AN APPLE A DAY

Some lineart for an illustration depicting the goddess Idun. I obviously opted for a very jugend/art noveau inspired style for this one.

DECEMBER DEMONS

Today´s the first of december - and how better to celebrate the approaching festive season than with pictures of demons?

As I´m just now starting work on the third book in the Demon Detectives (Demondeckarna) series, where our intrepid adolescent investigators descend into Hell itself,  I thought this would be the perfect time to revisit some denizens of the underworld from the previous books.

HUTHUROT

EZERIEL

DEMONLINGS

DEMON GUARD

APEP

CENOZOIC DOODLES

At the moment a lot of my time is spent on the two big projects "Drakar och Demoner" (the classic swedish roleplaying game) and "Nordiska Gudar" (my book about the norse gods). However,  sometimes one feels the need to take a break from drawing burly gods and daring adventurers and do something completely different...

Enter "Första Urtidsboken" (My first Book of Prehistoric Creatures). This will be my fourth picture book and a sort of companion volume to the one about dinosaurs that came out this spring. Instead of everyones favourite giant reptiles this book will focus on the the amazing creatures that superseded them. 

For someone like me, with a life-long passion for paleontology, getting the chance to draw saber-toothed cats, mammoths and other forms of Cenozoic megafauna is simply a dream come true. 

Here´s some of the finished pices. The book itself will be out this spring.

SMILODON

TERROR BIRD

WOOLY RHINO

While the illustrations in these books are rather stylised I still try to keep them as anatomically and scientifically correct as possible. I´ve taken a lot of inspiration from classic paleo-art masters like Charles R. Knight and Zdenêk Burian as well modern illustrators like Peter de Séve who did the wonderful designs for the Ice Age movies (though I´ve made a conscious effort to distance myself from that look).

This research results in lots of preliminary sketches of the various extinct critters as I try to get a feel for them. As there´s only room for nine different animals, not all of them can make it into the final book. Fortunately this blog has no such restrictions so at least I can show off the sketches here:

AMPHICYON

ANDREWSARCHUS

ENTELODONT

HYENADON

MACHRAUCHENIA

HAMMERTIME

Time for yet another preview from "Norse Gods / Nordiska Gudar". Apparently some brawny, bearded fellow wields this...

DUNGEONCRAWLING

The Drakar och Demoner kickstarter has been a huge success and it made it´s first stretchgoal of 200.000 SEK in under 24 hours. Currently it´s supported by 800 backers and is closing in on the 500.000 mark.

I`m really thrilled to be part of this project - there´s something about these classic role playing games that goes beyond pure nostalgia. As most fantasy worlds are becoming more and more over-designed, inspired by computer games like World of Warcraft and the like, an old-school, back-to-basics approach somehow feels fresh.

We´ve started putting up some finished artwork on the official facebook page: Riotminds. I thought I´d repost them in slightly better resolution here.

VARGMAN / WOLFMAN

KRIGARE / WARRIOR 

 SKELETT / SKELETON

TJUV / THIEF

DRAGONS AND DEMONS

Hearken ye brave adventurers!

Today I can proudly announce that I´m doing the interior illustrations for the illustrious swedish roleplaying game Drakar och Demoner (Dragons and Demons). For the non-Swedish readers this game is as legendary for swedes as Dungeons and Dragons is to english speakers - since it´s debut in 1982 it has sold over 100.000 copies. 

The game will be very much a back to basics deal: black box with the old logo and Wheelan cover, the old Ereb Altor setting, ducks as a playable race and so on. 

The kickstarter is live now and the game is to be released the coming summer: 
Kickstarter: Drakar och Demoner

GOTHENBURG BOOK FAIR

Today is the start of the annual Gothenburg book fair! 

I'm taking the train down early tomorrow and have a few public appearances:

Friday:

12.40 Interview in Massolit/Wahlströms stand B08:22

17.00 Interview on Biblioteks & Berättarscenen D02:01

Saturday:

15.00 Interview in Massolit/Wahlströms stand B08:22

16.00 Signing in SF Bokhandelns stand A02:42

See you there!

APPROVED BY THE SWEDISH LIBRARY SERVICE

I just received a great review of "My First Book of Beasts" from the Swedish Library Service BTJ. 
(This is a big thing as it is they who provide the books for all the libraries in Sweden)

Here´s an excerpt for Swedish speakers:

" Illustratören Johan Egerkrans tycks uppfylld av att skicka kalla kårar längs de allra yngstas nackar. Nyss var det dinosaurier som presenterades i pekboksformat och i den här boken är det de värsta odjuren som gestaltas på kartonguppslagen. Den som inbillar sig att boken på något sätt skulle vara nedtonad i rysligheter eller på något sätt tillrättalagd för de allra yngsta läsarna tror fel. Här möter vi ett axplock ur mytologin och författaren tillika illustratören låter oss bli bekanta med åtta av de allra värsta odjuren."

