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Marker sketches

 Marker drawings from the winter.

Summer Commision Work

Some work I did in the summer, first is two portraits for the staff at "Arsenalet," in Viborg. The place me and many other animation related companies have their offices.

The pictures should look like old officer portraits as the Arsenal (and the whole Animation Workshop) resides in an old military compound.

The next illustration is one I did for and old client that wanted an illustration for her dad's round birthday. The illustration is based on his interests among which are the danish painter Otto Frello, and also contains his grandchildren.
On a personal level I also took inspiration from the air of Miyazaki's etheral "Laputa - The Castle in the Sky."
The illustration was the size of a poster.

Illustrations for "Snapsting."

In may I did 15 Illustrations for the "Snapsting Magazine," in Viborg, (Denmark) as the town lately have been starting to revive this yearly event.

"Snapsting," was a kind of festival in the historical town of Viborg happening from the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century. In the span of two weeks people from all classes from all over Denmark and beyond would come to trade and take part in the festivals many different kinds of entertainment.

I was to illustrate 15 different texts of things that have actually happened at the Snapsting throughout time or how the time periods have affected the festival.

1523 "Revolution at Viborg County Council."

1606 "Priest Murdered Nobleman after Weddingparty."

1649 "The Marriage Market."

1674 "Bloody Duel in Nytorvsgyde (Newsquare Alley)"

1691 "Noblelady in Free Fall"

1709 "Garters and Powdered Wigs."

1717 "An unfortunate Copenhagian."

1722 "The "Peblings" of the Cathedral School."

1738 "The King forbids Entertainers and Gambling."

1773 "Coffee clubs and Cultural Salons."

1779 "The Strangers."

1796 "Ripped of Everything."

1801 "Art and Waxworks"

1803 "Grand Graaaand Show"

1812 "The Tycoon of Nytorv (Newsquare)."

The Technique Used:

I had the fortune of working together with the art director Aguri Miyazaki in the winter and early spring, her almost perfect sense of color and color balance inspired me to reconsider my own technique (or lack of) when coloring in photoshop. As my weakness seemed to be a more unified theme when coloring I started doing the following:

Well actually, first I just draw the drawing in red and then the final lineart with a 4B pencil:

I then remove the red in photoshop:

Then the coloring. First I just apply a single color all over the picture - the general color I want. Then I loosely add light and shadows on top:

Then on top of the single color layer, but beneath the light and shadows layers I start adding flat colors:

Then atop all of the layers (except the line art) I put one layer that I use from now one to paint on. This is really the most creative and free process. I don't have to worry about the balance of colors instead I just make what I have now look good by painting the details, adjusting the colors (usually I try to saturate them more) and strengthen the light and shadows.

Under the Fold - Development of Story and Storyboards

I've always wanted to share some of the development in the boarding I did on Under the Fold.

During the development of the story, we had a dramatic change of the storyline after we've completed the first take on the storyboard. In fact the only panel in the final boards that have been left unchanged is the very last shot. Nonetheless there was quite a few good ideas in the first take. Here presented for your interest is some of the first thumbnail drawings I did:

And here is some of the panels from the first take. As you might see, it contains many elements quite alien to the final film - though some ideas survived the scrapping.

There was a major sequence after the shelter scene, but it was done by either Thomas or Stine as I remember it.

However, I did a crazy fantasy sequence, quite different from that of the final film. The idea was that Frank, and Iru would chase "Dot" back through a world made of all the factories they would visit in the two montages prior to this (canfactory, sawmill, junkyard, ironworks, trainstation.):

After we decided to scrap everything above, we hastely made a new beatboard, here are some of the images I did for it:

I would like to show the final boards. Its not all of the panels, because I modified these images to be presented at my onlineportfolio when I was applying for an internship at the time (thats the reason for the red arrows), but it should give some insight into the final boarding:

Also, apart from my work on the story team, I did also manage to do some input for the design of Frank, just as members of the design team did such great contributions to the story.