One more down

Horribly violent!
But there is no way around it telling a contemporary tale of crime, drugs, betrayal, dirty politicians, merciless assassins and such, without it I’m afraid.

So dear readers to be, you simply must bear with me.
And don’t forget to save up cash for the release.
You just have to have one of these.
Your comic collection will under no circumstances be even close to complete without this first, and then all the next episodes of  “The St. Pauli Blues” Graphic Novel ……get my drift punters… ?   :)

Until next time everybody…

More St Pauli Blues_Two new pages

Here are the two last panels I have drawn for my graphic novel “The St. Pauli Blues”. It will soon be time to put in the text. But we still have some violence and torture to endure before we go to New York and the last little clue for the next installment.

Training my inking and drawing skils

Howdy folks (Been listening to western novels audiobooks lately), It`s been a while since I last put out something here on My studios blog, but hey! what can I say….I`ve been busy in the real world (you know that tiresome rainy reality outside your door :).
For the last couple of weeks I have been exclusively practicing my inking skills. I do drawings of anything that comes to mind, only to ink them for practice sake.
Now  here are some of the best ones scanned out of my sketch pads ore bits of paper scraps where they started their life. They`re all done on cheap paper of all sorts (what ever was at hand at the given moment), and that has had quite an impact on the end result (bleeding lines and such).
They were all done in more or less the same fashion. First roughly sketched with pencil. Then I take an eraser and halfway erases the drawing `til I can just about see it. Then I outline it with an 0,1 ink pen before I go ahead with ink and brush to bring in dynamics and weight. Afterwards I go over it with the 0,1 again for a little hatching here and there to underline stuff.
Before I start a drawing (even these sketches) I nearly ALWAYS do a few thumbnails and a couple of studies to establish eventual composition and placement together with the play of light and shade. Also to get to grips with shapes and lines I haven`t done previously or have little practice with, just to get it in to my hands and eyes before I go ahead…..

I have done a little cleaning up of the scans in Photoshop, and then added some colored overlay and grading, but that`s it. Every sketch appear as it was drawn by hand on paper.

I realized during this session that inking with a big fat brush, really adds weight and dynamics to the mix. And it does so in a lot better way than any other medium or technique I have ever encountered or tried.
The big brush delivers little “accidents” on a regular basis that really adds huge amounts of nonchalant randomness to make the drawing alive and believable.  That huge sable brush is a regular drama hose. It really changes the whole impact and feel of the work.

The conclusions I draw from these sessions, are that I still have a long way to go before I have established a steady and easily recognizable drawing style. I also need to work more on my hatching in order to get it a little slicker and also need to experiment a little more on where to use hatching and not.

I realize that there is a lot of influence from people like Frank Miller, Will Eisener, Quesada, Mignola and such in the stuff I draw, but I also can see that as I keep drawing and rehearsing my skill set, the style slowly becomes my own unique one…..

Excited about too many things at the same time

One thing keeps me grounded and grinding these days, and that`s my graphic novel “The St Pauli Blues”.
I am like a horse pulling a wagon. Bent neck, and focused mind, no stop until I am there.

The St Pauli Blues_2010

I am not just a little bit proud. First I spent a year and a few month doing a graphic novel about Europe under Napoleon, then I scratched it (will pick it up again at a later stage) due to low quality art and script.
But one learn as one goes along (hopefully), so then I did a spell of 10 month where I only drew.
I went on for at least 12 hours each day.

