Swing verboten

There's been so much going on lately that I didn't have the time to update this month. It was getting a bit frustrating, but despite all that I painted this little something in my sketchbook not too long ago. Going back to acrylic paint and coal. I sure missed making traditional work!

Finding a balance

Over the past weeks I gathered quite some research material, including some very swingjugend specific books! The list of books is now pretty impressive. So much so, that I should be happy if I can finish reading by the end of the year. That's why lately I've been more busy reading than drawing. To avoid going on a complete hiatus I got the idea to use what I read about to make illustrations/short comics in between and not necessarily in relation to my story or characters. These could be personal stories from swings or character/environment sketches.

Speaking of research: I'd LOVE to have one of those portable gramophones for my research. They were all the rage.

Yesterday I picked up my acrylics and charcoal again after a long time and painted this little picture in my sketchbook (the horn is a bit on the tiny side, though :p) I'm also doing some self studies/cartoons again since I rarely did that anymore. The sketch below is one of them.

Swingcats

                                 (work in progress)                                              (one of the prints)

Here's a poster I made using cardboard cut-outs. It's been a while since I've done this, but it's fun to do and easy if you want to reproduce your work cheaply. I made prints with acrylic and spraypaint and the results are pretty neat. The cut-out itself wasn't very sturdy and is dead and buried now, but I think I'll make more of these and practice using different painting techniques.

Rhythmfever

After my February hiatus I'm back with a little swing-themed postcard I did in the meantime:

I had this and a few other drawings printed as postcards and I can pick them up tomorrow. They will be for sale along with some of my other work and originals at the Kunststripbeurs in Utrecht on the 23rd. Untill then I'll be trying to make some posters with cut-out templates in a similar style as the picture above. It's been a while since I tried that out, but I think it's a technique that fits my theme pretty well.

Klara's Swingin' Songs

At the moment I'm working on several things at a time, thus not getting much finished. But I'm still drawing! Here's a work in progress (detail) of one of the works. This drawing kept changing every time, since I didn't really know what I was going for with it. Still not really sure, but we'll see.

- finished drawing -

- work in progress (detail)-

EDIT 13/02/13: Well, it's finished. I chose editing this post rather than making a new entry with the same drawing. After the last update it got some more colour and I made it a bit poster-like. I might print some postcards of this to sell at the Kunststripbeurs in Utrecht next month.

From the archives [Part 2]

Today's the 17th, so I thought it's time for another look into the progress of my project. This time a focus on the main character of the story: Klara. Not much "old" work was found, because Klara was initially created as filler material for the group and didn't play much of role in the story.... yet.

I managed to dig up these two drawings of Klara's 'old-school' look. Funny enough she was the only character with German roots before the whole Swingjugend idea came along.
But how did she make it to main character?
At first I didn't focus on one lead for the story, but rather on the group. And that's where I got stuck. I did think a male lead would be interesting with having more pressure from society in joining the Hitlerjugend and/or militairy service. But still the story was going nowhere but a few short scenes and events. The characters were still empty shells and that was the problem.
After a short brainstorm session in my comic class, in which I explained some of the scenes to find not something, but someone to have the stoy focus on. The only name that kept coming back was Klara's, who appeared to be a more interesting character than I thought.

(Yes, shameless reposting. I do it)

Aside from a new haircut her design hasn't changed much and the more I was drawing her, the more I loved her design. With that the young clarinettist has also gotten more character. With a love for swing and jazz music in Nazi-Germany and a boyfriend in the German army she might lose everything she holds dear.

Flyer design 'Out of Control'

The past month I've been working on a flyer design for a performance by Wietske Vogels. On the cover I've mixed the elements of theatre and acrobatics in a sketch-like design. From what I've seen it seems pretty interesting and I think I'll pay a visit when the performance goes on tour. If you're curious you can check out the showreel as well as the scedules on her website.

 final flyer design front and back

 and some of the early sketches

I hope all of you out there have a great end of the year and I'll be seeing you with more sketches, drawings and other updates in January ;)

From the archives [part 1]

I've been wanting to write a post about how I got to this whole swing thing for a while, so I'm making a little series about the development of my story, characters and how things came to be.
But withhout further ado, here's how it all started:

                                       (late 2010)                                                             (feb 2011) 

Now, I can't exactly pinpoint the moment I got into swing music, but by the end of 2010 I wanted to start a comic project about it. The drawing on the left is what it all began with, spontaniously doodled while doing my comic class homework. Prototype Holger was born. Still nothing much, but that little sketch soon got me to make up a swing band of several characters. At the time the band was pretty much based on American swing and on the more recent swing music. The characters didn't have much personality and there wasn't much of a story. They were just a band and in desperate need of an environment to get them to develop.
During the process I was reading 'The Colditz Story' by P. R. Reid and realised a situation in a p.o.w camp would be interesting, not to mention a struggle for the characters as well as their music. Most of these camps actually had their own bands, musicians and theatre. A problem, though, was the inability to use the female band members. I wasn't there yet, but I was getting closer.

 (Swingjugend in Hamburg - photo taken from 'Die Freiheit Lebt!' by Herbert Diercks)

During my internship in Hamburg last year I still hadn't let go of the WW II time period and was still trying to find a way to make something out of it. Moritz, a colleague at the atelier mentioned the Hamburger Swingjugend and the more I got into it, the more I loved it. My theme was there and I could finally start the comic project I'm still working on today, currently brainstorming over and writing the story and bringing the characters to life.

(sketches from 2011)

Speaking of which: Holger was the very first of them. His personality hasn't changed much either, save for his family situation and that him not aspiring to be lead singer anymore ;) Piano and double bass are where he belongs. Despite the fact that he's not the main character I love to draw him, but that may be because he is what it all started with.

Next episode: Klara