Architectual Boston from me, You and Who

My t-shirt finally arrived! It is exciting to see my design on the t-shirt at last! If you want to wear Architectual Boston as well, you can order them here. You will be supporting a good cause when you do. Either way, spread the love!

Architectural Boston and Once Upon a Time

This is the design I did for You and Who, a company that sells t-shirts and give to charitable organizations with every sale. You and Who just launched their City Pride line, a series of t-shirts that feature the name of a city, each one designed by an artist from that city. I was so thrilled when they contacted me and asked if I would do the shirt from Boston. I thought it would be a challenge to come up with a design that both represented the city, and also had the city's name in the design. However, when your city has a lot of character, then it is not hard to find inspiration.

You can order t-shirts here: You and Who.

Note: The Architectural Boston t-shirt was designed and made before the Boston Marathon bombings. The sale of this shirt will benefit homeless shelters in Boston, not the charities that were set up after the bombings. There is, however, another t-shirt on You and Who's website that benefits the One Fund for the victims of the terrorism (with the One Fund's logo on it) if you are looking for a way to support that charity also.

Other news: I got my copy of Once Upon a Time, the fairy tale with a twist-themed anthology by Gurukitty Studios in Canada. I illustrated Troy Minkowsky's alternative version of the Hansel and Gretel story, which was fun to make, but a sad, sad story indeed. You can buy a copy of Once Upon a Time here if you're interested in quirky fairy tales (strictly for adults!). If you don't want to buy the $15 printed book, you can download the digital version for $4. Enjoy!

Obscura Estetica

I am participating in an exhibit along with Kristilyn that we have named Obscura Estetica at the Millenium Restaurant, 3094 Washington Street, Boston (Eagleston Square in JP). We're having an opening reception on Thursday, March 14, 6.00PM-8.00PM, so feel free to stop by! The restaurant is nice and informal and has good food. I will exhibit pages I illustrated for Dave Kender's The Ragbox, chapter 5 ("The Salon"). If you can't make it to the opening reception, the pictures are up now and until March 25, so you can check them out!

What else is new? I have stuff for sale at Society6 in case you are looking for some prints, phone cases, and even throw pillows, cards, t-shirts and hoodies. Here are some of the items you can find there:

Buildings, Business Cards and Beacon Hill.

After almost ten years working at a big law firm in Boston, my better half, Josh Gardner, is starting up his own practice as a plaintiff's lawyer. Naturally I designed his business card. Josh rented an office in the beautiful Beacon Hill neighborhood, right downtown, and wanted an image of his new building on the card. I went up there one weekend and sketched his building and its immediate surroundings on Mt. Vernon Street, right behind the state house. I really love drawing buildings and houses, so it was a fun assignment for me. Back home, I finished up the drawing with ink and instead of the usual bristol board, I used a type of paper that I had bought at the art supply store previously: Border & Riley's #234 Paris Paper for Pens. It is super smooth, of high quality and I love it (though quite pricey, so it won't be for everyday use, that's for sure)!

I leave the web design to the experts, though. Freelance web designer/illustrator/cartoonist/editor and fellow member of Boston Comics Roundtable, Roho, is in charge of the web site's design and maintenance, and I will post a link to it as soon as Josh officially opens his practice (to visit Roho's blog and see his portfolio, click here).

Do you want a picture of your office building/house on your business card? Instead of a generic-looking drawing, the illustration will still have the characteristics of my usual style. Send me an email for info on rates, turnaround time and rights of usage!

Made With Love

This looks very much like a Christmas whatever-it-is, but it is actually a belated birthday present for a really good friend of mine. I know that she likes pink, floral and angels, but she pretty much has everything when it comes to decorative things, and is actually trying to get rid of stuff, not accumulate more stuff. However, she did need an address book, and instead of just giving her a plain one, or choosing a pattern, I decided to make her a DIY one-of-a-kind book. I bought a regular black Moleskine address book and put together a cover mixed media picture using gesso, acrylic paint, a glossy angel, a washer, molding paste, a rubber stamp, Mod Podge, glitter, an old stamp, some bits of patterned paper and some glittery paper. The image consists of layers of paper, gesso, fabric, paste and paint, sealed with a couple of layers of Mod Podge.

