What I'm about

Actual model might be lighter in tone.

While Arne is technically my first name and the name I sign on drawings, Niklas is actually my first name when spoken to. I was born in Sweden, 1977, and still live there. I am self employed, running Android Arts since 2002 or something.

When I was a kid, my then unrestrained imagination would make simple games feel like real living places where anything could be behind the next corner. Now, as an adult, I try to capture that feeling by drawing characters and settings from old games, expanding upon them, trying to come up with something that feels more alive than whack-a-mole cabinet (which unfortunately is how most games feel to me now).

I like to draw and program, but it's that 1% inspiration part which is so appealing to me, not the 99% perspiration, so I easily derail and start new projects, never finishing anything. However, right now I have so many projects that I occasionally derail back on old tracks, actually making progress, so it works a bit like preemptive multitasking.

Perhaps I'll finish all of my projects simultaneously, sometime far into the future?

I'm bad at working with other people because I'm not passionate about other people's (new) ideas. I have poor communication skills and procrastinate a lot.

What a pitch!

Artistic development

Ever since I can remember, I have liked to draw, sculpt, and design little games on leftover pieces of cardboard. Computers in the early-mid 80's were a lot weaker than those in the late 80's. Board and role playing games were in a pretty good position until mid-late 90's perhaps? During 199x, I painted mostly with acrylics. Eventually I discovered digital coloring and painting. When doing concept art, I prefer to draw thumbnails with pencil, then scan, scale, fix, ink and color on the computer.

This process allows me to experiment. Undo, transformations, replace color, etc really makes me a more efficient explorer. Also, lately I began to notice that my eyes sees things a bit skew, so all my figures lean a bit. This mean I have to flip and 'unskew' digitally (or use a mirror when working traditionally).

Sometimes when I struggle with a design, and don't know how good it is, I try to imagine if I would be willing to go through the effort to make it into a toy/figurine. Somehow that provides me with a good way to measure the strength of a design. There needs to be a certain play value, physical presence. A good design should have a powerful silhouette/mass. It should be to the point and no part should be filled with "I guess I'll just draw some lines here". Every part of the design should contribute something, suggest function, flow or be quiet so other parts can be heard.

A 1992 ink drawing revisited. I used to ink a lot throughout the 90's, but was never any good at it. I'm still not. I hide a bit behind rough lines, making it a style, I guess. I don't think that I've got the wrist (or arm) to ink cleanly.

My style has undergone some changes. First I wanted to paint like Simon Bisley and Paul Bonner. Then, around '99 (the Pendako forum years), I started making attempts at drawing in a manga/animé style, but I think I was too reluctant to embrace cartoony simplicity, curves and flow at the time. Craig Mullins inspired me to really paint digitally (Sijun forum years, early 2000), and I developed a blotchy painting style out of that.

I don't use this style much anymore, because I think it's inefficient when doing concept art. I've discovered that line art forces me to think about every area of a design more carefully. I can hide nothing in blotches. I don't have to spend time rendering shapes when I want to add or change a detail, so lines are actually faster. Working with lines also puts focus on the strength of the flow of the forms, because they're there describing things 'raw'.

Late 2008, I started experimenting with more curvy characters for my Bomber Queen project. Eventually I drew a thumbnail of a figure on a Rygar sheet which just felt right. I really liked the proportions, because they feel like they would be effective for game characters, whilst still allowing for body detail, dimorphism, etc.

My journey alongside the computer evolution

In the early 80's I was exposed to the Game & Watch games, Mattel Intellivision, Vectrex, NES, Vic 20 and the C64. I remember 'modding' the Game & Watch screens by drawing new backgrounds on overhead film. I also drew game graphics on cardboard tiles and made my own levels.

The Commodore 64 introduced me to programming in BASIC. Later I got an Amiga, but I wasn't very good with Amiga Basic. Eventually I bought AMOS and made a few games with it, but there was no www back then, and I knew nothing about BBSes. I don't think my games got very far in the wild, but I did release a few. Now I use BlitzMax. It's quite scalable, being a BASIC based language as well as having some more advanced OOP stuff. I mostly use it for making tools and prototyping games.

