The Octopus Tea Emporium - New Illustration!

I was once again burning that midnight oil when I started to doodle on a piece of very inexpensive printer paper when this little fellow emerged from my imagination. Isn't he a mass of tentacle gorgeousness!?

I'm actually very seriously considering to tattoo him on my back or something like that. Anywhoot enjoy my work in progress picture post, and feel free to tell me what you think of Mr. Octopus and his tea emporium!

(c) Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

Contact:

anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Website:

www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Dripping Lips - Illustration

I've been really into Vampires lately, I think it has to do with the fact that we're playing a fucking awesome Vampire the Masquerade campaign right now. The concept is so cool, and dark and gritty and extremely hard, but because the Storyteller(my dear husband doesn't like to share his plots on the web I have to keep my tongue, sorry.)

Anyway This recent obsession with vampires has inspired me to write a short story about my character. She is a girl from the pre -Victorian Era who got shipped of to a sanatorium by her family and suffered countless indignities and pains. She got turned into a Vampire by a Malkavian who rescued her from the asylum and exacted revenge on her behalf. For those of you who don't know what a Malkavian is, let's just say these vamps are koo koo for cocoa puffs! You can find them in the 20th anniversary edition of Vampire the Masquerade (which is totally the best version of the Vampire RPG's)

Getting to the point, after writing my short story (which you can read and listen to here!) I felt the need to draw something vampiric, or at least bloody, but with a clean and contemporary feel to it so I started sketching on some glossy bleeding, dripping lips. Just got to love them.

(c) Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

Contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Website:

http://www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Pirates! - no, not the x-rated kind...

Hahaha one has to have a little bit of humor right? Well as you have surely noticed I've been doing a lot of pirate stuff lately. It all began with the decision to start a new blog about books and writing and poetry where I could write reviews and share some of my own written work. I always have a lot of difficulty trying to figure out what to call my blogs, but this time I came up with quite a fitting name I think - The Literary Pirate!

I love books, I love pirates and have a bit of a head on pirate like approach to the whole concept of writing so all in all it was quite appropriate.

When I had a name for the blog it of course needed it's own swanky header so I designed this little piece of fun:

(c) Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

I also decided to add some eye candy for my book reviews so readers could easily see what I thought about a book with a glance. Also it adds a bit of fun to it all. If it's one thing I've learned it is that pictures are essential to a successful blog! 

So I use these "emoticons" to label my reviews depending on how much I liked or disliked them,
clever right ;)

You can visit my literary blog here: www.theliterarypirate.blogspot.com

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen Støbakk

Contact:
anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

web portfolio:

www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Nightshade Character design revamp!

About 4 and a half years ago I had a school assignment where I had to design my own game concept with characters and environment, the works. Looking back at the original artwork I'm kind of horrified at the quality of it and I finally couldn't take it any more so I've started to rework the main characters from the game assignment so they match my current skills.

This is the original character design of  my main baddie from the game, Nightshade. I had originally named her Belladonna but I decided I preferred Nightshade (as in deadly) She is the personification of the evil force that is slowly killing my heroine while she is in a coma.

As you can all see the colors are quite screamingly green and purple, all the colors are competing and the eye doesn't find something to focus on properly. It's also not very detailed and sloppy looking, but at the time I was really pleased with myself, I had recently started to get the hang of digital art you see.

Anywhoot, I still liked the concept of the character and the hair design so I decided to keep the basic designs and just amp it up a couple of hundred notches. I changed the sharp green and purple tones and went for some darker deeper colors. The hair has been brightened and painted a pale pink and she looks more regal and serious even if her outfit is more playful and detailed than it was in the original version.

Below you can see a nice little WIP picture series.

WIP 1

WIP 2

WIP 3

WIP 4

WIP 5

Finished

I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the new design, and totally looking forward to working on the rest of my characters. Keep your eyes peeled for the next update ;)

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

contact: anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

online portfolio: www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

On/Off - new poem!

Well the purpose of this blog is to share, share art, geekyness and thoughts and opinions. Today I wanted to share a recent poem with you. I've also shared it on my book blog www.theliterarypirate.blogspot.com, but I thought I'd share it with my old and faithful followers here on Anita Night too!

Hope you find some pleasure in it!

On/Off

I can be charming like Cleopatra
brave like Joan of Arc
passionate like Marie Curie
and my smile can break your heart

And as if that was not enough
there are a million things you
still don't know about me..yes
I'm a tasty little cream puff
made up of all the right stuff

I can be artistic like Marie Antoinette
free like Amelia Earhart
dedicated like Florence Nightingale
my personality is state of the art

Oh, and did I mention my
consuming mental illness?
I'm sorry dear was that too much
forget my indiscretion we wouldn't
want you to get the wrong impression...

(c) Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk


Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

Happy customers, happy illustrator!

As a response to my special offer for parts of March and April I got quite a few commissions and have therefore been hard at work trying to make my customers happy. I've recently finished up three different original character portraits, where two of them where of the same character as imagined by two different customers.

Seeing as all the characters were male I had quite the challenge on my hands as I usually do females and certainly not orcs, but I am not the one to shy away from a challenge and I know I did good. The customers were very pleased and in the end that is what matters!

Below you can see the results of my commissions, do enjoy!

Character (c) John Gunnar Kristiansen

Want to commission a character portrait for yourself?
Drop me a line at anitaolsen.illustration@gmail.com

Want to see more art?
Visit: http://www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!
Today I turn 25, and I'm celebrating with cupcake cheesecakes that I made myself, strawberries covered in chocolate, champagne and board games!

Yep you heard me, I'm having a game night with a few friends. That's how I want to celebrate my birthday, keeping it small and nerdy, because that's who I am!

I don't feel oler, and definitely not like I'm all grown up even though I'm only 5 years away from being 30. I've changed a lot over the years but I'm still the same girl at the core of my being. I'm still a little shy, but not quiet or timid. I'm still nerdy and geeky and proud to be different, so here's to being true to who you are no matter how old or young you are!

I also have to mention that I have the most fantastic husband and family anyone could ask for. They all chipped in for a present for me and I got my very own studio quality microphone with it's own tripod and some other accessories. How did I get to be this lucky!

Here are some pre - celebration photos!

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk