Linn Ahlbom Illustration

Why anonymous bulletin board systems are great

2011-04-12T21:57:00.000+02:00

Here is a great post on why anonymous BBSs are a good idea. Not quite on the topic of illustration, but I thought it worthwhile sharing:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/shii/shiichan

Eggs in illustrator

2011-01-30T01:51:00.001+01:00

This is me trying out email posting. Exciting! (For me) ;)

Snippornas afton (with image)

2011-01-17T20:01:00.000+01:00

http://www.adasweden.se/nyheter/lokalt/snippornas-afton/

http://www.adasweden.se/

Snippornas afton

2011-01-17T15:00:00.003+01:00

My latest illustration job, an interpretation of a designer candle holder. I am so happy the designer liked it!
For those of you in Gothenburg, feel free to attend the venue. I am! :)

http://www.adasweden.se/nyheter/lokalt/snippornas-afton/

New work from my artworker/information design course

2010-11-16T14:15:00.007+01:00

I have no idea how to get in a good routine when it comes to updating my blog, but getting a Mac Book Pro was certainly a good move. I am not going to promise frequent updates because I am terrible at them, but if I do manage to keep it up give me a pat on the back and a cookie.

This is a two-day quick packaging project we have had (set monday, due wed morning). The goal was to create packaging for "healthy liquorice candy" for people who are 20-40 and health-conscious, product name "Grön Lakritz" (swedish for green liquorice). Part of the assignment was to take apart existing packaging and reproduce it and how it works (the closing mechanism) and then apply our design on it. We also had to make a digital sketch of our product in an environment. I went for a slightly unusual and exclusive feel for the packaging since I chose the product to be organic. I thought a nice detail would to have a fresh green inside in contrast to the dark outside (the green to the right of my packaging design). The illustration is from Wikimedia commons and, alas, is not mine. There is no time to do a drawing of that level of detail in that short amount of time. I think I would need at least a week to complete the project if I were to illustrate it with that kind of detail (and come up with the idea, sketching takes time too).

The photo is taken by David Joyce (Flickr). Thank you David!

Keep you fingers crossed that I manage to find time to post other stuff that I have been doing here. ;)

Drying time

2010-06-16T13:54:00.003+02:00

Having spent a whole day at following Jerlov's print consultant Börje around to look at different printers and printing processes (a big thank you Börje! It was really kind of you to offer me this opportunity) I was left with new insights into things and a mix of surprise and awe at some of the processes in use today.

The processes look much the same as they did at the birth of offset printing and screen printing, hence I recogized just about all the processes as the same as I have done hands-on when I was doing fine-art-printing. It amazing though, how technology has refined and cleaned up the printing industry. Things like using vegetable based inks and a mixture of chalk and sugar to make a thin film that seperates each sheet as it dries in stacks on the pallet. Humidity and air temperature where also really imporant. It is amazing how paper is so sensitive.

Drying times were one thing that really got to and drove home the importance of giving the printers ample time to print things. On uncoated paper the drying time i approx one day. For coated paper it takes approx 2-3 days. And on thicker substrates such as board drying time may be a whole week!

As if that isn't enough I just read an article about the drying time of reflex blue, it amazing that anything gets done on time really:

http://www.paperspecs.com/mainblog/the-reflex-blue-blues/

The photograph shows a print-finishing-line so to speak. The pages are about to be sent along to be glue-bound, attached to a cover, and then trimmed.

Lovely prints

2010-05-28T16:07:00.002+02:00

Prints!

I can't wait to spend some time in my studio and do some art. Seeing this was inspiring:

http://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/

Waterstones new logo

2010-05-28T13:28:00.003+02:00

I know it's not new new, but I do really like the colours in their new logo. Lovely.

