it seems to be something
similar to Drawn.ca. Sometimes the internet
just keeps giving.

And here are some watercolour paintings
I did in the only class I finished this semester
(I was jobbing way to much for my own taste).
I always thought I didn´t like painting, but
this was more "drawing with colour" instead
of proper painting, and a very nice diversion.

IF: Tales and Legends

2008-01-24T22:58:00.001+01:00

click each one to enlarge, why dontcha

These two people are living legends.

Fellow student Laura (Visit her new blog!)
said that while she liked my little characters,
I never draw women. So here, a woman I
did recently. It was pretty easy. These
are two pieces I wanted to make a whole
book of, but after those two I lost
interest in it. And by that I mean
the following drawings sucked.
Besides, I don´t like frames to much,
I prefer my drawings flowing all
over the page. Or something.

Also on

Illustration
Friday Night.

IF: Plain

2008-01-18T17:07:00.001+01:00

click!

"I´m on a plain
I can´t complain."

The first few times I heard this
song I though Kurt Kobain sang
"I´m on a plane, I can´t complain" and
I imagined him sitting comfortably in
a seat high above the air, being satisfied
with the nice service on board.

Now I just think of him as
standing on a field somewhere in the
nature and shrugging his shoulders like
saying "It´s alright."

IF: Stitch

2008-01-15T20:54:00.001+01:00

Nicely stitched pants!

IF: 100% (3)

2008-01-08T21:55:00.001+01:00

I have 100% no idea what this here is but I
drew it anyways. Also, I am 100% exploiting this
weeks IF topic (again). But still this is
100% valid.

IF:100% (2)

2008-01-08T20:19:00.001+01:00

100% toxic fish from our polluted oceans.

IF: 100% //Rooibos

2008-01-04T01:46:00.001+01:00

click to enlarge - 100%!!!

With a fresh jug of Rooibos, I am
read to give 100% drawing power in
your face. Yes, that´s me up there.
Well, besides the shirt and the hair and
I wear glasses and don´t use sketchbooks
like that, but otherwise...okay,
that´s not me. It´s somebody else.
I have no idea who he is.

100%! 100%! 100%! Hooray!

BIKE BOY!

2008-01-03T14:49:00.000+01:00

OMG WTF!!! WITHOUT A HEAD
(OR ANYTHING RESEMBLING A BODY!!)

I really like the rough look of that
pentel ink pen. Why do I use it so rarely?

Also, I haven´t updated my website
and my IO portfolio in AGES. At least I linked
to this blog instead of my website from my IO
profile, but at the moment I make very little
use of it otherwise. Must be because Blogger
is really a breeze to use, unlike the clunky
IO site structure and the pure horror that
coding a HTML page is.

New Years Eve

2008-01-02T03:19:00.000+01:00

Kind of slapping the christmas slumber out
of my face. Well, actually I´ve been working on
my day job for the last weeks, including two
days on christmas and new years eve.
Now I am scrubbing off the stink of
working for "the man" with some doodling
(well, and lots of Super Mario World).

Never too old to have fun like a kid.

2007-12-29T20:48:00.001+01:00

IF: Soar

2007-12-28T01:51:00.001+01:00

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.

2007-12-17T20:33:00.001+01:00

IF: Backwards (2)

2007-12-15T20:07:00.001+01:00

click to enlarge

Monkeyboy loves to play
his recorded voice backwards!

IF: Backwards

2007-12-15T17:38:00.001+01:00

click click click the image, not this text.

Sailing backwards.
Hurray!

IF: Small things 2

2007-12-10T20:02:00.001+01:00

click to enlarge

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

IF: Small things

2007-12-07T18:58:00.001+01:00

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

2007-11-23T16:39:00.001+01:00

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

2007-11-22T15:57:00.001+01:00

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

2007-11-22T02:23:00.001+01:00

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

2007-11-20T18:23:00.001+01:00

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)

2007-11-15T02:16:00.000+01:00

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)

2007-11-12T00:11:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-09T16:19:00.000+01:00

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

New Yeti On The Blog

2007-11-08T00:16:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-07T19:35:00.001+01:00

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

2007-11-04T02:34:00.001+01:00

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!

2007-10-31T22:26:00.001+01:00

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

2007-10-27T20:31:00.000+02:00

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.

2007-10-23T20:51:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-23T00:06:00.001+02:00

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

2007-10-13T01:21:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-12T00:39:00.001+02:00

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

2007-09-30T21:43:00.001+02:00

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

2007-09-29T16:29:00.002+02:00

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)

2007-09-27T16:03:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-26T00:14:00.000+02:00

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 (!)

