The Blog

Art
Julia Hafstrom Post-it Sketch
I keep a couple of stacks of post-its sitting on my desk, just for when I get the urge to draw I can quickly get my fix. This sketch was from a photoshoot I did with Julia Hafstrom years ago. She is such a sweet and beautiful person inside and out. I have also thought she would be a good reference to base one of our book characters, Sarah Finn, on. This sketch, though really simple, I feel captures the vibe of Sarah Finn. I’m excited to work more on her character design. I will get on with designing the book characters after I finish the Manga characters. I’ve been learning a lot doing all this character design.


Art
Knightcat Redesign
I’m excited for finally showing you the redesign of my brother and my book character Knightcat. She might be my favorite character to write scenes for. She is an amazing character and her character design felt close, but not perfect, thus the redesign. She is going to make a guest appearance in “Lost in the Crowd“, so I started redesigning her last week. I love how she came out.

Her markings were really difficult to design. I did a lot of research and did tons of sketches till a pattern finally worked. Her markings are a form of magical protection. Also her weapons have great back stories. I can't wait to tell you more about it.


Drawing
character sketchbook 31
It’s fun looking back on the Character Sketchbook series. This was one of the first drawings in the series where I felt like I was getting the hang of it. The drawing is of Gemma Ward. I hope you all are having a great day :)

Thanksgiving
Happy Belated Thanksgiving
I meant to get this up on Thanksgiving, but I got too busy cooking and hanging with family. It was such a fun day. We sat around working on a puzzle I made just for Thanksgiving from my drawing Rooftops. It was one of the most fun puzzles that we’ve ever put together. I hope you are all doing well. I’ve been working hard trying to finish all the Main Character designs for Lost in the Crowd. I can’t wait to show you.

Portrait
Gemma in the Sky
I’ve been loving going back through my old drawings and re-drawing them. It’s been very interesting to see the changes in my style and approach. This piece I originally drew back in 2009, you can see it here. It felt like it needed a reboot. What do you think of this version? I learned a lot making it.


Art
The Red Lady
I was taking an exploration of charcoal & chalk on different color tone paper, and this piece happened. For some reason, something just clicked when I was drawing it, and the textures and tone came out exactly the way I wanted. I’d like to pretend like that happens to me a lot, but it really doesn’t happen as often as I would like. I like the vibe of the finished sketch. It reminds me of a mix between Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I plan on taking more excursions into tone paperland in the near future. Let me know what you think. I hope you are having a great day. This piece is for sale, so let me know if you are interested :)


