mah'dja b

Sketchcrawl x 2

I have been neglecting my blog of late, so here are my sketches from the past two sketchcrawls.
First, from this Saturday the 35th worldwide sketchcrawl, a lovely day in Oslo. We started at the botanical gardens at Tøyen and migrated to some nice cafés at Grønland once we got cold. As usual crawling reminded me that I should really be out there sketching every weekend! Or at least as often as I can.
The Oslo results can be found here: Sketchcrawl forum Oslo thread

Then these are my sketches from January, the 34th crawl. We started at a little farm in the middle of the city with adorable pigs and goats and rabbits, great for drawing. Oslo was caught in a mini-snowstorm so the farm and the cafés were fairly quiet for a Saturday.

Oslo sketchcrawl July 2011

The 32nd world wide sketchcrawl turned out to be a very different day than I imagined. I joined Stella and Åshild in downtown Oslo where a large area was cordoned off and guarded by armed soldiers, a haunting sight in our relatively quiet city. I wasn't quite sure at the time whether it was appropriate to be down there sketching, but it turned out to feel right to leave home and the endless news reports on the television behind and join the crowds walking a slow circle around the devastated area.
Nothing makes sense and it sure isn't sinking in what actually happened, but I am glad I made it down to visit the site first hand.

Åshild, a piece of glass from the Glasmagasinet shop front I decided to keep and a delicious chai latte.

Looking down the street in front of the government building that was targeted.

Osl♥

The sketchcrawl thread with the full results including some photos of us.

Sketchcrawl January 2011

Happy 30th world wide sketchcrawl!
We ditched the crawling lizards this time and went for the stuffed animals at Oslo's natural history museum. They make even better models! Well, the ones that don't looked too squashed that is.
Then we stopped by a café before heading to our usual place for dinner and a beer or two. I love winter but I can't wait to try drawing outdoors again. If the sun had come out we could have tried, but since it was gray and gloomy we stayed indoors.

Happy 2011!

Illustration work pt. 2

This summer I got to work on a sixth book in the Korsfarer (Crusaders) series by Steffen R. M. Sørum. This time it was a fact book based on the history of the Crusades. I went for a little different style with this book, since it stands alone from the series. The image above is the cover.

Samples from the original five books are in this post.

sketch + self-portrait

Self-portrait done in poor lighting using one hand to hold a mirror and one to paint on the computer... Made for self-portrait day, 1. november.

I just realized a few days after the fact that my blog turned five years old in october. Time's been flying by.

Sketchcrawl October 2010

The 29th world wide sketchcrawl had a great turnout in Oslo! I think at the most we were maybe 11 people? I lost count! We were super lucky with the weather too. Winter is just around the corner here but the sun came through for us and kept us warm.
We started our crawl in front of the castle at the foot of the statue of Karl Johan, looking down on Karl Johans street. We later made a brief stop in the reptile park again before finding us some food and drinks.
A fun time, but maybe not my finest sketching day -- please ignore the funny loon, it's actually a seagull :P

My sketches: