Ok, so the podcast experiment commences

I will be starting a podcast. mostly for fun really, but it will also be interesting to see if I am able to actually make something interesting that people will want to follow and also participate in. A social experiment if you like.

I have decided that the first podcast will be an introduction, a little bit about me and what I do and want to do with my future illustration career.

I will also talk a bit about inspiration. What inspires me and where do I find inspiration. I also want to talk a bit about the dangers of letting inspiration take control of your art. It does happen sometimes and I want to discuss why and how that happens.

To do that however I will need a little help from friends and followers. I want to know what you think of the matter. What inspires you? Where do you find it? Have you ever fallen into the slimy pit that is loss of creative control, has your work ever been so influenced by inspirational sources that it ceases to be your own style?

If you have anything to say about this subject then please leave a comment on this post. If you want to be mentioned by name or nickname or if you want to remain anonymous please specify that. I am also open to having other people guest star or co-host the podcast so if you are interested you are welcome to suggest yourself or others

Until next time
Anita Night

Podcasting?

I have recently been entertaining the idea of doing a podcast. It seems like a very fun albeit time consuming hobby, but also promotional tool. Because let's face it, it is. It is a tool that adds a new dimension to a otherwise normal blog like mine. There are of course some issues to be addressed, and they are as follows:

1. The thing is I have no experience doing podcasts, I am not exactly technically gifted, ask anyone who knows me. What I do have however is a strong personality and a nice telephone voice, which to me also translates into radio voice. I know this because I worked as a telemarketer for a few months and was told that most of the reason why I even got the job was because I sounded so pleasant on the telephone(if you disagree that's fine).

2. The next issue on my list is the subject. You have to have a subject. I very much doubt that people would want to listen to me drone about my personal life, to be honest it is not that interesting and I realize that. What I could do however is talk about the business of illustration and how I feel about being in it, being completely fresh out of school, setting up a freelance business and maybe do interviews with some fellow newcomers to the trade. I have also thought about recording and posting roleplaying sessions with our D&D/Pathfinder group. But of course that would mean that all of the players would need to consent to being brodcasted on the Internet. Not sure if they would, but it would be an interesting thing to have ones own epic saga shared with the world :p

3. The last remaining issue is time. I don't seem to have enough of it. Ever. My fiancée however has all the time in the world considering that he is not able to work and mostly stays at home. if I can convince him to help me out with editing an stuff, then maybe I would be able to pull it of.

I need to mull some more over this idea and the very concept of any future podcast. In the mean time I would love to hear your opinions on the matter. What do you think of podcasting? Have you had any experiences with it and are there any tips you could provide a budding podcaster with?

Until next time
Anita Night

Epicness!

This is a video from a celebrity D&D game session from genCon 2010 featuring Chris Perkins (Developer over at Wizards), Ed Greenwood the creator of Forgotten Realms and freelance fantasy author, Larry Elmore (need I say more) and R.A. Salvatore a well known fantasy author (Drizzt Do'Urden anyone).

I am so jealous of the people who actually get to go to GenCon, but just wait, one day you'll see me there. But that's beside the point.

The video starts of a bit slow, but honestly after watching this for a while I couldn't stop. It was so fascinating and entertaining (Yes, I really am a huge nerd). I must admit I giggled quite a lot. It reminded me of how my old D&D group used to play. I miss them, hopefully we'll get to play more when I return to Norway. I miss my weekly nerd fix.

Anywhoot, here are the videos from the session, enjoy!

Until next time
Anita Night

Poetry through imagery

So here are my illustrations for the final project module at my university. I handed it in on Tuesday. The thought behind this project was to create illustrations inspired by poetry. Specifically the poetry written by my fiancée Ole, who has previously participated in and won the international society of poets yearly poetry competition.

Should you wish to read his poems simply head over to his blog:
www.schritsh.blogspot.com

They are of course also featured in my artwork. I look upon the art of illustration as something that gives the written word more depth, more punch. It sort of tells a story that is not apparent to the reader simply through words. I am hoping that combining poetry and illustration will leave a longer lasting impression in the mind of the reader than a regular poem would.

This is the cover art:

Spread 1 , Mortal Darkness

Spread 2, Transparent

Spread 3, Dead

Spread 4, Last hour of life

Spread 5, Thought

Spread 6, Light

This poem was dedicated to me by Ole, and is one of the things I cherish most in the world.

Spread 7, Hope

Hopefully I succeeded in achieving my goals. I believe I did. Either way am pretty happy with how the project turned out. The style of the illustrations did take a different turn than I was intending, but I don't mind that happy accidents occur.

Until next time
Anita Night

Book Covers Galore

I'm finally handing in my book cover project for my major project module. And my does it feel good. We have been working with this module for almost half a year and to be honest it's been a bit tedious working on the same five book covers over such a long period of time. My head and my hands are aching to do something different now. Hopefully the children's book I'm working on will give me some new inspiration.

The book project was supposed to contain five illustrations inspired by five different genres of literature. he genres I chose to work with was 1 fairytale, 1 horror/thriller, 1 fictional book, 1 fantasy book and 1 poetry book.

Below the final products I created for my project is displayed.

1. Fairytale, The little mermaid by H.C. Andersen

2. Fantasy, Sheep Farmers Daughter by Elizabeth Moon.

3. Poetry, Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

4. Horror/Thriller, Dracula Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holm

5. Fiction, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

5 months worth of work compressed into 5 images. Almost poetic :p

Until next time
Anita Night.

Dragon Queen- Promotional Card

I was finally able to decide upon something to draw for my promotional postcard. It took a while to be honest. I had no idea whatsoever. Luckily I just sat down to doodle last weekend and the idea just popped out of my pencil.

I would have finished it then and there, but I figured I would show it to my tutors to make sure it was a good idea. I have a history of rushing the final product and I'm trying to shake the habit. As it turned out they liked the idea, and didn't say a lot about edits or anything. That doesn't happen a lot.

I did however make some changes to it, because i felt it was missing something. Below you can see the image develop from the first concept sketch all the way to the final product.

sketch 1

Sketch 2

Sketch 3

Finished illustration

I think it really shows of my technical drawing skill, which apparently is something I need to sell more, and show more of.

Until next time
Anita Night

Truth

Without music, life would be a mistake.
(Friedrihc Nietsche)

Zaida - Original character

This is Zaida, an assassin created by me and my fiancée. She comes from a fictional fantasy world that we have created together. Originally she was from a completely different life than the one she leads now. But the unforeseen events put her on her current path.

After creating her as a concept I felt I had to draw her. I always feel like my characters come to life when I draw them. They become more tangible and their personalities evolve when you put them to paper. The aim is to one day write a fantasy novel about the universe we have created and the characters we hold very dear.

Below you can see the development of the Character design from a loose sketch to a finished full colour version.

Fig 1:

Fig 2:

Fig 3:

Fig 4: