And that's a draw!

Craig Bellamy

2012-01-29T15:26:00.001-08:00

After searching google and deviantart.com for caricatures of Craig Bellamy, I found only a few - and those few did, in my opinion, not look at him at all. And after his important role in the Liverpool squad and for the fact that I like that bad ass bastard, I felt it was about time someone gave him a good caricature portrait. Not that he sees this, though. Or that I'm bragging about how good this is.

The Dean and Keira Knightley

2012-01-02T18:06:00.001-08:00

You'd never think of those two names in the same sentence, would you?
Dean "The Dean" Pelton (played by Jim Rash) from the TV show called Community. Brilliant show. Jim Rash plays excellent and always puts a smile on my face when he appears as The Dean in the show. Every time.

Oh, Keira Knightley, how I wish I could call you mine!
...Crush aside, this is one of my first sketches of her. A good approach, but not perfect.
I later went for the more graphic style, but as I don't have my tablet with me at the moment, I will put this project on hold until I get back to Kristiansand where my tablet is.

I haven't quite catched the likeness in this one yet, but apart from the choice of hair (or not), I think it's a matter of small adjustments before I'm satisfied. We'll see about that.

Martin Skrtel

2011-11-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

My apologies (again) for not posting anything in a long time.
Other than the drawings I do for my local newspaper, I haven't had the energy, inspiration or patience to draw anything else. Until last night, when I failed miserably in my pathetic attempts on drawing a couple of people I know - I decided to warm up with a familiar face. Yep. Martin Skrtel. This gradually turned to be a more serious project than a "warm up", and before I knew it - it was bed time.
Nonetheless, I'm happy with the result. Probably my best Skrtel yet. Forgive me for the quality of the picture - it was taken with my iPhone.

Ankelen

2011-09-18T15:07:00.001-07:00

Norwegian title, Norwegian cartoon. Sorry, rest of the world!

This is based on my last match for my team back home before moving to Kristiansand. And everything you see is true - they all DID happen to me in the same match!

On a sidenote

2011-09-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

I actually managed to dig up this old article about me and the drawing contest which I told you about in the last post. My god, I look ridicolous!
I haven't seen this in just about ten years, either. And the title of the article is just... ugh!

10 years ago

2011-09-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

I remember it very clearly. In 6th grade, the spring of 2001, in an age of 12, our whole class participated in a drawing contest. The only thing this contest said was that we were to draw how a school would look like in 200 years. And so I did.
Many months went past. Indeed, so many months that I had forgotten about the whole thing. I thought a winner had been picked a long time ago by then and that we were not notified about it.

But then came september 11th. Our teacher said that we would get visitors. She didn't say who. But those visitors turned out to be the people behind this drawing contest, "Ditt Distrikt" (similar to a telephone catalogue for my county), and the winner's drawing would be on the front cover for the next year's edition.

In case you haven't been suspicous all along, I was the winner - and it was one of the best days of my life, as these visitors gave chocolate milk, cookies and t-shirts to me and everyone in my class, who was seemingly as happy and excited as I was. Our class even got a money prize we could spend on a trip later, and I got a picture taken for the local newspaper and my very first photo camera.

The turning point came after the shool, of course. Me and my best friend Viggo went to his house to play and watch an after school program called "Etter skoletid ("After school") on the NRK channel. Strangely to me and Viggo, the program was cut halfway through because of an important broadcast live from New York. The rest is history.

May every victim after 9/11 rest in peace.

New class, new faces

2011-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

So many new faces I just need to get down on paper! First sketches, not all of them good...

(Hvis du går i min klasse, så foreslår jeg at du prøver å gjette hvem hver av disse ansiktene er - to av dem er faddere og tre andre er medelever)

Bored at work (3)

2011-08-28T11:37:00.001-07:00

Here we go again. Random and boring doodles.

But I'll use this post to explain something: I've now started at school again, and this time moved away from home as well. I've moved to Kristiansand, going to the University of Agder, doing a year of Litterature, film and theater (drama). I do not have much experience with neither of those things, but it's still in the creative zone and who knows? Maybe I'm better at litterature, film or drama? Maybe I have a future in any of those areas?

