Martin Skrtel

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

Small portrait of Ben Stiller.

Bored at work (2)

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

Little self portraits

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

Bored at work (1)

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

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

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

Luis Suarez, football player for Uruguay and Liverpool.

Woopa's transfer

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exam project: Knut Nærum

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

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...

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

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

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

Paul Newman - decisions, decisions...

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

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

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

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

"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

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

Espen does cartoon references: Totoro

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

UNG-sidene: Season 2 opener

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

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):