Vacation time is OVER!!

English again~

I'm BACK!! 2 weeks of hot, yummy vacation at my relatives in Portugal has made my skin darker and my butt bigger. Here's a little resume:

Me and Emil lived at my aunts place. She's like the best aunt in the world, with a great laugh and awesome chocolate mousse. I asked her to take us to any medevial castle we passed and had time with, so during the trip we took over 600 pictures of mainly 4 castles; in Leiria, Guimarães, Silves and Almourol. I also met my second cousin Diana who had more castles from France on her computer, so I got 4 or 5 of them on a USB-card! Woohoo!!

This is the Templar Castle in Almourol,
built on an island! So cool!!

So, why this manic collecting of castles, you might ask. Well, let's say I couldn't resist being a total workaholic and make my vacation into a research trip for my upcoming manga project. I have most of it though out now, much thanks to the trip. It's a fantasy story, about princesses and princes... But you need to wait for the details!

Ok, back to the trip.
We visited a lot of my family there, and ate a lot of food. Portugese people like three things alot: football, food and driving. So we ate and drove! Not so much football, but that's ok.
During the two weeks, we ate (if you are vegan, please don't read the rest of this sentence) octupus, squid, clams, shrimps (all sizes), swordfish, crab, codfish rabbit, duck, pig, piglet, cow and chicken. Not only did we try the specialities of Portugal, but also Brasillian Rodizio and Angolan Mouamba. Yumyum!!
So, back in Sweden and time for some hard-core fasting! (just kidding)

Well, all in all, the trip was great.
I had a lot of time to think about my [past and future] projects without having the slitest angst about not drawing or working (actually!). The trip was a mental clensing, in a way.
And I return with even more power and inspiration! I havn't felt like this since the trip to Japan in 2010! I love it!!

Before I leave, I want to recommend you checking out my second cousin David's one man band Noiserv. He does all the music by him self by recrding and repeating the sounds during the live-show, and thus making every show unique. On top of that, he also teamed up with Diana (my other second cousin), that does live drawings to his music at the conserts! It's fantastic to see, both for young and old. I saw them live in Algarve, and it was inspiring!
Check it out:
Noiservs homepage
Noiservs Myspace

Here's some youtube videos with him:







It's just so inspiring with talented and original artists!!
His CD's are avaliable i.e. here.

10-års jubileum på SF-bokhandeln i Göteborg!

I veckan har SF-bokhandeln i Göteborg firat sitt 10-årskalas, med massa roliga aktiviteter, signeringar, skype-intervjuer med tecknare och författare och annat skoj!

Jag och Jo Salmson (författaren till Häxfolket) och Åsa Ekström kommer ha signeringar tillsammans på fredag, så jag tipsar alla som är sugna på att få en bild i sin bok att kika in!

Schemat för fredagen är:

14.00-15.00: Åsa Ekström signerar Sayonara September och jag signerar Mjau! och Nosebleed Studio's 5 Years Jubilee Anthology (ovan)

16.00-17.00: Jo Salmson signerar bl.a. Drakriddare och Häxfolket, Åsa och jag är med igen och ritar i böckerna!

Hela schemat ser ni här:
Kalasvecka i Göteborg - SF-bok.se

25 years old...

Hey, let's do it in English for once!

I had my 25th birthday this week end, had a nice time with my close family, eating sushi at Hai (best place in Malmö!) and some strawberry cake at home in the evening, while playing board games (Ricochet Robots and Shadows over Camelot). Playing board games is one of my favorite hobbies, so this was a perfect birthday.

Wow, 25.
It's not much, if you ask me (but I guess I'm biased). And I must be able to boast a little for what I have accomplished so far!
When I first had a cellphone with a calendar, I started making small notes to future Natalia about her career, like "This year, you have had a book published" and so on. (Yes, I love to day dream, hahaha.) Later I changed my cellphone and lost the notes, but even though I was shooting pretty high, I still have somewhat overachieved what I hoped for; Mjau!, A Song For Elise, Ein Lied für Elise and now working on illustrations for Häxfolket.

My dream was to one day be able to survive on making comics and drawing, and now I am. Well, I can't feed a family, or buy a car, or go to Japan every year, but with my workaholic lifestyle, I will be happy as long as I can afford ink and some food.
So... I guess I have to make up a new dream now... I'll have to come back to you all about that.

What I would like to have said with this, is that it is possible to get there. To all of you out there whom - just like young Natalia - is wondering if it's worth it to dream, I say yes. But only dreaming gets you nowhere. Hard work makes you get there. But without dreams the hard work might be shattered. My tip is: Make goals for yourself, just like I did. The feeling of accomplishment that you get when reaching that goal, is what motivates you to keep working hard.

Now, let's finish with some sketches I found the other day, of the characters from Mjau!
It's some of the very first sketches of the characters, and I accually like that style more than the one I used in the manga... When did I lose it??

~Click to see it in detail~