Author: Jenny

SPEJS doodles

Hey there, long time no see! I have been busy getting back in the rut, playing Witcher 3 and inking pages for the next SPEJS chapter (I’m pretty much on schedule, even though it’s a bit sweaty). I’ve also been reading a lot while commuting, hence the lack of metro doodles. But I decided to treat myself to some new markers (specifically the Winsor & Newton ProMarkers) and decided to start doodling a bit with them in my new sketchbook. This book I bought looks very fancy, but I’m not sure if the paper is good for anything really. Markers look pretty okay though, so I might continue filling it with marker doodles :)

Let’s start this year with a doodle dump of some SPEJS related stuff!

some people on Tapastic are starting to doubt that male pangee exist. Well, they do, and look fabulous! But they haven’t really been introduced properly in the comic yet. I’m musing a bit about the next chapter where this dashing lad might show up though :)

Speaking about pangee, it’s very uncommon that pangee and seri are getting along, even less common that they are romantically involved. These two fellows are getting along quite well though, and I can’t wait to tell you more about them. I’d love to make a short spin-off comic with these guys, if I have the time I’ll try to make it before the end of march :)

A fancy Swagata, just because I missed drawing her <3 Also experimenting with the looks of Seri women. I’m sort-of musing with the fact that it might be more common with them having a bit more body hair, and not feeling forced to shave it off or whatever, especially not on their home planet. We’ll see, I’ve yet to show some seri women in the comic too, so I have time to experiment for a bit ;) Also a random cat as an extra ;)

Art summary of 2016!

Hi there, hope you had a great weekend! As promised, here’s my art summary of 2016!

January: drew a lot on brown paper. Made a few drawings while commuting. Gooblin Week was going on and I made a few little goblins :) Also drew some comic pages for Home Made Comics. Finally, I started to attend a digital painting course which would take place during spring. I was a bit scared but also happy I was doing that!
February: worked a lot on SPEJS #2 and the digital painting course. Doodled some on my commuting to work, and a Valentine’s Special image. Started to hang out a bit with Dotterbolaget.
March: Still worked on SPEJS #2 and also juggled a digital painting course where I did so many color studies (environments and still life) during this month…I remember it being a little stressful while also having some personal drama in my life.
April: SPEJS #2 was printed and done early in April and I could work on school assignments and prepare for Stockholm International Comics Festival. I also did a fan art of this year’s mascot, Astrid, together with my characters. I still kinda like the outcome. Made a pitch for the Beyond anthology and got refused.
May: Survived the comics festival, started to experiment a bit with water colors and color pencils. I tried to join in on Mermay, but just did a few. Felt a bit bad about my art, or rather me posting/spamming so much art.
June: worked to finish a comic for an anthology. Decided to do this at the studio after work and work a lot with steel nibs and ink. It was fun, and I learned some stuff!
July: Decided to try and finish another small comic for another anthology before August and vacation hit me. More steel nibs and ink. The comic was refused though, but I want to tweak it a bit before I send it somewhere else :) I also finalized the re-print of SPEJS #1 and sent it to the printers.
August: Vacation times! Did some watercolor stuff, but I mostly traveled, hung out with friends and read books :)
September: Went to Helsinki, came back more determined to make good-looking stuff. Spent some evenings at the studio working out the looks for the characters in the next SPEJS chapter and how the environments will look like.
October: I was extremely productive and did like 21 inktober pieces and a few illustrations in-between. Went to Stockholm Comic Con, which I think went so-so, but I had great company next to me <3
November: I made a guest comic for Immortal Nerd and went to Örebro Comics Festival! Had a great time at the festival thanks to a very dedicated crew and good friends <3
December: I have spent a lot of December after work at the studio, drawing thumbs for the next SPEJS chapter! I also did the christmas card which was long overdue.

I wasn’t sure if I had been productive or not, but when I’m counting my amount of pages done, I feel pretty content.