Future or not, I'm liking it very much and thouroughly enjoy both the subjects and the city.

The Death of You and Me

2011-08-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Noel Gallagher released his first single today, "The Death of You and Me", from the album entitled "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds".
I illustrated my favourite line in that song.

Ut av dagen

2011-08-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

I don't think I want to even try to translate to english so most of you can not understand this bad joke. But I can try to explain the joke itself - I'm complaining about how early I have to go to work, my female colleague tells me that I have the whole day in front of me when I get home, I get excited and look forward to do EVERYTHING when I get home. Then I get home, and falls asleep immiediately. There. Haha...

Cartoonish self portrait

2011-08-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time I drew a self portrait that included my whole body, or any portrait with a full body for that matter.

Rainman

2011-08-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

From the movie Rainman (1988) with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.

didn't quite get that lost look in Raymond's (Hoffman's) eyes. That's just about the only thing that annoys the crap out of me in this one.

Ben Stiller

2011-08-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Small portrait of Ben Stiller.

Bored at work (2)

2011-08-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Top: Noel Gallagher, ex-Oasis member and soon to release solo album.
Bottom: Fernando Alonso, driving for Ferrari Formula 1 team.

Quite happy with Noel, but the Alonso one has too droppy eyes and could probably use a bit of work around his mouth/cheeks, otherwise happy with it, especially considering it was done with a ballpoint pen.

(Relevant Tip of the Day: Search for "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Death of You And Me" on Youtube, single release later this month. Brilliant song!)

Less advanced art

2011-07-28T09:56:00.001-07:00

Little self portraits

2011-07-21T16:40:00.001-07:00

Just trying out some twisting of my face. Bottom one is heavily inspired by Russ Cook's portraits.

Bored at work (1)

2011-07-15T04:36:00.000-07:00

Top left: A pathetic attempt on Audrey Tautou as Amelie
Top right: Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry
Bottom: A woman figure and a minimalistic portrait of myself.

Sorry for the lack of updates, summer has been more busy than I thought. I've been working a lot so far, and with almost nothing to do at work at some points, spontaneous drawing cannot be avoided.

Man with no name

2011-06-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

A small sketch of Clint Eastwood as the Man with no name in the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. The sketch was photographed and modified with my iPhone.

Straight from the top of my head

2011-06-21T06:51:00.001-07:00

I just cleaned out my stuff from school and found this one from an assignment - we had to fill everything on an A4 sized piece of paper with just things that came from the top of our heads, no matter how irrelevant and less logic it may seem.

With me, it all started in that bottom left corner...

Luis Suarez

2011-06-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Luis Suarez, football player for Uruguay and Liverpool.

Woopa's transfer

2011-06-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

The three of us in Woopa (www.youtube.com/woopaTV) recently made a transfer from one team to another. Yay!

OFF TOPIC: Clint Eastwood 81 years old

2011-05-31T05:25:00.001-07:00

Clint Eastwood celebrates his 81st birthday today, May 31st. This year also sees the legendary Dirty Harry movie become 40 years old.

This is how much of an impact Clint Eastwood have had:

Example 1
Gorillaz' songs 'Dirty Harry' and 'Clint Eastwood'
Though the songs are entitled as they are, the lyrics doesn't mention anything directly for Eastwood or Dirty Harry, though the harmonica end of the 'Clint Eastwood' song is influenced by Ennio Morricone's music for 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.