2007-09-20T21:58:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-18T21:35:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-15T23:29:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-15T11:27:00.001+02:00

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

2007-08-29T19:58:00.001+02:00

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

2007-08-27T20:46:00.000+02:00

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!

2007-08-18T18:33:00.000+02:00

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

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

Hey Ho, Let´s Go

2007-08-14T22:36:00.001+02:00

Yey!

Also: Jeannette sent me a very nice
package with an assload of drawings, and containing
a bonus original drawing by Liz "Tofusquirrel" Siegel.
Now I am in the possession of an EXCLUSIVE

UNPUBLISHED DRAWING! Of course, I want to
dissect the package in all it´s little details, and with
photos, but I am a bit sick of sitting in front of my Mac
right now, so I´ll save that for later. Please, dear
reader(s), look forward to it!

^-^

2007-08-11T14:54:00.000+02:00

Another palm-sized drawing.

Illustration Friday: Emergency

2007-08-10T16:18:00.001+02:00

Click to enlarge ...please?

This is a pretty bad emergency - for
the stuffed animal.

Elaborato in Olanda

2007-08-09T17:41:00.000+02:00

I haven´t been feeling so good in the last
weeks, and now that I feel better with each day
I am trying to get back into my work routine, and, more
specifically, posting a lot more again. The picture above is
a concept sketch for the painting I am trying to do
since, uh, maybe half a year? Also, I get the feeling that
a lot of my bad feeling lately had something to do with
not focussing on things like drawing enough, but instead
just letting whole days slip by without much effort.

But on the good side, the weather has been really great during
the last days, it´s been pretty much raining every day during
most of the summer here. I´ve been out in several places
to draw with a friend of mine, and by motivating her I am
also motivating myself in the process. Everything good
somehow comes back to you, as generic as this sounds.
Oh, and Bobby Chiu (whose videos I´ve been writing a lot
about already) commented on my work! Hurray!

(The title of this post means "Brewed in Holland" in,
uh, some other language. No, it´s not latin.)

Portrait swap!

2007-08-08T15:47:00.001+02:00

Jeannnetttte and I made a little portrait swap,
which gave me the chance to realize my failings at
realistically portraiting people. Instead, I made some
sort of woman-like head with bunny ears (she requested
being a bunny). And look how nice I look in her version!
Although I wouldn´t say "Vanna make out?", but rather
"Vvannah machen aus?". Because this is how german
people speak. Our language is mostly like
"Rrrap! Halten sie an! makken
lebensraum sie blond virtschaftswunder!"

This clearly is Jeannette. You can
tell because she has her name written on her chest!

More to come soon. I´ve been out of the loop
a bit because the sun is finally shining which makes
great days sitting on the balcony.

Tanks...OF LOVE!

2007-07-31T21:40:00.000+02:00

You can´t tell from the outside, though.
Also: Trees!

Welcome back, Internet!

2007-07-28T20:06:00.001+02:00

Alright, I am back! And already having itching
fingers again. Drawing during my vacation didn´t work out
that well, I thoughtlessly left most of my stuff at
home (music, books, Nintendo, and, well, the internet)
and I realized that I need all my belongings around me to
function as an artist ("artist"). I am also terribly impatient.
When you´re so used to produce drawings on a daily
basis like I do (or attempt to do), having a week off is pretty
brutal, because after a certain time it becomes a roaring
demand. I am also very dependent on my home;
tramping around the world would pretty much kill
me. I am used to my media, to the internet, to my
own bed, my habitat. I am the counterpart
of a nomad.

What I came to think about too:
Do you feel the internet is a luxury or a
new, basic form of cultural device, a necessity?
I liked to think that despite me using technology
each day, every day, I could drop all that and become
a buddhist monk or whatever anytime. But that isn´t
true. I will also never lose my interest in Nintendo
games, no matter how much I think that it´s
a waste of time sometimes (hint: It´s not, because
it serves as an excellent stress relief for me).

Ah, well. More to come, I am heavily sucking
in my conveniences right now, with the stereo blasting,
all light on but, sadly, no potato chips in arms reach.

Later!

Vacation break

2007-07-20T19:51:00.001+02:00

Just wanted to let you know that I am on
vacation with my family in Bergen, Netherlands
for a week, so don´t expect any posts during this time.
I´ll take my sketchbook with me, so there will hopefully
be a lot to post after that.

