karenleth.blogspot.com

Illustrating with Illustrator

2012-02-21T13:29:00.001-08:00

Experimenting with a mix between electronic files and good old water-colour. These images are for a book about dialogue, I am illustrating at the moment.

Sustainable future

2012-02-09T03:21:00.000-08:00

Did a graphic recording at yesterdays seminar at Gate 21. Representatives from all the communes of Sjælland were gathered to discuss solutions for sustainable solutions across the commune-borders and in collaboration with businesses and universities in Denmark.

Here´s a few words from the CEO (in Danish) on my efforts:

"Tak til Karen Leth der lavede grafisk recording på vores eftermidagskonference om det mulige samspil mellem den nye klimastrategi i regionen og Gate 21. Der var 70 beslutningstagere fra kommuner og region med til arrangementet.

Karen Leth formåede præcist at indfange de ret komplekse problemstillinger vi arbejdede med, så vi under og efter møder står tilbage med et æstetisk flot visuelt billede af mødets indhold, der på mange måder er mere overskueligt og klart end et referat.

Jeg kan kun anbefale Karen Leths flotte arbejde."

Jacob Lundgaard

Direktør

Gate 21

Flow

2012-01-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

A colleague came up to me after todays Leadlounge-recording at Lead Agency and told me that he had watched me work while the five different speakers each had five minutes to present their view on the given theme. He said to me, that he had observed what is called "flow". He was right. I always experience flow when I do graphic recordings - Flow is that deep state of creative concentration. Of focus. That zone that is really fun and great to be in, nomatter what line of work you have. Flow is passion. Passion gives a good outcome. Lack of passion gives the opposite. I see that happen too...

Todays guestspeakers were:

• SMK ( National Gallery of Denmark) : Lise Korsgaard
• Henning Larsen Architects: Farid Fellah

• Tivoli: Stine Lolk

• Bodum: Rikker Tøgersen

• Roskilde Festival: Esben Danielsen

Central State Hospital

2012-01-18T01:53:00.000-08:00

130 doctors, nurses, psykologists etc. were gathered to discuss the strategy for a better, more effective hospitaldepartment for children and birth. I was there to document the proces for further use in creating a better hospital.

My partner-in-crime was Kresten Schultz Jørgensen from Leadagency.dk who facilitated the proces.

Thank you for a great experience!

R.I.P. Ib Spang Olsen 1921 - 2012

2012-01-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Center for Conflictresolution Part II

2012-01-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Spent the sunday at La Oficina, Fr.berg with Center for Conflictresolution and moderator Nicolai Seest (hands on business). Good workshop with tons of forward-thinking..I captured 4 meters of it. Displayed here to the left are the first two, plus

A couple of details:

The young ones

2012-01-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

A film from the Education-convention in Bella Center

A whole booth decorated with illustrations that told the story of Ryslinge Højskole, – presenting the school to the more than 3000 highschoolstudents that attended the convention. Together with a photographer and film-editor and teachers from the school, I made an effort to show how visualization can be used to convey a message. In this case; "If you like creativity, innovation and visualization - Ryslinge Højskole is the place to go". Read more about the event and the school here: http://ryslinge.nu/?p=1522

Goodbye sweet 2011. Happy New Year 2012!!!

2012-01-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

December was very busy, as I spend a lot of time at KPMG, and also made illustrations for 15 films for Finansforbundet (Financial Services Union). They are being animated this very moment, I hope to display them here in near future.
You can watch some of them here: www.finansforbundet.dk

Keep Practicing My Graphics

2011-12-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

KPMG introduces courses in Graphic Facilitation as a new method of communicating and creating engagement and proces-overview around complex information. Combining simple visualization-teqnique with narrative learningmethods and facilitation, KPMG now also benefits from this unique tool.
5.12.11 I was proud to be a part of the very first workshop:

KPMG graphic facilitation workshop

Smoke from the pencil-tip

2011-11-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

Clement Kjersgaard, IDEO, Spigit London, Siemens, Vestas, Lego and ofcourse ME...were are all participants in The Creative Edge conference at Horsens Ny Teater on the 29.11.11 For close to nine hours straight, I drew all the talk about creativity, innovation and idea management, and it was a steamin´ hot and busy day. A great challenge, and such inspiring themes / talks - I´m still on the 'high' of the experience yesterday. Here are a few pictures. Not to great, as they were taken with a mobile and the lights were dimmed.
A great thanks to all of you who came up and commented on the drawings throughout the day.

You can see my work, bitesized, here:

Happiness is...

2011-11-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

Participants from the workshop reviewing

...having the people from todays four-hour seminar in Greve Kommune come up to me afterwords, telling me how much value my work added to the process, and that the drawings were just such a helpful tool in working with Kresten Schultz Jørgensen fromLeadagency´s agenda, that he and I had hoped.

