#should I post more doodles and sketches here? it’s mainly been finished work

[bonegloss]

Yesterday I was a bug

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Choice exploration + finished scenes💙

Hello and welcome new followers, here's an update on how things are going with the game! Firstly a big thank you to the sudden influx of support I got this week, I'm happy knowing people liked the little meme video I did! :,]

This post might be a little long since I had to rewrite a few things, I was trying to upload a picture of one of the new areas you can go in but I got an error and couldn't save what I wrote. :,S

Anywho, I mainly focused on quality of life changes and continued working with the one of the endings you can get at the start of the game.

I don't really know where to start but this ending took a lot longer than expected to really hit what I've been trying to go for. At first, it was going to have two different endings. I took out one of them because I didn't have much of a connection with it and I liked the idea of it being straightforward instead. When I went back over it, everything happened too quickly for my liking. To fix this I went back and added a few choices to at least give you an idea of what the area is like and how it effects the player(Y/N) while making sure the dialog transitioned correctly with what you see on the screen. It's nothing too wordy but I do like it a lot more than I did before. Even though this is still considered one ending there is a alternate version you can get depending on a certain choice. Towards the end I fixed up all the spelling errors I could find and happily enough, there wasn't many. For right now I'd say this ending is finished! Yay! x]

Here's one of my favorite CG's I drew for it:

I love how it turned out because I really want to do different angles and perspective through the terrain, I think this one is my favorite so far! :,,]

Here's a evening time version of it:

It's suppose to be raining in this image but I still need to practice getting the angle correct. :,,]

I'm also fixing/brainstorming up the second/third ending. This one will have two different areas you can navigate through to get an idea of where you are and a few hints of lore that will be referenced later on in the game. Those that have played the [Extended Demo] you probably know which ones I'm talking about. >;]

I already like the idea of them but for one of the paths, I didn't have enough time to branch it out and make backgrounds for it in the [Extended Demo] so here's a peek of a placeholder since I'm still sketching stuff out, nothing is finalized yet. :[]

Super close to the cabin section, yay! I actually miss writing/drawing out the segments in the cabin a whole bunch so I really can't wait to fix up that part once I'm done with the swamplands. :,,]

I said last week I'd post some of the new backgrounds/areas so here you go:

Kofi update:

I also had a small talk with my play testers and one of the things they brought up is that I should be promoting my ko-fi better so from now on I'll have little mini doodles doing so at the end of every game development post as a way to promote it! :] All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do here! I was able to use previous tips to get a new wrist support brace when I'm drawing so a very big thank you to everyone who gave a tip! :,,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I enjoyed answering the asks I got recently this week! I'm trying to finish the rest when I can including the ones I remember that got deleted. There were some I genuinely couldn't answer because it would require me to mention major spoilers/the questions have spoilers in them. :,]

This post is getting really long now so that's all I have to discuss, thank you guys very much for all of the encouraging support this past week, I appreciate it a whole bunch! :,,]

[picturebookmakers]

Axel Scheffler

In this post, Axel takes us on a journey through his art studio and career. As well as sharing wonderful development work from some of his much-loved picturebooks, he shows us unseen sketchbook pages, early illustration commissions, etchings he made as a student, and his recent work to educate children about the coronavirus.

Visit Axel Scheffler’s website

Axel: I’m not really sure how many books I’ve illustrated in the 30+ years that I’ve been working. Over 150. I mostly work for the UK market, but occasionally I do books with German publishers. Not picturebooks though, so nothing that collides with the co-edition market.

Each of the boxes you see here contains one of my books: the sketches, illustrations, dummies, alternate versions of covers, everything.

I organised these boxes with Liz, my assistant, to have all the main books there so we can find things for exhibitions. There’s still lots of drawings in these boxes which aren’t sorted yet. Liz is such a great help, but it’s very difficult for me to keep on top of everything. I think I would probably need two Lizes, or perhaps three.

So yes, I don’t really know where to begin... I’ve got endless sketchbooks and little drawings on paper. I’ve got some really old sketchbooks I could show you.

Shall we start with The Gruffalo?

My early sketches of the Gruffalo were thought by my editor to be too scary for small children. So I had to make him a bit rounder and more ‘cuddly’. Initially, I‘d also thought that all the animals would be wearing clothes, as they often do in picturebooks. But Julia had different ideas, and to be honest I was relieved. How would I have dressed the snake?

Here’s some spreads from the dummy...

I tried a lot of alternate covers for this book; I think there were twelve in total. There’s some where the Gruffalo doesn’t even feature on the cover.

My latest book with Julia is called ‘The Smeds and The Smoos’. It was quite nice to work on because it’s so different from the other books we’ve done together. The text is a bit like a mixture between Dr Seuss and Lewis Carol; it has this nonsense element. But it’s basically Romeo and Juliet in outer space.

It’s an alien story, so I didn’t have to draw any rabbits or squirrels for a change, and I could invent more. I had more freedom. But like always, I got bored with drawing the same characters over and over again. But that’s picturebooks.

