Commando Sketchbook » ugress

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.

Curious Yellow

bjorn — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:33:48 +0000

A little colour and transparency study for the “Yellow” illustration published in D2 Magazine. See the final version here.

Compost Sketches

bjorn — Sun, 02 May 2010 07:23:02 +0000

Some sketches for the “Ugress” gardening column in D2 magazine. The article was basically about composting, and the odour challenges thereof. The composition was really simple, meaning everything had to rely on a clear and strong pose. Bottom: The final illustration, which also can be seen in full colour here.

The Smell of Thunder

bjorn — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:02:10 +0000

Sketches for the “Ugress” gardening column in D2 magazine. The article was about the use and preparation of a fermented brew of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) for fertilizing, and the olfactory experience thereof – which is apparently very manly, indeed. Hence the connection with the most virile member of the gods, namely Thor, God of Thunder. (The final illustration can be seen here.)

Below are the two original scans before they were mashed together in Photoshop. The watercolour of Thor worked quite well on its own terms, but it needed some extra “pop” to stand out in the magazine lay-out. The original watercolour was pushed to the limits colorwise, and for some reason or other, it did not fall apart…