As is the case with a lot of mixed media pieces, this cover is also put together with pieces that have been found and gathered up from various places. I bought the glossy angel from a museum gift shop in Denmark, where they came in little sheets of 8-10. In Norway we call them glansbilder, and when I was a kid, most Scandinavian girls collected them. I had a box of old ones that my mom had collected when she was a kid, but who knows where they are now. I have traveled and moved around from country to country so much that my belongings have been scattered everywhere. I am not sure if anyone collects glansbilder anymore. This angel was, according to sheet, made in West Germany (!), so maybe they haven't been produced for a while? When I moved to Britain in the late 1970's, I was surprised that nobody had even heard of these glossy paper collectibles. When I see them now, I realize how nostalgic they are, a bit like those sweet little figurines that people collect, or Christmas decorations, for that matter. If this had not been a present, I would probably have put some punk/goth influence into the image, if nothing else then just to temper the sweetness of the angel.

The washer was an object I found on my bedroom floor that day. Who knows where it belonged. Some of the lace on the left side was from a whole roll that I bought for 10 cents at a tag sale. The other lace originates from a baby shower decoration that I found out on the street on recycling day somewhere in Brookline. I don't remember where the shiny silver-colored ribbon came from, probably a present or something. The old Syrian stamp was in a ready-packed collection of vintage labels and stuff from Paper-Source, and I grabbed a few pinches of glitter from the kids' arts & crafts box to sprinkle over the image as a final touch.

If I had had more time to do this, I would have made the book myself rather than buying a Moleskine. That would have made the gift far more unique. Also, notebooks and sketchbooks don't have to be expensive, so a customary decorated one can be made pretty cheaply for anyone who is creative and either doesn't have much cash lying around this time of year (who does?), or refuses to buy into the overly commercial aspect of the holiday season. Regardless of what goes into DIY gifts, they are usually made with love, which factory/sweatshop-made products definitely are NOT. If you don't have time to make your own gifts, then visit one of the many holiday crafts fairs this season. Here in Boston, there is the Holly Fair in Cambridge, and Bazaar Bizarre at the Cyclorama, this upcoming weekend. There you will find a lot of neat and unique crafts made locally and with love...and you'll probably find me there too, at either one of those places on Sunday, manning the comic-book table with fellow members of the Boston Comics Roundtable!

A bohemian on Newbury Street

I made this piece (above) with ink on bristol board, then worked with the toning in Photoshop. I had started it a while ago, and originally envisioned it in full color, but that's not how it worked out! No surprise, really, because I love working in black and white. The sketch (below), however, turned out to be quite vibrant once I added color to it. I mainly used Copic and Mepxy markers. The scene is Newbury Street in Back Bay, where I spent some time sketching at the beginning of fall. I love to walk around this area and look at the buildings with all their galleries and boutiques, and all the stylishly dressed people walking around in heels, chatting on their smartphones, or walking in groups, heading for a club or a party. Sometimes I bring one of my numerous walking-tour books of Boston with me, and learn a bit about the apartment buildings--many of them old mansions--as I roam around. I love this area, but it is a bit like a bubble. A mix of the grandiose, past and present, and the corporate and fast-paced. And I don't feel entirely at home here, the streets are too clean, and most of the people on the street probably don't belong to the neighborhood either, maybe they work here, but they live elsewhere. On this particular night,  I watched the street light up its windows and street lamps as dusk fell. I sat down and sketched, but most people walked so fast, I could hardly sketch them fast enough before they disappeared around the corner. That was at the beginning of fall, when there was still some warmth in the air. Now it is winter, and freezing cold, but I shouldn't let that stop me from sketching outside. As they say back in the old country: There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.

MICE 2012

 This year's MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) was great! There were tons of vendors and visitors, but at its third show MICE was still local, friendly, unpretentious, and free! Here is a bunch of comics I picked up there: Catalina Rufin's The Summer of Aquarius in the back, next to Allie Kleber's Fruitless. Next row, left to right: Babka Remembers, by Marek Bennett, Eirik the Fed, by Will Clark (Laughing Boy Comics), Heartburn, by Allie Kleber, You're Never More at Home Than When it's Time to Leave, by Matt young, and Oo Pp Qq, Adventures in Substitute Teaching, by Anne Thalheimer. Third row: Free People, by L. Nichols (whom I was lucky enough to sit next to at MICE), Greetings, Brookline: I Am In You! by John Hilliard (a collection of his comics from The Brookline Tab), Zombre, by Ansis A. Purins (this comic was a big hit with my little boys of 8 and 6), Flocks, by L. Nichols, and Monarch Monkey, by Doug De Rocher. In the front: All Rumors Are True, by Laurel Lynn Leake, and the second issue of Inky Stories, by Dave Marshall. The books that didn't make it to this picture are: Nicaragua Comics Travel Journal, by Marek Bennett, and Comics as Poetry, edited by Franklin Einspruch, who also did the vibrant cover illustration and has a poem (as a comic) in there as well: "What Killed The Flowers."

