Author Archives: Andreas Qassim

Tuta och Kör!

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Finally here! Jazzmys brand new record Familjen Svängsson, Tuta och kör!

Jazzmys is a jazz act for children, involving both acting and great music in a range of styles, like swing, country, pop etc. It was my old friend Andreas Landegren who asked me if I wanted to illustrate their new record. He plays the character Adde, who plays piano, keyboards and sings in the group. I was very happy to take this particular commission.

Andreas and I used to play music together back in high school (gymnasiet). Since then I’ve remained a hobby musician, while Andreas has developed into quite an extraordinary piano player and composer, performing with people like Lisa Nilsson, Anna-Lotta Larsson and Johan Stengård. Andreas just released his first solo record, Science of Imagination. I can warmly recommend both records.

All images are ⓒ Andreas Qassim.

Krister 70

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Min mammas sambo Krister fyller 70! Han är intresserad av gamla flygplan och läste Biggles när han var ung, så jag gjorde ett porträtt av honom som Biggles. Han flyger en brittisk Sopwith Camel och har precis skjutit ner en tysk Fokker Eindecker. Grattis Krister!

ⓒ Andreas Qassim

Joe Murray Cartoon Master Class

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Got this diploma recently. Gotta say I’m damn proud of it! 🙂

It’s the end result of a chain of events starting with me stumbling upon Joe Murray’s book Creating Animated Cartoons with Character in my local art store. Joe Murray is the creator of the cult series Rocko’s Modern Life (Nickelodeon) and Camp Lazlo (Cartoon network). Coincidence or fate, it was just the book I needed at that moment. It’s about how to develop your own cartoon. I was already a fan of Joe’s drawing style, and I was very inspired by his book. Many how-to books that are supposed to be inspiring leave you rather discouraged. “I’ll never be able to do that”. This book however painted nothing but pictures of possibilities.

I looked up Joe Murray on the internet and found that he gave online courses on the same subject, as a kind of continuation of the book. Freelance commissions were on an all time low the summer of 2011, so I signed up.

During the course I learned to have fun again with drawing. It started with simple doodling, something I had almost stopped doing. From there we went into developing characters, creating a “hook”, building a world around the characters, writing stories, and finally storyboarding a cartoon. Each week of the course I had a Skype session with Joe discussing the work. Here’s a sample of what I did:

ⓒ Andreas Qassim

I’m currently developing this project, so I can’t tell you much more at the moment. Hopefully it’ll turn into something someday.

If you’re like me and spent most of your professional cartooning years illustrating other people’s stuff, while all you really wanted was doing your thing, but for one reason or another you never got around to doing it, I can highly recommend Joe’s book and his courses. Joe’s such a nice and inspiring guy! I’m not sure if he does the courses anymore, but the book is still there.

 

RIP Jerry Nelson

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A legendary puppeteer passed away recently. Jerry Nelson was a key performer in the classical group of Muppet performers, praised by Jim Henson for his versatility and singing talent. He performed many of the secondary characters on The Muppet Show, like Kermit’s nephew Robin, bass player Floyd Pepper, sports commentator Louis Kazagger, space-pig Dr Julius Strangepork, boomerang fish throwing Lew Zealand and many others. Jerry was also the voice and hands behind major characters like Gobo the Fraggle and Emmet Otter in Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. His most most famous character was probably Count von Count from Sesame Street.

Over at Scandinavian Muppet Art we’re paying tribute to Jerry’s work. Today’s beautiful piece is by my friend and colleague Jimmy Wallin. Here’s my drawing remembering Jerry:

As I go to work every morning and coming back in the evening, I’m greeted by street musicians performing at the train station, in the tunnel leading to the platforms. Some of them are really good, others should perhaps practice a bit more… Anyway, wouldn’t it be great to come to the train station one morning and find Gobo and Floyd singing “Follow me”? Come to think of it, I’d probably stay and listen all the time, and be late for work.

RIP Jerry Nelson, and thank you for the music.

Sydsvenskan 27 Aug

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Idag var det ett reportage om Sluggerfilm och Bamse och Tjuvstaden i Sydsvenskans kulturdel. http://www.sydsvenskan.se/kultur-och-nojen/snall-bamse-haller-for-lang-film Den fina affischen i bakgrunden är tecknad av Thomas Holm. Att den hänger på sniskan är mitt fel. Kommer åt den när jag snurrar på min stol. Har aldrig haft förstånd nog att hålla mig på min plats… Eftersom jag fick oförtjänt mycket utrymme i artikeln tänkte jag komplettera med några bilder på världens bästa kollegor.

Lars Bällsten är Mannen. Han gör story sketches, character turnarounds och expressions. Han har ritat jättemånga Bamse-omslag och tog med sig ett X-Box till studion. Happy! Joy!

Adam Blomgren är Mannen. Han designar rekvisita (props) och gör character expressions. Han är även kung på badminton och spelar i ett punkband som heter Tre Volt.

Ola Larsson och Christian Ryltenius är Männen. Ola jobbar med set-design och Christian är regissör för filmen. Ola är från Mjölby eller Trollhättan eller nåt sånt.

Thomas Holm är MANNEN. Han är tillika Art Director för filmen. Här diskuterar han bakgrunder med MANNEN FRÅN LYSEKIL Ulf Sandberg.

I fredags var det vargfredag. Då såg vi ut så här. Bakre raden: Andreas, Lars, Ola och John Arbén. Nedre raden: Adam, Karin Nilsson och Thomas. John är produktions-assistent. Han är Mannen. Karin gör mouthcharts (designar hur figurerna ser ut när de pratar). Hon är Kvinnan.