For SPEJS, I did 50 finished pages, and about 67 rough thumbs. I have a lot to do 2017 in terms of SPEJS pages ;)

On top of that, I did 26 pages of comics for various fanzines and web comics. So in total 76 finished pages and 67 pages of thumbs! Last year, I had finished 65 pages and made 57 pages with rough thumbs, so in retrospect, I’m pretty happy! :)

So last year, my art resolutions for 2016 were:

  • Get SPEJS #2 done
    • Wohoo, it was done! :)
  • Finish off Shit Spider, once and for all
    • Well, I more or less swiped it from the internet, so I sure finished it off ;P To be honest, I wasn’t feeling the comic any more. The characters didn’t speak to me, there was too much stuff that didn’t feel right, and I had finished the story already a few years ago, I didn’t feel like re-drawing a comic I didn’t enjoy anyways…
  • Get published in one or two anthologies would be nice too :)
    • I was published in Home Made Comics and tried to get published in a few more, so at least I tried! I also had a guest comic at Immortal Nerd :)
  • Sell stuff on at least three conventions.
    • I tabled at five conventions!
  • Have fun!
    • I had fun most of the time! An ex told me there was no crying in comics, but they were wrong. Sometimes you feel crappy, and it’s okay to do so! Jeez, contrary to popular belief, I’m not a robot, and sometimes tabling is hard work and drawing all the panels can feel a bit overwhelming. But to be honest, I met so many awesome people and I am glad I got myself out on those conventions and socialized and learned if the conventions were for me or not! <3

So yeah, I think this was my art retrospective! What do I want to do next year?

  • Finish off SPEJS #3 – it’s a monster, but I want to release the beast!
  • Table at least 3 conventions (I have one set already, Confuzzled!)
  • Go to Thought Bubble!
  • Feel more confident with my colors
  • Feel more confident with backgrounds
  • Have fun!

How was your art year, and what would you like to do next year regarding art?

Happy Holidays 2016!

Hey, this is the Christmas Card I made for this year, but unfortunately didn’t have time to print and send to people. But I hope youwill enjoy it anyways, I made a slightly longer version of this card over at SPEJS, check it out if you want to know what happened after the snowball fight..;)

This year has been pretty stressful for me, but I have managed to draw a lot and make some new friends, so from an art perspective, I think the year has been pretty nice! I’ll come back after Christmas with an art summary post of 2016. Until then, eat a lot of good food and be cozy! :)

WIP: SPEJS #3

I have previously talked a bit about how I’ve started to work on SPEJS #3, and now it’s really on! During most of December, I’ve spent some time at the studio after work to make thumbnails for the next chapter, and now I’m more or less done!

I think it’s going to be a great chapter, some drama, some action and Ragna and gav being silly and serious :) I’ve scanned in the thumbs and trying to make sense of them in Clip Studio now, adding text and such (I feel it’s easier to add the text before starting to draw, so I know how much space I’ll have for my characters and environments. Oldest trick in the book I’m sure, but a good thing to remember!).

The chapter will be a bit over 54 pages long. My biggest concern is that I’ll have enough time to draw and color it! Hopefully I won’t have any big projects, like a Digital painting course, simoultaneously, so I’m carefully positive..? ;D

My art 2006 vs 2016

So, there was a meme going on at twitter where you were supposed to compare your 2006 art with your 2016 art. I have been in a bit of a slump lately, thinking that I probably haven’t evolved much at all during the years, but let’s take a look!

The images above were made 2006. I was (or maybe had?) finishing my final year at the University of Skövde where I studied game graphics. I didn’t get my dream job after the education and I was very bitter and sad about that. I was working a lot with this fantasy group on my free time. I really wanted to make a story with them and I remember trying to write scripts which I scrapped after 30 or so pages. I really thought this was my artistic peak, I could probably never get better. I put a lot of detail on everyone’s faces, making them look a lot older than they were supposed to. Someone had just told me that blue shadows in a multiply layer made stuff look more realistic so I went all crazy with that =P

Fast-forward to 2016. During these 10 years, I moved from Skövde in the south to Kiruna in the far north and worked as an animator for 1,5 years. Then I moved to Stockholm to study Interaction Design, ended up being a frontend developer and am now coding web for a game company. Is it my dream job? Maybe not, but I’m enjoying my situation a LOT more than I did 10 years ago :)

These images were made this year and feature, in a way, the same characters as the previous pictures, they’ve just been changed around a lot. The green guy in black hair and the redhead are definitely super early versions of Gav and Ragna, only with switched personalities and in space ;) And the short haired girl is definitely an early version of Swagata, but very re-worked. And the thin guy was a thin guy in the early versions of SPEJS too until I decided a Morwen would be more fun (The lady in the middle of the last image is Astrid from Kim W Andersson’s space adventure comic, check it out!)

During the years, I think I have settled for a more simple style (three fingers, not as detailed faces), but with a better understanding of anatomy and color. I still have a long way to go and recently it feels like I want to get better at colors, but I’m happy I can see some progress in these 10 years at least :)

I love Immortal Nerd!