There was quite a lot of development work in the case of this book. But when it’s a story about a fox or a squirrel, I don’t do this kind of stuff. Over the years, it’s become much quicker and easier working on my books. I do far less research than I used to. Now I generally just do a quick pencil sketch then go straight to artwork.

Sometimes I have to start again because things go wrong though. This was a finished piece that was abandoned. I think I suddenly thought that the rocket was far too big or something. I do that; I work on something for ages, and then I suddenly look at it from a distance and realise that something needs redoing.

Did you spot the little Gruffalo in this picture? Since ‘The Snail and the Whale’, I’ve hidden a Gruffalo in each of my books with Julia (not ‘The Ugly Five’ though).

For almost all of the books Julia and I have done together, our editor has been Alison Green. We’re an old established team. And I’ve always worked with the publisher Kate Wilson; I followed her from Macmillan to Scholastic, and then to Nosy Crow. Julia moved from Macmillan to Scholastic, and decided to stay there. So Julia and I have some of our joint titles with Macmillan and some with Scholastic. Julia does books with other illustrators for Macmillan, and I illustrate other books for Nosy Crow.

People often ask me which of the books I’ve done with Julia is my favourite. It’s quite hard to choose, but I enjoyed working on ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’. I liked the way I could do a crazy world with animals, giants, fairytale characters, everything mixed together without anyone caring or questioning it. I’ll show you a few things from the box...

For this book, the cover was changed at the last minute. The original design had the title written on a poster stuck on a brick wall, but the sales people said they wanted a landscape, so I did another one. Years later, they used the original design for a new paperback edition, so it wasn’t completely wasted in the end.

I mentioned my endless sketchbooks earlier. I’ll show you a few of them. This was mainly me playing around without thinking about what I was doing; it wasn’t a conscious thing.

I haven’t looked at these sketchbooks for ages. It was such a long time ago. I don’t work in sketchbooks like this anymore, and I no longer doodle. But for fun, I make illustrated envelopes for friends.

I often think about doing a book with just pictures, but I’m always too busy doing other things. Posthumously, perhaps there will be time to do this. I’d also love to experiment and be more spontaneous; it’s been my dream for decades to do something completely different. But when I receive a book project, I always feel under pressure to finish it, and I’m always late with everything, so I end up doing it the way I’ve always done it.

This is my drawing table, which is and always has been too small and too messy. I think I have to accept it will always be this way.

I use Saunders Waterford paper for my illustrations. It’s funny how we all have our special paper. My rough sketches are often quite small, so I have them blown up to the correct size. Then I trace the sketches on a lightbox onto my watercolour paper. After that, I draw the outlines in black ink with a dip pen. I colour everything with Ecoline inks using brushes, and then coloured pencils on top of it (I use Faber Polychromos and Prismacolour crayons). I might then need to redraw some of the black lines, or use some white gouache for highlights.

I studied History of Art in Hamburg, but left before graduating. I realised this wasn’t what I was good at; I’m not an academic.

Then I had to do my alternative service as conscientious objector. Sixteen months. There was still conscription then; that’s how old I am. I worked with mentally ill people in their homes. It was during this time that I had a friend studying ceramics at Bath Academy of Art in England. I went to visit her. I really didn’t know what else to do, so I thought maybe I could move to Bath and go to the art school. So this is what I did. The course was Visual Communications, so it was design, printmaking, photography, all that stuff. But I realised I only wanted to do illustration.

I’d gone to art college hoping to learn something. I don’t think that necessarily happened, but drawing intensively for three years was, I think, what I had needed to do. I don’t remember actually finishing any projects though.

Here’s some drawings from my student sketchbooks. I did lots of observational drawing back then, which I don’t anymore. I did it then because they told us to. I’m an obedient person!

While I was a student, I did an exchange in New York: Cooper Union Art College for three months. These drawings are of Jewish immigrants, meeting for coffee. It was 1984, so many of them were still alive; refugees from Germany or Austria. I heard them speaking German, so that’s how I knew.

Sketchbooks are such a good way of memorising things. Nobody really knows about these sketchbooks; I used to take them to interviews, but they’ve been hidden away for years.

After I graduated, I moved to London and took my portfolio around. My art teacher had suggested I should do this to get work, so that’s what I did. In those days, you had to ring them and ask to come around. I got two commissions straight away, and it’s been busy ever since, really. I’ve always had something to do.

Here’s some of my early commissions. Starting from 1985, I guess. Very pointy noses...

I did so much of this kind of work. It was a good way of earning money quickly. Occasionally, I still do editorial. I did some Brexit drawings for the remain campaign. Sadly, it didn’t help. Maybe I wrecked everything!

I’ll say a few words about the KIND book... 38 wonderful artists donated a picture to illustrate some of the many ways children can be kind. Such as sharing their toys or helping people from other countries to feel welcome.

