Links to people I like:

ImagineFX
Conceptart.org
Folkeuniversitetet i Bergen
cgpad
Gallery Rallaren
Isotop
Illyriad
Electronic musician Rieg
S.I.T.A.S.
Frode Sirevåg
Trond Carsten Øye

August
:"Classical Realism", an ehibition of modern classical realistic art:

The exhibition "Classical Realism" opened 28. august. We used two days to mount the exhibition, and the result is a stunning exhibition of modern calssical realistic art in Norway. We are 11 artists exhibiting paintings and drawings. Most of the artists have been students of the famous master Odd Nerdrum. Initiator for the exhibition, is Jarl - Hugo Låstad. A good friend and a marvelous artist. The other artists attending, is: Jarl-Hugo Låstad, Billy Røy Økland, Geir Stahl, Elisabeth Gyllensten, Frøydis Aarseth, Atle Skudal, Bjørn Kjødnes, Arne Borring and Sølvi Walle (easter eggs). Hopefully I'll soon post some photos aswell (as soon as I find an alternativ to Photoshop Raw editor, which do not take the RAW format of my new Canon G12 ... aaaargh)

The exhibition will last until 02. october.

:2010:

Desember
:Cover art for Rieg:

The last work in 2010, and my first ever cd cover. This was made for the electronic musician Rieg for his album "The Absynth Ritual". I'm quite happy with my twist on the famous, and so called, Czech ritual... you know the one were you pour th Absyn.. sorry.. Abinth through a sugercube and set the thing on fire. The suger cube that is, not the Absinth.
I have used a little program called Apophysis for most of the light effects and the swirl on the cover back. I've than put the whole thing together in Photoshop CS4. All painted elements are done in Photoshop.

September
:Exhibition in Gallery Rallaren:

This weekend I was inTyssedal for another exhibition. This time we were seven artists who showed our art. Jarl Hugo Låstad, Frode Sirevåg, Trond Carsten Øye, Kjerstin Njåstad, Henriette Berg, Eva Karin Skoge Låstad and of course myself. We had a great time at the gallery. We came to Tyssedal friday around 2:00 pm, and started mounting the exhibition, and finished in the evening. After that it was party time. We had a great time and some great discussions thoughout the night, and I think the last ones (me included) went to sleep at around 5:00 am. Next day it was opening time. Bright and early, ready for action up at around 10:30 am (crud, were I NOT ready to get up then) it was time to give the gallery a final scrub and to see if everything was spotless for the opening. So... well, I'll let the photos tell the rest of this story.

August
:Progress of a pencil drawing:

Thought I'd post a little WIP so you guys can see some of the way I work. This is a pencil on paper drawing called "The dragonfly's den". Before I start drawing, I put scotch tape on the edge of the drawing space to get clean edges on the drawing. I then start by making a rough line drawing. Then I start to rough in the shades. Its important to always think of were the light source is, so to get a good feel for that I had to draw in all the dark in the backgrond at a very early stage. Often I start to shade the main motif, but since this was so dark I had to put in the background first to get a clear understanding of the light. Then I could start on the motif working my way forward in the space. Since the bone of the sculls are so light in relations to the violin and the background, I choose to work on them towards the end of the drawing so that I would be able to see the contrasts in the best way possible. When the whole paper was covered with graphite (well, exept the cat scull and most of the goat scull), I started to render the sculls proporly. As you can see, they are more or less finished before the lower part of the cloth is done. I waited with that to be able to get the correct contrast between the cloth and the sculls. Why? I found that was the best way to balance the light between the cloth underneeth the sculls and the space behind the sculls. This enables me to make the goat scull and the dragon fly the main focal point, leading the eye of the beholder inwards in the drawing via the cat scull through the violin. The fact that the horns almost dissappears into the dark suggest that there are more happening in the background.
Small note: Take a look at the light spot on the underside of the goat sculls eye socket in the finished drawing. That value is more or less the same as the value in the first picture. Why is that? Well, its all down to contrast. It appear darker in the light picture be course of all the light surrounding it. And be course of all the darkness in the finished drawing, it appears as if it has been lightened on the way.

:S.I.T.A.S:

A new web site against imigry theft is just formed. S.I.T.A.S. "'Stop Imagery Theft on Auction Sites" has been formed after a long discussion about art theft on imagineFX.com where some artists have told of how their art has been stolen to put on t-shirts, mobilephone covers and such for later sale on ebay.com and other auction sites. Artist has even gotten their accounts resticted at ebay.com after emailing ebay about such infignment and asked them to remove the product. In answer to this kind of treatment, S.I.T.A.S. was formed.

Join up and support the arts!

:Cover art:

My digital painting "I,for one, welcome our overlords" is now adorning the cover of the electronic artist Rieg's album Return. This painting was originally my entrance to a monthly challange over at imagineFX.com. Typography was made by Rieg.

:New graphics is launched:

The first stage in upgrading the graphics of Illyriad was launced 01 august. It was very well recieved by the players. I have had a fun time designing it all. But this is only the first stage. Now its time to make three other uppgrade designs for this race (humans). Then I will be making individual deigns for the thre other races aswell. These races are the Elfs, the Dwarfs and the Orcs. I'm looking forward to these, be course with these races I will be able to go wild with my imagination.
With the human race, we tried to keep a certain amount of medieval historical correctness in the designing of the buildings.
Here are some examples of the grahpics.

April
:Going game graphics:

My work for Illyriad has paid off. I've just been hired to redo the ingame graphics aswell. This'll be a new experience for me as an artist being used to do whatever I want to, how I want to and why I want to do as i do it as a fine artist. Now there's a whole bunch new things to concider. The first of course is the brief. Thats actually not a problem though, as I have almost full artistic freedom. That is one of the things that makes this gig so challanging and fun. Then its the fact that this has to please thousends of players, each with their own personal taste (last I checked there was actually over 7000 players. And it has only been up 58 days inthe writing moment). That is the biggest audience I have ever had:) the next thing I have to concider is the different screen settings of all the players. So that I don't make things to dark, to light, to saturated, not saturation enough and so on. It has to fit every setting. This is of course not entierly new to me, seeing as I have been doing digital art for a couple of years now. But this is still something different. With my personal works I only have myself to concider, and weather or not if I want to print it or not.

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:Illustrations for Illyriad.co.uk:

A month ago I got an email from my brother saying a friend of his needed some illustration for a browser game called Illyriad. He forwarded the email he had gotten for me to read the brief. It looked like a fun brief and good pay, so I contacted the client. He had already seen my website and was thrilled by what he saw. So he gave me the job on the spot.
The brief was simple: In the game, which is a classic fantasy strategy game, they already had the male versions of their four races. Human, elf, dwarf and the orc. What he needed was the female versions of them. I was given more or less 100% artistic freedom. The only thing he wanted was for them to have a somewhat similar style as the ones that was already in the game.
I wanted them to convey the old photographic portrature style from of the early 20th century. Were you place the person in front of a curtain background with a landscape printed on to give the illusion of having been photographed outside. And at the same time show the qualities each race possess in the game.
I think they turned out well.

Here is a true art appreciator. He use a good 15 minutes prancing around and looking up on my art.

This installation was exibited in "Prøverommet " in Bergen in 2006. Here is a bar view.