The word "royalties" and the glamorous life of an illustrator

2010-05-27T11:09:00.003+02:00

Seen in yesterdays (swedish) Metro in the column by Stephan Mendel-Enk. He likes... "Ordet royalties. Att engelskan har samma begrepp för kungligheter och artistisk ersättning gör konstnärslivet glamorösare." Translation: "The word royalties. The fact that, in english, it can both mean royal people and the money you get from artistic endevours makes the artists life just that little bit more more glamourous."
I like his train of thought...!

Packaging -- lovely illustration

2010-05-26T14:47:00.002+02:00

Lovely use of illustration on packagagng for exclusive handmade chocolate.

http://illustrationweb.blogspot.com/2010/05/yummy-chocolates.html#links

Om tomtarna på Vasagatan

2010-05-20T12:42:00.005+02:00

Found an interesting article about the lovely illustrations on a bulding on Vasagatan. Finally an answer as to who the artist is, suprisingly it is not Carl Larsson or Jenny Nyström. (Sorry everybody who can't read Swedish).

http://www.boplats.se/CM/Templates/Article/general.aspx?cmguid=6893b93b-4c14-4c53-b732-0da9b63c79a1

Doodles

2010-05-17T17:25:00.002+02:00

Today's crop of doodles. (Well actually not today, but they are scanned today) Perhaps they will crop up as future characters or stories...

Open Type, PostScript fonts explained

2010-05-17T01:50:00.002+02:00

Confused about the different font formats? I stumbled upon a good page about this:

http://www.creativepro.com/article/typetalk-opening-up-about-opentype

Article about Adobe vs Apple and PostScript

2010-05-17T01:43:00.004+02:00

Article about Adobe vs Apple.
Ever wondered about True Type and PostScript... well here's the story behind the scenes:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/14/adobe_apple_war_on_flash_reminiscent_of_postscript_struggle.html

Paper that I lurves

2010-05-14T23:11:00.006+02:00

Realised I should share some of the love. Here are two lovely paper types.

Skin is amazing paper. It feels rubbery and is amazing when paired with spot UV-coating/spot UV-varnish (in swedish: partiell UV-lack). It's made by a company called ArjowWiggins. Map stocks this paper and can actually be bought in small quantities at the lovely store Rum för Papper http://rumforpapper.se/ (there are some lovely inspiring ladies that work there and I always come away with a lot more paper than I intended to buy).

There's a Thai restaurant here in town (Gothenburg, Sweden that is) that has a beautiful example of this spot-UV-coating-on-skin in action on their business cards. Managed to find an image of something similar here: http://www.fastkit.com/Spot-UV-Overall-UV-s/77.htm (see image above).

More about skin:

http://www.antalis.com/sitesweb/FO/pages/interne-1922-66-33979-rich_text-105492.html

The other paper i like is actually not really paper, but paper board. The paper family Invercote is great stuff. Great for things like menus or folders -- things that have to open and shut again and again. It also is really good at looking good embossed.

http://products.iggesund.com/ProductInformation.aspx?Profile=en&Product=ICC&status=01123581321345589

If you have a look at this image you can see how nicely it folds.

(see above image)

Oh, oh, just one more. I also really like the paper Silverblade. It's apparenly changed name to Claro during 2007:

http://www.antalis.com/sitesweb/FO/pages/interne-1922-66-31612-rich_text-100534.html#Claro

It seems to be a good workhorse when it comes to being a good carrier for things like illustrations or photography. It has a good neutral whiteness that does the images justice.

Right. All for now. Paper is magical stuff and makes a huge difference.

Back on track

2010-05-14T22:30:00.003+02:00

Back on track after a tumultous years worth of stuff going on. My life is still in boxes after my move, but all is well and looks promising and productive. I have had time to visit my friend Lobelia (http://www.lobeliabarker.com/) when she was at the annual Elmia Custom Motor Show 2010 (http://www.custommotorshow.se/). It was an incredible experience and her work looked ace as always.