Example 2
The Simpsons
The Simpsons family have ocassionally been watching a show about "McGarnagle" or "McGarnicle", a policeman with his own rules. It must be said that I think Groening is indirectly referring to Dirty Harry when seeing the squinty eyes and the whispery voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDtdCxGosUQ

Example 3
The Simpsons
Clint Eastwood can also be seen alongside Lee Marvin in a parody turned up side down on the movie "Paint your wagon". Strangely enough, the scene starts with Eastwood confronting Lee Van Cleef, who's known from the Sergio Leone-westerns and have NOT played in Paint Your Wagon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM5-xFenaZI

Example 4
Jim Carrey
One of Jim Carreys first parts in a major movie was actually given by Clint Eastwood in The Dead Pool. Jim Carrey himself is a big fan of Eastwood and have imitated him several times, which can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJuROJ_O_g

Example 5
Red Dead Redemption
Of course, this game is based on the times of train robberies and when men drank at classic western saloons. It would be stupid if there were not at least one reference to Clint Eastwood or the movies of Sergio Leone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYnFhYgtJGs

Exam final result: Knut Nærum and Clint Eastwood

2011-05-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite satisfied as I ended up with limited time (I'm always waiting with stuff until right before the end), and I had a lot more to do with the Eastwood one, but had to let that go.

So, after a sleepless night (literally), working on this, I'm finished with this year of school. I finally have more time to do things I want to do.

Let me know what you think about these ones, please!

Martin Skrtel

2011-05-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

Just an old sketch. Now as the Premier League season is over, only Leighton Baines and Martin Skrtel played every 90 minutes of every game throughout the season. Now, that's impressive!

Exam project: Clint Eastwood

2011-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the very small rant about US government and conspiracies - I for one do believe in few of the conspiracies out there (the one on Kennedy, for instance) and wanted to express my skeptical thoughts on the news on bin Laden. Sorry, I didn't mean to upset anyone or start a discussion.

Anyway, as usual I have very little to report, so I'll just drop by with a small sketch of Clint Eastwood:
Have a nice weekend!

Roger Daltrey + news

2011-05-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

In lack of time, I've only got an old portrait to post. This is of Roger Daltrey, singer from The Who. Too bad I drew him outside the format, I may want to have another go sometime in the future.

In other news: News.
1) Norway beats Sweden in hockey after penalties, and was leading 2-0 against USA until the USA took the lead 2-3 just now. Shame, but fun.

2) Sami Hyypia (ex-Liverpool player) is unfortunately quitting football. Quite a shame for such a good player, but he is after all 37 years old.

3) My exam in art history went "neeeh..." - could be better, could be worse.

4) Osama Bin Laden has apparently been shot and killed by american troops, but I have yet to believe anything because the american government have been controversial for fake explainations and whatnot before. Reports says that the troops have been dumping the body in the sea, without showing any proofs of Osama being dead, nor them killing him. For what we know, he could have been dead for the past five or seven years, or he could still be alive.

I'll promise more art in the future... hopely so.

Supporting acts

2011-04-22T14:55:00.001-07:00

Exam project: Knut Nærum

2011-04-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

My two best attempts to this date on drawing Norwegian cartoonist, politician, writer and funny man Knut Nærum.
More to come.

Espen does cartoon references: Crash Bandicoot

2011-04-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Old drawing. The man is telling me to stop it.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. This is due to my primary computer refusing to start up again, and with my secondary computer being a retard when trying to cooperate with my scanner, scanning drawings has become a rather demotivational task because of the complications.

In other news, we have an exam at school where we, the students, create our own assignments which will last until the end of May. I've chosen to make 3 to 5 creative portraits, which I'm looking forward to do.
So expect some sketches and hopefully good looking artwork in the future.
Though this may take a while, as usual. In that case, I'll just post more old drawings.

Cheers,
Espen

I'm sick and tired of potato peelers...

2011-04-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

For the past months or so, my class have been designing potato peelers. Can you imagine thinking about potato peelers and the design they have for over a month? Pretty exhausting, to be honest.
So, my prototype is the one in the top right corner, while all the other stuff is promotional drawings for my peeler.

Damn, I'm sick of potato peelers and I'm glad we're finished with that assignment!

Proud father

2011-03-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Vebjørn became a proud father to a beautiful daughter four days ago, so this is my way to congratulate him.

David Coulthard sketch

2011-03-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Scottish ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard. Done with a regular ball point pen after a couple of tries.

Paul Newman - decisions, decisions...