As I’ve told you earlier, I really like Hanna-Pirita’s comic Immortal Nerd, and was very honored when they asked me if I wanted to make a guest comic and a cover for one of the episodes. Of course I said yes! The cover is shown above and my guest comic can be read here.

Again, if you like queer-friendly, positive and funny stories, you should totally check out Immortal Nerd, it’s an awesome comic! <3

Gav and Swagata

Hi there, this blog has been a bit empty lately, so I thought I could share some art I drew but haven’t posted yet. It’s a younger Gav and Swagata hanging out at school. I’m not 100% happy with it (even though I giggle a little when I see young Gav’s style with that cap), but it was a bit fun to experiment a bit with a more painty style. I still have a lot to learn though!

This was drawn during a live event at Picarto! If you want to see me draw live more, subscribe to my channel and you’ll get mail notifications whenever I go live! :) I haven’t used it much, but I feel I get more focused when I do live events, so it’d probably be good for me ;)

Report from Örebro Seriefestival

orebroSerief

As I still have it in my head, I thought I could do a quick re-cap of my weekend at Örebro Seriefestival. This was the first year the festival was held and I really didn’t know what to expect, and considering my tabling adventures in Helsinki was a disaster this year, I decided to have very low expecations and just be happy if I covered the table costs. Also, I wanted to focus on meeting my comic buddies Yvette, Anna, Nelly and Viktor and just have a good time!

orebro_hotell

I decided to go to Örebro at Friday directly after work. I arrived at 7pm and managed to get some dinner together with Nelly and Viktor, which was super nice! My hotel room was a small one-bed story, but the bed was soft and the bathroom was fresh (and hotel breakfast! How I love thee, hotel breakfast!), so it was everything I needed.

bord_1

Saturday morning, I sat up my table. This is the first time since GothCon this year that I had a table all for myself, so I decided to go crazy and decorate it in a very fabulous manner ;)

One thing I was a bit nervous about was that I brought 40 of my sketchbooks and wanted to go home with none. The thing is that I had run out of business cards, and decided to hand out the sketchbook to people instead. It seemed to work, people got a better look at my art/sketches and my bags got significally lighter, so I’m happy ;) Also, the bestseller on my table was SPEJS, I sold about as much as I had planned to sell (even though I always bring a few more just in case). While it would have been nice to sell 1 or 2 of the Swedish Comic Sin anthology (because they’re heavy!), I am super happy and grateful about the interest of my own story! It made me very encouraged to continue working on chapter three (which is going to be the longest chapter this far!)!

behind_table

Sunday was a shorter day and a lot slower, but as usual with these kind of cons, I was expecting that. I was walking around a lot, talking to other creators and just chilling.

3rd_floor

The market place was divided into two floors. Some people maybe didn’t find their way up to us indie creators, but I was positively surprised by the amount of customers that found their way up. Also, it was kinda fun to look down at the floor where the guests and more established creators were found, and I took a “paparazzi photo” of Lasse Åberg taking a photo of Kim W Andersson XD

All in all, I did enjoy the festival! As usual when you’re selling ‘zines, you’re a bit sad that you easily can’t escape your table and look at the talks held during the festival, but you can’t be everywhere all the time sadly. I hope there will be a next year for the festival, because I’d really like to come back to Örebro again. Kudos to the crew who made the festival, were really friendly and helpful before and during the festival, and I hope you were happy with the arrangement yourselves :)

I’ve talked a lot with my Swedish comic-creating buddies and we all agree that it would be awesome with more Swedish comic festivals than Stockholm’s International Comics Festival in May, especially now when it’s a super sweaty business to get a table (this year they sold out in less than 5 hours!). To me as a comic creator who wants to mainly focus on my own stories and characters, conventions like Närcon and Comic Con Stockholm isn’t ideal, so I rather go to conventions for comic enthusiasts. I think Örebro would be a great addition to Sweden’s comic festivals, we really need one during fall, so I really hope this will happen again :)

loot

Finally, this is my small loot from the festival! To my defense, I had bought a lot of my friends’ comics before, but I’m glad I found some new artists to like! The comics are made by Olivia Skoglund and Sigrid Rudnert, the illustration is by Yvette, the stickers by Nelly and finally the ear rings are made by Sea.

Did you go to Örebro Seriefestival, and what was your thoughts about it?