 Above (top): a page from Allie Kleber's Heartburn. I really like her distinct line work! And check out Ansis A. Purins' front cover from Zombre. Pure awesomeness, or what?!

Dave Marshall, here with a spread from "Six-Year-Old Horsethief!" is a pro both when it comes to drawing comics and to teaching the art of drawing comics. He teaches a class at MassArt, The Art of the Comic Book. Outside of class, he often generously shares his knowledge of inking, lettering, etc., so we're happy he is still in our group (BCR) and not off somewhere signing autographs at bigger conventions.

 Doug De Rocher impressed everyone when he joined the BCR (around the same time that I did) and brought along his comics boards, created with cut paper. Monarch Monkey is a collection of his stories, and this one is from the upcoming anthology from Ninth Art Press (more info on that later).

Can you imagine a better gift idea for people who love comics, or who just have a sense of humor than these magnetic comics by Erik Heumiller? Below: three panels of whiteboard comes in a wooden frame with a stand, a marker and a wipe, plus a small bag of magnet people (right) to put in your panels. And voila! You bring the characters to life with your own word bubbles, wipe out the panels as you get new ideas, and have your friends play around with it too!

Left: characters from Charles Schneeflock Snow's new series, Oscar's Kitchen. I really loved his Sordid City Blues comics about a group of friends in Boston (sort of a romantic comedy from a male perspective), so I am looking forward to reading this one. As far as I can tell, it involves Satan and the restaurant business, so it sounds interesting!

The most powerful comic I encountered at MICE this year was L. Nichol's Flocks. Nichols sat at the table next to me, and I found her comics fascinating with their beautifully printed covers and intriguing mixed media technique. When I picked up Flocks, I expected it to be something good, but I did not expect that just from leafing through the pages, the story would throw me a punch in the stomach. This copy of Flocks, with the under title "A Paradox of Faith" is the first chapter of what Nichols intends to be a full graphic novel, and takes us into the world of a girl who realizes that rather than being a part of the "we" of her surrounding community in fact belongs into the category of "those others" who only seem to be defined in degrading, ridiculed and shameful terms. 

Here are some shots of Tofusqirrel's table, which of course caught my eye immediately, because of all the vibrant colors and intricate designs displayed there. I bought a button with a purple Boston terrier for my messenger bag, but could easily have spent more money at her table, it felt like a candy store and I felt like a little kid!

Finally, I picked up Anatomy for Artists (by Anthony Aspesos, illustrated by Karl Stevens) at Karl Steven's table. I needed one for the tutoring classes I am giving to kids, but I can't use the old (originally published 1896) anatomy for artists-book that I picked up in the Brookline Booksmith's used book cellar a while ago. I bought it because I liked the old black & white photos of chubby women with a silent-movie sort of look, but that was before I started reading the text. In the chapter on facial proportions, I realized that this was a book that operated with other theories and terms than we would expect to find in such a book today (it assumes theories of "highly civilized races" and that sort of racist nonsense, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the book Hitler used as a young art student). But Karl Stevens promises that there will be none of that in his book, thankfully! :-)

Of course, I have left out a bunch of awesome people whose tables I didn't get around to this year, or who I didn't buy a comic from this time. A lot of the BCR people were there of course, with their awesome stuff. I would list names, but then I would accidentally leave one or two people out, and so I'd rather not mention any. All the people who arranged the Expo and helped out at it (I regret to admit that I was not one of them this year) did a fantastic job and I am very thankful and impressed by their efforts.

One last thing: Hellbound III is out! I can't wait to buy a copy and read it!

Sketching in Boston and Brookline

I bring my sketchbook everywhere, and there is nothing I enjoy sketching more than cityscapes and buildings, preferably with people in them. Landscapes and cityscapes alike seem lonely if there isn't at least one living creature in them (a squirrel will do, but I prefer people, and most of all people with a bit of a personality or attitude that I then want to capture). Or maybe the way I draw people says more about me and how I view the world than the people in my pictures? You be the judge.

Kenmore Square. A made-up billboard ad promoting "romance, marriage and financial security" a toned-down CITGO sign and a crowd of indifferent students (how could they not be indifferent?). 

 The Koo Koo Cafe across the Brookline Village station. I used to come here all the time with friends, because there are toys for kids to play with at the back. Now that my kids are all in school, I only stop by when they have lemon poppy seed muffins (which is only once in a while).