2011-03-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

I'm having huge difficulties deciding which version I want to use and if I'm done at all. Once I finished the pencil sketch, I was very satisfied with the outcome, but when looking at the original sketch as well as all these versions I've spent hours to make, I feel those hours have been wasted. Just look at the last one! He looks so yellow that he could be a Simpson-character!

I would love to hear what you guys think - does it look like him at all? And what can I do different?

I think I've worked so much on this one that I don't remember Newman's face anymore, and probably need a good night sleep to take another look at it tomorrow...

Lucky Number Slevin

2011-03-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

In order to compensate for the lack of updates, I'll throw in an old drawing I've done. This is based on a screenshot from the movie Lucky Number Slevin, a hilarious scene where Slow (left) says something that doesn't make sense.
Notice the basic painting in photoshop. I've still not come a long way since this, to be honest.

Skiers sketches

2011-03-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

In a tight schedule until Friday, I found time to sketch a little further on my skiers series. From top left: Petter Northug, Therese Johaug and Marit Bjørgen. I'm having trouble drawing Bjørgen and Vibeke Skofterud (not shown).
Since it's International Women's Day, I thought I'd try to finish drawing Norwegian's four top women skiers, but I did not succeed. I will try to continue in the weekend, though.

Kristin Størmer Steira

2011-03-06T12:04:00.001-08:00

Norwegian women's skier. If you didn't know, the Ski World Championship was held in Oslo the past week. Us Norwegians had a lot to cheer about.
This girl with the cute smile has a face easy to catch. I will try to do the other three female skiers, but their faces is a bit more challenging. Stay tuned (if I don't give them up!)

Espen does cartoon references: 2 stupid dogs

2011-02-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

"Hi, I would like to send this 'Smart package' to Germany"

You see, a so called Smart package from the Norwegian postal service can ONLY be sent within Norway. But with the great christmas rush, people who have barely sent a letter in their entire life, come to my post office and have absolutely no clue about anything and assumes that a Smart package can be sent outside the country.

Needless to say, I experienced hundreds of customers thinking like this during the christmas rush.

Reference:

Limited Twitter

2011-02-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

Badly drawn, but you probably get the point.
Twitter is utterly useless. Still - I use it!

Espen does cartoon references: Totoro

2011-02-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

"You can just fu**ing forget about ass-kissing to get my umbrella!"

UNG-sidene: Season 2 opener

2011-02-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show you this opener from this season (2010/2011), that worked as an introduction of me and what I'm doing.

Pretty much me and my stuff in one drawing. A Liverpool FC pennant, a letter shelf from the post office, a copy of Laagendalsposten on the table, a football shoe and a record player playing a song with the lyrics "Chimes sing Sunday morn."

I give a quid to the one guessing which song it is without using google :)

Introducing: UNG-sidene

2011-02-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

I've probably never told you about one of my jobs, which is to draw a weekly cartoon for my local newspaper. I didn't bother because I write in English in this blog and all the cartoons drawn for that newspaper is in Norwegian. Just a quick walkthrough here about my workplace:

UNG-sidene, or "Young pages", is a small part of the newspaper Laagendalsposten which is written by the younger generation for the younger generation and comes out each friday.
This year we're 12 people between 15-18 years old (except me as I'm definitely the oldest - 21), which means that the two bosses in this group are both three years younger than me. Funny!

Here's the fresh class of 2010/2011, the two bosses in the front with me in the top left corner.

Meeting these people once a week for brainstorming and coming up with ideas what to write about is a true pleasure. I have yet to participate in a meeting this year as football practice happens at the same time, though... but believe me, I miss being there with them.

Anyway, before this post gets rather sentimental, I'm trying to say that I will try to post my cartoons frequently to show you what I'm doing besides school and working at the post office. Cheerio!

Warm holiday

2011-02-06T14:22:00.001-08:00

I joked with my mates about this, but fact is that I've never experienced temperature under 25 celcius and I don't think I therefore can call myself a true Viking, let alone a true Norwegian. But I think I handle the cold better than the warmth. Puh...