" I Första odjursboken blir text och bild tillsammans ett bestiarium för de allra yngsta läsarna och Johan Egerkrans gör det så bra att jag tror att boken följer med långt upp i åldrarna"

Publiceras i BTJ-häftet nr 21, 2015.
Lektör: Ulf Malmqvist

FÖRSTA ODJURSBOKEN

My third picture book "Första Odjursboken" (My First Book of Beasts) - fresh from the printers! 

The book will be out in stores in Sweden late September. 

EVENING SKETCHING

Doodling in the couch watching "The Strain". Instead of vampires the result was, rather unexpectedly, a mutant snapper turtle and a rather depressed (and very gollum inspired) Jenny Greenteeth. If you - for some incomprehensible reason - don't know who Jenny Greenteeth is, she's an english water hag prone to drown wayward children and the elderly. 

HOW TO DRAW A ZOMBIE

In anticipation of the imminent release of my third picture-book "Första Odjursboken" (My First Book of Beasts) I thought a recap of what preceded it might be in order. I´d also like to share a little of my process when making these illustrations.

The first book in this series was "Första Monsterboken" (My First Book of Monsters) which was published a year ago.

I wanted to do a picture book for toddlers - a classic "look at the cat/cow/sun/car/whatever"-book, but with a slightly darker, humorous tone, presenting classic movie monsters instead. The idea was that a one year old would find a cartoony vampire just as interesting as a picture of a teddy bear and it´s probably a heck of a lot more fun to look at for the grownup.

I also wrote some silly rhymes to go along with the monsters just for fun which turned out to be unexpectedly appreciated, though some critics found them rather beyond the grasp of an average toddler (which indeed was correct and sort of the point - they were meant for the adult reader).

As this is a Swedish book the rhymes are in the Swedish language. I won´t even try to translate them...

ZOMBIE

Zombien raglar genom stan / som en hjärndöd huligan

FRANKENSTEINS MONSTER

Monstret misstas lätt för skurk / har sin hjärna i en burk

VAMPYR

Vampyren flaxar runt i natten / sörplar hellre blod än vatten

DRAKE

Draken den får världens fnatt / om du tjyvar av hans skatt

The first book turned out to be quite popular, and most of all I had a blast making it, so we - that is my publisher and I - decided to make another one.

As a long time amateur palaeontologist I suggested Dinosaurs. My publisher excalimed "capital idea old sport!" (or something to that effect) and half a year later "Första Dinosaurieboken" (My First Book of Dinosaurs) was published.

I tried to stay somewhat off the beaten track and introduce the children and their parents to slightly different dinos than the ever present Tyrannosaurs, Stegosaurs and Triceratopses.

GIGANOTOSAURUS

DEINONYCHUS

SUCHOMIMUS

PLATEOSAURUS

So that´s two books down, one to soon be released and I´m just about to start drawing the fourth one. I´ll keep making these as long as they let me - it´s just so much fun!

Now I´d like to leave you with a look behind the scenes. Here´s a quick tutorial on how I make these pictures:

SKETCH

I start with a quick sketch of the monster on normal A4 copy paper (I personally prefer the slightly heavier 120 g paper). I then scan this loose drawing into my computer.

I then colour the zombie in photoshop. The actual pencil sketch won´t be seen in the final image but I try to stay true to the spontaneity of the loose lines in the preliminary drawing when I do the lineart. I also choose brushes with a little texture to create "nerve" in the lines.

After this I lift the zombie drawing onto a canvas with the same dimensions as the book plus margins. I add shadows, background and tweak the proportions of the character. 

In the final stage I add texture and colour correction layers to make the image feel less "computery" and make the image pop. Then it´s time for coffee! 

So, there you have it.

ON THE AIR

SF-Bokhandeln / The Stockholm Science Fiction Bookstore has their own pod radio and in the latest episode they, among other things of interest, talk to me about trolls. If you manage to make out my mumblings through the technical diffilculties ( there was some problems with the mike ) it's actually quite a funny interview:

Listen to the entire show here:

 http://www.lstnr.se/sfbok/audio_del12/Podradio12_320kbps.mp3

I'm on at about the half-hour mark. This post is completely pointless for anyone who doesn't speak Swedish.

FABULOUS BEASTS

- GRIFFIN -

- GRIFFIN ORIGINAL SKETCH -

In a few weeks my third picture book for young children "Första Odjursboken" comes out in stores (loosely translated: My First Book of Beasts).

Like the two previous ones it´s all about monsters - but this time around the focus is on medieval heraldic beasts such as griffins and basilisks. At some point even toddlers are bound to get bored by books about cats and cows, right?

I´m just having so much fun with this series and I´m already planning the fourth instalment...

- BASILISK -

- UNICORN -

- GIANT -

LET´S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD

Hello and welcome to my new blog.

Like the ABOUT text says - here I´ll (try to) post illustrations, events and the odd sketch.

For starters how about some images from my upcoming book Nordiska Gudar / Norse Gods:

- FREY -

- FREYA -

- MIMIR -