Quick update: I am half way through becoming a prepress-wiz and am thoroughly enjoying my course. I think being an illustrator and being good at prepress is a powerful combination full of possibilties(!) My fingers are itching... I am also nurturing a more serious than ever addiciton to all kinds of papers. I am even learning the names of some of my favorites. Maybe I should have known this is where I would end up when I started sniffing the binding glue in my books as a kid (I had favorites then too, certain paper-and-glue smells still take me back to primary school and sentences like "the cat sat on the mat").

Currently I am sitting in professional practice at the advertising agency Jerlov and having a wonderful time. So many talented creatives! Very impressed by everbody. Everyone seems to have their own "thing" that they are good at. They are friendly too. I am glad they like my work too.

Lastly I give you today's doodle. A gorilla. He just turned up out of nowhere.

I've run away...

2009-12-30T14:55:00.003+01:00

... to the Carribean, which is part of the reason why I haven't posted anything in ages... (sitting in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico as I type this) I will remedy this end of january when I get back. Watch this space. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's everyone!

Giant Squid

2009-06-23T23:17:00.005+02:00

Hope your summer is going great so far. Mine is! Lots to do as usual.

Here's an image (well, two, one sketch and one cleaned-up drawing) that I am particularly pleased with. It is an artists impression of a deep sea squid. The reason that it is an "artists impression" is that there are very few photographs of deep sea squids. And even if live specimens are caught sometimes they often look terrible (sludgy and deflated) because their bodies are made to exist in the high-pressure zone of deep, deep sea.

It is perhaps going to be reference material for a tattoo hence me using a combined line-and-red-shading style of drawing. I tried to capture the movement of a swimming sea squid based on the fins in this photograph:
http://www.indiastudychannel.com/pictures/gallery/gangarajuchalapathi__73strange%20photos%20bizarre%20sea%20creature%20caught%20part%20squid%20part.jpg

Roooooooowr!

2009-06-03T11:37:00.002+02:00

Excerpt from my sketchbook. Angry, angry, bear. I was just curious as to what makes and angry bear (grizzly) look angry. I mean they have all the cute-assets; little round fluffy ears, little "cute" eyes. i guess it's the HUGE teeth and mouth. The large, nostrils do their bit too.

I am currently returning to the "building blocks" of illustration: sketching and colour theory. I have also been working on my painting skills and feel like I have learnt a lot that I can use in my illustration. Most interesting of all has been the warm/cold colour juxtapositioning of the old masters (won't write about it all here - get in touch if you want to know more).

I have also finally mastered the creating and using my own brushes in Photoshop. Yay! Exciting stuff (for me anyhow). Keep an eye out for results of this in the future. All in all I am very busy with various projects. My layout and InDesign skills have been pushing forwards in leaps and bound because of work on 6-page a CD booklet.

Have a good one, hope you get some sunshine! (Here in Sweden the sun is hardly going down at all)

Blue tongued skink: dipping pen drawing-and-text

2009-05-06T18:08:00.002+02:00

Posting an image from my sketchbook. One of a series of images where I have paid attention the the relationship between text and image.

I have also started experimenting working with oil paint which is marvelous fun and I hope to post the results sometime soon.

I am also hoping to figure out how to do art with a positive, celebratory slant on things. If you have any ideas feel free to share them with me. I have been thinking a lot about how art is often a crticism of something -- which is fine -- but I feel like I want to avoid criticising without a solution/example of something better, or even better just celebrate good things already happening. I feel as if it is all too easy to find something in the world that isn't right or open to criticism. It is nice if criticism is weighted more towards a solution, or even better celebrates something good. A nice example of what I think is a good example of "positive" art that really is quite moving is the "Where the Hell is Matt?" video: www.wherethehellismatt.com

Awful news: Illustrator wrongly accused

2009-04-08T14:37:00.003+02:00

http://www.jonengle.com.nyud.net/2009/04/accused/

What an incredible nightmare of a situation! Proof that illustrators really need to be careful with their work and keep a close record of all images(!) Goodness, who would ever have dreamt of being sued for plaigarism of your own work?!