The drawings will be used in the further process of strengthening communication and identity of the three units that came together today.

Purple and Harvard

2011-11-14T03:58:00.000-08:00

If you listened in your art-class back in the day, you´ll know that mixing red and blue gives you purple.

On my drawing above here are two circles. The blue circle represents the world of business values such as 'effectiveness', 'economic gaining', 'measurable growth' and 'results'.

The red circle represents what is also part of every gathering of people: Moods, hidden hierachy, motivation (or lack of), ability to cooperate, social dynamics, comfort, play, creativity and innovation

By supporting understanding and building bridges between different perspectives in a room filled with individuals, G.F clears the path for understanding and cooperation by making the abstract messages concrete, by consolidating communication - and creating the platform for effectiveness, clear-sighted, forward-moving work.
Graphic facilitation combines red and blue in a collective, effective, human way.

Graphic facilitition is purple.

I´ve just gotten my hands on a Harvard paper on the matter. "Exploring the role of graphic facilitation in adult learning". Please, feel free to email me for a copy of this research conducted over three LILA (Learning Innovations Laboratory) meetings in 2010/2011. Courtesy of Doctoral research practitioner Christina Congleton

karenleth@gmail.com

Barbie...where??

2011-11-10T03:39:00.001-08:00

My new self-portrait.

Tucking the message in

2011-11-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

A lecture and a workshop about the importance of good sleep for children, interpreted into five different languages, in the northwestern part of the city – now that is my definition of time well spent.

My drawings will be used through out this project called "Sov godt" (sleep tight) initiated by the SSP-alliance (School, Socialservice and Police).

Going deeper into the big WHY?

2011-11-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

How does the brain process information, and how do we create CLEAR, INTERACTIVE AND PERSISTENT communication? Watch here:

A bit of bonus-info on the speaker:

Tom Wujec is a Fellow at Autodesk, the world's leader in 2D & 3D design software. As a recognized thought-leader and award-winning innovator, Tom works with the Fortune 500 to foster innovation practices at all stages, from strategic and business planning to the design and implementation of advanced digital design tools. He has brought several software applications to market, including Autodesk SketchBook Pro, PortfolioWall, and Maya which won an Academy Award for its contribution to the film industry.

Old-school vs. New-school without the school

2011-10-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice little film about what graphic facilitation / recording is about:

Really "old-school", this method, actually – and thats why I love it. Although the word "school" doesnt quite fit in that sentence. In school we were taught that drawing is what you do, when you are NOT paying attention to the teacher. When really, that was EXACTLY what I was doing. Please visit danpink.com for more about that subject.

When it comes to recording, I am facing a challenge these days that is very "new-school", as I have been asked to record on Ipad at the Creative Edge Conference late November. Although I do prefer coming home from a job with markerstains all over my fingers,.it is going to be interesting, definetely. As long as I can use the right side of my brain and draw for people to give good messages a helping (left) hand..I´m happy!

It worked then - it works now!

2011-10-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

1972. Pratt Institute of Architecture in New York, W. Katavolos and students
Archive

Now THAT is what I call Graphic recording! :0)

Show and tell

2011-10-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to teaching visual language to a group of human ressource people next week.

Walt Disney

Going to the movies...

2011-10-13T02:45:00.000-07:00

I didn´t make this, but I can and I am going to. Contact me, if you´re looking for something similar...

Giving understanding a helping (left) hand

2011-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Had a great time recording the employee-seminar at Dansk Ejendomsmæglerforening (www.de.dk) today.

What is graphic recording?

Entertainment?

2011-09-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

A comment on todays poll on Danish political journalists taking up to much attention and turning politics into entertainment...

Working for a better world by doing what I love doing

2011-09-11T12:22:00.001-07:00

What is more meaningfull than a six-hour workshop with The Danish Center for Conflict resolution on september 11? Above here is the outcome, and a presentation of the output of the day will soon be available on konfliktloesning.dk, and posted here on the blog.

Great people, great atmosphere and very good facilitator Nicolai Seest who also took the header-picture. A good day :0)

G.R: Capturing the essence of communication

2011-09-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

What is graphic recording? I get that question a lot, so I´ve made this little introduction to my line of work. Please, click on the image to see it full-scale :0)

A respected colleague

2011-09-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

® Brandy Agerbeck, loosetooth.com

I sure would love to hear Brandy Agerbeck from loosetooth.com speak at her seminar in Germany on september 7.th

She has been a graphic facilitator since the mid ´90 – so she knows what she is talking about. To the left here is one of her characteristic illustrations, showing what our field is about.