Doodles and sketches I did during the training and experiment period

For this period I played around with techniques, materials and tools.
I did just abut anything I could come up with in order to achieve the look and feel I was aiming for.
In the first 9 month I worked strictly with paper, pencils, ink pens, ink and brushes on everything from the finest drawing paper to scraps and bits I`ve found all over the place. I must have gone through every ink pen brand ever imported to Norway. I ended up a little different though. Because I couldn`t figure out how to get it scanned in to Photoshop without a loss of ink line quality.
So after scratching my head for a while, I went back to trying a tiny wacom tablet (A6) with only pressure sensitivity and nothing else. I am positive this tool was mostly meant for retouching photos, and not for drawing and painting

Wacom Graphire4 A6

But as you can see, It has actually served me well so fare, but I am getting trouble with my arm and elbow.
So I am bound for a new and bigger one…

One of the first pictures I redrew, before I went ahead and inked everything over again for the 4th or 5th time. But it payed off, Now I am finally getting somewhere

One very cool thing is that now I paint whole panels in one go, as opposed to before where I did single pictures (pencil first and then inked over on a new better paper with help of a light table…home made one) and composited them in Adobe InDesign. I save a lot of time like this.
I still do the sketches and pencils on paper one by one, then I stick together a muckup of all the ones on one panel and this becomes the sketch layer that I ink over in Photoshop.
Here is an example, It`s actually the first one I did as one whole page/panel.
It is without text and speech bubbles yet

Panel 27

These days it is rather hot, and I have slowed down a lot. But I also think this is due to the fact that I keep going back and improving stuff all the time, and it is only getting more stuff to improve on all the time.
Also my son And I are doing some travelling these days. Just scooting around in the car to get some change of environment. Staying in little hotels and such.
Last weekend we went to Oslo and saw my old busking friends and that bunch, it was a gas.

An old friend and busker Lawrence Glaister & My son Ivan to the right

The photo above was shot during last weekend in Oslo.
Same goes for the six pictures I used to stick together the Photoshop manipulation beneath.
I turned them in to a Oslo post card.

A Photoshop picture made out of six single shots

Now that was it for today, but I promise not to update as seldom as I have lately.
I am contemplating getting myself some server space and a real web name for my little outfit, so keep your eyes peeled and come along as I move, don`t miss out on all the fun here in Studio45.

Per Ove Sleen

Marker sketch

Another sketch from my graphic novel. It is not used in the production, it is just a scribble I did to train my marker skills, but the motive is in this moment being painted again digital for the album.

Sketching, doodeling and having a great old time

For as long as I can remember I have been doodling.
Since I was a little baby I have been fascinated with the concept “pencil & paper”, and thus always had drawing tools handy.

One of the doodle collections.
Go see the 5 others here on my picture blog

But I was never serious about it. I never tried to make it in to something that could earn me money.
Main reason I think was that from an early stage in life I was able to make money playing rock music.
But one day I grew tired of touring, hotel rooms and never being able to settle down and take it easy. There was always something cooking, and I’ve had enough of it.
I was also aware of something new and exciting happening on the art front, and I was determined to try….the bait was Photoshop and computer graphics.
The blend of tech and art turned out to be irresistible.
This was in 1997, and the rest is history in the making.
But despite all the wonderful stuff that came with computers and graphics software, I am still sporting a fair attraction towards pencil and paper and drawing the old way.
Matter of fact, I start just about all my work on paper (except for written work).
So I keep paper and pencils handy and avilable all over the house, and I always carry a little sketch pad and pencil everywhere I go. I even have a set in my toilette.
Every day I make an endless row of doodles and sketches, and they are floating all over the place.
For the last 6 month I have been working exclusively on a graphic novel about Napoleon Bonaparte, but still I keep doodling all kind of stuff…just about anything going through my head.
So yesterday I scanned all the doodles I have been doing for the last two weeks (well almost all of them).
You can see them here on my picture blog….have fun

POS

Napoleonic times are slowly coming back to life

I am giving it all I’ve got to get this Napoleon video graphics novel up and running, and slowly I am getting there.
This is my very first attempt at drawing, inking and coloring a full comic story on my very own…
And I must admit that it is not a small and easy task.
But I will not complain, it is very much fun involved and for someone like me who loves to draw…well it’s actually nothing short of a dream come true to be honest.

If any of you are interested, I am posting the pencils and a lot of the sketches on our graphics blog
So just pop over and see if you like the way it is going…..