Noch asleep

2009-03-21T15:30:00.005+01:00

A little late-night sketch of my dog lying at my feet. When one of us is away the dog gets to sleep on the bed all night which he loves (when we're both home he finds it too squashy on the bed and prefers his bed on the floor next to us!). I love sleeping animals, they look so peaceful and content. I wanted to capture that in this sketch.

Imaginary Animal Doodle

2009-03-20T22:59:00.006+01:00

Just wanted to share an animal doodle I was doing between coding CSS for my new homepage. This is one of those imaginary beasts that are almost therapeutic for me to sketch. Yes folks, this is how I started out drawing -- doodling imaginary animals and monsters everywhere. They are basically a jumble of different real animals that I have at some point drawn studies of. One fine day the co-illustrated fantasy monster themed book will become reality.

Going back to dipping pen

2009-03-19T23:05:00.004+01:00

Ahhh today has been a nice but slightly frustrating day. I am completely redoing my homepage and am very excited about applying my hard-earned XHTML and CSS skills. Once I am done my homepage will be a breeze to update *yay*. So what is the frustrating bit you ask? Well if you know anything about HTML and CSS it's the fiddling with positioning and getting the boxes to line up the way you want them to and keeping you div tags in line! One typo somewhere and you have boxes floating all over the place (haha -- yes, pun/in-joke inteneded).

Recently I was browsing the web getting distracted when I stumbled upon Jill Calder's blog (one of my tutors when I studied at the Edinburgh College of Art) and read her excellent interview. Great inspiring stuff for illustrators to read:
http://jillustration.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-by-anna-violet.html
(Caps Lock warning: she btw apologises in advance for leaving Caps Lock on by mistake)

About the image I have posted -- I revisited using a dipping pen since I came across it whilest unpacking (yes, our house is still a big mess in boxes). I am also trying some new Photoshop brushes thanks to a setting I hadn't thought of using to it's full capacity before. Quite pleased with the result. Not sure if the person is an angel or just a person -- but I just wanted to try to see if I could get that feeling of stretching out in some quick few strokes.

R.I.P. my warm light bulb

2009-03-03T17:26:00.006+01:00

I for all saving the environment, but with the news of the EU banning the old light bulbs come September first reaching my ears I can't help but feel a little sad. Of course I am happy for the energy and emissions saved. A little less happy about about the mercury in the energy efficient ones. And really quite sad about not being able to have my old desk lamp filled with the warm glow of a 60W lightbulb. I will truly miss the 95% of the energy being used to light a normal lightlbulb going to heat my cold illustrator hands on a wintery day. But of course this heat is wasteful so it just has to go. I just hope they make energy saving bulbs with a warmer glow... (I find they cast a more greenish blue light)...

http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/10/11/eu-bans-incandescent-light-bulbs/

Happy Valentines!

2009-02-16T04:10:00.004+01:00

An image on the theme of "love" for valentines day for the Swedish Illustrators site. Since my friend is learning how to tattoo people I went along to have a look and was really inspired! My font-loving side spotted lots of pretty looking text. Also I felt like I would have a go at drawing some cool-looking stylised flames (an artform unto itself) - lots of fun. Also wanted to incorporate a rather unusual/surprising animal to show "love" (no offense cute fluffy holding-hands-bear-cards). ;)

Happy Year of the Ox to all!

2009-01-27T23:51:00.003+01:00

An image for the Chinese New Year. Combining the solid form of an ox and monumental Roman-type text. Also making the ox look friendly!

Blog revamp

2008-12-04T23:03:00.005+01:00

Ah! What satisfaction!

I have at long last taken hold of the HTML template of my blog and made it nice and clean! Yay! It now matches my website. I am not sure if you can imagine just how much that appeals to my layout-and-colour-brain, but it is very relieved now anyhow. I hope to soon(?) be able to post some images that I am working on but they are top secret right now!

Happy snowy days everyone!

