Hi all!
I got to thinking the other day about the fact that I have been on Deviantart for years, but I've never really made the effort to reach out to the community there. I've sort of just been hanging around not doing much.
I want to change that so I'm reaching out to you now. If any of my readers are on DeviantArt and want to
connect with me there you are very welcome! You can click the link below and it will take you to my one and only DeviantArt profile.
Anita's DeviantArt!
I put up a lot of things on that profile, stuff I wouldn't keep around in my professional portfolio so it's quite interesting to see the development of my artistic skills through the years :)
That's all I had to share with you this time but never fear I will be back soon with more quirkyness
or art or useful adult advice!
Until next time
Anita K. Olsen
contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com
website:
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com
Showing posts with label anita olsen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anita olsen. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Cooking with magic!
Today I bring you a cute little sketch of an elven witch trying to learn how to cook with magic. Obviously it's not working out too well as she is having a nuclear melt down in her kitchen ;)
She is kind of inspired by my mother, who despite her best efforts often have accidents and bad luck in the kitchen. My fondest memory of my mother in the kitchen is the meat ball incident, where my mother being very sick of canned meatball/vegetable soup placed one of the meatballs on her spoon and sent it flying between the kitchen walls. My brother and I of course thought it was hilarious and I think we were allowed to shoot one meatball each as well. The incident never repeated itself though. We were too well mannered for such things I suppose
(C) Anita K. Olsen
Anyway mom, this one's for you :p
Until next time
Anita K. Olsen
Anita K. Olsen
website: http://www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com
e-mail: anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com
e-mail: anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Sunglasses and lollipops
Since it is now finally summer and the sun is nice and bright today I figured I would post something nice and summery. The only way this girl could be more summery is if she was eating an ice ceam instead of a lollipop.
Hope the summer is treating you guys well so far, and that it will do so in the near future as well.
Until next time
Anita K. Olsen
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Follow me onTwitter!
Yes I have now opened a twitter account. If you are on Twitter(which you probably are) and you like reading up on what I'm up to then follow my channel there for little updates on my current projects and thoughts. you can fin my channel
Here!
Enjoy the everyday marvels that sneak out of my marble .
Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen
Here!
Enjoy the everyday marvels that sneak out of my marble .
Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen
Friday, May 4, 2012
Happy Star Wars Day!!
May the 4th be with you!
Since I myself am a big Star Wars fan I deem it appropriate to be a little bit excited about today. So for those of you who don't follow me personally on Facebook here is a little snack for my followers.
My fiancée and I received some awesome t-shirts from a friend of ours and me, I got excited as I always do and though that it would be really funny to make a recrutiment ad for the empire(even though I am more of an alliance girl myself).
So I "forced" (for once he actually thought I was being funny) my other half into posing for me and helping me to photograph myself. I then went and did some light photoshop magic and tada!!!
Who wouldn't want to join the darkside now? All we're missing are clipboards and recruitment papers!
Since I myself am a big Star Wars fan I deem it appropriate to be a little bit excited about today. So for those of you who don't follow me personally on Facebook here is a little snack for my followers.
My fiancée and I received some awesome t-shirts from a friend of ours and me, I got excited as I always do and though that it would be really funny to make a recrutiment ad for the empire(even though I am more of an alliance girl myself).
So I "forced" (for once he actually thought I was being funny) my other half into posing for me and helping me to photograph myself. I then went and did some light photoshop magic and tada!!!
Who wouldn't want to join the darkside now? All we're missing are clipboards and recruitment papers!
Friday, April 20, 2012
How to promote your illustration business?
I have been pondering how to promote my business quite a lot recently, because let's be honest without promotion there will be no jobs. I think a lot of us young, up and coming artists struggle with this. We are not business graduates, most of us have never studied economics or business management or anything remotely similar to it before we jump into the shark infested waters of the illustration business. So what the hell are we supposed to do once we have gotten ourselves into this position?
Message in a bottle. A fun and eye-catching way of promoting your business!(image found on google)
On paper the answer is easy and straightforward in some ways, but in reality it really isn't. There are countless ways of promoting your business both traditionally and in unconventional ways. Traditionally business cards and postcards seem to be the people's choice because it's usually cheap and they are easy to bring along with you or pop into a mailbox. More modern ways of promoting yourself is purchasing ads on-line or sending out e-mails to editors. A couple of years ago stickers seemed to be popping up everywhere promoting bands, artists or events, and I think that it may actually be a good way of promoting your stuff. Some people handcraft amazing give- aways like origami business cards, bookmarks, little booklets, flower seed packets and so on and so forth. Sometimes it may feel like you have to try to outdo all the artists around you just to get a clients attention. At least I often feel the pressure to do so. That doesn't work however. If you just set out to outdo others you'll usually end up with something that isn't quite you, something that doesn't really describe what you do. That's a horrible trap to fall into.
Origami ninja star business cards? Sure to be a killer at the office. (Image found at crddsgn.com)
I usually send out e-mails, it's my chosen weapon. I struggle with a bit of social awkwardness and anxiety at times and an e-mail is just so much easier on my nerves than a phone call or a personal meeting. Life isn't supposed to be easy though. Sending out e-mails doesn't always give results or answers at all and it's just plain stupid to rely on them as the only promotional item in your arsenal.
E-mails can often seem impersonal and effortless, and let's face it, most art directors must receive half a dozen e-mails every day from young hopefuls. So unless your art is super fantastically awesome you have to find some way to stand out in the crowd. That's the tricky part. I haven't tried ads yet or sending out postcards, or calling art directors to set up portfolio viewings because it has just been too damn scary, but that is about to change.
Over the next few months I will be sending out promotional material and buying on-line ads. I am going to see if it has any effect on my current work flow and I will be writing about my experiences on this blog. So stay tuned as I attempt to delve into the deep dark currents that is self - promotion.
A new and interesting design can really bring a brochure to life. (found at topdesignmag.com)
If there is anything in particular you would like me to write about then please do leave a little comment or question, and I'll see what I can do about it.
Until next time
Anita K. Olsen
Message in a bottle. A fun and eye-catching way of promoting your business!(image found on google)
On paper the answer is easy and straightforward in some ways, but in reality it really isn't. There are countless ways of promoting your business both traditionally and in unconventional ways. Traditionally business cards and postcards seem to be the people's choice because it's usually cheap and they are easy to bring along with you or pop into a mailbox. More modern ways of promoting yourself is purchasing ads on-line or sending out e-mails to editors. A couple of years ago stickers seemed to be popping up everywhere promoting bands, artists or events, and I think that it may actually be a good way of promoting your stuff. Some people handcraft amazing give- aways like origami business cards, bookmarks, little booklets, flower seed packets and so on and so forth. Sometimes it may feel like you have to try to outdo all the artists around you just to get a clients attention. At least I often feel the pressure to do so. That doesn't work however. If you just set out to outdo others you'll usually end up with something that isn't quite you, something that doesn't really describe what you do. That's a horrible trap to fall into.
Origami ninja star business cards? Sure to be a killer at the office. (Image found at crddsgn.com)
I usually send out e-mails, it's my chosen weapon. I struggle with a bit of social awkwardness and anxiety at times and an e-mail is just so much easier on my nerves than a phone call or a personal meeting. Life isn't supposed to be easy though. Sending out e-mails doesn't always give results or answers at all and it's just plain stupid to rely on them as the only promotional item in your arsenal.
E-mails can often seem impersonal and effortless, and let's face it, most art directors must receive half a dozen e-mails every day from young hopefuls. So unless your art is super fantastically awesome you have to find some way to stand out in the crowd. That's the tricky part. I haven't tried ads yet or sending out postcards, or calling art directors to set up portfolio viewings because it has just been too damn scary, but that is about to change.
