My summer in Liverpool

I’ve spent my summer so far in Liverpool, staying at my dad’s doing freelance work. Now, my dad lives in a big house. It used to be full of life when my three sisters lived here. Those days there were always guests staying as well. You never knew who you’d end up hanging out with when you got here. Nowadays, the three sisters have moved out, and dad and his wife work late. I never realised how big the house was..

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So, life in Liverpool has been largely quiet. Lots of time for contemplation. Working, walking the dog, feeding the cat, and the occasional beer, these were the routines. As my stay in the city of football and the Beatles is drawing to a close, I’ve been spending lots of time thinking ahead. Writing long e-mails to people asking stupid questions, that sort of thing. My near future will most likely involve Arabic as well as drawing, that’s all I can say for now. All in all, my summer in Liverpool had its intended effect. I know a little bit better what I want, and I’m prepared to move on. I’d lie if I said I’m not homesick..

BAMSE #10/11

The lead story of the latest issue of Bamse, “Sommar, Sol och Badköping”, is the second original Rune Andréasson script I illustrated. It’s probably THE Bamse comic I’m most pleased with (i.e. of those I’ve done the artwork for). I liked the script. I was inspired when I drew it. There’s more action in those 20 pages than there usually is in a whole Bamse magazine.  Stylistically it’s more Rune-ish than any other of my Bamse works. Maybe because Rune designed so many of its characters. Rune was a great character designer. The only thing I’m not so pleased with in my drawings is the scales of the bear-mermaid. They look spikey and not very fishy. Don’t know what I was thinking. Never mind, the rest I have no problem with. Beautiful ink work by Kerstin Hamberg!

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© Rune Andréasson. Some of the characters Rune designed for this episode.

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© Rune Andréasson. Page from Rune’s original script.

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© Rune Andréasson. My interpretation of Rune’s script.

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© Rune Andréasson. Kerstin Hamberg’s ink original.

Dream Project: Children’s Book in Arabic

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The last few weeks I’ve been doing illustration work for an Arabic children’s book, a project I’m getting pretty excited about. The script has existed for a while. It’s a beautiful text in Arabic verse, written by my dear friend Brahim El-Mansouri.

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The story is about a boy who dreams at night about flying his ambulance plane rescuing those in need. Graphic designer and photographer for the book is another dear friend, Alfred Gunnarsson. The illustrations will eventually be collages of water colors (me) and photos (Alfred).

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These pictures are for the dummy that we’ll take to the publishers. Cross your fingers for us. We’re gonna need it.

Bamse/Blue Village

Last year’s Big Gig for me was making the animation backdrop for Fritidsresor’s Bamse show. It’s been on for a while now so I think it’s safe to post a sample:

[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/scen_chinese_spiders_720x576.swf” width=”600″ height=”450″ targetclass=”flashmovie” ]

Get Adobe Flash player

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© Junior Productions/Fritidsresor

I enjoyed the challenge of producing nearly twenty minutes of animation in approx. two months (!), something I would’ve never been able to do without learning Flash. I became quite good friends with Flash in the end. It’s definately a powerful animation tool.

So anyway, if you’re headed towards one of Fritidsresor’s Blue Village charter resorts this summer, be sure to check out the Bamse show, and especially its animated backdrop.

Happy holidays!

Johan Hagelbäck

I attended this one day storytelling course in Stockholm recently. One of the participants of the course was none other than Johan Hagelbäck. He’s the man behind Charles Nonsens

This crazy and wonderful animator has been around for a while. He was actually part of the team who made the animated sequences for “Fem Myror är Fler än Fyra Elefanter”. Now THAT is cool, if anything.

I actually persuaded Johan to give me his drawing from one of the excersises of the course.

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Apparently, the characters are from one of his current productions. Can’t wait to see it. Johan is the Dude!