Found these in my archives.

About a year ago I posted some Muppet art work at Boom Studios Artists Gallery. Boom used to have a series of pretty neat Muppet titles, starting with Roger Langridge’s awesome Muppet Show Comic Books. I thought it would be cool to draw the Muppets. For real you know?

I was more than a little surprised when I got an e-mail from a Boom editor asking me if I wanted to make some sample drawings for Darkwing Duck. It’s funny in two ways. 1) I hardly know Darkwing at all. And I’m not really into the Disney style. I’m much more attracted to highly stylized stuff, like you’d find on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the 90s. Maybe it’s not that visible in my body of work so far, but just wait and see… And 2) Nobody ASKS you if you want to draw a Disney comic. The way it normally works is you headbutt the editors’ locked doors for years and years before they even let you try.

Anyway, I was busy with another project at that moment and had no choice but to say thanks but no thanks. Some months later I e-mailed the editor asking if he was still interested in me having ago. Sure, he said and sent me some model sheets. So I made these character studies of Darkwing, Gosalyn, Launchpad (in spite of my unfamiliarity with Darkwing, I always liked Launchpad!) and Scrooge.

So what did the editor think? I don’t know. He never replied. Was it because my drawings sucked? Was it because I stuck too close to the original model sheets? That’s how I learned new styles in the past. First you copy, getting to know the construction of the characters, then you make your own poses and expressions. Maybe the editor expected something else? Or was it simply because Boom lost their rights to the Disney titles, and my timing was unfortunate? I guess I’ll never know. Anyway, it was fun to try something different.

Cykelsuperstier from cykelsuperstier on Vimeo.

Animationsbyrån’s latest informercial for Copenhagen municipality. We hope you like it!

When I design characters for a project, I hardly ever end up using the initial character skecthes. Well, come to think of it, I NEVER settle for the initial design. Here’s two cases of characters evolving from something to something else.

I designed this delivery man for an informercial we did for the Copenhagen municipality project Citylogistik.

The customer wanted something reminiscent of La Linea (Linus på linjen).

One of the most common forms of “critique” I get is that I draw too cute/too kiddie style. Funnily enough, this time the customer wanted it to be cuter and rounder. No problem! So I ended up with:

You can watch the film here.

The second example is for another Copenhagen municipality project called Cykelsuperstier. The customer wanted “a simple cut-out style”.

I looked at Terry Gilliam’s work, Southpark and some JibJab stuff. I was also inspired by the demo illustrations in the Zelda game Phantom Hourglass (the gallery section).

Design decisions should be based on function. I had to elongate the legs for the characters to be able to ride bicycles.

The customer thought it to be too kiddie style (again!), so I opted for a more “adult” or neutral look, and ended up with:

A couple of stills from the film:

The three of us working on these films – Alfred Gunnarsson, Niklas Ström and me - call ourselves Animationsbyrån. We’ll launch our new website shortly. We just completed the Cykelsuperstier infomercial. You can watch it here.

]]> http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/2012/02/character-design/feed/ 0 http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/2011/12/merry-christmas/ http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/2011/12/merry-christmas/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:56:35 +0000 Andreas Qassim http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/?p=1108

Andreas, Hans J Sandnes and The Electric Mayhem featuring Kermit wish you

The Scandinavian Muppet Art Blog

I’ve started an art blog together with fellow animator, Muppet fan and Scandinavian, Hans Jørgen Sandnes. We opened The Scandinavian Muppet Art Blog officially 1/12.

Originally we wanted it to be kind of a casual blog, where we’d post Muppet art every now and then, our own stuff and other artists’. Then we thought we’d start off with a christmas calendar, one drawing per day up until christmas.

However, we’ve gotten so many great pieces so we’ve decided to keep the one-a-day-formula until 31/12. After that the blog will continue and we’ll post stuff whenever it comes in.

Today’s blog post is by my good old friend Johan Peitz. Johan is a top notch game designer, one of the owners of Gothemburg based Muskedunder Interactive. Johan’s internet cult game Icy Tower has been played by millions of people worldwide. As an avid retro gamer I’m thrilled about Johan’s pixel Muppets. Let’s hope he makes an actual game of it someday!