One pound from each book sold goes to the Three Peas charity, which supports refugees from war-torn countries. It’s been a big success so far, and Three Peas has received a lot of money from sales in the UK and co-editions.

I’d quite like to do the UNKIND book next! I think illustrators would probably enjoy that, but I don’t imagine it would sell very well.

And now for something completely different! Some etchings I made when I was a student.

People often ask me which illustrators I’m inspired by. I don’t seek any direct influence on my work, but I’ve always said that Tomi Ungerer had the greatest influence on my approach to illustration. Although his style is quite different to mine, this humour and wackiness is something that has always appealed to me. And the details.

William Steig is someone I got into later, when I was already illustrating. And Edward Gorey of course. And Saul Steinberg. I think the Czech artist Jiří Šalamoun is wonderful. And I like Eva Lindström from Sweden a lot. She’s so great.

Okay, to finish with I’ll talk about the coronavirus work I’ve been doing...

I asked myself what I could do as a children’s illustrator to inform, as well as entertain, my readers here and abroad about the coronavirus. So I was glad when Nosy Crow asked me to illustrate a book on the subject. I think it’s extremely important for children and families to have access to reliable information in this unprecedented crisis.

You can download the free digital book in English here, and in over 60 other languages here.

I also wanted to do something light-hearted to cheer people up, and I thought, “What if I imagine some of our characters in corona situations?” Julia liked the idea and wrote rhymes for the new scenes. This was really more about entertainment than serious information.

Artwork and verse © Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson 2020. Based on characters from ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ (2004), ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ (2005), ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ (2002), and ‘The Gruffalo’ (1999) — © Macmillan Children’s Books.

And here’s one more thing: my ‘letter from lockdown’. On The Children’s Bookshow website, you’ll find lockdown letters from lots of other wonderful authors and illustrators.

Illustrations © Axel Scheffler. Post edited by dPICTUS.

Buy this picturebook

The Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Macmillan Children’s Books, UK, 1999

‘A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.’

Walk further into the deep dark wood, and discover what happens when a quick-witted mouse comes face to face with an owl, a snake... and a hungry Gruffalo!

‘The Gruffalo’ has become a bestselling phenomenon across the world. This award-winning rhyming story of a mouse and a monster is now a modern classic, and will enchant children for years to come.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES & DIALECTS

Afrikaans

Albanian

Arabic

Australian

Azerbaijani

Basque

Belarusian

Bengali

Breton

Bulgaria

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

Corsu

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Doric

Dundonian

Dutch

English

Esperanto

Estonian

Faroese

Farsi

Finnish

French

Frisian

Gaelic

Galician

Georgian

German

Glasgow Scots

Greek

Guernésiais

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Iceland

Indonesian

Irish

Italian

Jèrriais

Kazakh

Kölsch

Korean

Latin

Latvian

Lithuanian

Low German

Lowland Scots

Luxembourgish

Macedonian

Maltese

Manx Gaelic

Maori

Marathi

Mexican Spanish

Mongolian

Norwegian

Orcadian Scots

Polish

Portuguese

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Russian

Sami

Schwabisch

Serbian

Sesotho

Setswana

Shetland Scots

Slovakian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Swiss German

Tamil

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

US English

Vietnamese

Welsh

Xhosa

Zulu

Buy this picturebook

The Smeds and The Smoos

Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

The Smeds (who are red) never mix with the Smoos (who are blue). So when a young Smed and Smoo fall in love, their families disapprove.

But peace is restored and love conquers all in this happiest of love stories. There’s even a gorgeous purple baby to celebrate!

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Afrikaans

Catalan

Croatian

Dutch

English

Finnish

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Luxenbourghish

Polish

Russian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Buy this picturebook

Kind

Alison Green, Axel Scheffler & 38 illustrators

Alison Green Books, UK, 2019

Imagine a world where everyone is kind; how can we make that come true? With gorgeous pictures by a host of top illustrators, KIND is a timely, inspiring picturebook about the many ways children can be kind, from sharing their toys and games, to helping those from other countries feel welcome.

One pound from the sale of each printed copy will go to the Three Peas charity, which gives vital help to refugees from war-torn countries.

PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional)

English

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Italian

Korean

Netherlands

Portuguese (Brazil)

Romanian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Vietnamese

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 4)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Read the pages for part 4 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

This is a rare glimpse into how I tackle action scenes!! It’s rare because I rarely do it. Action is honestly one of the hardest things for me to draw, and as I’m sure I’ve said here many times before, I have the utmost respect for shounen manga artists whose works are steeped in them. It’s a really impressive skill to be able to do it well - to create a cinematic, dynamic sense of motion that doesn’t dissolve into visual confusion and incomprehensibleness.

This was as interesting for me to document my thought process as it hopefully is for you to read and discover what the heck was going on in my head (a big honking mess, that’s what). There was much screaming and crying while working on this hahaha.