I really like her work, and if I don´t make it to Germany this time, I might try to get her to come here (Hi Brandy, I know you are reading this :0)

http://www.loosetooth.com

Cannes, here I come!!

2011-08-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

A video-presentation on your website can convey all kinds of messages in a fun and interesting way. Usually drawing-recordings like this one is played in double or triple-speed, and has much more complex messages to convey. So, this little film is VERY simple: Me, telling everyone at Youtube about my fabulous website :0)

Working the SQUID

2011-08-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

Characters (see previous posts) are only a smaller part of graphic facilitation. Other icons are necessary to narrow down whats being talked about, and to illustrate the key-elements in a conversation.

San Fransisco-based visual practitioner Dan Roam has created a model for analysing any problem an organisation might have, connecting graphic symbols to the different parts of the model.

His model for illustrations is called SQVID:

• Simple / elaborate
• Quality / Quantity
• Vision / execution
• Individul / comparison
• Change / As-is

Dan Roam then combines this way of analyzing with a six-step grid - hence my six-armeded squid above.

In order to sort out an organisations problems, the following questions must be answered:

• Who / what?
• How much?
• Where?
• When?
• How?
• Why?

Combining the above questions with the right selection of the SQVID, which defines which type of image to use, a visual dictionary takes shape.

Did this make any sense? If not, click on the link below for an animated walk-through:

http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/botn.php

Stick it to the mano!

2011-08-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Graphic facilitation involves drawings of people.
And these people needs to be drawn quite quickly, but its still necessary for them to have different expressions.

So, I would like you meet my friend "Mano". He takes approximately 20 seconds to draw. The good thing about "Mano" is, that he consists of exactly and only what is needed for me to illustrate a character.

Different moods are easily illustrated by changing his bodylanguage and facial expression, and he still only takes 20 seconds to draw.

Drama can be easily illustrated by altering Mano´s hair and clothes a little bit:

2011-08-11T06:12:00.000-07:00

Reading this book by Dan Roam about visual communication.

Graphic facilitation seems to combine both my ability to draw, to understand and summarize complex situations/subjects and my interest in business strategy. This is how my notes at university looked like, when I had to try and get a hold of 50 minutes of pure TALK. This is red and blue, left and right, joining hands. More will follow...

2011-08-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

I´ve had this image in my head for some days, but after having seen Quentin Grébans artwork, I´ve reduced a lot of the surroundings, leaving only the key-elements. The image ends up almost iconic.

first draft

2. draft

2011-08-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

® Quentin Gréban

I´m in love!! Just discovered the young (yes, he is my age)
Belgian illustrator Quentin Gréban.

And immediately I pronounced him my new absolute hero.

His interpretation of "The little mermaid" is nothing less than absolutely amazing. Every single image in that childrensbook I got from the library is a great work of art.

Look at this: So sweet, so simple, graphic and poetic at the same time. Just my cup of tea.

Obey

2011-07-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

® Fairey

The American artist Shepard Fairey is in town.

He is painting a mural where the notorious "Ungdomshus" (house for young, radical activitist +) was torn down under massive protesting and fighting a couple of years ago.

I went to see what he (and his oponents) had come up with. Here´s a photo:

I am making a mural a couple of weeks from now...I wouldn´t mind making a poster for Obama also :0)

Fairey calls himself a peace-activist. He paints something nice where there used to be violence and negative emotions. Not that Ungdomshuset was a bad thing. Only bad that it was destroyed..

Fairey is quite inspired by (or actually copying) old Russian propaganda artwork. Here is an example:

® Fairey

Russian political

Airbrushing with watercolour

2011-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

® Karen

Just finished "Albatros" by Vincent, published by Faraos Cigarer.

Amazing artwork, but the story is only soso...

This sketch I made, based on an image in the book, is a test to see how the artwork was actually made. My guess is watercolour, pen and photoshop (I havent used photoshop on my drawing though). Don´t know if anyone uses "real" airbrush anymore?

® Vincent

To my father, the clarinetist

2011-07-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

..who encouraged me to go with my heart.

This is the older brother of the sketch of last night

2011-07-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Sketching a drawing for my father
based on a true story he told me. Thank you daddy for showing me the way.

Here´s to looking at you, Sally Mann

2011-06-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Boy

More portraits, click here

2011-06-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Summer

I am starting to do portraits for people.

(please click on the image to see it full-scale..)

More portraits, click here

2011-06-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Resting after quite a tirering week..

(The illustration is for an event at Kronborg)

2011-06-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

Paint still wet...
A frog for a crossword-puzzle

2011-06-02T10:04:00.001-07:00

Experimenting with a colouring-technique I´ve seen used by the awesome british illustrator Joe Cummings

2011-06-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Todays drawing for the educational project. Three more ducklings + a poster to go.

