Thomas Mikkelsen Illustration

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2012-01-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

Random update to keep this blog alive. I'm curently making backgrounds for an animated short, and these are some concepts and a finished piece.

The rest is a random mix of work and gifts.

The Daily Dungeon Crawl

2011-09-28T02:23:00.000-07:00

Made a Daily Blog. It is my geeky loveletter to all that is RPG'ish. Lets see how far it will go.

Have been gone from this blog for a long time thou, but hopefully something will come up, in a not too distant future.

Sketchbook

2011-05-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a prober sketchbook since highschool, but some time ago I bought a watercolour one and have loved it since. I'm not using watercolour in it thou'. mostly just markers. No big project lately cause' of diaper changin, so instead you get some poorly scanned pages from the sketchbook.

arts & crafts

2011-04-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

My mom fell in love with a naive south-american crusifix in a mexican resturant. I tried to find one for her, but it wasnt anywhere to find in Copenhagen. I then decided to make one by myself out of salty clay, since I don't own an owen that can bake real clay. I tried to add some Christian and south american elements in it. Together with some elements representing my me and my mom.

She was happy, and I was happy, but it will be some time before I touch salty clay again.

This was a gift for a girl I know. She worship these characters (hence more arms)

This was a piece I did for my gallery. All artist were given the subject wood.

pokemons and D&D

2010-10-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

I got a postcard from my friend Mikkel Sommer who had been in London with his girlfriend. On the card he had made a drawing of me as a pokemon in 3 stages. I loved it so much that I made it into a gif animation, and then I loved it again.

Kiwiwee, Kiwiwhizzer and Kiwicorn

This is a drawing of my friend Lene and me fighting monsters.

I might colour it later.

Animal Cruelty 2.0 + some petit hunters

2010-09-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

A drawing I made for my cousin’ daughter’ baptizing party. Her name is Ravna so I made a raven girl and her cat friend collecting mushrooms with a broadsword.

These are the rest of my animal Cruelty illustrations. I'm pretty happy with most of them, and some of them I can't bear look at. Even left out two of them from my blog.

Animal Cruelty

2010-06-27T02:13:00.001-07:00

I'm doin' a show later this summer with some cool dudes from my studio. We wanted to have a vague topic, and we agreed to do something with animals.... For now my series is called "animal Cruelty" until I find something better. The show itself is called "Små Vildt" (small game). Will tell more later. Here is the first of my drawings thou'. The first out of 15 0_0

Rococo Samurai

2010-06-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yay! I got a table at this studio in Copenhagen. Its the oldest comic studio in Denmark, so alot of big Danish names have worked here I could imagine.

I'm working on different stuff, but nothing is finished so I will just upload this samurai I did some time ago. Thinkung 'bout doin a comic about her, but say that, to almost everything these days.

Character Design

2010-05-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

At the moment I'm doing some character design for a childrens book that I have wanted to do in some years now. These are for the protagonist, who is a small Danish wizard.

This was my first final design

Then I tried to draw him in a whole other style, which is much influenced by the illustrator Josh Cochran. I feel way more comfortable with this because it's so close to how I sketch, and it also fitted some of the other characters better.

This is a younger looking guy

And the (for now) final design. I'm sure I'm gonna make some changes but think it's pretty close to what I want. Not sure about colours yet, but wanna give it more me and less Cochran.

peace

Old Forgotten Comic

2010-05-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

I want to post my first finished comic too. It has only been published on deviantart, and that's a shame 'cause I really liked it. It is very much inspired by a series called "Pirates of Coney Island" which was written by Rick Spears and drawn by Vasilis Lolos.

Actually when I think about it, my first comic series was for the elementary school newspaper. It was about a man who always ended up being flattened. And another one about a dog who always got wasted. But I think both series

are lost somewhere, but if I find them I should def upload them.

Comics

2010-04-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I recently made 2 comics and they are both being published this may!

The first one is called "Montée Canadienne" and is for a Danish anthology called "Sprit". Its 7 pages, so will only show one here.

Actually I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to show this stuff before its out, so don't tell anyone(:

The other one is a book on its own, based on a old Icelandic folktale. Sorry its in Danish by the way. Can't wait for this to get out, and can't wait to make more comics!

I will even sit and sign these babies at the Danish Con this May.

Kill the Orcs, Slay the Orcs, Destroy the Orcs

2010-04-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

Just random stuff really.