(Oh, and I found the expression "a dog's bollocks" to be ridicolously funny when translated to Norwegian. It just doesn't make sense in other languages than English, I guess.)

Where Angels Play

2011-02-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

A poster i made in Graphic Design class. The text is the opening lyrics of the song Where Angels Play by The Stone Roses.

Personal logo

2011-01-30T09:52:00.000-08:00

Among the small "challenges" in the graphic design project at school is designing your own logo that describes you. And because I'm not that deep and really know myself and have the ability to put emotions and deep thoughts and whatnot on paper, I went for a more physical approach - a portrait of my cartoon self, formed my initials E and B.

Graphic Design

2011-01-27T05:13:00.001-08:00

What has this to do with graphic design, you may ask? We need good pictures of our work to display in an Artbook we are to design. To be continued...

Dean Whitehead

2011-01-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

Footballer, playing for Stoke City. Celebrates his birthday today (21st January)
Just an experimental sketch, I might want to try colouring it in photoshop later... if I'm not too lazy.

Thomas Alsgaard

2011-01-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

Cross country skier from Norway. Has his birthday today (January 10).

Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

In addition to a late Merry christmas from me, here's a late Happy new year as well!

It's been ages since I even sketched a caricature, and I almost forgot how to do it. I may be a bit rusty, but here's footballers Clint Dempsey (Fulham) and Mesut Özil (Real Madrid):

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

A late late Merry Christmas for you guys!

I want to correct something from the last post - The show I was going to see in London wasn't "Live at the Apollo", but a pure Jimmy Carr tour show that was AT the place called Apollo and where the very TV show is recorded.

With that out of the way, I want to tell you that the London trip was great, except that barely two centimetres of snow apparently makes the whole transport system in Great Britain collapse. Which made my plane delayed by 12 hours. Fun!

Anyway, one evening, while my two mates were out drinking, I sat on the hotel room and sketched, and this ugly, almost grotesque self portrait, came up.

Jimmy Carr in London

2010-12-16T16:14:00.001-08:00

Me and my mate are going to London to be in the audience of the show "Live at the Apollo". If you're not familiar with it; it's a stand up show with three/four different comedians each time to perform. Brilliant show!
And this weekend, my favourite comedian happens to be there. Jimmy Carr. What a genius.
Here's the first part of a two part clip of Jimmy Carr the last time he appeared on "Live at the Apollo"

Graphic Design

2010-12-13T05:35:00.001-08:00

Assignment - Make five different designs using 10 different photographs and/or textures. Here's my five designs:

Dirk Kuyt - using a photograph from the internet and a picture taken of my Liverpool jersey (which is the C and the A of 'Carlsberg' to the far right). The design really reminds me of Coca-Cola, probably because the red colour to the C and A in 'Carlsberg' is very similar to the label on the Cola bottles.

Liam Gallagher, Oasis - Using an old drawing I made of Gallagher some years ago, added some texture (a red brick wall) and the word 'Victory' split up. The combination of the word and Liam Gallagher/Oasis shouldn't add up, it was a coincidence.

Markus (MarQs) - Using a photo of Markus, adding a little filter and some letters.

Self portrait - Using a small part of my self portrait in coal with the cover of The Stone Roses' self titled debut album and a texture I had from before of.

Martin Skrtel - Using an old drawing, adding up a texture of a wheel track in the snow and mixing it up with some effects and letters.

Off topic: Futurama

2010-12-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hi there!

I've got just about nothing new to post (or actually, I do, as we're doing some graphic design at school nowadays, but I'll post a little later)... anyway, we'll leave the brackets there - I just watched the Futurama Holiday special episode, in which I discovered that almost every of the main characters in that TV show is left handed!

If you already didn't know, I'm left handed and proud of it. And according to some internet sites, Matt Groening is left handed too.
In addition, I've noticed Bart, Marge and Moe from The Simpsons being left handed as well. This is probably useless facts for you, but for me... cool!

More annoying things

2010-11-29T09:19:00.001-08:00

Woah... There you go! When I think it's been just a few days since last update, it has actually been twelve days. Bravo, Espen!