On the C-line (which is more like a sluggish trolley bus than a subway train), a day in November. The quote is from Thich Nhat Hahn, and one of my favorites.

On a bench overlooking the Boston Commons. At lunchtime, there were people everywhere, spilling out from office buildings, the State House, schools and subway stations. They crossed the park to go who knows where to have lunch, to meet up, or, as the elderly (probably retired) guy on the right, to go for a run. I was listening to music, and some lyrics from Bob Dylan's Abandoned Love ended up on the pages as well.

Sunday at the Arboretum in JP. The brutal-looking concrete building housing the Mass State Laboratory was at once a contrast to the nature of the park, but also seemed to belong there, in the surrounding city with its eclectic architecture.

Steampunk-inspired illustration

This is my first steampunk-inspired illustration. The foreground is done with ink and watercolor pencils on bristol board. The background is a manipulated photo of the BU Bridge, that I took this summer on one of my excursions to Cambridge.

Projects

There are exciting things waiting to happen in the near--or not too far off, at least--future. Around March, Brookline writer Kim Girard plans to publish her children's book, and it will be full of my black and white illustrations. I can't say too much about it now, except that it is a lot of fun working on this project, and that it is an awesome story!

I have just been accepted to exhibit my drawings (mostly black & white comics and illustrations) at the Brookline Town Hall for a month in 2012 (probably May-June), so that will be fun too! I have to go through my submissions and weed out the darkest pieces, though, because since this is a public space, the images can't be too explicit or disturbing (and a lot of my stuff, I have realized,  is either dark, bloody or topless)

I still do illustrations for Spare Change, and the last one appeared in the last November edition. It was a portrait of Gary Johnston (aka John Doe), which I drew sometime in September or October. He was a very impressive and interesting person, and I enjoyed sketching him as he worked on an article in his "office" as he laughingly called it, in Central Square. Another illustration that I just finished last week is due to come out in one of the next editions, but I am not going to post it here until it has been in the paper (so buy the paper!).

I signed up for an account on the website Behance, so be sure to swing by and check out the projects I post there.

Gothista: Alternative Fashion Illustration. A project that I am not doing for a client, but just having a lot of fun with. Plus, I could use a lot more color in my portfolio!

Idea for a graphic novel set in Copenhagen.  Thanks to Copenhagen based photographer Thomas Christensen, who takes awesome photos of his city, and whose bird's view photograph I used for my top panel reference.

Spare Change illustration of Gary Johnston.

Hellbound and More Comic Art New England

Happy Halloween! Above is the result of some playing around with pens, paper and Photoshop last night.  Otherwise, I have not been very involved in Halloween preparations this year. However,  several members of The Boston Comics Roundtable got together to create a horror anthology, Hellbound 2, which is out now. To purchase a limited art edition, order your copy here. To read some Hellbound 2 press coverage, click here.

The Comic Art New England exhibit (the art exhibit that opened in connection with MICE and went through October 16th) has been extended until November 19th. This time, the works are on display at NEIA Gallery 303 (New England Institute of Art) right here in Brookline! I am very excited, because this is literally right down the street from me. Opening reception happens this Thursday, November 3, 6-8 PM. New England Istitute of Art is that ahem...modern building across from the Brookline Village t-stop, 303 Boylston Street in Brookline. BCR has a write-up on the exhibit on their web page.  I hope to see you there!

Line Art & Illustration is Open For Business: www.lineolsson.com

My portfolio portfolio website encountered some technical difficulties, but they are resolved, and here it is: www.lineolsson.com

Above are the images I am using for my business cards. No, they are not pathetically flattering & unrealistic self-portraits! ( I wish...:-)

This is Where You'll Find Me Tomorrow: MICE 2011

I will greet you in the front lobby of University Hall between 10AM-1PM. Later, I participate in my first panel on writer/artist collaborations. 4-5PM, I think. Should be fun! I am looking forward to all the great new stuff this year, I can't wait to get inspired! I only have one thing at MICE this year, which is a page in Leann Leake's zine, Hot Tea, Cold Water, #3. I also have a few framed comic book pages in the exhibit. Follow the link to see a list of exhibitors, then come to Porter Square tomorrow and secure some copies of their awesome work! It's free, it's fun, and you'll be supporting local writers & artists in your community too!

MICE, The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo

September 24, 2011 10am - 6pm

1815 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA (Porter Square)
Illustration by Jerel Dye

Bad Hair Day? These Ladies Can Help...Chapter 5 Of The Ragbox!