Aside from Hokushin’s beautiful face (lmao), Part 4 is packed with things I don’t usually draw. Specifically: action, things taking place in the dark, and corpses. For things taking place in the dark, I heavily referenced the dark room rounds from the tournament for Genkai’s successor in volume 4, because it involves action and Togashi used practically zero screentones in it and I didn’t want to either. For the dead rokurokubi, I looked up photos of skulls and drew on my memory of various horror comics I’ve read, like Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. (At one point I also googled photos of rotting skulls, but TBH I didn’t really want to spend a lot of time looking at detailed photographic references of corpse and decomposing bodies for obvious reasons, especially as I usually work on these comics late at night before I go to bed. The last thing I need is for images to get stuck in my brain when I’m sleeping.)

The rest of this post focuses mainly on action and redrawing things.

Script

The original script for this section actually ran a little further in the story than what’s shown here, but in order to convey the sequence effectively, I ended up stretching a number of key moments out and have booted the later ones to be completed for Part 5.

Thumbnails

In the thumbnails above, you’ll notice quite a few are redraws of the same page as I struggle - pages 31-33 repeat immediately in the rows after, page 37 was attempted three times, etc.

Page count growth

A script of 8 pages turned into 10 pages at the thumbnail stage, and then ultimately netted out at 12 pages in the final version that was posted. As you can see, effective action sequences generally take me more pages than I think they will. With an exception (documented below).

Thumbnailing/storyboarding things out should theoretically minimize the page count creep! But because I tend to treat my thumbnails as such a loose stage (to avoid later disappointment when I can’t recreate it as nicely in the final page), I rush through them. Unfortunately, action sequences require me to think a lot more carefully through the scene as a director - staging the shot and the experience of the motion and coordinating people’s limbs and all the items in the scene more carefully and whatnot than, say, just a couple of heads talking. So inevitably, when I rush to get ahead to the finished pages, that’s when I realize it doesn’t flow as well as I was imagining (or not really imagining it).

As a result, the actual “live” pages turn into constant mental checks and runthroughs of the panels, realizing it’s not flowing as well as I’d like, and restarting. By restarting I mean mentally reenvisioning the sequence, sometimes quickly doodling alternate thumbnails (I didn’t bother in this case, so I have no alternate examples from after I started redrawing), and erasing and redrawing and adding pages. I guess I could probably avoid this if I just stop and put more time into thinking through the thumbnails… but it seems like I end up revising no matter what. So, constant juggling forever.

The evolution of the key action sequence

In my head, the main sequence was:

Hokushin lands.

He gets up and feels something in the dark.

He discovers the rokurokubi corpse.

He turns around to discover a swarm of hands in the dark!

Ahhh hands!! Ahhhh!!

Then he gets sealed and stringed up. End action sequence, back to people standing - or hanging out, I guess - and talking.

I roughed out my panels and pencils for all the pages following my thumbnails instead of doing one page at a time, because I’m impatient and also tend to think of all the pages as a wholistic narrative and then drilling down to the details on each page (big to small perspective).

As I went back over each page and detailing the base pencil art more, I began noticing more issues with the flow of the action and the pagination. Things started really shifting and changing at point 4. Here’s essentially how my thinking played out as I drew:

He turns around to discover a swarm of hands in the dark! - WAIT he just sees the corpse and then turns around? I should have him sense something is behind him first to get you more into his head and experience. OK, insert another panel of him sensing and whatever. THEN he can turn around. This is also good because I can erase the panel where he’s turning around and give the first panel a bit more room so I can draw more of his body in the first one and make his startled falling back motion a bit clearer.

HANDS!! AHHH HANDS!! - Wait, I have hands coming from BEHIND him and don’t effectively show that before they just appear to grab his hair. Which I suppose they do, but when I review panel flow it seems jarring, like a poorly directed cut and something was missing. Let’s try adding some hands behind him in the panel where he looks shocked. Never mind, this looks dumb and he looks dumb and basically seems even more like an afterthought. Ooh, better idea: let’s have him dodge the first wave of hands. That’ll be kinda cool and more interesting. And then he can land and be like OH SHIT MORE HANDS FROM EVERY DIRECTION

Ahhh hands!! Ahhhh!! - Hmm, maybe I should add a page here to better capture his dodge sequence. So the panels will be hands, dodge, and then the next page is he lands, then he realizes there are more hands behind him. How crouched down should he be? I guess in the later pages I basically drew him in a practically fully upright position… eh.. Working this out...

*starts drawing extra page* … Mmm, thinking about this again, no. It stretches things out too much. Now it feels like he lands, the new page adds an extra pause that could be interpreted unconsciously as he thinks he’s ok, then he gets attacked by hands from behind. But that’s ridiculous because he’s a rokurokubi, he KNOWS the hands can come back around or whatever, and he’s a good and cautious fighter, the extra pause doesn’t seem to fit. Thinking this through, basically I need it to feel faster - he lands (typed “he hands” there first time around haha), and he doesn’t have a chance to react again before it turns out hands are coming from all directions. So, I’ll keep it to the one original page and draw the reaction to the sound of the hands coming from everywhere. Done. (one of the few instances where I reduce page count in an action sequence)

Oh yeah, I forgot about his arms and legs getting sealed. Er, add another page. OK done.