Illustrations for Folkteatern (for the play LYCKA TILL MED ALLT -- translation: "Good Luck With Everything")

2008-09-29T00:24:00.009+02:00

Front and back of the programme, plus the "theatre-survival-kit" it came in:

This work (the eight illustrations for the front of the programme) is a considerable detour from my "usual" style to cater for a very specific conceptual idea.

In this case the graphic designer's guidelines (visit her site! http://www.simonea.se/) for how the illustrations were supposed to look came from the in-flight safety instructions you can find on board aeroplanes (as you may have noticed).

It was challenging to find the right tone humour-wise within what is quite a rigid syle. But in the end we all were really pleased with the outcome and we all agreed that it matched the tone of the play.

The theme of the play is "fear" (our fears as humans). The survival-kit-with-programme is given to theatre goers just before the beginning of the play.

If you're in Sweden go see the play:
http://www.folkteatern.se/

Here's a review (in swedish):
http://www.nummer.se/Templates/Review____6889.aspx

Conceptual sketches for future buildnings

2008-06-12T15:16:00.004+02:00

Furuvik amusement park map

2008-05-29T11:03:00.005+02:00

Righteo, pleased to present the latest job, that is at long last done. It was a tough slog getting everything in, mainly because the time was so short! Stress stress stress(!) But everbody involved seems pleased, so so am I! It is a map over an amusement park in Gävle, Sweden called "Furuvik". They have Sweden's only keeper who is an accepted member of a chimpanzee flock (read more about it at www.furuvik.se). They (Furuvik) also did a really insteresting behviour test there to see if chimps could plan for the future, which they without a shadow of a doubt could.

Treasure maps

2008-05-10T00:35:00.007+02:00

Thought it was high time for an update here.

Why don't I have little magical gnomes that update my blog for me? Anyways, till then you'll have to accept the fact that I am not-so-great at posting new things regularly. I might promise to "from now on post more regularly" but we both know that's a lie even before it's left my lips, so I will refrain from promising altogether.

Here are some treasure maps I was comissioned to do for a magazine (Hem och Hyra Skåne-Halland -- check out their website www.hyresgastforeningen.se) here in Sweden. The maps show the locations of interesting second hand shops in Skåne and Halland. Enjoy!

New published work (colouring book)

2008-01-25T15:14:00.007+01:00

Hello all!
Christmas and the start of the new year has been hectic but lovely, and as usual I am not very good at remembering to update my blog and website. So, I thought I would take the opportunity to post a selection of images from my latest work now fresh-off-the-press. It is a 17-image colouring book that is a companion to a story book (Djurens Andaktsbok by Kristina Reftel). Each image is a character from the short stories in the book. The book and colouring book are for sale here: http://www.argument.se/ -- type in a search: "linn ahlbom" and you'll find the colouring book. The colouring book is aimed at teachers wanting to have a reading session with the class followed up by a colouring-in session (the images are meant to be photocopied and given to the students to colour in).

Patches

2007-08-19T23:30:00.000+02:00

Again there has been a long silence I am afraid, but I have been busy busy busy with various projects and odd undertakings. The latest project was to run around in medival garb in Visby, Gotland (island off the East coast of Sweden) having a ball of a time and a bit of a holiday.

These patches were made for an airsoft game that my partner is planning/hosting. All of them are pretty tongue-in-cheek in various ways (curious? send me an email and ask me about it ;)). Info about the game: http://www.milsim.se/events/2007/god-guns-gasoline/

I am well pleased with how they turned out and am very tempted to undertake non-in-game patch design just solely for the purpose of selling fun/good-looking patches.

Illustration Friday "Green"

2007-04-08T01:10:00.000+02:00

Ah. Yet another "already-ready" entry. But I mean if this doesn't count as green I don't know what does! Self-explanatory image really :)

Happy easter! (easter doodle)

2007-04-06T17:21:00.000+02:00

Hello all!

This is an easter doodle I did and I decided to post it since I will probably never have the time to make a "proper" drawing of it.

I had this idea of the hens revolting against the oppressive Easter Bunny (who is obviously collaborating with The Rooster) and demanding better pay for their eggs.

