Research Day

Posted on October 8, 2012 by gunvor

This afternoon was spent doing research. And my favorite source of inspiration is John Lasseter and Pete Docter talking about Pixar, and the massive accomplishment it is to make animated films.

This shot is from the storyboard when they redid almost all of Toy Story 2 with only nine months to release. I’m kind of in the same situation, only much smaller scale. Sometimes rooting up a project and redoing it is what needs to be done not to end up with a piece of work neither client or artist are satisfied with:)

After watching these documentaries it feels like I had an inspiring pep-talk, and seeing these people pull off Toy Story 2 after a Black Monday felt great:)

iPad illustration

Posted on July 27, 2012 by gunvor

Yesterday I fell in love with an app.

It’s called Paper:) (Or FiftyThree. Was a bit confusing what to call it when name, logo and website were completely different.)

It’s a moleskine sketchbook on my iPad, where you can draw and flip through and share spreads directy to your tumblr or email to your editor or… anything really:)

I use an iPad-pen, but the strokes are just as beautiful when you use your hand as you normally would on the pad.

For quick sketches, or ever changing storybards that has to be delivered asap (specially for book layouts), this app is workflow incarnated. And so simple and beautiful!

Actually I’m at loss for words.

Wow.

Bryggen Weekend

Posted on July 9, 2012 by gunvor

This has been a very good weekend at the gallery:) I have fun customers:) (This is the hallway that leads up to the gallery.)

The huge leopard-lady prints look very good, they are sooo colorful! I got them only two days ago. The quality of the print is _amazing_.

And the champagne ladies are making people laugh, that is exactly the kind of feedback I want:)

This is what is looks like when I’m preparing prints to send in the post to people that ordered stuff at epla.no.

When there are no customers I usually work on something. This is a sketch for client that wanted a banner, we ended up not using this one, but a another version of it.

But I quite like the happy little creatures:)

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Romsdalen here in Norway, I’m doing a workshop there for a book I’m illustrating. About trolls.

I like trolls:)

Leafing through my book

Posted on June 30, 2012 by gunvor

It looks like candy:) And when I leaf through the pages, it looks so playful and colorful on the inside!

Home office

Posted on June 28, 2012 by gunvor

This is a sketch I originally made for an article about bacteria. But today it serves another purpose. It depicts my stomach not behaving, rendering me useless to the world for the last few days.

Today I’m defying the evil little monster and working anyhow. But curses, this is going slooooowly. Luckily I have a nice home office, with lots of Sun Lolly in the freezer.

Whohoo! WordPress!

Posted on June 26, 2012 by gunvor

I am redesigning my webpage properly this time. Web designer Sortenke has set up my domain with WordPress, and so far we have moved the blog, set a concept for the design development, and played around with (and I have learned) fun WordPress stuff.

The first few workshops we had we did lots of preparation, readying my drawings, readying content, set dimensions for pictures, installed the font, decided on basic grids and layout, worked on the theme, and lots of other stuff we needed to do. Plus looking at lots of inspiration from other great developers. In one workshop we focused on responsive design, and how to be creative around the different screens and formats where it’s possible to view a webpage.

I love workshops. Or working Continue reading →

New sign for my gallery

Posted on June 25, 2012 by gunvor

Yesterday while I was at the gallery I got massively fed up by my signs outside that kept falling over. So I put up a sign on the gate outside our allyway, which we are not supposed to do since Bryggen are working on a new signing system. Continue reading →

ILLUSTRATING PROPS, AND STUFF.

Posted on May 23, 2012 by gunvor

Today we finished the last props for our stage show, and my family came to help us out.

My boyfriend, one of the animators at Katapult Media, came to watch us play and see if the visuals worked as they should.

Some minor tweaks, but all in place.

I’ll probably be tweaking stuff until we’re on stage Saturday. I want to be proud of it:)

ILLUSTRATIVE WEEKEND

Posted on May 20, 2012 by gunvor

Illustrations for my set design and backdrop for Trollkrittet are soon finished, and we are starting a week of rehersals tomorrow. Saturday we’re on:)

A friend of mine took a picture of me yesterday, pointing at DNBScene and saying “Iiiiiiik, they’re building our stage!”

Today it was summer:)

And the flamingoes were in flight:)

Tomorrow morning we’ll see how much we have left to do with the visuals, and plan out the tight schedule for the next few days. Exciting!

DESIGNING BOOKS

Posted on May 17, 2012 by gunvor

A small hold up in Champagne ladies, but now back in buisness. The book will probably be published sliiiightly later than planned, but these things happen.

My designer, Annette Kristiansen, and I had a whole day workshop yesterday. It was good to work en face (literally, according to the picture above) on a project with so much personality. Got to love the little characters on her screen;)

We went through all the books where I love the design, to see if we could focus in on what typographic style that could work best for the champagne ladies.

Then we discussed back and forth about tonation of the sayings used in the book, and I even ran around the kitchen acting them out for her:)

We talked about each spread over and over again, worked with reading tempo, how you read a spread, how you read drawings, and took time to let the whole project sink in before we started the creative part. Proper preparation is gold.

It’s great to do research on the styles you are passionate about, and to know the setting and scene where the book is intended for.

To know and respect a specific audience is incredibly important. When I see a product aimed at my group and style, that is poorly developed, I keep thinking that the developer never knew the scene well enough.

When this is taken lightly, your product is marketed to “everyone”, which makes it generalized and you reach out to no one.

I sometimes buy books just because they are well crafted, and I know many others that do too.

It’s like buying candy:)

The front cover of my book is also being designed simultaniously now, something I think is really important. Sometimes that is left to last, which usually means that everyone is tired of the project and just want a quick finish. But not this time! Yay!

(The title spread of my book now has elements from the front page, and it’s lookin’ goooood:)

Now I can finally consentrate 100% on making a great product, not just a product that works.

Today I worked throughly on the endpapers and typo for the front. I did more research on pagination and handmade typography, and kept sketching for the cover.

I’m very comfortable about her working on the book, I feel it’s in good hands.

If you want to know which books the photos are from, give me a shout. I have to continue work now, so didn’t have time to label them all.