Hans J. Sandnes is an accomplished Norwegian animator. He studied animation for Richard Williams (Roger Rabbit, The Animator’s Survival Kit)! If you’re familiar with animation language you’ll know the meaning of “appeal”. Hans’s films are the embodiment of appeal! His animation studio Sandnes Media just released a collection of short films based on Alf Prøysen’s classical children’s songs. The films have been airing on NRK (national Norwegian TV) for a while. The Disney distributed DVD is called “Musevisa og åtte andre Prøysenklassikere”.

2011 has been the year of the Muppets, thanks to the release of the new feature film The Muppets. The Muppets used to be huge in Scandinavia, and Scandinavians always had a special place among the Muppets…

We wanted our blog to be a forum where Scandinavian artists and others can express their appreciation for the Muppets and other Henson creations. We could never have dreamed that we’d get so many great pieces of art sent to us. Make sure tune in at least once a day to The Scandinavian Muppet Art Blog, and you’ll be up for a treat!

Årets spel är här: Ullaredspelet! Spelet är skapat av Pia Forsberg på Krabat i Lund. Jag har illustrerat kartongens framsida, samt varorna som man kan shoppa i spelet. För grafisk formgivning står Jerry Söderström på S&S Design.

“Spelet där allt kan hända, precis som en helt vanlig dag på varuhuset. Du köar, springer på bekanta, tappar bort maken, campar, fyndar, fikar, flirtar, går vilse…

Samtidigt som du är indragen i ett rafflande, skoningslöst och makalöst roligt kundvagnsrace!”

Spelet finns att köpa på Gekås Ullared och Krabat i Lund, Klostergan 14 (Bytaregränd).

Studio Qassim takes a new turn with this animated information film for the Copenhagen municipality project Citylogistik. The project aims to replace heavy transport in the inner city with more environmental friendly alternatives.

Sådan virker Citylogistik from Citylogistik on Vimeo.

The film is basically hand drawn, but animated in Flash. It was edited in Premiere and After Effects. The cut out paper collage coloring of the backgrounds were made in Photoshop.

The film was made in collaboration with Alfred Gunnarsson and Niklas Ström. Alfred designed the website and logo for Citylogistik. We were both involved in shaping the script for the film together with our friends at the Copenhagen municipality. I designed, storyboarded and animated the film. Niklas did the outstanding sound work. In fact, the three of us had so much fun doing this project that we will definitely work togheter again. We’re currently in the process of forming our own animation bureau, and we’re already in the talks for our next project. I’ll let you know once we’re up and running.

Big thanks to Johan Rünow at S8AN Communication for helping us out with After Effects!

The Gilchrist brothers Muppets comic strips from the 80s continue to inspire me. The perfect way to unwind after a hard day’s work. Super simple in content and style, they still make me smile. Or maybe I should say they make me smile because of their simplicity. Or is it the innocent sweetness reminding me of my childhood?

I really like Guy Gilchrist’s drawing style. The characters are boiled down to the essentials, interpreted in a personal way. The weight of the ink lines are well balanced, the volume of the characters is solid. You don’t find a single superfluous line. Every line has meaning.

I love these collection books. The strips are pure black and white, which makes you appreciate the ink work a lot more. I got them through Amazon from various second-hand bookshops. Cheap, fast, carefully packaged. I like to think about how these books were once in somebody’s home. There’s a history to these items.

The only thing I miss are the half and whole page strips that I used to collect from various magazines as a child. Does anyone know if there are collections of these available? The final strip of the Muppets series according to Muppetwiki:

Guy Gilchrist worked on many comic strips, like Nancy and Sluggo, Mudpie, Today’s Dogg and The Muppets. He even helped create The Muppet Babies cartoon series back in the days.

Guy Gilchrist is also a country musician. You can check out what he’s up to these days here. Everything in this post is ⓒ The Jim Henson Company.

Fick precis den nya PM-boken med postuma Rune Andréasson-serier. Som jag skrivit om tidigare har jag alltsedan jag läste Bamse och Guld-Gnoms skatt, skriven av Rune och tecknad av Tony Cronstam, tyckt det varit något väldigt speciellt med PM-berättelserna, och jag är verkligen glad över att ha fått teckna några av dessa.