POS

We made home page on redbubble.com AGAIN!

My Code Zebra T-shirt made it to the front page of redbubble.com.
That is a big deal.
You are chosen among literary millions of pictures, and it is a real feather in your hat considering all the fantastic artists participating on the bub.

This is just to great!, go and check it out folks.
There is an endless amounts of top notch imagery to look at ore to purchase if you want to…..
Redbubble is your chance to buy top Illustrations, paintings, photos, prints and t shirts directly from the artist, without going through arty farty galleries that adds huge amounts to the price….

Here you can find a lot more pictures, photos and t-shirts from Studio45

Drawing and reference on the road and at home

Like I promised I am here again. And this time there was no long waiting period (not THAT long anyway).
And I will try to keep that up for a while. In my nearest future there are a lot of traveling on my calendar and I plan to buy a laptop to stay online and updated as we crisscross Norway and Europe.
Another thing I plan to do with those long traveling hours (we’re going on a tour with my band, to promote our new CD due for recording this summer/fall), is to bring drawing equipment and spend my time wisely.
Like always there are many things I need to polish, and then we’re back to reference again.
At the moment drawing figures and anatomy are high on the list, and I am also involved in a project that is going to really put my figure drawing skills to the test.
It is comic related work, and in the more realistic corner, like a Graphic novel.
But like I said, time is on my side, I’ll have a Wii fi compatible laptop and just the right tools for the job.
The tools I would bring along are the simplest and easiest you can use.
For drawing on the road, I simply get ore make myself a clipboard slightly bigger than A4,

My clipboard made out of an old file holder.
I simply cut of the front (the part without the
hardware attached to it) and use an old clipboard
…eeeh whatever you call it in English :-) on top to
hold the paper.

two technical pens o,5 and 0,7 both HB. three black ink pens (0.5 0.2 and a thick black marker for filling in ). This and a rubber goes in my pocket, and the clipboard is outfitted with printer paper straight out of my printer, and fits nicely in to my laptop bag.

This is actually all I need to do my comics and just
about anything else destined for the computer and
digital distribution (witch is about 100% of my
visual work thees days)

I also carry a small notebook for the lighter ocations.

This is my little notebook. I take this when
circumstances are a bit rough ore I just wanna
jot down a few ideas. The front cover was
decorated by the hack himself..:-)

So there i am all set to go, only one thing missing…reference.
You see being on the road might make it dificultdt to be online any given time, and I really don’t wanna start filling up my hard drive with tons of pictures I might never use.
As I was reasearcing this post, trying to find a solution I came over what I should have thought about at once (cos I new this, just new links).
If you are an American, and even an artist as well, chances are you have heard about Andrew Loomies.
Me I discovered him about ten years ago.
His books are so old they where one of the first authors to be put up for free download at the time when internet started to be a common thing around here.
His books are still here, and they are still some of the absolute best instructions you will ever come across. This I guarantee you.
The first time I downloaded some of his books it was some really crude scans in over compressed PDF format.
But that was thousand web years ago, today all his books are available for download in top notch condition PDF’s
This is the best I could ever offer you. And rest asure I will download every single one myself too, and print them out bind them and take them on the road.
So let’s get to the links
First we’ll do Mr. Loomies, then there will be a few other great books for reference and tutorials you can download for free. and in the end there will be a few links to online facilities where you can study Loomies and thousands of other recourses for drawing and painting.
I highly recommend you check every single one of them, they are gold worth if you wanna improve your drawing skills.