Over the next few months I will be sending out promotional material and buying on-line ads. I am going to see if it has any effect on my current work flow and I will be writing about my experiences on this blog. So stay tuned as I attempt to delve into the deep dark currents that is self - promotion.
A new and interesting design can really bring a brochure to life. (found at topdesignmag.com)
If there is anything in particular you would like me to write about then please do leave a little comment or question, and I'll see what I can do about it.
Until next time
Anita K. Olsen
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Mighty Muggs
If any of my readers follow the ArtOrder blog, run and written by the fantabulous Jon Schindehette you might remember the recently finished Mighty Muggs challenge. The challenge was about designing a well known Dungeons & Dragons character/type on a Mighty Mugg figure. For those of you who have never seen one this is what a Mighty Mugg looks like:
I had decided to enter, but due to some family problems I wasn't able to finish my entry on time and had to miss out on it. Sad, but ah such is life. Anywhoot, I decided to finish my entry and post it her on my blog. I don't like letting a good effort go to waste and I was quite pleased with my concept as well.
So here you go guys, a sorceress inspired Mighty Mugg figure:
The plan was to paint most of her with acrylic paint. I was however planning to make her skirt out of shiny green organza. I was considering tulle but it's such a stiff material and it would be troublesome to work with. The decorations on her arms, outfit and hair was going to be green sequins. her hair I was planning to make from curly angel hair that you can buy in pretty much any craft store. Unfortunately that hair usually only comes in blonde colors so I would probably have to dye it or go online to find something in the right color.Not that it matters too much anymore, but I'm tempted to order the figure and make the sorceress anyway. We'll see :P
Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen
P.S. Don't forget to visit my online portfolio!
I had decided to enter, but due to some family problems I wasn't able to finish my entry on time and had to miss out on it. Sad, but ah such is life. Anywhoot, I decided to finish my entry and post it her on my blog. I don't like letting a good effort go to waste and I was quite pleased with my concept as well.
So here you go guys, a sorceress inspired Mighty Mugg figure:
The plan was to paint most of her with acrylic paint. I was however planning to make her skirt out of shiny green organza. I was considering tulle but it's such a stiff material and it would be troublesome to work with. The decorations on her arms, outfit and hair was going to be green sequins. her hair I was planning to make from curly angel hair that you can buy in pretty much any craft store. Unfortunately that hair usually only comes in blonde colors so I would probably have to dye it or go online to find something in the right color.Not that it matters too much anymore, but I'm tempted to order the figure and make the sorceress anyway. We'll see :P
Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen
P.S. Don't forget to visit my online portfolio!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Need an illustrator?
Have a look at my newest postcard, and my temporary on-line portfolio!
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com
Until next time
Anita
Have a look at my newest postcard, and my temporary on-line portfolio!
www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com
Until next time
Anita
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Art Evolution- Lyssa the White Wizard
I just sent my final version of Lyssa the white wizard to Jon Schindehette over at ArtOrder.com. I made her for the very exciting "Evolution" challenge. The basic rules were that you had to make your own version of a young human female wizard with black hair, dressed in white and gold. For further info on the contest and the project that originally started it all please visit www.theartorder.com.
Since the challenge is called the "Evolution" challenge I thought that it would only be natural to show all of my readers step by step how my submission evolved from sketch to finished illustration. This is going to be a post heavy on text and heavy on pictures, and hopefully people will find it enjoyable and informative.
Now, let's get to the step by step "tutorial" or whatever one might fancy calling it:
Step 1:
I drew a sketch on regular printer paper, that's pretty much how I do most of my sketches. I find it practical. I scanned the finished sketch and opened it in Photoshop where I multiplied the layer the sketch was on and added a layer below the sketch layer. I decided to lay some background color to sett the general mood of the piece and ended up with a stormy purple.