Hope you have an easter filled with fun chocolatey things! /Linn

Illustration Friday "Snap"

2007-04-01T12:41:00.000+02:00

At long last(!) An Illustration Friday entry. After a long silence, I have an image to contribute.

This is an image I did for a publishing company called Argument Förlag (www.argument.se).

"Det är aldrig kört" means "never give up" (direct translation :"it is never finished").

Hopefully I will have more time to do some nice Illustration Friday doodles in the future -- not that I'm unhappy having a lot of work to do, but it would be nice with an Illustration Friday now and again!

Just another doggie doodle and a word on copyright

2007-03-31T12:12:00.000+02:00

Well, I haven't posted for a while, because I've mostly been doing layout work (not much "pure" illustration work at the moment!)

On the downside, I have started to realise that knowledge of what copyright is and how it applies to images on the web may well be something that is not widely known/understood. So I feel forced to commence placing ugly copyright information on all my images *sigh* such is life. If you are interested in learning more about copyright, I will point you in the direction of "Svenska Tecknare" (the Swedish illustrators society) of which I am a member:

http://www.svenskatecknare.se/upphovsratt.html

Generally a good rule of thumb is, ask permission before you use an image! Remember that it is the end product of hours and hours of drawing and practice.

On the upside, I thought I'd just post this cute little guy! I think he's a mongrel Westie. I for one, have already had my first outdoor icecream after the long dark winter! Wohoo! it was a yummy Triumf Glass (they have a "wholesale" place near my house -- One big waffle/wafer with 2 scoops: 1 scoop After Eight and 1 scoop Lion. I'd say the Lion ice cream was HEAVENLY... ah, the small joys of life.

Don't get too sunburnt in the spring sunshine, our sun-starved skin needs time to adjust! Bye!

For my cousin's two sons

2007-03-11T23:09:00.000+01:00

These dragons were painted relatively quickly this weekend. They were started upon when watching "Melodifestivalen" - a swedish "popular music" contest (slightly camp, but fun in some ways) - and finished today (Sunday). My cousin provided me with two ready stretched canvases and matching frames. I brought along paintbrushes, black acrylic and gold gouache. It felt great painting "in real life" for a change, and not on the computer. I'd been longing to paint for ages, and my cousin, sly as she is, talked me into doing some. It also felt great doing something for the kids who are possibly my favorite 5/7 year olds around!

Business Card Design

2007-03-11T22:50:00.001+01:00

Right, so I've decided to post smth so ppl won't think I've dissapeared off the face of the earth. I have been busy busy busy. And with what you may ask? Well, working, having the flu, delivering fruitbaskets and dancing at a celidh (pronounced "kay-lee") in Edinburgh are just a few of the fun things that one fill one's time with...oh and, become a year older (in secret).

Interestingly enough, I have had a spate of business card design...

This is a before-and-after job (small bookeeping/accounting company):

Here's a start-from-scratch job, but with a clear wish from the client to have a "nice entrance" on the card (small building company):

Here's one for a small "Fashion Jewelry design" company. Don't know what fashion jewelry is? Well nor did I -- google it! It's apparently really popular in, for example, Japan...

Inspirational material provided by client:

Final card (patterns hand-drawn in Illustrator, finishing touches in Photoshop):

New stuff!

2007-01-04T01:18:00.000+01:00

Screenshot of www.argument.se with my work highlighted

Hey there all, I have good news! My site has now been updated and totally revamped -- check it out at www.linnahlbom.com -- this has been the major reason for the lack of illustration friday entries.

ALSO my stuff is up for sale on the www.argument.se site -- take a peek :) Although for the non-swedish speaking crowd, there may be a language barrier.
It is basically educational material -- 3 posters and an "encouragement booklet".

Happy New Year!

-- Linn

Illustration Friday "safe"

2006-09-06T20:08:00.000+02:00

At long last an image! Been way to busy with my company and family matters, so there's been no time for Illo Fridays... but lo and behold, a new image on the "safe" theme. Enjoy, and lets hope I can get an illo in next week as well. Bye!