Will make a prober update on my 2 upcomming comics later

Sketches

some mean-lookin, leotard-wearing street-broad

A bathing Danish girl from early 1900's

chimera

I'm always drawn like a kiwi, but this is how I actually look

And a more simple version for the facebook

cheers

Big smelly pile of sketches

2010-02-01T04:07:00.000-08:00

I, just moved to Copenhagen again to work on personal projects and see if I could maybe get a job somewhere. Some kind of self studying I guess.
Ok, so I don't have anything finished to post just yet, but a ton of sketches.

I'm doin this comic that is going to be puplished this summer. Its a series of books called budget, because of low production cost. I'm pretty free to do whatever I want and I can be a bit sloppy, that's kind of the concept of the books. I just have to produce as many pages as I can. My problem is, that I'm not that good at writing.
I wanted to make a story about somalian pirates and maybe put in some dinosaurs, but that was really all I got, and It would take too much of my time to come up with an orginal story 50+pages long.

So instead I trashed the idea and now working on something completely different, but I will come back to that later.

Well at least I got to draw alot of somali pirates. Will most def do something with them later

I'm also workin on a smal 6 page story for a Danish anthology, that will be puplished the same time. Will use a lot more time on the pages here thou. Its about a French-Canadian Mountie
and a indian eating mooseman.

These are sketches from the net budget story. I found this old Icelandic folktale about the black death. Its pretty cool.

Last but not least. some random sketches of ladies and bat-people

Portfolio

2010-01-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

Ivana and the KiwiPrince

2009-11-01T05:12:00.000-08:00

The last 3 weeks, I have been makin a short animation with some guys at my school. I stood for all the characters except the monkey. I think we did a pretty good job considering how much time we had. I really like the backgrounds, the music and the story. But don't really like the characters haha. I DO like some of em' thou. Especially the crocodiles!

see it here

I also have to upload this killer portrait my friend did of me. He is such a spas

Supporting model anorexia

2009-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

Building up something that could look like a proper portfolio, and thought about branching out a bit. I don’t really wanna do something too political, so thought I wanted to give fashion illustration a try. All this is just experiments and sketches. Haven’t found any look I think will totally work, but like elements from most of them. Will have to make something more finished, but think I need tiny a break from fashion right now. Think I want to do some sport illustrations too.

My first bad tryouts

going back to sketching

A close friend said I should try to combine my own stuff with it. Don't know if this is what she ment, but actally like it overall. First I wasnt sure about the guache dress, cause you can't see the details, but I really like the dry brush though. And love how the cow-hair turned out too. Bad thing is, that it looks more like a women with a cows head instead of a minotaur, but think it helped with the greek pillar and the sandals.

Btw, the Chief and his buds are at it again at BurningWet Dinosaurs.
I tell you, something has gone wrong in his mindtank

I <3 Animals

2009-09-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

.......small update

Cock-fight

Dog-fight
Horse-fight
Cat-fight
....and some greyscale

Dino Roots

2009-09-10T15:18:00.001-07:00

We are no longer valorians.
We are the Roots!

Mythical Dykes and Buff Beserkers

2009-09-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Found this 2-year-old drawing, which I never finished and thought it was sad to just keep it in the drawer. I'm not gonna finish it now, because it has some issues that are too obvious for me today. I definitely wanna use the composition some other time, and it really makes me wanna draw mythological babes again.

Some sketches for a children’s book that I will hopefully find time to make one day. Was trying to figure out how the main character should look like without luck, instead I drew these berserkers who are gonna have a short appearance in the story. They are ready to go on a crazy shroom killing spree.

Dead Newts and Sweaty Kiwis

2009-08-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

My vacation is over, so hopefully this school year will bring more illustration courses. I doubt it thou, but there will be work from the chief instead then over at the burning dinosaurs. I don’t own a scanner and that’s why I haven’t been uploading in such a long time. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been drawing, even thou I wished I had been producing more.

Instead of making one big post of all my vacation work, I’m gonna give it to you in small sexy bites.

This is a piece of fan-art for my very talented gf Toe. Her hunter is taking a break from killing cute deers in converse shoes and tigers wearing glasses, but is now leading her anger towards real monsters like giant newts. Would be fun to make a comic with her some day. Hope I can get permission. Btw, visit her blog at babbletoe, all the cool kids does it!

The process of the kiwi working out. You need to be in shape with a nemesis like batman, and I don't wanna lie, Kiwiboy is stiff as a plank!

All the folks together

2009-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Now they'r all done, enjoy.
1. Danish Werewolf
2. Norwegian Seamonster
3. Danish dead lady
4. Swedish Ghost-Boy
5. Swedish/Norwegian Giant

Coloured Ghosts

2009-05-28T14:04:00.001-07:00

Already finished them. Not totally sure bout the colours and black background but its ok. Maybe I got time to do more than 5 now, but don't wanna push it too much:)

Danish and Swedish Ghost Stories

2009-05-28T02:13:00.000-07:00

We are having this free project at school so working on folklore Illustrations (surprice surprice). Also wanna show some more process here, so heres the sketches for the first two pieces. Hopefully done later this week.