Step 2:
In this image you can see that I've started working on the skin and the face in general. I'm not really happy with the general build of her face. It looks a bit lop-sided and the proportions are of. Beyond that I'm happy with the color of the skin and the texture of it. I started working on the skin in a medium flesh tone, I used darker tones of pink and white here and there and some dark browns on the areas where I needed a darker shadow.
Step 3:
After finishing most of the skin I decided to leave it alone for a while and start working on the dress for a bit. Since the dress had to be white I can pretty much choose to use any kind of white I like, like eggshell white or whatever. I chose to use snow white as my basic dress color. I just loved the nice sharp contrast of the white with the purple background. For the shading of the dress I decided to go with a purplish blue to reflect the background color. Her hair had to be black so of course I gave her black hair, but with a tint of blue to make the hair more interesting and more natural looking.
At this point I realize that I am not happy with the build of her chest either. The boobs are too high up, they look odd and I'm not very happy with the cut of neckline.
Step 4:
As you can see a lot of things have happened in this image. The skirt has been colored in a golden/beige shade of white. I thought it would look pretty that way, but the contrast between that shade the stark white shade just made the image look messy so I'll be changing the color of the skirt. There are too many folds too, its straining on the eye so I'll have to do something about that too.
I've moved her boobs a bit further down, I've also covered those puppies up a bit. In general I don't find a lot of cleavage attractive at all.
I've given her some fresh and fun turquoise tights with some swirly golden effects. It gives the outfit a hint of modern day fashion in my opinion. All the areas that are colored yellow will be turned into golden trims and accessories later in the process.
Step 5:
I'm still not happy with the face, but I have adjusted the shape of it, added a deeper shadow under her chin. I also decided to redraw the eyes, I moved the lips also and reshaped them a bit. I think these adjustments made her face look younger and more expressive.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1yanfN-wg2oeO6Zooen7dpaLXp3obLHSMW7-kBHK_luE7Z_61zdDrz_93fOb_9k9PhXtgSibCKXhHHWue8w7kkKfrZjB7_B07fd61n4Dyd9ksuI5drkHQGcGvw_aEvTlEkywQpfzm4E/s1600/Lyssa+wip+5.jpg">
Step 6:
At this point I have chosen to airbrush out some of the details in the dress and to give her skin a smoother look. The dress has been given some more blue shadows, the skirt has a cleaner white shade to it and the whole ensemble feels more cohesive than it did before.
Step 7:
Once more there is quite a leap in the process. Most of the golden trims have been finished, in addition I've given her a turquoise and gold necklace. I felt that the tights were a bit lonely. It stood out to much and there was nothing else in the image that could pick up that color. later I will add some earrings too, to break up the blackness of her hair.
I have also added a magical lightning effect arcing from her hand to her wand. It adds a lot of movement I think, and since I chose to do the effect in yellow and orange it gives it a nice complementary contrast with the purple background.
Step 8:
There is not much left to do now. A few details and some nitpicking remains. The wand has been colored in, the face has been worked on some more, I've added some yellow reflections on her skin and her clothes, since I figured the magic lightning would probably cast a bit of light. The hair has also been tended to, I've cleaned it upp a bit and made it a bit softer.
Step 9:
I was actually going to leave the illustration like that, but I realized that the character looked silly just floating about in a purple vacuum so I added some grass and changed the background color so it looked more like regular blue sky. I took a break for a few days and when I came back to the drawing I realized that her neck was a bot long, her eyes were still not to my liking and so on and so forth, so in short I made quite a bit of changes.
And in the end this is what the final image looks like:
Hope you found this entertainig or useful or both.
Until next time
Anita Night a.k.a Anita K. Olsen
Since the challenge is called the "Evolution" challenge I thought that it would only be natural to show all of my readers step by step how my submission evolved from sketch to finished illustration. This is going to be a post heavy on text and heavy on pictures, and hopefully people will find it enjoyable and informative.