I also have experience with more C oriented languages such as Quake C (and other game mod languages) and a bit C/C++. Recently I enjoyed FCEUX's LUA capabilities. I'm not very good with the ASM debugger though, but I'm learning. When I do research for my projects I often have to dump data from games, and it's kind of fun to figure out how things were stored, perhaps finding hidden messages and unused graphics.

Then there's web page 'programming' which I don't particularly like. I have some experience with HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and I've also dealt a bit with Perl, ASP and SQL (2016 update: I have forgotten everything - thanks Brain).

Workstation

I've had this setup since summer 2008. The vertical monitor is great for text editing and vertical docs. I also put up lots of ref pics on it when painting in Photoshop on the main (the Wacom is mapped to main). Had to turn the subpixel font rendering thing off though, since the LCD matrix is rotated physically.

Oh, I use Mac gamma on the iMac, and PC gamma on the Lenovo. This way I can just slide stuff over to calibrate colors and such. I'm left handed but I mouse with right. I would probably be a lot better at FPS games if I didn't. 2016 update: The iMac died some time ago. I now use a cheap Mac Mini with an ASUS PA248Q display. It's their low end art display.

Preferences

If I had to pick just one favourite artist, it would be Paul Bonner, mainly for his Mutant Chronicles paintings and Ork pencil work. Listing the rest of my favourite artists is tough now when the internet has made me aware of so many.

I had a period where I listened to NIN, ToN, Tool, but now I listen to almost anything. It's hard to list all the movies I like, but I have to mention a few from my past: MoonTrap, Excalibur, Barbarella and Flash Gordon. I've "read" a lot of audiobooks recently, mainly pulp sci-fi. Painting leaves my mind running amok unless I have speech in the background. My favourite book as of late is Wool. Before that, perhaps a few of the Culture novels. From the past, the Foundation trilogy, Rama, and a few Simak stories.

My favourite (if I have to pick six) Pokémons are: Scyther, Diglett, Typhlosion, Furret, Magnemite and Tentacruel. Team Galaxy has nice outfits.

I dislike social activities, especially joyous applauding, singing and dancing.

FAQ: Contact

Since I'm not responding to any particular person here, I can be a bit more honest (or blunt, or rude) than in personal correspondence.

Can I mail you about this and that?

Yes. I'll reply if I remember and aren't absorbed by some project. If I don't reply, it probably means that I thought I would reply later and the message scrolled off the first page of my inbox, and into oblivion. Occasionally I visit there and reply to the forgotten ones.

Because I'm paranoid I keep my email as a little rebus. The answer is Diglett. It's that little potato-like Pokémon with a big nose (just like me) (and soon I'll have the same hair style as well).

Gmail: Rebus

Can you give me some tips on painting?

There are no shortcuts, but I suppose there are dead ends which can waste your time. My (now dated) art tutorial is a compilation of feedback I've given to people on various art forums. That's why it's a little messy. If you want crits on a specific piece, well, I'll probably end up saying what's already in my tutorial.

Do you have MSN, AIM, ICQ, Skype or a phone #?

Not publicly. I'm comfortable with using email because it's a form of communication which cannot interrupt me.

Something you did is horrible and I really must object!

I'm going off on a tangent! When I was younger I had a stronger need to make myself visible. Posting art online was a way to find myself, measure my power level and fish for praise (perhaps from someone I looked up to, someone with secret awesome knowledge). Establishing connections with interesting people and clients is also urgent early on. These needs remain but I feel that they have diminished over time.

Now my art has improved, I've got pretty good contacts, and praise has lost much of its taste somehow. Though I still post some of my new stuff online, I think I have more... personal fun with art now so the opinions of other people doesn't matter as much.

Also, the internet has changed. I used to post on art forums in the late 90's and early 00's, they were like... a "stuck on an island together" scenario. Things are a lot less personal now, and there are also a lot more artists around. On twitter and tumblr and whatever you need followers or you will be invisible, and the social aspect feels... hectic and fleeting.

It's important to be able to accept critique and change, but also to be able to identify fruitless and damaging conversation before it even starts. My advice to current and future self is: Do not stick your mind in crazy! Engaging does not leave the door shut, so tune out the scratching and don't let a pack of rabid dogs purchase room in your daily consciousness. Rabies is contagious, you see.