Roll your dizzles

2009-05-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

The Chief and his lovers in crime are at it again!He is even more productive than me): gotta step it up! coloured one of his drawings thou. Check the rest out at +

Burnin' Wet Dinosaurs

2009-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

My three imaginary frineds; Chief Mighty Horse, Albert Hovercraft and Jack Hollænder just started a wicked daily blog. Well It's not actually daily, but they draw a drawing everyday, and upload em' all in a huge post every Sunday. Remember to check em' out, this weeks theme was Bubblegoose Standoff

Lines Long Forgotten

2009-05-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Been drawing cubes and objects for a while now, and these weeks we are doing some kind of sculpture stuff. And this blog is not really the place for that kind of..... blah!
Instead Im gonna upload some old lineart that I newer got to finish. I allways wanted to colour digitally, but I don't really like working with the medium that much. So now Im trying more and more to do stuff traditionally, and only a little photoshop.

Sorry bout typing errors but Im a little tired.

This one is actually pretty old, but I still kind of like it.
Wanted to do more with it but cant find the orginal:(

These werewolfs was drawn a late night with my sexy
friend Mi kkel

This is an atempt of making more of the job traditionally. Colours are still in photoshop, but shadows and texture is the real deal.This is the non-colour version

Giant Finds Crispy Gem

2009-04-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

The promised story with a giant who finds a dead lizard.The charactor is inspired(ripped) by another giant from japanese animation called Kemonozume. It is one of the best anime series you can find. It has samurais, monsters, sex and a retarded monkey. Check it out! This is the last post from the 5 week illustration course which is already over. Now I'm drawing cubes and stuff, and I don't think I'm gonna upload that.

Days of Being Friends

2009-04-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Our last assignment in the illustration course was to make a poster that should be 70x70cm. On the poster should be 49 illustration of 10x10cm. The 7 rows should have the headlines:

7 good days

7 cold days

7 wrong days

7 fun days

7 weird days

7 warm days

7 wild days

Everything else was up to us.

I already made a small story about a giant (which will be uploaded later) and wanted to do more storylike stuff. So made this 7 story about these 2 forest critters that would go through all kinds of crazy adventures. I had really crazy ideas about the layout of the poster, but we only had 7 days so I went for something safer. I also decided to do it in greyscale to save time, which only made it better I think, especially with all the raster I put in. I’m not a 100% happy with it, but glad I did it. People also seem to like it a lot so that’s all that matters.

Nasty Old Men

2009-03-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

This week we got a new teacher in Illustration. His name is Rasmus Bregnhøj, and he is a complete copy of this guy. Both in appearance and in voice. You really got to see it!

He is a good teacher thou, and the course is gonna be about sequential art, or maybe more like pictures in series (that might just be the same). As a warm up, we mad 30 ink drawings of our own face. Its hard to explain, but they should be of the same picture, but not look the same but still match each other as a whole?!

It was hard, but fun and I think mine turned out a little silly. And when my teacher walked by me, he asked if I made a lot of comics. I don’t know if that is a bad thing, but its funny it is so clear in my style.

Instead of showing them next to each other as they were intended I decided to do a small giff animation instead.

Everything in the world!

2009-03-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Finally an illustration course! I was about to kill myself after weeks of photo and typography. Was gonna upload that stuff too, but now I just want to forget about it.

Our first Illustration assignment was to draw everything in the whole world, so our teacher had made a complete list of everything, which is roughly 3000.

Afterwards he gave us rules to follow for each drawing and blab la bla, doesn’t really matter just check them out, I had so much fun with it, and tried out different mediums.

Btw, this has been the coolest teacher we have had: Mads Berg

the Cute, the Scary and the retarded

2009-02-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Feb. the 1. was my gf's birthday and I had no idea what to make her. I knew I couldn’t buy her anything because I'm broke as usual. I actual just got a job as a substitute in this youth club here in Kolding, and It's pretty sweet. All you have to do is just play around with the kids and that’s all. The downside is that its only a few nights and I doubt it will bring me much cheese, so still looking (: In secret I still hope that a good job will walk up behind me, and beat me rich while I just lean back and relax.