Omslaget är tecknat av Lars Bällsten, tuschat av bernt Hanson och kolorerat av Thomas Holm.

PM-bok #2 innehåller flera pärlor. Här hittar vi bl.a. serierna Brum-kludden och Med pensel mot svärd, båda tecknade av Cronstam, samt den lite kontroversiella Mård-Lisa, tecknad av Lars Bällsten. Här finns även serien om Bamse och Lilla Åsnan som gick som miniföljetong nyligen i tidningen nr 7-8/11.

Härligt att se sina alster på så fint papper. Älskar lukten av nytryck! Och roligt att se dessa båda omslagen tillsammans i all sin prakt. Båda är tecknade av mig och tuschade av the one and only Kerstin Hamberg. De är speciella på så sätt att jag stod för både layout och teckning. Tidigare omslag som jag har tecknat har varit layoutade av Joakim Gunnarsson. “Omslaget” till Lilla Åsnan I publicerades på C3 (näst sista sidan) i Bamse #6/11.

Över huvud taget är jag väldigt glad och stolt över att jag fick teckna Runes berättelse om Åsnan, som han själv stöpt i så många former. Var inspirationen till Åsnan troligen kommer från kan man läsa i boken. Ser fram mot nästa PM-bok, i vilken jag har jag tecknat åtminstone fyra av serierna.

Samtliga bilder i inlägget är ⓒ Rune Andréasson.

Since early September I’ve been buried underneath heaps of work. That’s good. I’d rather be stressed out by too much to do than too little. However, those kinds of weeks and months leave little room for blogging. I’d thought I’d post a little bit of this and that from what I’ve been up to during autumn 2011 so far.

Kulturnatten in Norrköping 24 Sept

I was invited by Arbetets museum in Norrköping to do some live cartooning for families visiting the exhibition Bamse & Du during Culture Night (Kulturnatten). The Bamse exhibition took place at the EWK-muséum, a section of Arbetets museum devoted to political art. EWK – Ewert Karlsson 1918-2004 – was a Swedish superstar in political cartoons. He won several international awards for his art. My job was to deliver Bamse drawings to the families visiting the Bamse exhibition.

Photos taken by Aleksander Savic, official photographer for Arbetets museum.

I was amazed by two things. 1) That Bamse is still so popular. Children and parents still love the comics and the films, just like I did when I was a boy. When I’m out in public like this I’ve also noticed a certain awe for hand drawn comics and animation in general. It seems like many people are tired of the digital stuff, big budget 3D productions and the like. There’s a strong appreciation for the craft when people see it’s being done manually.

2) That young children were prepared to stand in line for such a long time. I’m not a fast cartoonist, but I wanted to make sure that everyone waiting got a drawing of their favorite character. So instead of three hours with two breaks, I drew constantly for 3,5 hours. Some kids waited for probably an hour before it was their turn. Thank you all for your patience! And many thanks to Arbetets museum for having me. I’d love to come back, to draw or just to visit your beautiful museum.

John Bauer-gymnasiet in Lund 6 Oct

My friend Johan Rünow invited me to hold a workshop in drawing and digital coloring at the media school where he’s teaching. I’m really quite jealous of these students who get to make books, photography, posters, zombie films etc. Having fun while at the same time learning essential tools, digital and manual, for working in media in the future. I was there to teach about drawing – sketching and inking, and coloring your artwork digitally. A lot to go through in just three hours.

Each student had their own personal computer. Some even had iMacs!

While the students were hard at work I made a cartoon version of myself who’d drunk too much coffee and done no workout. Tried to explain how you can play around with proportions to create different types of characters.

I wanted each student to make a cartoon version of themselves. Not an easy thing to do, especially if you don’t spend all your spare time drawing, like I did their age. But the students were heroic and made some really cool cartoons. Some of them were really quite outstanding, and I hope to be able to post a gallery of the students’ work here later on.

The students went from hand drawn manual work to digital coloring in Photoshop. Photos taken by Johan Rünow.