Håndbok for Unge Antirasister

I had the joy to work on a children’s book for Norway’s lead publisher, Cappelen Damm. “Hånbok for unge antirasister” is written by Tinashe Williamson and aimed at kids ages 10-12. It discusses racism in Norway and is a tool for children and families to discuss difficult topics relating to race.

This book is in line with everything that I value as a person and an artist. Representation and focus on the younger generations is the best way that we can make lasting and impactfull change. Furthermore, the book has a set of characters that guide the reader through it and through discussion with eachother and the reader they explain the more difficult concepts in the book. This gave me the incredible task of designing the characters and that is where i started.

 

Characters

Without going into too much detail about each character, the main focus of the design was youthfulness and “cool” energy. We wanted them to reflect contemporary styles in a bright and bold way. Contrasts between sharp and soft lines also became a hallmark for the style.

Below are some of the early sketches for the characters.

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Cover

The cover was a big undertaking with many rounds of sketching. The cover would have all the characters on it in a positive and empowered way.

Interior

The interior was a massive undertaking and with only one month to complete all the drawings it was absolutely essential to have a good system. I made a comprehensive Excel sheet of the 80 drawings , what page they were on and a brief description of them. Combined with my iPad to computer workflow I managed to keep a high production rate and great flexibility.

Dungeons and Dragons

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This is less of a project and more just for my own satisfaction, but I wanted to highlight some of my D&D art. Specifically a series of drawings I have done to be used as miniatures. They are also drawn in the same style as an exercise in style consistency. To create the mini, I printed out a smaller version of the drawing and laminated it. This was a cheap and efficient way to create a mini true to my vision of the character. Now I am in that position where I cannot make a new D&D character without drawing them in this style.

Queercoded

I was approached by Oliver Darkshire to illustrate two gods from the Dungeons & Dragons pantheon for his re-imagining of D&D characters as queer villains. This addition to a 5E campaign is available for purchase on Dungeon Master’s Guild.

I was asked to design The Raven Queen and Lolth, something I was very excited about since they are two very famous names in D&D lore. This project could not be better suited for me, as a queer woman myself and as someone who is passionate about diverse representation I was thrilled to be able to sink my teeth into this. Since I also love Dungeons & Dragons I was very excited to be featured in work that someone could be using in their campaign.

The Raven Queen

The Raven Queen is a very mysterious god of memory, she has rarely been seen in physical form and I wanted to continue this sense of mystery. Her body is elongated and she is beautiful, but clearly not fully human anymore. She is a deity deeply connected to sorrow and death so the imagery of the veil covering her face creates those associations. Her colour palette is dark and dramatic and her red lips is a reference to Matt Mercer’s interpretations of The Raven Queen from Critical Role Campaign 1.

Below you see one of the ways the art is presented in Queercoded. I love the integration between text and art and think Oliver did a great job presenting all the beautiful work he had commissioned for the book.

Lolth : The Spider Queen

Lolth was a lot more challenging to me than The Raven Queen, mostly because I am deadly afraid of spiders and did have issues with finding reference pictures that did not make my skin crawl. But with help from some friends and a lot of exercises in shutting my brain off, I managed to get through it. For Lolth I wanted her to be maternal and beautiful, I wanted her to feel organic, but also threatening. She is the Spider Queen and main deity of the drow (Dark Elves), I wanted to combine elements of both these things. Drow is largely associated with geometric designs and metalwork featuring less organic curves than Elves in the world above. However, I also wanted to lean heavily into the spider imagery. I had a vision of a woman entirely encapsulated in spiderwebs, her dress is woven and mended as she walks and a host of spiders trail behind her like a cape as she is both their home and their queen. Eggs dot her body like pearls and her red gems glisten like blood, a reference to her signature colour and the harsh nature of her religion.

Oliver opted to not use Lolth in the same way as The Raven Queen, but still featured the art in the book, which was very nice of him.

Outland

I have worked for Outland on-and-off for the better half of six years. They are Norway’s leading comic book and pop-culture store. They hired me to create a motion graphic intro for the newly started Youtube-channel. Later I lead a larger animation project. I planned and animated five different stages of the company mascot to be used in their loyalty app. The design of the dragon and the backgrounds were created by Outland’s previous graphic designer, Astrid Øen Olsen, who also assisted on the animation project. Following this I was taken on as the only graphic designer for the chain and put in charge of producing all digital and printed promotional material for the stores and online shop.

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Animation Process

Spotlight on the pre-production and production process of this animation. This is representative of the other work in this series.