Till later!

PS. This also means internet cold turkey.
That´s really necessary once in a while.
(I wonder if somebody wrote me a mail since
I checked ten minutes ago?)

Cerberus

2007-07-18T23:24:00.000+02:00

Also on Illustration Friday Night.

Up in the trees!

2007-07-18T13:59:00.001+02:00

Intelligence test: Are you smart enough
to figure out to CLICK TO ENLARGE yourself?
Because many blogs don´t feature this, and I would
hate to make my new readers miss out on that.

I noticed that I seem to be extremely
efficent in my drawing rountines when I am under
deadline pressure, but lose this work habit whenever
I am just drawing for fun. Instead of doing proper,
full-blown pictures, I do pages and pages of little
head, trees, and general random stuff.

Now this isn´t bad in itself and it does make
sense to practice, for instance, faces with more
concentration; but it´s not that I need a lot of
studies and sketches before starting a new piece.
Instead I just go at it and see where it goes, and
by filling it with a lot more details, it usually becomes
more varied and interesting than just sketches.

Sketches are to drawing what training is to
sports; it´s good for a while, but what you really
want is to do the proper thing. I more or less
wasted a good year and a half at my school just
sketching and sketching without ever going into
more effort and detail.

I also believe that I learn more from
doing whole pieces instead of doodling around,
because the thought of ruining a good piece
with bad elements demands much more attention
then when I am just filling pages with skribbles.
My sketches and my proper drawings aren´t that
far apart to be honest, the only thing that separates
them is that I start a proper piece with the intention
of scanning it and colouring it afterwards as a new
portfolio piece. And I always draw everything into
one sketchbook, so this sketch/piece difference
is a pure question of attitude.

BLAH BLAH
WORDS WORDS WORDS

IF: Discovery

2007-07-18T13:01:00.000+02:00

Click to enlarge

Annual expo GO! GO! GO!

2007-07-15T16:30:00.001+02:00

Just made this. Eh, it was
kinda fun. Not much to say about it.

---

Anyways - Photo time!

This picture shows what Germany looks like in most
places. But kidding aside, this is the DVD presentation
we made at the Martin tom Dieck class, and to make
people really sit down and watch it we set up some
kind of kitschy living room atmosphere.

It worked. And so did the beer.
Gave me some proper headaches, combined with
some selfmade wine tom Dieck got from his
neighbour. (That my head down there. My god,
my hair looks weird.)

We sat there pretty much the whole evening.
And whatever you think is happening in this picture,
I didn´t do anything (which is pretty rare for me).

My professor Bernd Mölck-Tassel and lots
of food. They even had some sushi there.

The photos are pretty low-res, I had to nick them from
StudiVZ (the german rip-off of Facebook). I hope nobody
in these pictures is offended by being exposed to the internet.

Bild und Text

2007-07-14T21:07:00.001+02:00

So here is the first batch of photos
from our annual exhibition.

(CLICK TO ENLARGE, YOU NOOBS!)

This is a poster I made last-minute.
Thankfully, Nicole helped me with the layout,
since we only had InDesign CS, which is
TOTALLY different from CS2. Well, at least
different enough that you can´t open CS2 documents
in CS. What´s that about, eh, Adobe?

My second poster. It´s a bit wavy, but I won´t complain,
since I got exposed a lot this year. You can also see
this poster in the first image, to the very right. My stuff
was all on one floor, and it was crammed with lots
and lots of great illustrations.

Reflective glass, urgh. Again, no real complaint, as
we almost DIDN´T show our column illos this year.
I can´t believe how much we did this semester, and
I am really looking forward to the next round.

I´ve been officially dead (in the Blogosphere)

2007-07-14T12:00:00.001+02:00

WEB 2.0!!!
If you don´t post for a week you´re claimed
dead in the data hyperspace version two point zero!
At least, if you post as much as I did in the past.

It´s the year exhibition of our school and I´ve been
there almost every day since monday, and today too
and also tomorrow, showing the stuff to all kinds
of family and friends, drinking beer with some fellow
students and doing supervision (or whatever the act of
sitting there on a stool to prevent people from ripping
paintings off the walls is called).

After I used to slack to much and generally
spend most of my days at home for the last, uhm,
three years of studying (!), I finally got a grip and
now I am doing stuff there like crazy. I also have a surprisingly
big number of pictures hanging this year, and today I´ll
FINALLY make some pictures with my own camera (which
I´ve been avoiding so far since it´s pretty unreliable,
I guess I´ll have to jump into the cold water and buy
a new model from a better brand.)

