ARTSTATION

I recently joined ArtStation - a community for illustrators and creative professionals that provide a great and simple platform for gathering and showing off one´s artwork. I just love the slick look of the gallery.

Head over there and check it out:

https://www.artstation.com/artist/egerkrans

DINOSAURS!!

I´m happy to inform you that the release of "Nordiska gudar" (Norse Gods) has been a huge success! We´ve sold a heck of a lot more copies in the three months it´s been out than I could ever have hoped for. As a matter of fact the book is already on it's second print run. So yeah... Drinks all around!

But, not one to rest on my laurels, I´m already working on my next project - "Alla tiders Dinosaurier" ( Roughly: "Dinosaurs of the ages". However, there´s a double meaning/word pun in the title I won´t even try to translate.)

The aim of the book is to present our favourite archosaurs to kids (the target group is children between 6-9 years) in a somewhat novel way -  a stylized cartoony approach. A style I launched in my children´s picture book about dinos from a few years ago. 

However, like all good caricatures the goal is to capture the essence of any particular species and try to be as accurate as possible when it comes to anatomy and features like feathers, coloration etc. I´m taking a lot of inspiration from modern paleoartists like John Conway who always tries to depict the animals as just that - animals, rather than perpetually roaring monsters. Some of them will still be roaring as visible teeth apparently sell more books, but at least  I´ll try to keep it to a minimum... 

The book will be about 60 pages long with one dino per spread. We´re aiming at roughly 30 animals, divided into three chapters based which Mesozoic time period they lived in, plus an introductory chapter about basic geology, deep time, the evolution of diapsids etc. The aim is to strike a good balance between newly discovered species like Yi Qi and all time classics like Stegosaurus.

Here´s a few of the images I´ve done so far. Enjoy!

ALLOSAURUS

DREADNOUGHTUS

GORGOSAURUS

GUANLONG

STEGOSAURUS

UTHARAPTOR

YI QI

ADDING A BIT OF TEXTURE

I often get asked how I manage to create that hand drawn look in my illustrations, even though they´re always painted in Photoshop.

One of the reasons is that the original drawing is always done by hand - you just can´t beat pencil on paper. The other reason is that I use a library of watercolour textures when I paint. These were made by splashing, dabbing, spattering and just generally messing about with earthy watercolours on standard watercolour paper, leaving them to dry and then scanning them. By combining these in different layer styles (favourites being multiply and overlay) and opacities in Photoshop one can achieve quite interesting results.

Here´s a few of these textures for your perusal. I´ll be back shortly with a more in-depth tutorial on my work process, but until then feel free to download these and try them out yourselves. Of course they´re all clickable for larger versions.

NORDISKA GUDAR

Äntligen är den här! I förrgår damp "Nordiska gudar" ner rykande färsk från tryckeriet. 

Den finns nu i en bokhandel nära dig, eller online här:

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789132164118/nordiska-gudar/

Eller här:

http://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/nordiska-gudar-9789132164118

NORSE GODS ARE GO!

Done!!

Last week "Nordiska gudar" (Norse Gods) was sent off to the printers, after three years of hard work. 

The book will be out in stores in late July - you can preorder it here:

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789132164118/nordiska-gudar/

And, how better to celebrate this momentous occasion than with my take on Ragnarok - the last painting made for the book. Apparently I needed a looming deadline and my heavy metal playlist in Spotify to finish this sucker...

Speaking of heavy metal here´s Loki in his aspect of Lord of the Endtimes

This may arguably be the most "metal" painting I´ve ever done...

THE OLD GODS ARE COMING

The deadline for my upcoming book Nordiska Gudar (Norse Gods) is closing in fast and - in just a few weeks it´ll be off to the printers. It should be out in stores in late juli/early august. A few days ago the test cover arrived from the printers. We might change a few things for the final product but this is more or less what it´s going to look like. Not too shabby methinks.

I published an obviously Mignola-inspired painting from the book  on my facebookpage recently, depicting Njord the god of the sea. Mike himself gave me thumbs up it so that´s gotta count for something...

DoD DONE!

I´m now officially finished with Drakar och Demoner: Retro!

Now it´s a race towards the finish with Nordiska Gudar - my upcoming book about Norse mythology. Deadline in late may...

Here´s the pics of the official player races for DoD - humans, elves, halflings, ducks, dwarfs and wolf-folk. Some you´ve seen before, some of these are new.

FIGHTING FANTASY

Work on the retro edition of Drakar och Demoner continues - I´m having a ball drawing daring adventurers, vile sorcerers and heinous monsters. This game is where it all started for me - without it I probably would never have become an illustrator - so getting this right means a lot to me.

Riotminds are hard at work putting the box together and have also have been sneak previewing some of my illustrations on their facebook page - partly for promotional purposes but also for feedback.

The input from the community is key as this project isn´t just close to our hearts, but to thousands of people who grew up playing the game. Getting comments and constructive critisism from the gamers themselves is therefore really important. As it´s the internet there will always be some not-very-concstructive critisism as well, but that is the way of things...

I thought I´d collect what´s been presented so far in a post here for your merriment. Enjoy.

- MINOTAUR -

- ORCH -

- THIEF -

- WIZARD -

iPAD PRO TEST

A while ago I caved in and bought the new iPad Pro. 

Much to my chagrin I realised that the iPencil - which was sort of the main point of investing in the expensive tablet to begin with - had a four week delivery period. Yesterday, however, that long wait came to an end and the much anticipated pencil was finally in my clammy mitts. 

Here´s my first test sketch on the Pro. It´s made in Procreate which turned out to be a pretty nifty, as well as cheap, program - pretty similar to Photoshop which I normally use. The pencil brushes have a nice feel to them and it´s all pretty intuitive.

Apparently there's also a pretty darn slick automatic recording function. I think this might turn out to be my favourite feature...