New badge desgins on Prickie.com

2006-08-29T10:43:00.000+02:00

Check 'em out! My new wee lovlies. It's been busy busy busy here and I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in an illustration friday drawing soon! Adios!

Illustration Friday "Dance"

2006-06-21T18:28:00.000+02:00

A dancing mouse...

In reality "dancing mice" do exist(!), unfortunately their reality is somewhat less fun than my mouse seems to be having. Dancing mice have a hereditary defect in the brain that affects their sense of balance. This causes them to reel from side to side, or run around in circles, hence their other names "reeler mice" or "spinning mice". A similar human condition is called Huntington's Disease.

Illustration Friday "angels and devils"

2006-05-16T16:00:00.000+02:00

Here's my second contribution this week to make up for a period of silence on my part. I'm gonna put it down to being completely floored by the pollen and spring. The elephants came out of a bit of a word-association jump. When pondering the theme for this week I thought "aha, deviled eggs" (food thingy where you take a boiled egg, cut it in half, remove the yolks and mash 'em up with some spices and other yummy stuff, there's lots of variations on this recipie) , and then I thought "deviled elephant". So this is actually a picture of "devil-ed" and "angel-ed" elephants. Food for thought eh? I think it would make nice wrapping paper...

Illustration Friday "angels and devils"

2006-05-15T23:28:00.000+02:00

Well, here we go, a finished version! :) And hopefully a static link (sorry Penelope and thanks for the tip, I didn't realise you could click on the date! I'm not exactly the most experienced blogging-person around!).

Illustration Friday "angels and devils"

2006-05-14T19:46:00.000+02:00

These are two sketches that are not yet complete on this week's theme. I thought that since it was a while since I posted something I'll reveal work-in-progess. The bottom one was inspired by "deviled eggs" and so I thought why not "deviled elephants" (and an angeled one too). Probably won't finish them today, but I'm almost ready for celebrating since I've actually been feeling well enough to draw (g-dang pollen allergy!).

Illustration Friday "Spring"

2006-04-07T01:25:00.000+02:00

Spring is here (not yet in Sweden though, it's still snowing here -- please someone tell the White Witch to bugger off and leave us alone, we're sick of winter) and the frost leaves the ground releasing more than just an early Snowdrop...hehehe *evil chuckle* This is an ode to all the zombie-lovers out there, the world would've been a different place without George Romero don't you think?

Illustration Friday "Feet"

2006-03-24T21:56:00.000+01:00

This is a pair of amazing feet - camel's feet. Brilliant and perfect for desert walking. The image is also part of a trial run to see what textures photoshop has to offer. (It's also way too late for illustration friday, but I thought I'd post it anyway). I'm back from my start-your-own-business course as well and there's loads to do and I'm feeling slightly knackered *sigh* What doesn't help is that my income tax forms have come in -- urrgle -- when I'm rich I'll employ a team of accountants to sort my life out for me. On the positive side I've had the pleasure to see a group of images published and looking good -- wohoo!

Update

2006-03-14T00:28:00.000+01:00

Hiya people!

I hope you don't miss my drawings too much because I'm up to my neck in work. I'm currently attending a three-week crash course in having and starting your own company. Dearie me, lotsa work for Linny-poo. So be patient and new stuff will come next week when my life is less cluttered(!)

-Linn.

Illustration Friday "Song"

2006-02-19T03:43:00.000+01:00

All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
- The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love."

Ok, I admit, it's pretty darn cheesy, but the image is actually for a valentines theme for the Swedish Illustrators website. Then when I was pondering what to do for "song" the lyrics popped into my head and I couldn't seem to think of anything else. Well, except for an orchestra of birds, but I am not feeling energetic enough to do another image(!) If you want to shoot me for cheeze go ahead! *rofl* Anyways, he's cute and I'm getting a little bit inspired to write a story called "The Little Dragon with the Big Heart" ("Den lilla draken med det stora hjärtat).