Anyway, here's an update on the school project where I chose annoyance as a theme. The idea of a book or calendar was apparently compromised as my teacher guided me to focus on the quality of each drawing instead of the quantity.
So here you go - two of the three drawings I finished - the one at the top being the 'waiting for the bus'-scenario and the bottom one where someone blows tobacco smoke in your face.

A little peek (annoying things)

2010-11-17T12:47:00.001-08:00

Some sketches to give you an idea of what I'm doing for a project at school nowadays - I'm going to draw 52 annoying things (one for each week of a year, to make a calendar of it), like stepping into a puddle or spilling liquid all over yourself.

Cubistic exercise + Self portrait

2010-11-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

Lack of new material to show. Again.

This is what I've been up to lately.

This must be some of the best things I've ever accomplished in drawing, to be honest. I was not motivated at all because I'm bored of real life portraits and charcoal, even though I haven't used charcoal for ages. But this eventually blew my mind.
For once, one of my attempts on a real life self portrait actually looks like me!

The End (a tribute to Markus)

2010-10-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

Just before I left Norway for Canada for two weeks, I felt down and didn't actually want to leave at all.

When I sketched this, it looked a lot like one of the drawings that my buddy, Markus, makes. So I decided to colour it the Markus way as well, in which I barely succeeded.
The yellow/green combination is vintage Markus!
(And no, Markus is not a friend that has died, because of the title 'The End' - he's alive :))

Paintings

2010-09-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

This is the paintings that have kept me busy the past three weeks.

Based on a screenshot from Dumb & Dumber, right before they have to pull over. This was going to be painted in warm colours. For the first time in my life, I also painted after a picture which was upside-down. A tricky, new experience, you might say.

Here's the cold version of the same screenshot, though unfinished.

Moving on... still in movies. This is based on a screenshot from the first Naked Gun movie, which happens to be my favourite scene of all time. I'm not satisfied with how Leslie Nielsen turned out, but the guy on the left I am satisfied with. Taking a closer look, I see that this is not the finished version, there's still a tie missing on Leslie Nielsen.

One word for this assignment: Identity. After much hesitation as usual, this suddenly pop into my head and it turned into a surreal self portrait.
We even had to make the canvas ourselves before painting, which was pretty cool.

So, there you go. I'm leaving Norway for Canada in a small amount of hours, so I doubt I will be posting for the next two weeks, but I will when I've made something I think is worth showing off.
Cheers

Darren Fletcher

2010-09-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

I just felt like getting his face out of my head. Just a quick sketch, I should have done a lot different if I wanted it to look like him 100%.

Raptus (comic convention)

2010-09-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, I took a small trip to Bergen to visit my very first comic convention. I am not a typical comic guy, collecting everything and reading everything, so just about 10 or 20 percent of the whole convention was familiar to me. But it was nevertheless a fun experience and I got a much needed inspiration.

The lovely Astrid Hansen drew her character for spectators.

Nevin Martell tells us about his book "Looking for Calvin & Hobbs", where he searches for the very shy Bill Watterson.

Mads Eriksen and me shaking hands after a rather nice chat about football, of all things, while he kindly autographed and drew in my book. Nice chap!

The one and only Don Rosa seemed to be quite relaxed as he walked around, having a chat with people who dared to go up to him and speak, like this girl. I guess he was comfortable with the size of this small Norwegian comic convention compared to the ones in his native USA.

Rubbish

2010-09-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

My friend has the world's crappiest car filled with... yeah, crap. This is how it looks when me and my buddy opens the door to get a lift.

Sorry for lack of posting lately, but as mentioned, I've been swamped. One of the things that kept me occupied was a little trip to Bergen, attending my very first comic convention, which was fun. Will post picture(s) later.

Left hand

2010-09-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Woah, a whole week has passed already since last post! I'm so swamped nowadays, I don't notice when a week is gone!

As I have nothing new to post, I'm afraid there will be more text than pictures in this one - and I choose to write about a subject I find very interesting - lefthandedness.

