I’m off to Moscow for some vacationing! Look forward to some Russian delicacies and exploring their famous subway. That’s what you get to see when temperatures drop below -25.

An early animated remake of a popular children’s book.

(Swedish:) Min mamma hittade det här när hon storstädade. Det senaste halvåret har jag pluggat lite animation som ett sidoämne och det är verkligen coolt att se ens teckningar röra på sig och få liv! Det påminner mycket om serier där man också berättar och emulerar rörelse med bilder. Men i animation tvingas man tänka på rörelserna, ljudet och timingen mer. Så det är passande att min mamma hittade den här analoga animationen jag inte ens minns att jag någonsin gjort. Men det måste varit längesen, när jag fortfarande stavade mitt namn “Ja
n.”

Here’s a long post. It’s my Christmas gift to anyone who, like me, goes online as soon as the family members start slipping into Christmas coma, only to find out that no one blogs on Christmas!

This is the print that I did for Havana Club. I intentionally used, and focused on, the male body in a sexualized way. I’m a believer in that even though female objectification is heavily overused in our society, to a point where it’s damaging to people, all objectification is impossible to completely get rid of. So I think there should be more male objectification. That way girls for once could focus on what they want, rather than on being something guys want.

Ad for Marks&Spencer (!), Aldgate East spring ‘09.

Last term we had a theoretical subject in uni (!). I did “Sex & Language” and for my essay I chose to write about the oversexualization of advertising in relation to the John Berger quote “Men act, women appear.” I used photos I had taken of billboards that were using the female anatomy to sell. It was quite obvious you can use the female body to sell absolutely anything. Only a few ads use close to naked male bodies (but there are more and more of them), but those that do always sell clothes. You never see a naked guy selling pizza. But girls…

It was a field day analyzing this!

I’m no fan of capitalism and consumerism but advertising people are the ones who dictate what images our cities and the media are covered in. So alongside trying to get them to loosen up on the “sex sells” in absurdum, they should be encouraged too at least diversify objectifications so it includes guys, letting us all share the burden. Maybe then, the guys who design the ads might feel less inclined to sexualize everything. Thing is, doing so is in their interest aswell. Sex sells -both sexes.

Pretty, non-Egyptian girl promoting Egypt with her sensual pouting lips.

Of course it not that simple. In this print I made sure there was a girl who wasn’t in focus and that didn’t look too stereotypically sexy. One reaction I got (not from the client or anyone in school) was that she should have looked sexier. The reason was that I should be targeting men, there are more of them in clubs and they buy the alcohol. I’m not saying this reaction is typical, but it’s interesting.

To me it sounds like a great way to reinforce and acknowledge gender roles. And maybe that’s exactly what’s going on in advertising? I realised I was taking a risk when I drew an image focusing on the man. Now, for me as a student it would be a pity not to get the client. But not as bad as if I was already trying to make a living off of illustration. I guess that’s why ad imagery is so full of uninspired and unmotivated sexualization of skinny female bodies, because no one is prepared to stick their neck out: You run the risk of not getting the job.

But corporations have big money to make in diversifying advertising. Sexy pictures of girls move stock, why wouldn’t pictures of boys do the same? And judging from the response we recieved from Drift, I believe there is a hunger for male objectification and sexy images of men. That’s why I’m trying to do my little bit.

This is the first test print I did. I really liked the bottom drawing even though I would never let it be published like that. This kind of dancing feels extremely patriarchal and obsolete, with the collected man leading and controlling a highly sexualized woman. I should add that I don’t mind this type of interaction between men or a women, if both parties are really into it. But I do mind that this is the main and preferably only way people are expected to act by the society we grow up in.

Also the focus is entirely on her (body) and he’s not even standing in a hot way (I actually tried). So I scrapped it. At one point the dancing couple were two female boxers but I finally went with the narrative image at the top instead. Now I have to go sketch a final final print!

Oh. And since I finished that essay I seem to run into oversexualized ads everywhere. I found this one taking the train from Copenhagen to Sweden, as the Copenhagen police force where violating the democratic rights of some 1000 people.

What? I have no idea what’s going on here. And I don’t wanna know.

But as soon as I got off the train I saw this. You can never really hate the Danes.

Me, featured in one of the coolest comic books of this year.

(Swedish:) Jag måste ge det upp för Lina Neidestam igen! Inte bara är hon jävligt cool, hon gör bra serier också. Hennes strippserie Zelda finns samlad i ett album som är ute nu och borde inhandlas av de flesta. Bilden är från tack-sidan och om jag inte misstar mig är det jag där vid kolonet. Det ser man på långa vägar, till och med tofsen i hårvirveln är med. Om det är för att Lina är mest tacksam emot mig låter jag vara osagt för det är det nog inte men jag kan ju låtsas.

Dessutom jobbar hon på nästa bok efter Drift i Femisex-serien på Kolik: Maran. Att döma av förhandstittarna på hennes blogg gör hon ett riktigt bra jobb. Med tanke på hur sexiga och underliga hennes bilder är, hur välskrivna hennes serier är och hur Kolik envisas med att överträffa sig själva med varje bok de ger ut  (kolla bara in riktigt snygga och bra Pärlor och Patroner av Loka), ser jag riktigt mycket fram emot Maran.

Två andra böcker jag ser fram emot är Karl Johnssons Mara från Ulthar och Fabians Albert Strindbergs Inferno.

Från Lina Neidestams Maran.

I’mma put these pics of me working out in my old boy’s room here cos I can call them work-related in the sense that I need to stay in shape so that my back and body doesn’t just break down from sitting bent over the drawing table all day.

Running back and forth posing as if someone else was photographing me, while I was doing it with PhotoBooth’s 3 second delay, was a work-out in itself. And obviously I wasn’t even working out in this picture because then I would’ve been all blurry. I tend to write long sentances.

Over these holidays I should design three webpages, redraw the characters in my up-coming one-shot for Kolik, sketch my final Havana poster, do some acounting, scan my old photos, sketch for a children’s book project, write down ideas for future projects, plan a poster magazine, ask people for submissions and draw some Christmas gifts! And I probably forgot some. I really need to learn how to mange time. All while meeting my family and friends and eating and being drunk. In just a week I go to Moscow. Oh well…

Hope you haven’t sponsored too many companies these holidays and inspired them to get even greedier! If you do have to (or wanna) buy stuff, favour (moral!) quality.