TRØYSTBOKA LAUNCH THIS MONTH

Sometime in the next few weeks the book I worked on with Skald Forlag since February will come back from the printers in Poland in all it’s splendour. With this being the third in the series I’m quite anxious to see it! The lauch will be held here in Bergen 26th or 27th of Septembre, I’ll let you know so you can come share some bubbles with me. Wheeee

CLOWN COSTUMES GALORE

I’m throwing a clown party in the near future to celebrate me turning 30, and today I mass produced clown collars.


Shame this picture was out of focus. But you can still see I’m throughly enjoying this! I’m making several collars because it’s a quick way to make a costume look really thought through, and easy to shove on top of guests that haven’t had time to sew their own huge and amazing outfit. No hearts shall bleed.


I still haven’t decided about my own costume, I had too much fun making these random ones When I left work I met up with the editor for Barn I Byen, and they thought it would be fun if I dressed up as a clown for a Monster Drawing course I’m giving in a few weeks for them. Hmmm. Not sure if the kids will take me seriously. And I would like to dress up as a scary clown, maybe I’ll scare the living daylight out of them. Hmmmm.

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!

YAY! I’m 30 today:D Cake for everyone!!


As a celebratory goodie I’ve put this drawing in my webshop at NOK 500,- instead of it’s original cost of NOK 850,-:D

Today is also the birthday and launch of FIN-mag, where I am interviewed, congrats to you too! Read the interview here. Now I’m off to eat cake:) Tadaa!

*A small update: The illustration is now sold:)

GUNVOR R ILLUSTRATON ON FACEBOOK

…Well, I have been on facebook for a few years, but not as an illustrator/artist. So now I created a facebookpage here that is quicker to update than my webpage, and where I can post work in progress and other bits and bobs that doesn’t fit on my portfoliopage. Would love to say hello to you there too Yay!

SUSANNE SUNDFØR AT PERIFERI

Those of you follow me on twitter know that the last two weeks have been filled with good concerts and artistic/design events. One event that I really treasured was yesterday’s concert with Susanne Sundfør at Periferi. I’ve never seen her live before, but had quite high expectations because of the intensity on her last album. And wow, she delivered! I wrote on twitter: “Susanne Sundfør has the most passionate show at rainy Periferi. I'm seduced.” And that sums it up quite well.

I’m actually a converted fan of her sound, I didn’t use to like her vocals, but now it seems the massive sound of her band and her songwriting fits better with the strong and quite strange vocal. The people doing scenography and designing her set and stage also gave us an eerie show with light bouncing of the back of a huge stretched canvas across the stage. It was raining like mad too with the odd thunder and lightening, it fitted quite well.

I have used her album “The Brothel” a lot for inspiration at work lately, and I probably won’t stop for a while eighter. I love getting new musical obessions to inspire my drawings. If you want to check out my favorite song from her go and listen to “Lilith” from “The Brothel”.

ACRYLIC EVENING AT DESIGNBRYGGERIET

Astrid Norveig Aalgaard, Åge Peterson and me have had an acrylic evening here at the office today. I have never used it properly so I had to learn everything from the others. Even what kind of surface to use it on, completely green me.
 
I’m a big fan of Camille Rose Garcia, and followed some youtubevideos with her painting to learn her technique. I have to do this alot I think to start developing my own style eventually, but as a starting point it’s good to see how other amazingly talented people work. So I can never claim my first few tests here as my own, even though the cupcake was;)


Astrid was painting from a photograph she had worked with in Photoshop.

  

And Åge managed to say pupcakes instead of cupcakes and that lead our creative minds astray thinking of what that would look like.

We are definately doing this again! I need to develop other skills except watercolor so as not to get tired of it or not get stuck. I love watercolor, but I also love having more or less successful experiments with new techniques and styles.

PINK PACKAGING

A returning customer wanted a small princess and something to do with cupcakes, so it’s now on it’s way in the post together with a few other orders from last week.


And yesterday I sold a polymer macrone bracelet that I made earlier for a How to-post.

 
Off to your new homes:)

WEEKENDS OFF

Perfect Sunday hangover lunch with my boyfriend♥

I felt like baking a mint green lemon cake. Yes!

And doing a wee bit of embroidery.

I love having weekends off again! 

PRODUCTION FOR MARKETS!

In November and Desember I’ll be participating at different markets here in Bergen. Today I started the first round of production. I’m making “Pimp My Raggsokk”:)


A nice grandmother at Bømlo likes to knit, and she is knitting a whole lot of wooly socks for me which I later on will decorate with lace, bowties and pictures of Elvis. YES:D I made her a quick sketch of my plans and a note desicribing sizes and so on.

 

So today she got a bag full of yarn and started knitting, while I was rounding up the last few illustration orders for this week. Yay!

WASHING UP GLOVES

Some weeks ago I got an email from a well known designer chainstore in Norway about Hummer & Kanari’s washing up gloves that are made by me and Birthe R.

And yesterday we went to meet them here in Bergens about them _maybe_ taking our pimped washing up gloves in stock. But you never know, things might go in any direction, money is always an issue. I hope it works out and that both them and us get a deal we are comfortable with. If it works out at all 

This is huge if it works out, but I dare not get my hopes up or it will be a classic case of “too good to be true”. Or maybe not No, no more thinking about it, concentrate on the work that needs to be done today. Yes.

