MERRY Monday!

The Holiday Season is upon us! I tried sitting down Saturday and draw something christmas-y, but I just couldn't muster up the inspiration. I'll try to make this post about my favorite things about Christmas instead.

1. The Music

Hands down, the very best thing. There are sooo many good songs that have come out of this holiday! I'll include some more videos at the bottom!

2. The Lights

Walking in town when all the streets, all the lamp posts, and all the trees are decorated with multi-colored lights is absolutely wonderful! Walking in a winter wonderland is much more cheerful when your path is lit up. This picture is from Sandefjord downtown!

3. The Food

Of course, what is Christmas without the delicious food? I'm talking clementines, walnuts, gløgg, gingerbread, and rib! Oh, all the meat being consumed is close to irresponsible. But do we care? Nay, we cheer! 

Now I don't have much more to say, other than wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope the gift-shopping won't stress you out too much and that your belly will be full come Christmas Eve. 

I'll leave you with a link to my absolute Spotify Christmas Playlist, composed by my father. It consists of a capella and jazzy Christmas music.  Julemusikk <- Online Julemusikk <- In App

Also, here are some more videos, as promised.

Fickle Friday #3

School has been busy. So naturally, I have been too. I've fallen into a nice rhythm now where the stress around getting work done is actually soothing. It makes me feel alive, in a way. I haven't drawn much, but I have been writing. There are different ways to communicate an image from your own head to another. You could paint it, that's pretty straight forward, you can see what is going on! If it looks cold, you'll know it was cold. But with writing, you could also communicate the situation, the back-story and what everybody is thinking. In another way, music can communicate ambiance and feeling or excitement like no other art form can. So, as I am merely a story teller at heart, it doesn't really matter to me which medium I use, but drawing tends to be easier to use as it offers a wider range of opportunities. Like design. Which is why I am currently aiming for a career in Conceptual Design.

And in these times of reflection, I like to take a look back at the beginning to see how far I have come. I browse through my online gallery to find some of my earliest works.

My online art journey begins 5 years ago, sitting on an outdated laptop (brand new, at the time) and doodling in Paint. That's right, Paint.

 Yup, that's a magical drawing, right there!
I'm actually sort of impressed by this.

Ah, celebrating summer. Look at those proportions! And of course, a pair of huge Kawaii eyes.

Now, comics were always my kind of thing. I had a knack for drawing cowboy hats as well!











Ah, here I dealt with the sadness of divorced parents. A tough time for anyone.

















As you can see, I was thriving in Paint, but eventually I had to move on. I got a new program, for free, called GIMP, which is what I made that last drawing in.

After a while I moved on. I got a Mac, a monster of a computer, and Photoshop. I started painting, trying to get a proper 3D feel out of it. Trying out some color combinations and ways to shade.

Eventually I got better, practice makes ...well, not perfect, but better indeed.

Keep in mind, all of these are taken from my gallery album titled "Shit". So this wasn't good enough for me. I'll end this journey with my favorite creation so far. Why is it my favorite? Because I can't help but feel warm and happy everytime I look at it.

I'll post again before the Holidays! See you then!

Mammal Monday #4

"Anthropomorphism, or personification, is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being."

 - Wikipedia                                                  

This is a very common practice within animation. Every animated film you've seen with talking animals is an example of anthropomorphism. Or even with animals that have eyebrows or any characteristics that remind us of human behavior. I think it's really interesting that we, as a species, care in some ways more about other species than our own. Animals are cute and fuzzy, but also mysterious. It' fun to attribute them with human characteristics to imagine what they would do, because we simply don't know what's going on in their heads. 

Yes, I made this. It was fun.

This brings up two important issues to me. 

Oh, btw, "The Fox" by Ylvis started playing on my Spotify as I wrote this. Hah!

First of all, the way we treat animals is absolutely horrifying. I understand it is a matter of the value of their life, which is hard to determine, but who are we to determine? We're not special. But then again, who are we pleasing by treating them right? Is it just for our own conscience? These questions are so hard to answer. I don't want to eat meat that comes from a pig that spent it's entire life in a tiny cage. But I don't really know if that mattered to the pig. Is it not a sort of anthropomorphism (see how I slithered that in?) to attribute my own anger and frustration to an animal without knowing if it's true? Also, how do we determine intelligence within animals and then decide who is smart enough to not die horribly? That sounds awfully macabre. 

The second issue is not that relevant to anthropomorphism, but it's something that has been on my mind lately. Language is very restrictive! I hope, in the future, we are able to transmit thoughts without forcing them into words first. Miscommunication and lack of understanding is so frustrating and the cause of so much harm in our society. Which actually made me think of art. Some art is able to transcend language and communicate thoughts and feelings by it's own being. That truly amazes me! 

Okay, I'll see you later! 

Wonder Wednesday #3

Ugh, I'm sick.

Like, influenza, sick.

So I made some simple stuff for you, and I'm also going to add a new music video I found yesterday by Die Antwoord.

This is what I made:

It's me, laughing at your pathetic life.