I've read just about everything there is about this on the internet. I know, internet isn't always reliable, but one statistic said (huzzah, statistics ftw!) that because left handed people most commonly are creative persons, you're likely to see that 50% or more of students in a creative sort of class at school (drawing, etc.) is left handed.
About 10-12% of the world is left handed, and the ratio of left handers compared to overall students in my art classes through the years have been way above that percentage.

So I tried to find out if that was the case in my new class. Out of 32 students, only me and one other is left handed. The statistics fail big time as that means that 1 out of 16 is left handed in my class, which I find very odd.

Anyway, speaking of lefthandedness:

Update (lino cut)

2010-08-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Since school began, I have been incredibly busy, with school, travelling to and from school by bus, football, homeworks, work in the local newspaper... you name it!

This week saw me reunited with lino cut, a technique I haven't done since first year of art school (2005/2006), and the result was a rather cartoony lino cut of Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna:

Nothing complicated, as you can see. So I felt to make it up with lino cut this time, where all the students carve themselves in the lino board (?) and then make prints. Here's one of my twelve prints that I've made 'til now.

Clint Eastwood (man with no name)

2010-08-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

(sorry for crappy photo)

I've drawn Clint Eastwood's face god knows how many times, and decided to finally paint again, about one and a half years after I last painted at all (and that was watercolours!)

Bear with me, I suck at painting, but with enough patience and will, I would try everything to succeed. So I tried it out. This is by the way the first time I've ever attempted to paint a caricature rather than drawing it!
So, paintingwise - I'm satisfied with my efforts despite the huge lack of skills with the brush
Caricaturewise - Could always be better, but I'm satisfied. All in all.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar

2010-08-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is the first sketch of Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Didn't quite get his eyes, and I think the whole shape of the face could have been much better. In fact, he looks a bit more like Martin Skrtel when he had hair!

On the second attempt I managed to correct some of the things I spotted from the first one. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I think the lips got too big and his face looks too much of a monkey.

Frustration

2010-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

The story behind this one is that I've been doing the fanciest acrobatic finishing moves for the goal for the past three times I've played football with my friends, but every time the ball has gone everywhere from in the post to 20 centimetres outside at the most, which obviously has left me with big frustration.

I think I've never actually drawn a single comic strip with no words in it (except the sound of the ball hitting the post).
Not a technically good drawing, nothing fancy nor original, just the frustration needed to be done on paper, that's all.

Synnøve

2010-08-05T20:42:00.001-07:00

Due to the lack of time compromised by work and seeing people before the autumn gets here, I'll post an old drawing. This is of my friend Synnøve. Considering the small amount of time spent on this one, I'm pretty happy. Everything went spot on on the first try.

A funny story is that Synnøve and I walked around in town just hanging around, when we met upon another friend of mine who wasn't familiar to Synnøve. I introduced them and we stood there talking for a while, before that friend looked at Synnøve's face carefully and recognised her face from this drawing, which he had seen me posting on Facebook.

I laughed as we stood there, because I thought that was really cool!

Sergio Ramos

2010-07-29T16:03:00.001-07:00

A rather unsuccesful attempt on Sergio Ramos. I was trying something new for once (though not too different from the usual). If you wonder what the red spot on the bottom is, I can tell you that I was scratching a mosquito bite until I started bleeding on my fingers without noticing and then touching the paper. Oh well, could have been worse - it could happen to a better drawing than this!

Introduction

2010-07-23T14:15:00.001-07:00

Hello there and welcome to my (highly unfinished) blog!

My name is Espen and I love to draw, mainly caricatures. I like to watch blogs of other artists and they're a huge inspiration for me - but their blogs is mainly a tool as they can get great feedback by showing their work, which I intend to do here.

I have set everything as more or less default in this blog for now as I feel I have to make my own design for this blog, and I hope I will be able to do this very soon and get the blog up and running!

In the meantime, if you've spotted this blog - please do check out my userpage on deviantart (here) to get a taste of what to come.

If you decide to follow me and give me feedback or just looking at my drawings for the future, I'm thankful.

Cheers
Espen