Drawings of kids

2006-02-18T23:38:00.000+01:00

These two drawings were done as trials for upcoming children's book illustration. A lady who comissions bookcovers was interested to see how I would cope with drawing children. So one thing on my plate of "many-things-to-do" is to draw some children (click on them to enlarge btw) in the hope that I can send off some nice evidence of being able to portray kids being, well, kids. The guy at the top is actually an angry angel though, even if he's still a kid. Oh and the "nää" in swedish is slang for no, and "brum, brum" is basically "vroom" -- car noise in other words.

"Simple" for Illustration Friday

2006-02-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

This is my first image after a bit of a break -- I've been a bit bogged down with other stuff to do. I have ideas for the subjects that have been, but I'm not sure that I'll get round to doing them This was the first thing that popped into my mind when I pondered the subject "Simple". It is one of my favorite organisms since it is so simple yet so amazingly complex to be single-celled, and cute too. It is a single-celled organism called Paramecium (commonly found in freshwater eg. ponds) that swims about using it's tiny cilia. It swims pretty fast -- four times it's own length in one second -- wow! It can also reproduce in two ways -- either split into two; "simple division" (binary fission) or join temporarily with another Paramecium and exchange nuclear material; "conjugation". After which they swim away and continue to reproduce by simple division. Anyhow, enough with the Biology lesson. Toodleloo!

Illustration Friday "E is for..."

2006-01-14T07:51:00.000+01:00

E is for escargot! A French snail, or snail in French depending on how you see it... ;)

Illustration Friday "Sea"

2006-01-13T05:18:00.000+01:00

Continuing on the theme of polarbears and penguins... here's one of both... out at sea relaxing I guess! ;) Afraid it's on the late side as I've had loads of other stuff to do...ach!

Illustration Friday "Flavour"

2006-01-05T00:46:00.000+01:00

In Sweden we have these gummy sweetie fish made by the Swedish candy company "Malaco." I've seen them in the States being sold as "Swedish fish" and I think Malaco call themselves "Leaf" when they market products abroad. Anyhow, I thought of all these different flavoured fish, and then of what might eat fish. For some reason bears popped into my head and la voíla, we have a candy-loving polarbear.

Illustration Friday "Imagine" take two

2006-01-01T17:11:00.000+01:00

After my partner commented on the whole "when pigs fly" concept being a bit stayed, I did this variation (upon his suggestion); "when pigs dive" ;)

Illustration Friday "Imagine"

2006-01-01T17:09:00.000+01:00

A late image that I decided to post anyway, my take on "imagine" last, last week's theme.

Merry Christmas in Swedish!

2005-12-30T13:46:00.000+01:00

"God Jul" everyone! And a Happy New Year too. The pic represents some traditional Swedish gingerbread shapes. :)

Illustration Friday "Holiday"

2005-12-30T13:41:00.000+01:00

Here's my take on Illustration Friday's theme for the week...apologies for lateness, I have a pic for last week coming up but I've been a tad busy so I haven't had time to post it yet. Watch this space(!) ;)

2005-12-09T04:58:00.000+01:00

My mascot :) I wanted to use him as my profile pic, but inept as I am at using this at the mo (I'm at the begining of the blogging learning curve alright!) I'm gonna post him here and link the URL to here... er... I'm sure there's a better way of doing it right?

Illustration Friday "Blue"

2005-12-09T02:07:00.000+01:00

Here's my take on this week's theme "Blue." It turned out to be wrapping paper design, probably because of my recent visit to Tigerprint(!) I guess the idea is rather obvious, a decorative wrapping paper featuring animals whose names begin with "blue..."

Illustration Friday "Small"

2005-12-03T13:12:00.000+01:00

Illustration for Illustration Friday on the topic "small." I like penguins, and they can be pretty small sometimes -- at least compared to monsters *wink* (didn't finish this one on time to submit it, but I'll post it anyway since this rather charming character popped into my head).