I am also making lots of new friends, and I am
also setting up a group of people to go drawing every
week during the semester break (which is two and a half
MONTHS long). It´s a bit creepy at times. I also started
drinking my coffee with sugar and milk instead of black
and using strange words like "her work is beautiful" and
something.

So I am in a hurry right now again, but expect another
HUGE update on all this in the near future!

----

And also, I don´t know if I already linked her here,
but you have to check out Kokokalinka,
she does very excellent stuff with beautifully awkward
characters and uses a certain hypnotic
shade of blue A LOT.

Oh, and it´s been raining every day
without exception for weeks here, and now today
the sun is shining and a warm breeze is running
through the windows. I wish I could close this
post with some sort of ironic comment, but not
today, as everything is just AWESOME and
AMAZING, except the exhibition of our
neighbour art school, which was mostly
stupid shit. (If you´re reading this and studying
at the HfbK: I LOVED your work, really! Great concept,
with the rusty nails and the neon colours
on nylon stockings!)

How are you gentlemen!

2007-07-07T11:47:00.000+02:00

Finally I get the chance to catch up with my
posting. Not posting stuff on blogs somehow looks
like I am not doing anything, which in most cases
is true, but recently I did SO MUCH that I couldn´t
be bothered spending some attention on my litte
"post picture and talk nonsense" site.

The watch you´re seeing is for a text that
deals with advertising gifts that are cheap and
useless. The company the author mentions is the
ADAC (the german car club), and the watch I drew
is both "timeless" (It doesn´t show the time! LOL!)
and advertising the company. This is the best concept
I ever came up with, as opposed to just draw stuff
that randomly fits the text in a way.

This is for text about
a hypochondriac who is daydreaming
about a one-stop cure for all this suffering.
My teachers said he would look too much
like a drug addict, and that he is
pretty muscular for someone who
is supposed whiny and weak.

So here is the second version. This one
actually looks sick and worried, and the color scheme
is less happy and funky and more doom and gloom.

That´s it for today. I am off playing
some videogames, I guess this time I actually
deserve it. Next week is packed with our
yearly exhibition, and I´ll take some photos
for your delight!

MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS BROken - oh wait, it´s not.

2007-07-04T00:30:00.001+02:00

I illustrated another column today, in which
the author burns some crappy books in his chimney,
with the saying in his head "Where books are burned, people will
be burned, soon, too" (yeah, that was a shoddy translation).

Red-Handed tagged me (it´s this time of the year
again), and I´ll react to that in the next few days.
You should check out his stuff or I`LL BREAK
YOUR LEGS!, yes, his work is that good, especially
the line-art stuff.

I also bought Wasabi-covered peas today.
EXXXTREME LIFESTYLE!

Brizidan

2007-07-02T22:03:00.001+02:00

I´ve been pretty busy lately, to explain my
slow posting. I got a deadline wrong and churned out
FIVE illustrations on two and a half days, which is some
sort of record for myself. To be honest, it wasn´t THAT
brutal, I just didn´t get as lazy as usual like I do over the
weekend (oh, and no partying or something like that,
either, of course). Turned out I still have another week,
but six illos are a good number for showing this work
at your yearly school exhibition. It´s comforting to know
that my recent style is something I can
produce extremely quick.

This image is for a column about mishearing words,
"Brizidan" being one of those words. It deals with
an old story about a black man catching monkeys
and roasting them, "briet sie dann". This is the illo I am
most satisfied with, so there you go! Posting more
of those within this week (if I am lucky).

Look what I found today

2007-06-30T15:44:00.000+02:00

I don´t know what´s on it but the
title really appeals to me.

Maybe you could use
some of that, too.

The most handsome man in the world

2007-06-27T19:27:00.001+02:00

His face in all it´s boyish innocent
beauty has a hint of wisdom, his eyes looking at a
cloudless sky, facing his future with optimism
and courage. His future: McDonalds.

Also, this:

Well that´s it for today I guess.
The weather is cold and it rains all the time,
while forests start burning in the southern parts
of europe from all these heat waves.
Hooray for climate chance!

Gnnnrkk!

2007-06-23T18:13:00.001+02:00

...the weather is changing like crazy in Hamburg again,
and since I am the delicate artsy type this is giving me a
grinding headache. I am ALSO out of any painkillers,
and those are only sold at pharmacies here in Germany,
and since it´s saturday afternoon, I have no other choice
than sitting here and drinking some debatable beer-soda mix,
hoping that it might help (but I bet it won´t).