FAQ: Work stuff

So, you're a freelancer?

Yes, when I need the money. I have a company called Android Arts and an 'F-Skattesedel'.

What are your fees?

It depends. 200 to 1000(+) USD for a 'piece', mostly. Over 50 USD per hour.

Have you done anything notable?

Aside from the stuff which is published on my various sites, I've also done: RPG stuff (D&D), Videogame stuff (Kuju/Nintendo), Various game pitches (under NDA), Cortex Command (DataRealms), Movie concepts (Disney), Miniature concepts, The FSM (Adam & FSM), Newspaper illustrations.

Have you worked on any games which have been released?

I'm not quite sure, I don't keep track of what happens to everything I do (NDA work, concept art for pitches which perhaps never go anywhere). I do work on Cortex Command intermittently though.

I like your project based on that old game. We could do something except we change the project into something else to avoid copyright issues.

No. I'm passionate about being faithful to the original, taking on the challenge of working within design constraints. Just changing a few things feels half-arsed and disrespectful. Changing everything is no fun, because there's no challenge and it means starting a completely new project anyways.

We have a secret project but we won't tell you what it is until you've done a bunch of paperwork. Does this make you excited?

To get my answer on this question you must sign my AA6-2-b form. It can be found as a Claris Works attachment in the SVN. Please sign electronically using weirdo Java site.

Dig your style. Can you do some art for us?

If I need money, maybe. I learned how to draw (and program) so I could have fun with my own ideas though. I didn't go into art with the intention of submitting to other people's ideas.

But we own the license for one of those old games which you like to redesign, and you can have it. We have also built a space fortress for you. It is full of exotic dancers, and at the center there is a golden throne upon which you can sit and design games!

I knew it! Woohoo!

We're working on an iOS/mobile/browser game and...

Mobile. Clumsy fatty fingers reach for the colorful moving shapes, occasionally bobbing against a sterile plastic surface. Ah, there it is! The button! The button which makes a noise! Happy sounds ring out to briefly satisfy a fluttering mind. But what is this? Something has distracted the baby and it loses interest for the one dollar toy.

It's a perpetual video game crash I tell you.

FAQ: Misc. Stuff

Why don't you finish your projects?

Actually, I don't like doing art much, especially not illustrations, when it becomes laborious. Of course, having an idea is where the real fun is. I do like having fun! Realizing the idea with finished art and code can take years. I've tried to learn doing both art and code so I would be able to work on my own stuff, but perhaps I forgot to learn discipline*. I've always enjoyed universe design more than painting or programming.

Here's an 'art for art's sake' painting (Lizardman, by 13 yo me). I mostly have an associated project.

*I'm not sure if my lack of focus is a disorder or not. I can go from deeply passionate to repulsed in a matter of minutes. It's like a nice hot meal when you're hungry, having it suddenly going to half-chewed cold food that rests in your mouth like a disgusting swallow-reflex disabling lump. Around you people are just stuffing their mouths, slushing and swallowing as they prattle on about Marta's relatives who said whatever. I can hold out in that state for a few hours (with a school-food-lady aka. deadline threatening me), but it grows increasingly difficult. You see, at the table across they are eating awesome ice cream and I just thought of the perfect butt-in joke for the super interesting conversation they're having.

At any rate, concept art jobs seem to suit me the best, because they can be finished rather quickly. And people who say that I should just get my shit together and focus on a project until completion (a year or so) probably don't understand that "I'm dead sure I'm gonna finish this one" - every single time, before the great distraction hits me. But, perhaps I am just lazy and other men have real manly discipline, and I'm a little bitch not for taking the fine advice to just get my shit together.

What kind of education do you have? Are you self taught?

I did some art in school, but consider myself mostly self taught. I'm only living one life so I can't say how important an education is. I know it's possible to teach yourself art, but it's probably a slower process than studying under a master of some sort. We don't live in a society with master-apprentice relations anymore though. It's one teacher, 30 students, and the teacher doesn't know what an Ork is.

I'm still in school and I'm struggling with finding a style and skills. How do you go about finding a job related to art after school?