For comparison, below are photos of the pencils for pages 35 and 36 before the above process:

... and after:

Redraws

I generally try to avoid redrawing an entire image/page from scratch if I don’t have to.  Even if I don’t like the overall drawing, I’m still terrified of effing up the parts that turned out OK the first time around. However, sometimes you gotta know when to cut your losses and start anew and save yourself time and grief (I’m definitely still learning how to know lol). I do have a few strategies to ease my mind - I often take photos of something before I proceed to the next step or change direction (which is where many of these wip photos come from). This helps calm me down because at least now I have a reference for what it was before I took the leap of faith to move forward. Another option is to just leave it and draw on a completely new blank page.

Page 37, where Hokushin is getting his head pulled back by the hands, was an incredibly rare instance of the pencils for a page turning out almost exactly how I wanted on the first try, so I was loathe to redraw or adjust it. This means I basically forced myself to shuffle things before and after to accommodate not having to change it.

On the flipside, page 40, where the shot backs away so you can see Hokushin tied up with the hands, is one I full-on redrew from scratch. I was having a hard time with his pose and how all the hands were wrapped around him and how everything was actually working. I wasn’t happy with the drawing the first time around, but inked it anyways to see if I would like it better the next morning (sometimes this works, to wait and look at it with a distanced frame of mind). Spoiler, I didn’t lol. However, the process of inking the entire thing helped me better hone in on what parts I liked and didn’t like, so when I sketched it out again I was better able to adjust.

This photo shows the original (with the words REDRAW :/ at the bottom), a sketch I did trying to figure out his posture and where all the hands were/how the wrapping actually worked, and then the pencils of the redraw.

Final miscellaneous things

The end page of Part 4 is once again a last minute addition that resulted because I was facing a blank page (again!) after adding the page where Hokushin gets his arms and legs sealed. I changed the spoken line multiple times. First it was a line that’s been pushed to the upcoming part 5, then it was the “You certainly found my “treasure room” quickly” (that’s on the previous page). In the end, I just wrote a completely new line for it. It seemed to work better with the panel and closing off this part at a good point.

Last but not least, I somehow broke my pen inking this part lmao. Fortunately it’s a Muji pen so I only broke the tip off the cartridge somehow, probably in my intense scribbling/shading at some point. It’s not super clear in the photo but if you look closely at the point you’ll see this thin line coming out of the tip of the pen - it was this metal filament that basically scratched the paper without any ink coming out. I had to make an emergency run to two Mujis, neither of which had the black refills, so I ended up just buying two pens with similar thicknesses. Worst case scenario, I would have just inked with my blue cartridge, since the scanning would turn everything black and white anyways... the original pages would have just looked weird.

Phew! Hopefully it worked out and isn’t a totally incoherent mess!

[fuzaointerviewproject]

Online project | #05 Roef Gerbang & 108

Round #05

Roef Gerbang  : RG

Guido Bisagni : 108

Their conversation will be presented in ways like chat record of social network

RG: Hi! Mr.Guido.My name is Cheung. I’m Meiko’s friend, so nice to meet you! Meiko said we could can make this conversation together,  so where can we start? oh, by the way, I’m a skateboarder as well!

108: Hey Cheung! How are you? Nice to meet you! I was a skateboarder! now I have 42 years old, I still have my skateboards, but it's better if I walk or I use bike :)

If you want we can start with something about skateboarding and art/stuff related to it! Like when and why you started to skate or something like that! I'm always super interested about it

RG: Yes,Mr Guido！let‘s start talk to Sk8，good choice！By the way, I’will be 39 years old till June this year！So in fact I‘m not young neither！But I still skate 2 or 3times per week，sometime 4. So I think Sk8 is good for healthy, keep ur legs strong…I mean it can also keep you feel young，I feel like I’m sort of old monster try to grab the youth power in my hand！and that's why I keep skating.. I told Meiko：“thank you for introducing a Sk8 homie in Italy！I started to go skateboarding since 2016，at that time I worked as a illustrator in Ad company，one day a project which needed to look for some reference about surf，I thought surfing is cool，but I’m not living by the sea，then I noticed skateboard…I was just wanna a board that can cursing around，but when I step on it，I addicted into it，riding stuff can‘t satisfied me anymore，then Ollie，bs/fs 180，shuvit……and my Sk8 journey turn on?How about yours？

108：(Hey, sorry yesterday I uploaded too many stories and message section went out of control)

Heheh, nice to hear that I'm not "so old" so! Anyway, the past year I met two times my old friends, we went to visit a very nice place just out from our city called Skatefarm, it's like a DIY skatepak made by great skaters. Anyway, I'm not able to skate on a skatepark and I age made me very scared about it. I was a skater mainly in the 90's and we had just the street. I started to skate around 1990 with a plastic toy skatebord of my sister than I met new people. Some of them are still some of my best friends, It was not just about learning tricks, it was a weird way of life, I spent every day of my life on a supermarket parking for many years! Crazy, after the boom in the 80's during the early 90's skateboards became very underground and crazy, we dressed xxxl all the times and we were real misfits. For sure skateboard was one of the most important thing in my life, it changed everything.We were all coming from a low/mid class and it gave us the possibility to came out from our small city situation, through it I discovered all that kind of music I still like, graffiti, art, I became a vegetarian because I red a interview with Ed Templeton when I was 17 and still I'm, so for sure, skateboarding is part of me.