This is my workplace at our school. Yes - THE WHOLE
TABLE! AND A DRAWER! It´s not so much that I use
dozens of paint cans and larger-than-life canvas space, but
rather that it is right in the middle of the building (which
gives me a good workout everytime I am jumping up
or down the steps to see if I can find someone I know
and talk to her or him). Also, no Nintendo or
internet in arms reach, which is always a plus
for people with hopeless attention spans like me.

Most of the time I am sitting in a couch chair in the
other room with two girls, listening to whatever music they
are putting into the player.
I spent the last three days there, from 6 to 8 hours each,
which made me really tired coming back home, but in a
good way. FINALLY I am working at a pace that
I am satisfied with.

Sad Starbucks Turtleneck Poet

2007-06-18T18:00:00.001+02:00

Whooo, post #150.
I got a truckload of work in the next time,
I´ll show you how much:

- Making a big illustration for our next
exhibition (about Astrid Lindgren),

- Illustrating 8 columns taken from
various magazines, an appointment that totally
slipped under my radar for the whole semester,

-Doing 9 sketches for our drawing class
next Friday, and

-Make some sketches for the big painting
I am going to make for a friend of mine.

....

Let´s just hope this will keep me
from slacking. I´ll take advantage of my
little workspace in our school a lot (I hope), and
it is fun getting a lot more involved than I used
to do in the last couple of years.

Exhibition time! (...from the past)

2007-06-15T21:12:00.001+02:00

Finally I got my hands on the pics I made at our
creative writing/illustration exhibition in Altona.
Nobody had the idea of bringing a camera that evening, but luckily
I thought of using the tiny webcam inside the Macbook we had
for the beamer for some small but non-blurry shots.

If you look REALLY hard, harder then ever in your life before,
you still won´t be able to make out my illustration on the left
of the group of three. Nice lights, though. The whole place was part
of several abandoned buildings in the dodgier part of the district,
which gave the whole evening a pretty avantgarde touch.

I am not sure what to write under this one.

The stage. Look at the weird old chouches. The whole
collection of chairs and stools was pretty random - there even
were church seats around and a tiny little plastic baby chair.

Wow, that place was just stuffed with people!
You can´t tell from this picture, though.

I made these pictures before we officially opened;
we were busy handling the beamer during the
readings (and improvised a lot, because some stories
were missing illustrations and vice versa, but it worked
out surprisingly good).

And now: The shortcuts

2007-06-15T00:31:00.000+02:00

I made a birthday card today, and obviously,
I can´t show it until Sunday or something.
So some little bits instead.

A boy!

A dude!

Bombs!

IF: Suit

2007-06-10T18:57:00.001+02:00

I was listening to the radio and the sports
program was running, with something about the
local football team, the Hamburg Sea Devils.
I don´t care much for any sport, but drawing a little
football dude was fun.

Football is a bit of a niche sport in Germany,
with soccer being our national pasttime sport.
If you would twist my arm and force me to go
to a game of one of those sports, I´d happily pick
football, though. The players look like those cool
little Transformer toys, and it seems to be more
tactical, without all this mindless running around for
90 minutes.

Relight my fire

2007-06-09T00:15:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I didn´t post that much during the last week
or so, and it´s not so much that I didn´t draw enough...
I hope I´ll do it more regulary again, especially since
the workload of my classes is getting a bit easier again.

On a sidenote, I am getting a desk at our in-school
studios, which means that I have a regular place to work
at outside my house, which will hopefully get me away
from all this distracting stuff at home and a bit nearer
to the pulse of our illustration school happenings.
(Thanks to Nicole and Lena for taking care
of this so extremely quick!)

The best cars of the world! (IN the world? ON the world?...)

2007-06-05T03:36:00.001+02:00

My, what a nice little automobile.
Doesn´t have a steering wheel, which is a
bit strange. Maybe it´s mind controlled.

This car has a lot of RAW, UNLEASHED POWER.
It´s even stronger than a T-Rex!
(Okay, maybe not THAT strong. Nothing
compares to Dinosaurs; not even Transformers.)

Those roads form a shape that reminds me
of this Jesus Fish. A hidden religious
message? Who knows?

Now this one is more generic again.
I really hate cars, I don´t drive them, I don´t
have the money to buy and maintain one, I get
sick inside them and they are speeding, ramming
death machines.

But I do like drawing them.