Inspiration
My Influence Map 2019
I’m currently taking the Schoolism class “Story-Driven Illustrations” by Djamila Knopf. One of the first assignments is to produce an influence map. I’ve never heard of an influence map before doing this, but it’s a cool idea. I’m planning on making one every year or two because it’s a healthy thing to re-evaluate those things that are driving you. The way an influence map works is you start out with a template covered by 30 squares. Each square gets filled with an image that represents a category, theme, idea, etc. that is currently influencing your work. The size of the image represents the amount of influence those concepts have on me. It’s a really fascinating task, particularly because if I would have made one of these right when I started my career, my map would have looked completely different.
(p.s. If you are reading this via Bloglovin or another RSS reader, you need to click through to be able to see the post.)
1. Rosy Cheeks
2. Fine Details
3. Fairy Tales
4. Old RPGs
5. Voyages & Journeys
6. Romance
7. Sincere/ Confident Line Quality
8. Other Worldly Landscapes
9. Patterns
10. Dreams & Nostalgia
11. Old Classic Movies
12. Classic Disney
13. Colorful
14. Anime/Manga
15. Distant Lands
16. Strange Places
17. All things Mythical
This one might be pretty obvious, considering almost all my drawings have them, but it’s something I’ve always loved. Can’t explain it and can’t deny it ;)
I’ve always been drawn in by fine details. I love high resolution scans, complex systems, hidden meanings, secret codes, tons of variety. Whether I'm adding fine details to my work or looking at them, details bring me so much joy.
Growing up with Grimms' Fairy Tales, Aesoph’s Fables, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the OZ series of books, magical lands and classical stories have always captured my imagination. I hope to write and illustrate ones that capture yours.
It was a funny realization that old NES and Super Nintendo games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Metroid have had such an impact on me. The time spent playing those games as a kid had a big impact on my imagination.
I think it is due to the fact that I moved around growing up, I have always connected to themes of long voyages, traveling to distant lands, getting lost in new places, second chances, and new starts.
I’m definitely a romantic person. I’m a sucker for good romantic stories or paintings. I love the feeling of creating artwork where you can feel the connection between two people.
I fell in love with sincere confident lines when I first discovered Egon Schiele’s work. You can tell his contour lines were put down once, confidently, and not reworked. I strive to keep that strong line in my work.
I love looking at landscapes that make me feel like I’ve been transported to a new magical world.
Dreams & Nostalgia have a large influence on my work. Years ago, I started a dream journal where I write down my dreams the moment I wake up. Since I started that, dreams have been the starting point for a lot of my story and illustration ideas.
Movies from 1920-1950 have sparked my imagination and have had a huge impact on my work. I think I’m a bit of an old soul, and I often think and concept in my head in black and white.
I love watching old Disney movies. They return my mind to nostagic memories of being a kid, which helps relax my imagination. I have three beautiful Disney production books that I draw a lot of inspiration from.
I love fun, playful, colorful paintings and images. Color is something I’m very timid working with, so I admire people with strong color work, and it pushes me to step out of my comfort zone.
Back in 2012 after my trip to Japan, I started watching Animes and reading Mangas. Since then, it’s been my favorite form of television. I watch an Anime every day and am constantly amazed and inspired.
I love the concept of undiscovered distant lands. Growing up, I wanted to be an explorer and find new places. When I found out that the world had been discovered, I started building my own imaginary story world. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Mystery and the Mysterious get my imagination going. I love digging and researching and finding amazing strange mysterious places, people, and things.
I’m captivated by all things Mythical. I love studying old mythologies, or reading about mythical creatures.
I hope you enjoyed reading through what makes my art tick. Please share with someone who you think this post will bless ;) Have a great Sunday. The images source are the following:
1. Elegant bouquet by Gustave Jean Jacquet, 2. Aubrey Beardsley, Albrecht Durer, 3. Nadezhda Illarionova, 4. the legend of Zelda Cover, 5. Josh Hartnett & Gemma Ward in Vogue by Mario Testino, 6. Painting by John Bauer 1915, 7. Egon Schiele Painting, 8. Not sure the Artist, 9. Not sure the Artist, 10. Amber Ortolano, 11. Casablanca (1942), 12. Disney production sketch from Bambi(1942), 13. Rick Leong, 14. Artwork from the anime "Your Lie in April", 15. Not sure the Artist, 16. Not sure the Artist, 17. Enoki Toshiyuki

Collaboration
Love – Harajuku Lovers
It being Thursday, I thought I would do a “Throw Back Thursday” of one of my first client jobs I’ve done. This illustration is of “Love” for my second collaboration with Gwen Stefani‘s Harajuku Lovers. This is my favorite illustration from that collaboration, the colors and expression came out really nice. This project feels like a life time ago. I’m going to be forever grateful to Jolie, Gwen, and everyone one at Harajuku Lovers for working with me. It was a very special project.


Art Collages
Under Water Collage
This collage was a fun little experiment I did with my friend Photographer Chadwick Tyler. We had wanted to play around and try things to merge our two styles. One of the first experiments I was curious about trying was hand tinting the photo, so I printed Chadwick’s pictures on transparency paper and painted with oil paint on both sides of the transparency. It gave it a really cool look. I hope you like it :)

Art Portrait
Amina Muaddi
I just finished up this portrait of shoe designer Amina Muaddi a few hours ago. I’ve been working on this over the last few days. For the portrait I used watercolor, chalk pastel, color pencil, and gold paint pen. I kept layering it until the tone and expression were right. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I hope you like it. I’m making a video that will be out soon. Any suggestions for a song for the video of this portrait?