DR SKETCHY: NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Sunday I was at Dr Sketchy Anti Art School at Garage, and here are some of my drawings for their Nightmare Before Christmas tribute.


Dr. Finklestein in his modified weelchair.


Sally in her rag doll bathing suit I sketched up between sessions, don’t know if it counts. I coloured it in more throughly when I got home, so this is not a 5 min or 10 min sketches like the other ones here.


Task was to implement a Christmas item to the pose on stage Think this was a 10 min pose, not sure.


It’s so difficult to start drawing reality again after I have been working with characters and imaginary things for so long. I had to concentrate to actually keep looking at the models after the first few pencil strokes, so that my mind wouldn’t wander and make up my own things instead.


But I had to give Dr. Finklestein his beak and large head even if the model didn’t have one. A bit of tweaking should be encouraged


I got so absorbed by the drawings, and since there was alcohol involved I felt so exhausted by the end of the session that my brain was coming out of my ears. Then all I was capable of was messing about with ink pens.

The group who arranges Dr Sketchy here in Bergen had done a good job with both costumes, make up and and the playlist All covers from different songs from “Nightmare Before Christmas.” I wanted Oogie Boogie to be on stage too, but then it wouldn’t be drawing from life then would it. I I desperately need to practise drawing from life again, yes.

Danny Elfman’s finest hour. What a brilliant mind and voice that man has.

EXPLOSIVE START

As if they all knew I was wondering where my next pay was to come from, (probably they did?) this week has brightened up things massively with new tasks and orders:) Illustrating for both Fjord 1 and Barn i Byen, four private orders for drawings, working with spin off products for Trøysteboka, and preparing for an exciting meeting on Monday. What a start after working so long with only one project since around March! KABOOM! Back to your desk:D


Yay! 

OFF TO THE PRINTERS

Celebrations has been in order, and the pdf for the insides of Trøysteboka has been sent to the printers. The cover and endpapers will be finished up tomorrow by me and Silje N.

This has taken so many hours, alot more than I get paid, but I like to believe it’s worth it. It’s my baby But I think that is every artist’s doom, NEVER start counting the hours. At the same time I think we should, but I don’t have time to be the one on the barricades, then that would be my job instead. But the graphic designer (and musician) for Skald put it quite neatly when I told her the hours I’ve put into this; “There is no point in me as a musician to go on stage and only play one song and then leave because of what I am paid, it’s better to do an amazing concert that might lead to other gigs.”

And I agree. To a point. Since 2006 I have done three huge bookprojects that took half a year each, countless freelance illustrations for magazines and newspapers, and I’m at work around the clock. I’m grateful that I have commissions, don’t get me wrong, only the hours never seem to shorten for each project. Actually it gets worse beacuse you want what you do to be GREAT. I wouldn’t have done it any other way, I want to feel I have really done my best.

But what scares me is that whenever I read interviews with other Norwegian illustrators, usually the ones that have been doing this for 20-30 and 40 years, they almost always say; “I have the best job in the world, but it doesn’t pay well.” Yay. What a future 

Now I’m quite broke, because I haven’t been able to accept new commissions while working with Trøysteboka, and we finished about a month later than planned, which also didn’t do much good for my economy. Luckily I have my beautiful private customers and  Epla-customers that kept me fed trough this last month! You don’t know how much you supported me buying my work.

I’m probably in a “post-huge-bookproject-vacuum” now, maybe it’ll look a bit brighter when I get back to work tomorrow and can send an invoice for the rest of the fee for the book.

VACATION!!

We finished the main piece of giant book project last Thursday and have been celebrating ever since. The graphic designer, Silje Nes, brought champagne to encourage us to finish, and it was popped at 10.45pm Wednesday 27th of July. Altough, after we got sober again the next day we started finding little mistakes here and there haha 

While I have been absorbed in this project for several months my lovely boyfriend from Katapult Media planned a little roadtrip for us before I finish up the cover for Trøysteboka. A small recap:

Over Hardangervidda we ended up in a ralley called Garbage Run with 260 cars from Holland, good fun and quite a different way to travel in Norway, with people sitting on the roofs of their cars drinking in 80km/h… Hmm.

We went to a birthday party and family gathering in Asker…

Met up with my editor in Oslo and did some more work on Trøysteboka over a milkshake at Ryes


Stayed with painter Grete Berg Stenmark in Sandefjord, whom I met while I lived in Paris. (This is her studio!)


And her garden looks like some fairy tale place in a story book.

She had an art school for kids while we were there, that we also had fun attending

And lots of wine and good company with other artists and musicians that also lived there with us.



Sun and sea in Stavern, I took this picture before this old sailor decided to befriend us


Cute little houses in Mandal..

Pittoresque lace curtains in Flekkefjord..

It was my friend’s birthday so we took this picture and wished her a happy birthday..




I got my wish granted; to read books while relaxing and watching the ocean. (This is in Sola.)


In Bryne we met up with illustrator Miss Talseth that I got to know at Grilldagene in Oslo in March..

And on our way home we found this sign at a gas station that said “ You are astounding” 

At the same gas station in the middle of nowhere we actually met some friends of mine from Bergen, we were so shocked we couldn’t stop laughing. As random as it gets I think, this place was not exactly on the main road.

Then we visited my parents and sister in Os and now we are home. I’m taking one more day off, only baking cupcakes for a friend’s party and attending it in a leopard dress, and then it’s back to work with the cover for Trøysteboka tomorrow.