Örebro Seriefestival (Swedish post)!

spejs_orebro_s

Den här helgen, den 26-27 november, är det dags för Örebro Seriefestival, och jag känner peppen! Gänget bakom festivalen verkar väldigt pepp och de har fått till en gedigen gästlista (kolla på deras sida!), och det ska bli intressant att få lära känna Örebro lite bättre!

bord_orebro

Jag håller till på plan 4, alltså en trappa upp från scenen! Det är sjukt många awesome fansinister som sitter där uppe, så missa inte! Bland annat Yvette Gustafsson Anna Landin, Nelly Karlsson, Home Made Comics och Dotterbolaget! Ännu en gång, inte missa, Örebro!

spejs_1and2

Så, vad har jag med mig då? Min flaggskeppsserie SPEJS, i första hand! Så här presenterade jag SPEJS för Örebro seriefestival tidigare i år:

SPEJS utspelar sig långt in i framtiden, på en planet långt bort från våran, där människor samsas om utrymmet tillsammans med andra folkslag. Vi får följa fyra individer från olika kulturer som tillsammans bildar kvintetten SPEJS – Super Professional Justice Squad, ett gäng huvudjägare som tar hand om de lite mer udda jobben där klienten kanske inte vill kalla in polis eller militär (eller att de har gjort det och de har misslyckats).

SPEJS är mycket en karaktärsdriven serie – jag älskar att skapa karaktärer som är roliga att teckna och skriva, men vill gärna ha ett roligt sammanhang att sätta dem i, och jag har extremt kul med att berätta om de här karaktärerna samtidigt som jag får skriva och teckna raj-raj i rymden! Bland karaktärerna finner ni Ragna – en tjurig sniper, Gav – en biffig pilot som också är en riktig pacifist, Swagata – SPEJS grundare som också är en ösig hacker och Morwen – en elegant magiker som inte drar sig för att råka i närstrid med sina fiender.

Förutom att SPEJS är min första sci-fi-serie jag jobbat med så har jag även tänkt mycket på att jag vill göra en serie med många kvinnor i viktiga roller (jag har tidigare i princip bara gjort serier med manliga huvudkaraktärer), vilket gjort att tre fjärdedelar av team SPEJS är kvinnor, och Aeros till mångt och mycket styrs av ett relativt matriarkalt folkslag. Dock vill jag inte bara vända på könsrollerna, utan experimenterar mig fram lite med hur mycket det ska visas!

Så gillar ni röjig sci-fi med roliga karaktärer, tycker det är kul med kvinnor som sparkar rumpa, samt gillar att se olika kroppstyper i dina serier så kom gärna förbi mitt bord och kolla in min serie SPEJS! Vi ses i Örebro!

Förutom SPEJS kommer jag ta med mig lite andra serier, bland annat Diana Jakobssons fantastiska julsaga (passa på, det är en perfekt julklapp!), Swedish Comic Sin #5, mina smycken som lyser i mörkret, prints till pangpriser och även lite original art att pryda era väggar med! Väl mött i Örebro <3

halsband

prints

Gals being pals

galpals

Hey, long time no see! I have been a bit busy trying to get the storyboard done for the next SPEJS chapter (and I still have one or two weeks before it’s considered done), and I’ve tried to read a bit more during my trips to work, so not much doodled! Here’s a little idea I’ve been having in my head for a while and doodled on a drink & draw event a while ago! I kinda like the idea, and I might make it a sticker later on :)

SPEJS at Comic Con Stockholm

comicconpromo-2016

Hey, tomorrow it’s time for Comic Con Stockholm in Kistamässan! I will be sharing a table with the awesome Memokeen who is selling her slapstick BL comic Cockblock Kitties! And I will of course sell my rockin’ space opera SPEJS together with some prints, charms, necklaces and whatnot. I will also sell my inktober pieces I’ve done, so if you want an original ink piece by me for an affordable price, now’s the time!

cc_map

So, where will you find us? Why, in the Artist Alley (which is super close to the entrance), of course :) We have our table close to Apart Förlag, so it should be fairly easy to find us :)

I’m looking forward to meet with friends I don’t see that often, watch a lot of cool cosplays and meet people who likes comics and art in some way or other! If you’re in Kista this weekend, don’t be shy! Come over and say hi :)

Inktober 2016 – Sphynx cat

inktober17_s

Another kickass cat, this time a warrior (or maybe rouge?) sphynx ready to wreck some havoc :D I was initially planning to add some color to this, but as I worked with the black inkwash, I thought it’d look better without colors :)

It seems like I started the inktobers working a lot with steel nibs, but I suddenly went back to use brushes for everything. Seems I get work done a bit quicker, and I sort-of like the result as well. I will probably pick up steel nibs again though, but maybe for smaller paintings :)