But back to the present. She always asks me for a tattoo design of a horse, but that is not going to happen. I just don't like making tattoos for people, cause it makes me scared that they some day will hate it. A tattoo is just too important for me to make. That’s how I feel now anyway.
So I decided just to go for a drawing.
I wanted to make her something that maybe reminded her of me or something, so I decided to go for one of my favourite topics, Danish Folklore.
I have always been interested in old stories and northern mythology, but I guess it first really started when I began reading Hellboy that I got interested in the old tales. I began reading books about it and got really amazed how much we got, just in Denmark. So one of my bigger dreams has become to some day make a book about it, with a lot of sweet illustrations.

So that was what I decided to make her. A small book on Danish folklore, with a little text. I haven’t made it as a book yet and she already got the illustrations but I hope I will get to finish it before she leaves Denmark.

From the top: Nøkken, Forbytning, Helhest, Slattenlangpatte, Lygtemænd

From the top: Ellepiger, Gårdbo, Maren, Trolde

As you can see I'm really confused about my art style for this one, so I think I will both make a children book and a book for adults.
In the end, I'm quite happy and she was happy as well, so expect to see more folklore critters. So many I have left out.

Industrial Design My Ass

2009-01-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

Some time ago we had this assignment about generating ideas. It was quite fun actually, and for the first time we got to draw silly stuff. It was hard too thou. The first week we would draw a lot of sketches of "containers" like boxes, bags, food wrapping, etc. Our teacher put up rules that we should follow all the time. First the container had to be dysfunctional then unethical and later it should have a mix of styles. We really had to think a lot and use our imagination and it was a good exercise even though the teacher was an industrial designer :p

The next week we had to take some of the drawings and make em' into actual products. Again kind of industrial design related, so I choose to make the items that used more graphic design.
First I made an earring case, which was mixed with the style of a G.I Joe packaging. I'm not sure have happy I was with it, cause' it just ended up looking like cheap H&M accessories even though I used the layout of a original GI Joe box.

Afterwards I made a schoolbag that was supposed to be carried on the head by African immigrants (yes, an unethical object). I just found a cheap schoolbag and cut away all its straps and made a brand tag for it. This was more interesting cause I tried out some new techniques in photoshop for the African boy that I will definitely try out again.

My teachers didn't like my objects that much though. They said they didn't communicate enough through form, and I guess they were right. I just didn't want to use too much energy on making objects instead of drawings. That was btw the thing that saved me from getting a bad grade. they really liked all my ideas and drawings from the first week and I think that’s most important.
Don't know if I should write down so much about a single project, its really not that interesting.

I don't care, here’s the project:
Many of my classmates made some pretty neat things:

Back with nude witches

2009-01-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a series of witches I did on my last school as a final project, enjoy!

Silkeborg Maskot

2008-11-23T07:47:00.001-08:00

Jeg deltager i en konkurrence om at designe Silkeborg børnebiblioteks nye maskot. Maskotten skulle være for biblioteksbrugere mellem 8 og 14 så vidt jeg husker. Jeg startede ud med en lidt drenget pige der skulle hedde silke, men valgte hurtigt at gi' hende robotten som maskulin modpart. I sidste ende fjernede jeg så Silke, for kun at bruge min robot.

Jeg talte senere med min ven Mikkel fra animationsskolen i Viborg, og det viser sig at både han og en del andre fra hans skole deltager): Jeg tror ikke jeg kommer til at deltage i sådan et projekt igen, det skulle da lige hvis jeg vandt de 10 kilo der er førstepræmien. Vinderen bliver fundet engang i dec. Kryds fingre for mig.

skitser af både Silke og min Robot

Det færdige resultat

Family Matters

2008-11-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

Den færdige illustration til min søsters forside. I første forsøg blev den alt for pæn og farverne holdt sig inde for stregerne, så den helt mistede charmen som skitsen havde. Kineserdrengen er også kommet mere med i familien efter henvisninger fra min søster. Håber hun blir glad(:

Skitse til en tegning min søster bestilte til en opgave hun er ved at skrive. Det skulle forestille en mor og en far med 2 adopterede børn, hvor den yngste fik mere opmærksomhed end den ældste.

(min søster læster til socialrådgiver)

Josh Cochran har inspireret en smule til billedet. Det er tydeligst i farvepaletten, men også at han tit bruger sin egen familie i sine illustrationer.

Hvis hun kan li' skitsen skulle den færdige version gerne komme om ikke så lang tid.

The first post

2008-11-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

Samurai Pugs

I start this blog so people can watch what I'm doing while studying design. But mostly because my friend/lover Mikkel made one too and I got super jeaulous.

I made the samurai dogs while I still lived in Copenhagen. I haven't made that many drawings worth showing, other than this secret projekt I'm working on, but I will upload it pretty soon.

I wanna give the dogs some more interesting colours, this was just a quick something.