Sara Whiskey

I was away from the Studio when I had my birthday a few weeks ago, but look what I got this week! A bottle of whiskey with a custom made label from my colleauges in the Studio. :)
The label is drawn by Stina Hjelm and reads (in english): Sara whiskey - for girls with hair on their chest. :)

Ink and destroy

Scene:
Tuesday evening in the studio. It's dark and only one lamp is burning. The one next to Joakim's drawingboard. Rain and thunder outside the window. Joakim is alone in the studio and looks through a bunch of unfinished drawings.

– Hmm... a nice little rough. Maybe I should finish it...


– Well, well... I think this actually can be a nifty piece when finished. Let's get a good brush...


– And now, let's destroy it with lots of shading!

Sigh... I should have put the brush aside before I started to clutter it up.
Well, done is done. I probably won't make the same mistake again.
Yeah, right...


The rain is still pouring down here in Malmö. Still alone in a dark studio in the Mazetti house. My colleauges were smart enough to leave before the rain. Listening to the radio and surfing the net. Police sirens from the street. More rain.

Realized today that Lina Neidenstam probably is one of the best new comic artists we got here in Sweden. Certainly one of the funniest. I'll be first in line when her Zelda album is released this autumn. Go check out her blog: Lina kan rita fint.

Well, I should probably head home for some food. And Lost! There's a new episode airing today! Must see!

/Joakim.

Tools and workspace Pt.II

Was home sick yesterday with a fever. No fun at all. My body is still working on getting a "back to normal" feeling.
But I'm in the studio now taking a break from my inking. Not that inspired today so I thought I should post the stuff I promised the last time around.

So here we go:
I sometimes use blue pen with neon leads ( Pilot eno) that are non reproduceable when I sketch a page. And I also use it when I transfer Hedvigs pencils to the board that I ink on. That way I dont have to erase the lines and it actually looks quite good to have lots of blue lines on your original art. Everyone who has a Pogo strip or a Jippes page know what I mean. :)

To pencil I use three different sizes of GraphGear 500 from Pentel. (All depending on if the details are small or big. Sizes vary from 0.3 to 0.9) They have a wonderful weight that makes them great to work with. All with HB leads.

To erase the pencil lines I either use a standard eraser or (for small details) a japanese eraser pen that I found on Åhlens in Gothenburg.

For lettering (Everything I do is hand lettered...) I use a Staedtler pigment liner 0.3 for standard size letters.
The frames are ruled with a Copic Multiliner 1.0. Both have ink that doesn't bleach with time. (Or at least I hope so...)
The third pen from the left is a brush pen from Pentel. Or my "Craig Thompson pen" as I call it. :)

The nibs I use are Brause 511 and 513 all depending on the mood I'm in. (One is stiffer the other softer.) Those I use on "Katten Nils". For "Emma & Sara" I use a W&N series 7 size 0. But since the quality is so crappy nowdays I'll probably switch to another brand.

To erase mistakes after I've inked a page I use a scalpel.

Then something to brush away all the dust from the original after I've erased the pencil lines.

I use Talens ink that I pour over from the big bottle into the smaller bottle. That way the ink stays fresh longer. The worst thing to work with is ink that has been exposed to air a long time and has become thick and hard to work with. Impossible if you work with nibs.
(If I notice that the ink in the small bottle gets thick I pour it into yet another bottle. The ink in that one I use for large black fields that needs really intense black.)
And lastly you see the thing I pour the ink into when I use a brush. (When I use a nib I just dip it into the bottle.)

For some more on my working methods please see the entries for February 2007 here.

New stuff by Hedvig

Intermission.

We take a break in the posting of the 1946 KFS stuff for some of Hedvigs artwork. (Follow link under "Artists - Swedish" for more about her.) What she's working on here in the studio right now is a story filled with intrigue, love and relations. Just thought I should post some of the artwork from it here. (The first pic isn't actually from the comic but a calendar illustration featuring the two lead "actors" Ron and Vixie.)
She isn't working the usual way when she's doing this story. Instead she's doing every panel separate then building the story/pages digitally in the computer, without knowing how they will fit together in advance. That way she can edit and work with the story very much like a filmmaker can cut a movie. And besides that, she's way cool. :)
Enjoy!

Stina Hjelm

One of the coolest persons here in the Studio is Stina Hjelm.
I just love this pic she did yesterday. If you are from a small town on the country side you'll get the point of this drawing even if you never heard of Linköping.

And if you are really fast you can still check out a large selection of her drawings here! She told me that she'll stop posting there and who knows they might all be deleted tomorrow.

Love Hurts - Anastasia

Out now:
Love Hurts "Anastasia" by Kim W. Andersson!
Released as a supplement on glossy stock in the latest issue of Swedish comic book Nemi.
Don't miss it!


For a step-by-step on how the cover was made see Kim's homepage. Link can be found in the list of links to the right.

Hedvigs sketchbook

Hedvigs skechbook is out now (see previous posts) and for sale on SPX at Serieteket in Stockholm.
If your not in Stockholm this weekend it will be available via mailorder from her website when she is back.
(If there are any copies left. She only made 50...)
Until then, here are some quick sketches she left on her drawing board before going to SPX. Enjoy!

Love Hurts - The art of Kim W Andersson

Time to make another short presentation of one of the talented artists in the Studio: Kim W Andersson.