This project was under a tight deadline. Five short animations needed to be completed within a little over a month. They are to be used in a loyalty app where one have different “levels” of loyalty, from 1-20 the app changes every 5 levels, with a unique animation for level 20. The format needed to be looping GIFs to be compatible with the application.

Pre-Production

Due to the extremely short deadline it was important that any problems were sorted out in pre-production. I created some sketches of the character and testes various poses and acted out movements. Then I translated them to a storyboard and recognized the original idea did not work. Back to the drawing board, i created a new a new storyboard that worked better for the general progression of the character. When this was approved and agreed upon I made a dope sheet. This was a great way for me to keep track of the different elements. Usually I would create an animatic before moving on the dope sheet, but considering the restricted timeline I had to prioritize efficiency. Each animation needed to be completed within a week to be finished in time. The dope sheet was therefore a crucial aid in getting the general structure of the animation and to limit time experimenting. Any changes I made to the timing underway were recorded on the dope sheet as well.

Production

The first step in production was to test the timing. You can see the initial test in the first GIF below, pleased with the general progression I start sketching in the tween frames to get a better sense of the flow. This can be seen in the second GIF. After small tweaks and changes, I start creating the line art. When the lines were smooth and consistent they were coloured and composited over the background to be later exported as a GIF.

Barn Owl Trust

2019

As someone with an above-average interest in animals and a deep love for birds I was browsing the Barn Owl Trust website one day and saw they were requesting artists to contact them if they wanted to supply work for the trust. I did just that and didn’t hear anything for a while, until one random autumn day where they reached out requesting work for a new line of merchandise they were producing. Of course I wanted to help and I created two designs based on their pitch and with a few rounds of feedback we had created several completed designs that you can now find on : www.barnowltrust.teemill.com/collection/the-thea-jacobsen-collection/ in what they flatteringly dubbed the “Thea Jacobsen Collection”.

Oak Moon Games Banner

In 2018 I was asked to draw the new social media banner for Oak Moon Games. Oak Moon Games is a fantastic indie game company focusing on promoting women in the gaming industry and strong female representation in games. This is a cause that is very close to my heart so I was thrilled to be able to create a banner representing all different women, playing/creating all different games. Thank you to Alice Winter for approaching me with this task.

You can find Oak Moon Games on www.oakmoongames.com
The banner I created can be seen on Facebook and their other social media.

Music Video: Patroniser

I was approached by Kal Turnbull of The Zenons in 2018, he commissioned a music video for his song "Patroniser" for his new EP. The time frame was very short, he contacted me at the end of September and needed the video by early November. He wanted a video that felt more like a series of illustrations with some animation to break it up. I approached this project as a comic book, looking at the key parts of the story he had given me and figuring out how this could be illustrated and then afterwards looking at what parts could be animated. Then I animated and edited the video to the music, and after a couple requested changes I finished the project.

Narve

Here I present the design and creation of Narve, a viking grave robber. A project from 2018 Year 2 of university.

Tasked with creating an "anti hero" I started drafting ideas for gangsters and minotaurs, but unsatisfied I decided to delve into my own country's history. I thought about torturers and warriors, but landed on a grave robber. I wanted to create a character who stood in contrast to the fetishized vikings of modern media. A grave robber seemed the perfect choice, for who better to grave rob than the vikings who buried themselves with theirs most precious belongings.

So I created a skinny young man named "Narve", shunned from his village. He shows a different part of the viking "image", no muscles, no double edged battle ax, and most importantly - no horns. 

My creation process relies heavily on research. The first thing I do is decide what kind of "feeling/aura" I want the character to have and what narrative effect they have or are connected to. Then I start researching, I let the research guide a lot of the visual appeal of the character. Such as colour scheme, items, clothing, hairstyle, and to some extent, physique. I will of course have some preconception of what I want the character to look like, thus I tailor my research to investigate whether that would be possible in connection to the character's situation. For example, here I wanted the character to have a tattoo, but I was unsure whether or not viking actually had tattoos, so I did a lot of research, and most sources said that it was highly likely that they did, thus I started looking at what kind of tattoo and ended up with the imagery seen above, which was taken from an old Norse woodcarving. I also look at the state of the item/subject. 

I start with concept art that portrays the feeling I want and then start narrowing in on details, such as colour, clothes and poses.

For a complete look at the process of creating Narve, take a look at my blog at: http://theaanimates.tumblr.com/

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4 Minutes

2016 - University Year 1

4 Minutes was an animation concept that I developed. The idea is based around people meeting and waiting for the underground. Much inspired by Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". The work would be 4 minutes long (approximately the same amount of time you would wait for the tube) People would slowly walk onto the platform and we would view their behaviour and interactions. The work would loop perfectly meaning you could watch people wait for the tube forever.