Old photo from 108, the parking of supermarket, with his skate crew in 1992 in his spot in the city of Alessandria, Italy.

Old photo from 108, the parking of supermarket, with his skate crew in 1993 in his spot in the city of Alessandria, Italy.

This photo is me in 1993 ? - So, I'm curious: for me skateboard was very important to know art and new kinds of culture: punk, graffiti, and than arts, video making and stuff! You came to skateboard through illustration is that right? It was a different process, let me know about that!

RG: Oh my god... ...the 90's ! The golden and glory 90's ! Mr Guido you’re the true legend ! Meiko told me before that you have been skated for very lonnnng time ! And so do you ! I really wish you can go skateboarding again in future even if only on flat ground ! I really admire that you can have awesome relationships with your guys in 90's ! Nowadays skaters in china , especially the Z generation don't connect with each other oftenly. Most of the time kids just put on ear phone and skate on their own . I do have a little friends who can skate together sometimes , but most of the time , I skate alone . But that's ok , I just yearn for the 90's and 90's people , that's all look at your photos seems like you can do flip trick... ... I still learning , to land my first Kickflip is so damn difficult..

“See Saw” illustration by Roef Gerbang

Yeah, but actually I came to Sk8 through my last job , since then on I do put lots of illustration into it . And it is also my goal in future... I still need to make more skateboard art that can allow me to cooperate with skateboarding brands . 

I also want to make skateboarding film , this art form can also let me use my art to do something with it , I’m working my first skateboarding film in process , it’s cost me nearly 2 years...

“Traffic Jam” illustration by Roef Gerbang

“Chazslater” illustration by Roef Gerbang

“Sad skater” illustration by Roef Gerbang

“Cicollins no comply party” illustration by Roef Gerbang

“Catch” illustration by Roef Gerbang

“Lawson 2：00 am” illustration by Roef Gerbang

Hope my film can come out this year . last year I was planed it when I finish the film maybe take it to some skateboarding film festival but cause of coronavirus spreading to all over the world , now I don't know whether there's any skateboarding film festival will open this year?

I’m confusing now that should I save the film to next year when the world become normally and take it to festival ? or I just put it on internet this year...damn, so hard to decide!

Roef Gerbang’s first skateboard

Doodle on first board…

Roef Gerbang’s first shoes for skate

This is when Cheung studied ollie，it torture a long time, and now still torturing he, so sometime he call himself ‘  “Ollie Patient”

And this is now，Cheung can only do some spin trick and basic rail/box trick

I make comic , cartoon and figural art a lot...sometimes I make animation as well, I think i don't have a abstract thinking brain，lol?

"Three Posture People" Acrylic, Wall Post 2019

I can only feel what I see and transfer them into my art style...I found sometimes when I feel extremely tired while I still working in front of computer...my eyes already closed at that time…but my mouse still working on photoshop...and I will suddenly wake up and saw a abstract image…

“Bear man” series product  by Roef Gerbang

I 'm very curious about your art , when you working on them what are you thinking?

And what lead you through all that pictures till finished ? Instinct ? or the result of practice yourself so many years?I really like this your work (the photo below) because they are looks like butterflies, very beautiful…but the rest of them are too abstract to me? I can only figure out they‘re shapes with texture…but still look fun and mystery！

KU2 large pattern, by 108

I like this one… the patten line into a rule looks so coool！If it can be designed for shirts or trousers must be nice！Looks very high-class!

108: Wow, you are very good to skate! I'm not able to do anything anymore! hahaha, After 10 minutes my back is broken! I was able to do some filp tricks 20 years ago, I started during the "flat" times, so we were making a trick very low. The biggest problem is that in 97 I broke my wrist, and I went to the hospital after 3 months, hahah so, it's still broken. Sometimes it cause a lot of problems I can't do some kind of sports, I need the stick when I paint huge walls. I'm very very scared about it, if I fall on it I have to stop to work for months and I can't work. Anyway, I'm thinking about buying some bigger and softer wheels to ride a bit sometimes, we'll see! Here we are all inside home too.

CORPOPARASSOTA Photography series by 108

Maurilio Arcivescovo by 108, 2012

About your questions 

1) I 'm very curious about your art , when you working on them what are you thinking about ?