He has been here since the studio started a few years ago and is currently working on his new series "Love Hurts". Romantic horror comics dealing with his favorite subjects, love and fear. They are inked with bold thick strokes with lots of contrasts between light and dark. Think of a mix between Duncan Fegredo and Mike Mignola with a touch of Peter Snejbjerg and you'll be pretty much spot on.
"Love Hurts" can be found in the Swedish comic book NEMI every month and is syndicated via Europa Press.
Also: His Mac and speakers also provides the soundtrack to the Studio in the afternoons. As I write we listen to Foo Fighters. I'm ever so thankful that he's got good taste when it comes to music and that his Mac is stuffed with it.


Here we can see him inking at his drawing board.


And here are a few sample pages from Love Hurts.




More can be found at his website: Lucky Death Comics presents Kim W Andersson Check it out!

For the fans of Hedvig.

Hedvig hard at work with artwork for "Bamse".

Since many of you visitors comes here via Hedvigs Deviant art pages
it's not more than fair to show you part of the Emma & Sara page that she has pencilled and that I'm inking right now. For the final artwork in gloriuos color, go get Julia #11/2007, out in a month or so.

Also:
Don't miss the beautiful Krazy Kat stuff on Arf Lovers blog!
Don't forget to bookmark that blog! It's always worth a visit.

I'll be back tomorrow with some rare and odd stuff from my archive. Check back then!

It's bird! It's a plane! It's a Griffin!

Some people just got way toooooo much talent.
Hedvig, who's sitting behind me here in the studio and also assists me on "Emma & Sara", just finished this page for a griffin story.

She's also working on her first sketchbook scheduled for SPX in Stockholm. Some really good stuff in it from what I've seen.
I'll let you know more as soon it's available.

Johanna K.

Johanna som sitter brevid mig i studion kommer från en håla kallad Vänersborg.
Hon är ganska lat, gillar att teckna lustiga djur och har ett par Totoro-tofflor som hon lufsar omkring med i studion.
Hon har fått mig att dricka omåttliga mängder té de senaste åren och brukar tjuvkika på Lost på youtube innan de sänds på fyran. Hon är dessutom lite kär i sin iPod som hon bär med sig vart hon än går. (Just nu misstänker jag att det är rätt så mycket the Shins i hennes lurar. Kanske lite Koop och Charlotte Gainsbourg också om jag känner henne rätt.)

Såhär ser hon ut när hon tecknar en serie om korkade hundar:


Och såhär ser hon ut när hon har städvecka och moppar Simon i studion:

Och så gör hon en serie om en tjock gul katt som heter Katten Nils. Han ser ut såhär:


Och såhär, när han tar hand om lille Tigris:


Och såhär, när han är lite deppig:


Vill man se mer av den här katten går det snart.
I en tidning som heter Kamratposten!!!
Där kan man följa hans öden och äventyr från och med
nummer 5 i år. I strålande fyrfärg. Det ni!

Vill man veta mer om Johanna och se mer av hennes teckningar går man bara in på hennes hemsida. Och det vill man ju.
Länk finns här intill!

English summary:
This is Johanna who sits next to me in the studio. Besides the two pics of her you also see samples from her strip "Katten Nils" (Nils the Cat) wich is scheduled to begin in the next issue of a childrens magazine called Kamratposten. You can see more of her artwork if you click on the Johanna K. link to the right.

Me, the devil.

Beeing an editor at daytime for BAMSE means that I have to deal with freelancers.
Having three of them in the studio (Adam, Hedvig and Simon) means that I can watch over their shoulders and bug them about composition and perspetive etc. before they turn in their work.
Usually we get along fine but today... Well, I think that the picture Hedvig drew of me says it all. ;-)
I'm not THAT evil. I hope...

Cute bunnies and painkillers

Wouldn't it be more fun to have a hangover if painkillers came with cute bunnies on the packages?
I think I've discovered a whole new market. Sell painkillers in packages one and one with a cute character, like a kinder egg.
The slogan would naturally be "It has never been this fun to have an hangover!" I'm gonna be rich, rich, rich, moahahahaha...


No post yesterday. Have been busy with the new Emma & Sara page and still have some inking to do before I'm finished.

I blame it all on my assistant who has been busy herself with artwork for BAMSE. Hopefully she'll start with artwork for a new Emma & Sara page soon so I can sit back, relax and post more silly stuff om my blog.
Now I have to get some lunch, buy a new pair of socks, answer my cell phone and finish that #&€("€%$∞§ page...

Lazy Sunday afternoon in the Studio.

Sunday, sunday here again... Just arrived to the Studio where I work. Only Hedvig here today. Myself I ought to get to work straight away. Have a tight deadline as always...
Anyway, some of you might be interested in knowing that I share a studio with ten other artists/writers in central Malmö, Sweden. We all have very different styles. Manga, alternative, funny animal, horror, romance... You find it all here!
I'll be writing more about the studio soon, but for now you'll have to do with some photos.

My drawingboard. I like to surround myself with stuff/artwork that inspires me.


As you can see we all sit in small cubicles, donated by Egmont when they moved office.


Hedvig mopping up after slobs like me. (Actually it's her cleaning week.)


Hedvig just reminded me that I said that I wouldn't blog, but only use this as a showcase for my artwork. Well, well...
BTW: Click on the Seriestudion link to the right under "Other stuff you'll like" if you want to see some of the studio members homepages.
Now I really have to work...