Nah, I'm just kidding. Seriously though, this was fun, but kind of annoying. Annoying - because I had to watch myself make this... This is exactly the kind of pretentious crap I tend to moan over when I'm in museums. It's just some filters thrown around randomly... Okay, so the original painting (the one in the bottom left) was actually hard to make. But then it's just 'copy+paste' and GradientFilter and boom, you've got yourself some high-end artsy-partsy piece. "What does it mean???" It means I was bored and had never done this before. Now that I have, I don't want to do it ever again. But I'm probably going to... Damn you, artistic inspiration!

And finally, this:



I love these guys. Their style of music is very... specific. Enjoy!

I'll see you soon!

Mammal Monday #3

I wanted to record me drawing something. I've done it before, and it's very fun! I only managed to finish lining it though, as my computer decided to shut itself off halfway through. It couldn't take the strain of Photoshop and a Screen recorder at the same time. So, Photoshop promptly deleted my drawing, but at least I managed to recover the recording. 

Well, I tried.

Fickle Friday #2

So, I haven't really been writing as much as I could have on this blog. I've mostly let the images speak for themselves. Well I'm changing things up a bit! For this Fickle Friday, I am going to write a little about my experiences as an 'artist'.

I have made paintings and funny stick figures since I was 3 years old, and in elementary school I made my comic debut! The comic, featuring me and being about my life, now hangs proudly in my fathers tiny lavatory. Since then my tools have evolved from a pencil and a sheet of paper, to a tablet and Photoshop on a Mac. I've made countless posters for various productions, mostly because I was in them, and designed for yearbooks, papers, companies, schools and russ.

What happens when you're an artist though, is that you love what you do. And when you love what you do, people expect you to do it for free. For free? Do you know how much time it takes? Or how much time it has taken me to be able to do what you're asking me to do? People expect me to do things pro bono all the time! It seems that to them it doesn't really count as a job if you enjoy doing it! Remember people, if you're miserable when you work, you are doing it right.

It has mostly been enjoyable of course.

I'll leave you with this video about creativity, as I am about to fall asleep on my computer.

Wonder Wednesday #2

Landscapes

As you can see, I am absolutely not good at this whatsoever. I am in dire need of some good reference photos and hours upon hours of practice. So just to redeem myself a little bit, I have included a snippet of a comic I am working on called "Spirit", featuring anthropomorphic characters and a great deal of self-interpretation.

Enjoy!

Mammal Monday #2

So, yeah.

It's been a week without any posts, for the simple reason that there's been a lot of tests, resulting in a lack of time for this blog. Thing is, for every post, I need to draw something! Which takes a fair amount of time! So I think I need to plan these posts a bit more effectively.

Anyway, a new week begins! So here is my second Mammal Monday piece:

I have always feared the deep ocean. I love scuba diving and snorkeling, but if I can't clearly see my surroundings or where the ocean floor is, I freak out! So this time, my theme was the terror that is the vast sea. Poor fishy!

I'm playing around with blue here, as well as some more vibrant hues in the scales reflecting the surface light. 'Bit cartoonish, I'll admit, but sea creature realism is some next level shit!

See you soon!

Fickle Friday #1

So, yeah.

I cut my hair.

I have FRINGE NOW!

It's so unusual. The worst part is people seeing it for the first time and going:

"Wow! You look...different! ...it's nice, though!" 

I haven't had a fringe since I was 8. If I pull it backwards it actually stays up for a bit and instantly takes me back to the 80's. So I guess this Friday will be about that. Hastily done as I am dead tired and supposed to work out right now... 

So here you go, in all it's asymmetrical glory! 

Wonder Wednesday #1

The idea behind this painting/drawing: We discover this really unique flower in a really dense part of the jungle, but we can't really get too close to it without ruining the surrounding vegetation. So we send in this mini electronic bug with a camera attached to it. 

I thought it was cute.

The red spheres are its berries. The glowing stuff is pollen. This is a very simple rendition.

I hope, in the near future, to do some more landscape painting from reference photos for Fickle Friday, and eventually add some of that acquired realism to the Mondays and Wednesdays. It's pretty boring with no background, but since the subject matter here is clear and the image is "clean", it's passable as a concept piece. 

Mammal Monday #1

For my first design, I've chosen the cute and fuzzy panda! I sketched the bear out, sketched up some background, added some photos and mixed it all together. Looking back at this hastily done work, I see a lot of mistakes. The shadows, the lighting, the anatomy of...well, everything, but there you go! It can only go uphill from here! 

What this blog will be all about

Alrigth! The blog has been created, and don't you worry, this will not be a whimsical place. Well, ok, maybe it will. I have decided to use this blog as a way to force myself to delve further into the realm of conceptual design. After all, it is what I am currently pursuing as a career. So I better get started on broadening my skills and my portfolio.

Every Monday will be Mammal Monday. That's right! Some conceptual designs involving mammals (and I'm not going to lie, it will probably feature all kinds of living creatures, but Mammal Monday sounds so good) are heading your way! Every Wednesday will be Wonder Wednesday, focusing on the imaginary, the obscure, the mind-boggling! And every other Friday will be Fickle Friday, where I'll never be sure what to draw, but something will come along.

Now, if you're my teacher (Hi, Richard) you've probably noticed that these days all align with the class schedule. This is intentional. I'll try to write up the posts the day before and have them posted in the morning. So expect the first (proper) post to be ready Monday morning!

Lots of love,
Nora