It's not easy to reply: I think about too many things, the core of my research is the form. I like forms, everywhere, in nature, old primitive art, design, everywhere. I love textures, colors, but mainly it's about forms and lines. there two parts: irrational/irrational, planned, random, geometrical/organic... I try to find a balance or a total contrast on the two parts.

Large wall painted by 108 in Brescia, Italy, 2019

The work of 108 at Bunker, Turin, Italy, 2013

The work of 108 at Barcelona, Spain, 2014

The work of 108 at Brooklyn area, New York, America

2) And what lead you through all that pictures till finished ? Instinct ? or the result of practice yourself so many years ?

Some works, usually canvases are made with a first sketch, than I start to work and I change it, I don't like to plan, process is important as the final product. Other works, for example the black and white lines/patterns on paper or sometimes on walls, are more like a meditation. I decide some rules and than I follow those rules, trying not to think about anything, just focus on the process. I got a lot of inspiration from eastern art and philosophy, both aesthetically and conceptually. In fact I really like the connection between west and east, not just in art.

The work of 108 at Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2017

The wall of 108 with nuns at Buenos Aires, Argentine.

Every year I buy the annual subscription for the museums in my region, I go maybe 7-8 times in a year to see the Eastern art museum in Torino (MAO) I'm crazy for it, there is a big Chinese section, I need to search pics and I'll show you some my favorite objects!

Some of 108 favorite art works at the art museum in Turin (MAO)

So, skateboard is something that came from US basically, now it's a global thing, but for me too it was something exotic. What inspire you, I mean do you find inspiration inside Chinese culture too? how do you mix the two things?

RG: Sorry, Mr Guido！Reply lately…I was thinking about how to answer your question better…

Oh my god, not realize that you have been injured so badly..:(

My wrist and ankle have problems too，and I also don‘t jump stairs for years…flat ground and stage are better for me, hahaha....

For the question: to find inspiration inside Chinese culture too？

Yes, of course I am. I do inspired by Chinese culture , especially from traditional Chinese painting...the ancients they had have rich technique of expression : the line can be separated into many forms, such as dry , wet , heavy , light and so on and colors as well , for example , if you wanna painting a pine tree ,before you painting the pine needle you should paint a color first , then before the color dry , you draw line on that color can make the two parts mixed well..

“The leader“ illustration by Roef Gerbang

I also learn how to compose and leave “white space”？or should I say“blank space”（don‘t know the description right or wrong，but in Chinese called“留白”）from Chinese traditional painting，and really help me a lot, I pay more attention on form too，learn lots of things from not only Chinese traditional painting but old asian art.

I study how to control the line‘s rhythm, draw a line when going fast or slow down；how to make your art looks more interesting, more art sense will always be the lessons.

“Crow perched on willow tree in spring” , by Zhu Da (八大山人), Qing Dynasty

This work from famous painter of Ming Dynasty named：Zhu Da, aka. 八大山人(Ba Da Shan Ren）You can find that he got very special style to paint birds and another animals，and his art is too much different from other ancient Chinese artists

Look at these three unique tigers

“Bee and tiger” painted by Hua Yan（1682-1756）

“Bee and tiger” this image is the detail of the painting, usually people can‘t see that bee，actually it’s on the right corner when you see the whole picture, and the tiger is not aggressive as usual, scared, the ears also fell down，bend the tail, afraid of bee‘s sting...

Old Korean painting，unknown artist

Painted by Yanagisawa Kien (柳泽建) Japanese painter, Edo period, 18 century

I found these art works they always pursue some kinds of weird feel，not only copy the truth but more expressive force.

"After Party" acrylic, abandoned old skateboard, 2019

And this is also my goal, like I say more expression, more art scene. You noticed irrational, random, plan…I’m agree with you, I also like the process more than result, painting is more like adventure, like fishing, I like the view on the road more than arrival, enjoy more the fish bite the bait than cook them.

Comic Exhibition, painting by Roef Gerbang, Hamburg, Germany 2018

"Stranger" watercolor on paper, by Roef Gerbang, 2014 

Yanshu book 48-hour comic production project, “Deja Vu” 2015

"Some like it blue" Hong Kong 62 Independent Cartoonists Group Exhibition 2016

I like simple technique to describe a thing，but interesting，that‘s what I learn from the ancient artists，oh，nearly forgot，many outsider art teach me a lot as well

So let me ask one last question for you Mr Guido：how do you think about storytelling and abstract art relationship？Do you think is there any possibility to make storyline into abstract art？

"Bs tailslide ignition" , acrylic on paper, 2017

So glad to talking with you, I‘m really enjoy the sk8 and art topic！Hope we can meet each other after coronavirus！maybe in future I‘m looking forward to that day，wish you keep pushing and have a long artistic life，Ciao！

The "Puzzle" short story is included in the "GAME" comic compilation, published by Wild Things Press

108：Ciao Cheung! ￰ Thanks a lot for it, Chao is fine to me!!! And sorry for my late reply too!