Now, let's get to the step by step "tutorial" or whatever one might fancy calling it:
Step 1:
I drew a sketch on regular printer paper, that's pretty much how I do most of my sketches. I find it practical. I scanned the finished sketch and opened it in Photoshop where I multiplied the layer the sketch was on and added a layer below the sketch layer. I decided to lay some background color to sett the general mood of the piece and ended up with a stormy purple.
Step 2:
In this image you can see that I've started working on the skin and the face in general. I'm not really happy with the general build of her face. It looks a bit lop-sided and the proportions are of. Beyond that I'm happy with the color of the skin and the texture of it. I started working on the skin in a medium flesh tone, I used darker tones of pink and white here and there and some dark browns on the areas where I needed a darker shadow.
Step 3:
After finishing most of the skin I decided to leave it alone for a while and start working on the dress for a bit. Since the dress had to be white I can pretty much choose to use any kind of white I like, like eggshell white or whatever. I chose to use snow white as my basic dress color. I just loved the nice sharp contrast of the white with the purple background. For the shading of the dress I decided to go with a purplish blue to reflect the background color. Her hair had to be black so of course I gave her black hair, but with a tint of blue to make the hair more interesting and more natural looking.
At this point I realize that I am not happy with the build of her chest either. The boobs are too high up, they look odd and I'm not very happy with the cut of neckline.
Step 4:
As you can see a lot of things have happened in this image. The skirt has been colored in a golden/beige shade of white. I thought it would look pretty that way, but the contrast between that shade the stark white shade just made the image look messy so I'll be changing the color of the skirt. There are too many folds too, its straining on the eye so I'll have to do something about that too.
I've moved her boobs a bit further down, I've also covered those puppies up a bit. In general I don't find a lot of cleavage attractive at all.
I've given her some fresh and fun turquoise tights with some swirly golden effects. It gives the outfit a hint of modern day fashion in my opinion. All the areas that are colored yellow will be turned into golden trims and accessories later in the process.
Step 5:
I'm still not happy with the face, but I have adjusted the shape of it, added a deeper shadow under her chin. I also decided to redraw the eyes, I moved the lips also and reshaped them a bit. I think these adjustments made her face look younger and more expressive.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1yanfN-wg2oeO6Zooen7dpaLXp3obLHSMW7-kBHK_luE7Z_61zdDrz_93fOb_9k9PhXtgSibCKXhHHWue8w7kkKfrZjB7_B07fd61n4Dyd9ksuI5drkHQGcGvw_aEvTlEkywQpfzm4E/s1600/Lyssa+wip+5.jpg">
Step 6:
At this point I have chosen to airbrush out some of the details in the dress and to give her skin a smoother look. The dress has been given some more blue shadows, the skirt has a cleaner white shade to it and the whole ensemble feels more cohesive than it did before.
Step 7:
Once more there is quite a leap in the process. Most of the golden trims have been finished, in addition I've given her a turquoise and gold necklace. I felt that the tights were a bit lonely. It stood out to much and there was nothing else in the image that could pick up that color. later I will add some earrings too, to break up the blackness of her hair.
I have also added a magical lightning effect arcing from her hand to her wand. It adds a lot of movement I think, and since I chose to do the effect in yellow and orange it gives it a nice complementary contrast with the purple background.
Step 8:
There is not much left to do now. A few details and some nitpicking remains. The wand has been colored in, the face has been worked on some more, I've added some yellow reflections on her skin and her clothes, since I figured the magic lightning would probably cast a bit of light. The hair has also been tended to, I've cleaned it upp a bit and made it a bit softer.
Step 9:
I was actually going to leave the illustration like that, but I realized that the character looked silly just floating about in a purple vacuum so I added some grass and changed the background color so it looked more like regular blue sky. I took a break for a few days and when I came back to the drawing I realized that her neck was a bot long, her eyes were still not to my liking and so on and so forth, so in short I made quite a bit of changes.
And in the end this is what the final image looks like:
Hope you found this entertainig or useful or both.
Until next time
Anita Night a.k.a Anita K. Olsen
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
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
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
Thursday, April 14, 2011
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
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