Practizing the art of caricature

2011-05-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is me, and this drawing was made against all odds on a saturday afternoon ...need I say more?

Diving into my notebook

2011-05-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Working on a background for the ducklings

oh lalaaa!

2011-05-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

This sample from tonights sketches is based upon the novel about the Little Mermaid by H.C Andersen. The composition is inspired by Maria Zelibskas drawing 'Die Kleine Seejungfrau' from 1973. (still googling to find it for display here, but my Russian is a little rusty).

2011-05-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

Reading

My work with the ducklings is moving forward

Part of the assignment is drawing this character in different situations. You can see previous versions of this character here:

Here´s todays work:

...and speaking

2011-05-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here´s a picture of tonights drawings.

Looking at the Shiele-portrait, I realize I´m going to have to work much more on the texture in this drawing to bring some life into it. For now, its placed under About me

Egon Schiele 1912

2011-05-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

Got some good work done today

My first swan-duckling has come to life.

I will be making different versions of it, as is will appear on different pages with different expressions. And that is the hard part; making the same, but different.

Here below is the same duckling striking a pose.

2011-05-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

Very, very, very first draft of a new assignment.

Over the next week or two I´ll be working on making two swan-ducklings. One a little older than the other. They are to be used in a new educational product for children ages 3 to 5. I will be posting my "work in progress" right here.

2011-05-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

On a trip to New York a couple of years ago I came across these balms by the organic company Badger

http://www.badgerbalm.com

I bought a bunch - mainly because of the illustrations on the cover. Still love them and come to think of Inga Moores great illustrations for ´Wind in the Willows´ when I look at them. The illustration is half the story – or product.

® Inga Moore

2011-05-14T11:40:00.001-07:00

® Ib Andersen 1939

Standing at Nordhavn train station the other day while I was waiting for the subway, I kept returning to this picture in my head while I was looking out at a view quite close to the above.

Ib Andersen (1907 - 1969) made the beautiful illustration for the H.C Andersen fairytale "Hyrdinden og skorstensfejeren" in 1939. The view from their chimney is the area in Copenhagen called Nordhavn and in the horisont, Sweden. Maybe the couple wanted to look towards the other coast, as the situation in the south was getting worse (the beginning of WWII). It is not usually a part of Copenhagen that is referred to when it comes to the old fairytales.

My post from May 9. is an illustration from the same fairytale...

2011-05-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

® Elsa Beskow 1959

One of the many wonders that comes with raising children, is the re-experience of the stories from ones own childhood. One of the strongest impressions for me have been Swedish Elsa Beskows (1874 - 1952) stories and drawings. Why do some illustrations stand out, more than 100 years after they have been produced? They were extremely popular back then, and still, in 2011, the books are sold out in many online bookstores. There are thousands of childrens books, but some just reached out and grabs you. Elsa Beskows books do - they appeal to the heart of the child. Back then and now. Worth studying...I think that one of the things Elsa Beskow has understood right, is that the aestetics appeal to a child as much as to an adult. Many childrensbook-illustrations today are ugly, on purpose it seems. I don´t understand why. These illustrations kickstart ones imagination.

I remember this picture from when I was 5, as if I had been there myself. Especially the caterpillar around the maids neck :0)

® Elsa Beskow 1901

2011-05-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, to be sitting at the local library in my home town as a child. Listening to probably "Chess" or "Private Dancer" with Tina Turner at their record-listening service, where you had to signal to the librarian for her to turn the record, there was one comic that always made me forget everything around me and suddenly, after a long time, notice the monotonous ´click..click...click`-sound of a record that hadn´t been turned in a while; "Quete de l´Oiseau du Temps" by Serge Le Tendre and Régis Loisel.

® Regis Loisel 1985

This was the door to a whole fantasyworld, that just had it all. It was blooddripping, slimy, beautiful, erotic, scary, spiritual etc. etc. The amazing scenery and the many strange creatures was worth many hours of intense reading. Better than any World of Warcraft...

Just look at this cover above. So intense.

Here´s the official website, in french and not translated (of course)

http://www.regisloisel.com

Great stuff!

2011-05-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

"An illustrated book is like a poem that someone composes a melody for."

These words were said by Svend Otto S. (1916 - 1996) - one of my favorite Danish illustrators.
I love the expression of his drawings, how they capture the spirit of the fairytale they support.

Especially this one:

® Svend Otto S. / Gyldendal

His tecnique is mainly watercolour, and I love the way he balances detail with the "loose hand" feel.

Svend Otto S. was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and started illustrating childrens books in the 1950´s. He received the prestigious H.C Andersen-medal in 1978 after having illustrated several of the famous fairytales.

Could have been great knowing this man, watching him work...
But I study his tecniques while I read the stories to my daughter.