Andrew Loomies:
Drawing Heads
Figure Draw
Successful drawing
Creative Illustration
Fun with a pencil
Eye of the painter

George Bridgman
Construction. Masses and movements of the body
The human machine
The next one is a bit of a pain to get to, but just be patient and wait out all the bullshit, you won’t regret it. The conection is great as soon as it starts downloading.
I had 460 KB/sec all the time so I had the 80 Mb down in no time at all.
Here you are:
Bridgeman’s comlete guid to drawing life

The next link I have for you
is a great link for tutorials, videos and free book downloads.
The place is called gekos

And at last I have a place
for you that is sporting
PDF’s and other documents full of drawing tutorials. And it is called Scribd I recommend this one warmly

A happy design story

Hello!….both of you, and a happy new year to get that out of the way.
I know!…It’s about time I get this blogg up rolling to its full potential, and believe me that is my intention.
First I want to tell you about one of the last jobs I did in 2008.
The reason for this is to show you how cool and fun this job can be, even if you aren’t working for Coca cola ore Nike at the moment/yet, and to show that some jobs are really something else than you first imagine.
You see I have this most incredible dentist, she has taken our little island with storm so to say.
She is very skilled at what she does, and has a way about her that makes you feel every other dentist you had to use throughout a long life, are either assholes, raving idiots ore both.
She has cured both me and one of my brothers from a life long phobia against …exactly dentists. And that is the case with a whole bunch of other people around the village too.
As a natural consequence of this, she is extreemly popular and won’t have to look for work in near future.
Her office is my nearest neighbor, and one day as I attended an appointment at her practice, she asked me to make here a logo for her little (but extreemly well doing) dentist practice.
I was a little perplexed by this, since she already had a sufficient solution for letter head and had absolutely no reason to do any marketing.
But she went on by saying that she sometime bought an add ore two in the program that the local marching brass band usually printed for national day (Norwegian 17.May), ore she sometimes supports the local music kindergarten and so on. She said she played the violin and was very interested in music, she also have children and thus has an great interest in the local musical life.
So this was her reason for wanting an dedicated logo, and we talked it quickly through (too quick it should turn out) and I strode to the task.
A few days later I proudly presented her with my take on a proper dentists logo if there ever was one…

(I’m sometimes just the biggest of idiots it seams)…
By looking at her face I could immediately see I was far of the mark but she said, this is very nice how much?
So I said, look we don’t stop until you’re satisfied and I can see your not.
She smiled and then she told me she had been browsing my picture blog and seen many of my different comics and cartoon characters and found them very entertaining. And since she really didn’t have to attract any customers she’d like to use something really funny, and went on with her description using hands and feet.
So off I went again, this time with a tad more information on the visual part.
This morning I strode in to her office again, and handed her this…

The expression on her face told a different story than last time around when she saw the printout, this time it was a big smile. But she was busy and I were in a rush, so there were no time for talking.
I hope maybe tomorrow she’ll give me a call… :-)

Per Ove Sleen

Studio45 has entered a Board design contest

After some consideration I have decided to spend some time and effort in participating in different illustration, art and design contests.
What you see here, is the first attempt. It is a snowboard decor competition that looked OK. So I just jumped it.
Here is the URL: http://www.series13.com/freeride/

X-Mas cards for local stores

As a continuation of the postcard success from last summer, I have decided to release two X-Mas motives for sale in the local stores for this X-Mas.
It is just for distribution locally, and thus have local motives and text.

Character Workshop Blog up and running

For some time now I have been thinking of setting up a blog, where I more ore less every day publish whats on my sketchpad, drawing board ore in Photoshop at given moment.

Because I draw every day… and I draw a lot.It is all more ore less character driven (can I say that?…)
Actually to be perfectly honest with you, my love for characters is what got me in to this whole thing in the first place. And that is what keeps me going through the rough patches.
This of course generates a ton of drawings and sketches.
So I thought I present them more ore less chronologically, and thereby let you all get a glimpse in to my creative proses.

First picture out is something I have called “The parade through town”.
It was somehow inspired by a short story by Kafka that I read just the synopsis of.
This short story sparked some weird imagery in my head, and I have now spent a couple of days grinding it out in sketches, and getting it in to Photoshop.

So go check it out, and maybe hook up your RSS reader to catch the sequels. It will if not anything else, be entertaining and inspiring.

POS’n