Commando Sketchbook » analogue

All You Need is Snow

Katinka — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:14:01 +0000

These characters were created for a pitch to make mascots for the World Ski Championships 2011 in Oslo.

We mixed elements from the norwegian heritage with the childish joy of playing in snow, as well as adding a hint of kawaii. We started with the basic shape of the snow ball, and explored how it could produce endless combinations of characters. Focusing on an eco-friendly approach, we wanted the mascots to be sustainable and of good quality materials, like wool and wood. In keeping with the playful nature of snow, we turned off our computers and concentrated on making dummies by hand. This resulted in no digital sketches, only a bunch of small snowmen characters. When our proposal got rejected, they ended up in a shoe box for a year, but the norwegian winter inspired us to set them free for you to see.

The Green Fairy

bjorn — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:40:15 +0000

Happy New Year! Still hung over after the holidays? If you’re feeling blue, go for green! In today’s perfume review in D2 Magazine, Bjørn explains why smelling absinthe a.k.a. “The Green Fairy”, is the choice if you want to embrace gloominess and get miserable in style.

Above: Happy in the haze of a drunken hour. An attempt to make an equation showing that a green gnome and a bottle of absinthe, equals a green fairy.

Above: A crack at calligraphy “under influence” .

Above: The final illustration, picturing wormwood as the poet’s ink.

All I Want for Christmas is Blue

Katinka — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:05:01 +0000

This is what Bjørn Brochmann wishes to see under the tree this year. Read about it in todays D2 Magazine or here.

O julekalender med din glede og barnlige tvits

Mari — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:20:37 +0000

Dette er julekalenderen hos Commando Group i år. Man får en sjokolade og en vits, vi kaller det bare tvits.

Mari og Katinka har også en egen onelinerkalender, en ny julevits hver dag helt fram til julaften.

Vi har dessuten en intern kalender, der vi presenterer noen av de beste sitatene fra året som gikk.

Her kan dere se hva vi jobbet med når Bjørn kom med den uttalelsen.

God førjulstid!

Sorry to our english speaking friends. #NOR We wish you all a happy pre-Christmas time!

Origin of the Species

maria — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:42:43 +0000

The visual evidence of Bjørn and Alf Marius Opsahl’s hipster search in New York is covering five spreads in todays D2 Magazine. Here are the illustrations and some unpublished sketches. For those of you who read Norwegian: Go and by the magazine, and read Alf’s text, it’s quite funny.

Flight AY005 HEL / JFK

maria — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:10:22 +0000

We are happy to have Bjørn back from NYC, where he has been spending the last week as a reporting illustrator. These are some rough sketches from the Finnair flight.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

bjorn — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:44:46 +0000

Happy new year! It is getting lighter everyday. To celebrate this, here are some sketches to cheer you up while waiting for summer. Hold on for just a few more months now!

The sketches were made for an illustration on rose geranium in D2 magazine.

The Hills Are Alive!

bjorn — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:11:36 +0000

For our forthcoming exhibition, we performed some serious field studies of trolls in the their natural habitat, in an attempt to get a better understanding of their behaviour and ecology. We had a feeling we were on to something, but our findings surpassed our wildest expectations. As these extraordinary snapshots clearly show: Trolls do NOT explode or turn into stone when exposed to sun light. We could not believe our luck when a massive troll came striding across the valley at 11:40 in the morning, oblivious to, and apparently unharmed by the sun in his back! This is the final proof that everything you have heard about trolls and UV-radiation is myth and nothing but fairy tales. Our PhotoRemixes of trolls can be seen at Fotografiens Hus from 4th – 28th of November.

By the way, check out super talented 3D-artist Rune Spaans work on the trolls in the new movie The Troll Hunter. He has posted some really interesting “behind the scenes footage” on his homepage. See it here.

Girls With Guns

bjorn — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 22:49:31 +0000

In the “Mass Effect” illustration for the gardening column in D2 magazine I knew I needed three things: A mass of rubble, a stylish girl and a gun. People with guns are one of the most clichéd subjects I can think of, and a lengthy search on the internet did not do much to lighten my mind. Here are some basic woman+gun archetypes, clockwise from top right:

1) The disturbed suburban house wife Betty Draper from Mad Men

2) The disturbed vigilante mom Sarah Connor from Terminator 2

3) The disturbed redneck vigilante mom Sarah Palin

4) The absolutely fabulous safari huntress Veruschka von Lehndorff for YSL

The choice seemed pretty obvious, but a quick sketch revealed that the look sported by Veruschka von Lehndorff did not translate very well to an illustrated format. In the photograph she is an immaculate example on how to dress glamourously in khaki. In the illustration it did not look like smart khaki anymore. It looked like, well, dull plain khaki…

A few more sketches on the Veruschka theme.

I moved on to Betty Draper thinking that a baby doll could make for some interesting semitransparent effects. Below: Awkward posture, but the kimchi recipe is nice though…

Having already used the see-through effect in the “Marrakech” illustration, I felt it was to early to play the transparency card again. I left suburbia and headed into redneck territory, swapping semitransparent for semi-naked. I was really happy with the sketch to the upper left, but it bothered me that the keyword “stylish” was nowhere to bee seen anymore.

My pondering about female gunners came to a close. I decided a simple colour scheme had to do the trick. Basically red tights and lips, and a simple black and white striped dress. The watercolour to the left was transferred with a few alterations to the final illustration (bottom). Rock’n roll.

If I Had A Hammer…

bjorn — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:32:26 +0000

I’d hammer in the morning, I’d hammer in the evening… Seriously! Our beloved client Mette Møller was amused, but not entirely convinced by our carpentry skills, so we agreed on a slightly different approach. The final ad (which, we must admit, is more structurally sound) can be seen in the OFW magazine to be launched at the Oslo Fashion Week. See the final illustration here.