I can say ni hao, it sounds not so different, but I'm not able to write it in chinese :(

Thanks a lot for your reply, for the artists and for the pics those tigers looks so "modern"! I'm very familiar with japanese art and culture, here, expecially my generation, we grew up with japanese cartoons on tv, manga, than music and stuff... I know that large part of japanese culture has roots in chinese culture, like zen buddhism or calligraphy, but for years it was very hard to be in contact with it., so I'm always trying to find out more about it and to understand it.

So..about your question: "Let me ask one last question for you Mr Guido：how do you think about storytelling and abstract art relationship？Do you think is there any possibility to make storyline into abstract art?"

First of all, I need to explain that I don't like labels. I mean, of course I use the word "abstract" to explain quickly what I usually do, but labels describes borders. I think in 2020 we have the possibility to explore many kinds of visual arts, many different medias... so yes, I think it's possible to tell stories with "abstract art".

"Sogno Lucido" by 108, 2019

"The key" by 108, 2019

"Blue" by 108

"the entrance of the dream" by 108

"La Casa Park" by 108, 2019

Tele exhibition in New York, La Casa Park.art, 2019

The work of 108 in the Milan Triennale 2008, Italy

Ceramic installation by 108

Figurations, clay, by 108

Complete figurations,  by 108

Installation Museum of the incomprehensible Antonio Colombo 2019 Milan, Italy

I mean usually yes, my work is visually abstract but I love to put a lot of things in what I do. First of all I think that all my pieces are connected and there a lot of things inside them. Cinema (or video) is a very complete for of art: you have the image, a story, the sound... with pictures you have to put everything on a single image.

Trollhattan Sweden 2016

Saeio catanzaro, by 108

Solo exhibition of 108 in Lyon, France, 2020

Archaeological Museum books above, book made by 108, Palermo, Italy, 2019

But there is more: I work also with sounds for example and sometimes I made some videos, but what fascinates me the most about any kind of art, is when it gives you a lot (ideas, feelings) but it don't gives you everything. I need some un explained parts, some shadows where I can enter and I start to imagine and to build my own world. What I like about some "not figurative" art is this kind of mystery inside it. But it can be also a movie or a photo or a landscape or anything else! I hope you understand what I mean.

"24 Tapes" series, made of 108

Exr in Seoul, wall painted by 108, 2016

So, do you think is this enough? I'll search for some pictures to add to the text! 谢谢 Mr.Cheung! It was a real pleasure to talk with you! I hope, if the virus will let us travel again, to visit China in the next years finally and of course if you are around northern Italy I will be happy to meet you! Let’s keep in touch on Instagram!

Painting on Etna Vulcano, 108

RG: Mr Guido. Those characters you showed me that from MAO are the Tomb Beast…？？In Chinese called“镇墓兽”. They‘re the guardians of tomb. In Chinese culture，people think that when people died（their soul）go to the other side of the world，there’re countless ghosts，evil spirits will harm the soul. So the guardians (have human’s face，beast‘s body) they can protect the soul stay away from the demon, and keep them safety.

108: Yes exactly! There are many of them! Amazing, they looks so modern and I like so much these kind of stories.

RG: Mr Guido, I think about our last talk “labels describes borders” couple of days ago…and it make me sense，like，portrait painting，still-life painting with very realistic technique will boring for me, it’s lack of imagination, but in the other way, if the portrait, landscape painting with simple and refining technique can make me watch for a long time. it‘s super cool tho..

So in fact I’m the guy just like you who searching for the shadows as well..:)

108: I understand very well! I love portraits, landscapes and still lifes too. But I enjoy when you can find something interesting on the way they are made. I like eastern art and modern art because usually feelings are more important than hyper realistic technique.

RG: Yes, painting should involve not only technology but also emotion.

______________________________________________________________

108 (1978, Alessandria, Italy) he lives and works between Alessandria and Milan. Among the major exponents of post-graffiti in Italy, he began his artistic research with an approach to traditional graffiti. At the end of the nineties, after moving to Milan in 1997 and graduating in industrial design from the Politecnico Milan, his stylistic figure evolved formally and conceptually, so much so that he became one of the first artists to use numbers and not letters to sign his own. works. 

His abstract forms and mysterious figures begin to appear in the abandoned spaces of the streets of Milan, Berlin, London, New York and Paris. Not limiting his production, in addition to Muralism he also ventures with sculptures, sounds, paintings and installations in dozens of personal and collective exhibitions. Among the main ones are participation in 2007 at the Venice Biennale with the Walls Inside project.

Roerf Gerbang a native of Chengdu, China, now lives and works in Shanghai and he is currently UID SH Senior Illustrator. 

A person who is a neighbor to art and skateboarding, usually like play skateboarding and painting, he love good stories, good weather, good coffee, and good wine.

______________________________________________________________

Contact:

108:

http://www.108nero.com/

Instagram:

108_108_108 & yiklui_cheung