Inktober 2016

I haven't had time to update the blog in a long while now, but here's a bit of catching up. This year was the first time I participated in the Inktober challenge in October. Was super fun and by the end of the month I had discovered a new combo of tools I really enjoyed working with; tracing paper and markers.

New Illustrated Book

Last Friday, 'Jeg er Frankenstein' ('I am Frankenstein'), a brand new illustrated thriller book for tweens and teens, was published in the olde kingdom of Denmark. It's written by Bjarke Schjødt Larsen and illustrated by yours truly. It's a great read and it was super fun to work on too.
Below are a selection of some of the interior illustrations and vignettes I made along with the book cover without the text.

Head study

I made this head study last week in Procreate with iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. As always, super enjoyable tools to work with!
I also posted a video of my process on Instagram: artbynath

Tools used.

2016 avatar

Every year I make a new online avatar for myself. It's a nice tradition as it gives me a short break from big and ambitious projects. This year I used Procreate for most of it (I used Pixelmator for the circle and Photoshop for a bit of last-minute tweaking).

I started out with the more complex sketch below, but in the end I came to my senses and kept it simple and readable for small sizes. :)

Anyone Can Improve at Drawing

I threw together this Before and After picture for this site: http://anyonecanimproveatdrawing.tumblr.com/
“We all start somewhere. This is a blog where artists share how their artwork has improved after years of practice. This blog is here to inspire and encourage you to keep drawing every day!”

New Illustrated Book

My editor from Silhuet came by the other day with a lovely surprise; "Eliksiren" ("The Elixir") by author Kristoffer Jacob Andersen, a juicy horror youth book I recently finished illustrating. It’s turned out amazing! I'll post a link once it hits the Danish stores sometime next week.

Conspirator

After way too much silence from my tiny corner of the Internet, I can finally show a bit of what I’ve been working on in my own time. Here’s a new character for my portfolio.

Figrah the Conspirator is officially the King’s Advisor, but his actual power stretches far beyond that position. With his dangerously high amount of people skills and cunning no one can help but to love and admire him. He’s a classic two-headed snake who likes to puppeteer the court and the King from the shadows where he can whisper sweet promises, spread poisonous slanter and play everyone like pieces on a chess board.

Here’s a GIF showing my process going from crude initial sketch to finished illustration:

Cursed Ice Cream

Based on Dave Rapoza’s first gumroad video, I had fun with yet another style and approach. It was a nice change to work out all the problems in the beginning with line sketches and then meditatively paint in the colour afterwards.

Here’s a little background story to go with the illustration:
Oleg was a great hunter. The very best in the tribe. But right now he was far away from his family to track down the Cursed Ice Cream in the hope that he could break the spell; the biggest thorn in the Poknaq tribe's eye for as long as they could remember. The winters had gotten worse for each year and the tribe was starting to run out of food. Everybody knew the reason for this. It was the Cursed Ice Cream. The Cursed Ice Cream was an old legend, and it was a shot in the dark to try and find it, but the Bubilaq tribe had no other option left. They were desperate. Legend had it that centuries ago the lands were lush and green and full of life, but then a mermaid witch planted the ice cream somewhere high above the water as a bittersweet revenge for the ice cold betrayal of her lover when he took another wife. To break the curse, a brave young man would have to willingly place his heart instead of the ice cream and hope that the witch's restless soul would accept his offer and finally go to rest. Oleg was soon going to find out whether he made the cut or not.

Below are some WIPs.

Children's Book Illustration

Here’s a children’s book illustration I finished recently in a new experimental style.

Story:
The sibling couple often come to visit this strange world at night in their dreams. At first they were frightened by the big hovering fish, but they’ve come to realise that they’re quite harmless. Sometimes the fish even let them ride on their backs through the most wonderful scenarios. And when they wake up in the morning, the children spend all day imagining the new peculiar places they’re going to explore with their newfound floating friends the coming night.

Below you can see a few early colour comps that helped me decide what best suited the atmosphere I wanted to convey.

New Avatar

A new avatar for a new year. Wish you all an outstanding 2015!