Art skills grow slowly in many dimensions. It's like those Japanese RPG character leveling diagrams with axes going off in all directions forming a spiky blob. I do think some brains are better equipped to work with art than others. When I was still in school, I was somewhat notable, but certainly not a prodigy. I became good enough to pick up some nicer paying jobs at about... 24-26. Some people who study hard and have talent can be at a professional level (though not well-rounded) right after school, but it's pretty rare. I think that you need to put at least 5-10k hours in to get anywhere. I don't know if starting late matters. I'm still learning new things, and I'm over 30, though my curiosity has decreased somewhat.

As for finding a style, I remember the confusion and frustration of searching for one too... as if it was a tangible thing that you could find and stick to for the rest of your life. To be honest, if you have already forced yourself into a stylistic confinement in your teens, you risk missing out on artistic growth. You have to balance the advantages of peak skill against the idea that the sum is greater than the parts, the synergy of knowledge.

People say they can recognize my style, so I guess my stuff has some sort of identity. I didn't end up where I did deliberately. I've had periods where I have tried to learn a certain styles, but ultimately I can't control what sticks in my brain and not... and it's probably for the better.

My skills are not extraordinary, but not many people do retro-game related art so I have nice pageranks because of this. A lot of people are nostalgic about old games and some of them are now art directors / potential clients.

Which tools do you use? Should I get a Wacom tablet?

I currently have an iMac 24" with a 22" Lenovo ThinkVision. I keep the latter flipped so I can browse, do text editing, and work with other vertical documents. I also keep refs on it when painting. Painting I do in Photoshop CS3/CS5, and I use a Wacom Intous 3 A5 Wide Special with that, or my newer Intous 4 Large. I used to have a larger A4 sized one, but it was a bit unwieldily. I also have an Airbrush pen. It has a little scroll wheel which is great for controlling the opacity of the stroke, but it's clumsy to hold.

I really like working digitally. I like being able to scale, flip, distort, undo, experiment with colors, get started instantly, not having to clean up, etc. etc.. A tablet will not magically make you better though. It might make you worse, initially. It took me a few weeks to get used to the hand-eye coordination, and it took years to develop a digital workflow. I don't know if you should get a Wacom Tablet.

Working with real pen and paper yields more accurate lines as long as you don't make permanent (unhappy) mistakes, which is quite feasible at higher skill levels or if you're working within a comfort zone. I've heard that a Cintiq gives you a better connection to your lines than a regular Wacom tablet.

Your page is a mess!

I think it's more interesting if everything is not visible at the first pass. It creates a feeling of inexhaustibility. Actually, the entropy increases and I have surrendered to that principle. It makes it easier to update.

Why don't you update more often?

I'm lazy and unfocused. Too many projects. It's hard to get anything but fragments down on paper. I only upload new project pages when I have achieved a certain critical mass.

Will you link me? Link exchange maybe?

No. It feels like... selling spots for a top-20 list, cluttering it up. I'll link what I feel belongs on the list. It'll be more interesting for everyone.

Can I link you?

The pages which are clearly public, sure.

What projects would you like to work on next, or aren't showing us?

I've made a section about that.

Are you an anarchist? I see that you use that (A) symbol in your sig.

Not in the political sense, where I'm an "Environmentalist", I guess. The sig is just a way to avoid writing it too plainly, and I'm certainly a bit disorganised so there's that. If you apply labels to yourself you risk confinement, filtering out other perspectives, becoming more and more aggressive and entrenched as the label is attacked by another. However, it's difficult to follow that philosophy when you're facing something sufficiently absurd and blatantly dangerous to the wellbeing of the entire planet.

Kickstarter / IndieGogo something?

Maybe. I'd feel like the weak link, being so unfocused. I should finish my part beforehand.

FAQ: Art usage permissions

Can I use your art for personal stuff, like a wallpaper? Maybe print it out and tape it to my SKATEBOARD?

Sure.

Can I use your art in non profit publications or on my website?

I prefer to have control over how my art is published in case I want to update it. Feel free to use my tutorial in education though.

TO-DO

Here's a list of projects which I'm working on. I haven't got any pages for most of these yet though. This list if from 2009 so some projects have now gotten their pages.

I've been researching old MSX and PC88/98 games.

Derailed settings

Original settings

That's all I could think of atm.


Art by Arne Niklas Jansson

AndroidArts.com