Finally...or almost! Chapter 5 of Dave Kender's graphic novel, The Ragbox will be out soon, and there will be more on that at this year's MICE. I really took my time illustrating this chapter, since I've been pretty busy this last year, but I did enjoy every minute of the process.

The Ragbox is unique in the sense that a different artist illustrates each of its chapters. Kender published the the three first chapters in one volume, but printed chapter 4 as a mini, as will be the case with chapter 5. You do not have to have read the first volume to enjoy the subsequent chapters, as they also stand alone as slices-of-life stories, but it is fun to compare the different illustrators' individual style.

Kender has matched illustrators with chapters that would specifically interest them, and I really enjoyed drawing the people (stylistas, both young and not-so-young) and the setting (dilapidated hair salon) of this part of the story. I am not quite sure why, as I don't really follow fashion trends (I'm much too cheap to pay the price of designer stuff ), and don't spend much time in salons either (once or twice a year, just to get some peace and quiet, and because my hair has reached the point when it's so bad, it's not even funny). However, I do love looking at stylish people, and all the going ons of the salon are sort of fascinating. Also, my artistic mentor in the 1980's, combined his studio with a hairdresser salon in the basement, so I guess I have sort of spent time in that environment after all...that's an entirely different story, however, that I'll tell you all about later. Maybe. For now, get your first four chapters of The Ragbox at MICE and familiarize yourself with the characters of this neighborhood (which is loosely based on San Francisco's Mission district). To read more about The Ragbox, click here. For information on MICE, click here.

Enjoy!

Destination: Thieves Paradise

This is the last page for now. What meets Captain Scarlet and the crew at this eerie place? Stay tuned, cross your fingers and find out!

Overboard

Spare Change Illustration

Recently, I had the opportunity to do an illustration for the Boston alternative newspaper, Spare Change. With this assignment, I really got the feel of what it is like to do creative work under a very tight deadline, and I must admit that such pressure tends to work well with me. I spent about an hour and a half sketching Marc Goldfinger, part-time vendor and writer for Spare Change, during his interview with freelance writer, Micah Stahl. It was a nice, warm day in Cambridge's Central Square, and time flew by as I filled my sketchbook pages with observations. I love to draw people in person, rather than from photographs, and especially while they are not paying attention to me, but focused on a conversation with someone else. This situation draws out a person's personality that I then try to capture in my drawing. I also like to bring the surroundings into the portrait, in this case the area outside the 1369 Coffeehouse. To me it seemed like a nice, busy place that I could have spent the whole day in, had I not had to rush home and take care of kids and their school pick-ups, park playdates and karate lessons (yesterday, however, a Spare Change vendor complained that I had made Central Square look 'too nice,' since in his opinion it was the worst #%*!! neighborhood in town! :-)

In-between picking kids up from school, packing for a weekend trip, etc. I had to draw the illustration with ink, based on my pencil sketches, then scan it, clean it up in Photoshop and send it off by around 7-8 PM. Thanks to my lovely friend, Sowmya, I was able to make it, since she brought my kids over to her house for a few hours to play with her son.

Hopefully, I will be able to do more assignments like this one. In the meantime, I am working on the Open Fire! project (see previous blog post), and as the July 1 deadline for that one comes closer, my productivity seems to go up!

Scenes From The Holiday Season in Boston

This Saturday, I tabled at Bazaar Bizarre in Boston, an alternative arts/crafts fair that draws a huge crowd of holiday shoppers. Above are my pink ladies, which I displayed on one corner of the BCR table.

Eric Boeker planned and arranged the Boston Comics Roundtable presence at Bazaar Bizarre this year.

Things at our table: Independent work by Dan Mazur, Aya Rothwell and various contributors to the Left-Overs of the Living Dead, put together by Jay Kennedy.

A little untraditional holiday cards by Eric Boeker.





Bazaar Bizarre was held inside the Cyclorama, which is a gorgeous building. This is the ceiling in the middle of the hall.





Above: panel 2 of a short comic strip I worked on with Troy Minkowsky. Below: panel 1 of a short comic strip I worked on with Roho. Both may show up on some BCR holiday wrapping paper this season.

The Cyclorama is in the beautiful South End neighbourhood of Boston.

To be honest, I don't have a lot of skills as a salesperson (none, in fact), but I enjoy working at the holiday fairs--all fairs and conventions--nevertheless. It's fun to see what other vendors have to offer, and to be inspired. It's a great place to people-watch, and to chat with people who approach the table. I hope to be at the Holly Fair in Cambridge next weekend.