2016 - Time to evolve!

Prepare for some planning. Lot's of planning!

Also: New Years Resolutions.
(Oh boy, this will crash and burn...)
First, the resolutions of 2015:

I will get myself a drivers license!
This was actually my resolution for 2014 too. Um.. yeah. I havn't even tried, I'm so sorry (mostly embarrassed towards my parents who gave me a gift card for some of the lessons at a driving school that I have so far not used... 2 years ago). I get extremely embarrassed by talking about this. I hate feeling like I've lost or failed in something, and this is such a thing. To be honest, I'm just too scared to drive. I am so scared for traffic, high ways, driving, myself behind the wheel... I just feel in my gut I will die in the roads some day!
That's why I think I'll have to deal with this in my own time.
So, if I should grade myself, then a E- perhaps? (Not so sure about this alphabetical grading system, haha)

But I also had another resolution!
I will make an animation!
And this I did! Or at least started doing... Did I fail this too?! Bu hu hu hu...
Well, at least I did make about 50 seconds of my animation. Time is not in abundance and too many other projects and work is taking my time (not in a bad way, I like most of it).
I'll give myself a C+ for this. I didn't animate much, but what I did was good!

And that's why the first of the resolutions for 2016 is:
I will make an animation!
(I give myself a lot of second chanses, haha)
I hope to be able to finish episode 1 (5 min animation) of Mjau! this year. Wish me good luck!

Another clip from the animation I'm making of Mjau! Haven't had as much time to work on it as I would like to, but I will hopefully be able to make big progress this year. More about that and upcoming events of 2016 that I'll visit up at my blog: natalia.batista.se #anime #animation #mjaumanga #mjauanime #kawaii #kitten

Ett filmklipp publicerat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Feb 5, 2016 kl. 4:06 PST

And the second is:
I will go to Japan again!
This is a bit tricky. I want to go, mostly because I want to bring my boyfriend and do it together, but I also wish I had more time to go to London and Paris, and the two main comic events there.
We'll have to see how this year pans out...

Now over to some planning of the year!
I have already planned for some events me/Nosebleed Studio will have a table at.

Events of 2016 (so far):
12-14 of February: NärCon Vinter in Linköping
18-20 of March: J-popCon in Copenhagen, Denmark
25-27 of March: GothCon in Gothenburg

2-3 of April: Malmö Seriefest in Malmö

7-8 of May: Stockholm International Comics Festival (S.I.S.)

13-15 of May: Confusion in Gothenburg

28-31 of July: NärCon in Linköping 

September: Comic Con Malmö in Malmö

September: Göteborg Book Fair in Gothenburg

November: Comic Con Gamex in Stockholm

As I mentioned, I would also love to go to one or both or Japan Expo in Paris and MCM London ComicCon, but mostly as a visitor so I can get a chance to talk to publishers about Sword Princess Amaltea.
We'll have to see...

Apart from this, my year will be filled with working at Serieskolan in Malmö, making 2 books together with Nosebleed Studio (more about that in upcoming blog entries), and animating.

This will be a year I need to focus on what I want to make. So I'll use my time wisely.
Hope you have time to focus on your own passions too!

✪ Thank you for reading! ✪

My much needed summer vacation~

Hello everyone!

Long time no see... haha... *sweatdrops*
I really should be posting here more often, but I guess I'm just working alot more nowadays... Naaah, I'm just too lazy to write.
Truth is I now have more sites than just this one to focus on, such as Sword Princess Amaltea's Facebook page and the Inkblazers page, where I upload two pages on every Tuesday and Friday, all in English!! Check it our and please add it to your "book shelf" and spread it to your friends, please?


So, what have I been doing all this summer?
Well, after finishing the second book in the middle of June I took some much needed vaction!
First a trip to Småland (a region in Sweden with lots of trees and nice people in classical Swedish red wooden houses with white corners), where my boyfriend Emil's father lives. Fishing, resting, eating tasty food and hanging out.

After that, we went to my fathers family in Portugal, to stay with my supernice aunt. More resting, driving to family dinners, eating tasty food, hanging out with awesome people and eating some more tasty food. Actually, this summer was pretty warm in Sweden, and even Portugal was cooler! Climate change WTF... -_-'''

Here's some stuff we did in Portugal:

  

My friend Ricardo had arranged a workshop for me 

together with other local artists from Lisbon, at the city library!

Thank you, Rick!!

 We talked about comics, manga-making and web publishing,

and drew a board full of pictures together!

So cozy, and fun group of people! Thank you all for coming!! ♥

 Emil, father and I went to the beautiful town of Sintra, 

for more reference photos for my fantasy manga.

A beautiful garden called Quinta da Regaleira with 

amazing caves, pathways and an elaborate mini-castle.

We also happened to pass a LEGO exhibition somewhere 

close to San Martinho after lunch one day. Really cool!! 

They had built many different parts, like a town,

a beach part, an airport etc.

Last but not least we went to the Convent of Crist in Tomar, an old Order of the Christ (heires of the Order of the Templar when that was banned) cloister/convent. Really inspiring, and I also made a decision: the last castle I'll draw in my manga Sword Princess Amaltea (Prince Ossian's mother's castle) will be based on this beauty! So, with almost 500 reference photos in my camera, I return to Sweden ready to make book 3!



Well at home, we quickly packed our bags and the car full of books and went to NärCon, the biggest manga convention in Sweden (with over 7000 visitors) in Linköping. I had planned my pre-release of Sword Princess Amaltea book 2 at this event, so I was pretty excited!!
With 30 of book 1 and 40 of book 2 I though I was set for the whole event. Not quite... I sold all of them even before Friday was over! Both happy and frustrated feelings at the same time..!!

Nosebleed Studio made free chibi portraits for one hour on both Friday and Saturday, but only for one hour since others in the Artist Alley do it for cash and we didn't wanna steal their customers.
Here's some pics!

♥ Two happy fans with their new books! ♥

Woah! The line for the chibi portraits!!

Catarina and I at Fridays portrait event. Happy!!

Our table from above, so many nice things!

Me drawing a happy chibi and it's superhappy friend!

After that, we finally went home to rest! Phew!! What a hectic Summer!
Now I have started working again though, both on book 3 of Sword Princess Amaltea, but also at the Comic Art School in Malmö. I'm really excited about this fall, so much fun things to do and achieve!

Onwards, my friends!! Thanks for reading! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

New York Comic Con Report!

Wow, long time no see! A month since I last wrote here, and that's because I've been quite busy... With everything else than making comics, sadly. Still enjoyable stuff though, so here's a HUGE report!

In September I was teaching comics art and visual storytelling at Malmö University again, thanks to Gunnar Krantz - my ex-teacher from Malmö Serieskola (Comic Art School). It was fun and this time I had the chance to go through more than the basics, which was nice.
The course was Serieteckning och visuellt berättande if you are interested in taking it. It's in Swedish but there's also an English one every Spring called Comics, International Perspectives.

Ok, now over to what I've done in October!

Guess where I have been off to?

Me and my boyfriend Emil went to the US of A! More precisely New York City, for their yearly New York Comic Con! It's the second biggest comic convention in the US, the San Diego Comic Con being the biggest.

Why New York? Because I have wanted to see these. You don't find this in Sweden, and the Big Apple is such an interesting and energetic city. It's not really an American city as much as it is an International city, especially Manhattan (where we hanged out most of the time).

 

The food. Oh, the food.

These huge pancakes (pobably more than 20 cm in diameter each) was our breakfast. Twice, and then we realized it would actually kill our stomachs...

Thursday was the "Professionals and VIP's only" day! So after standing in this line for one hour we finally eneter the huge convention center.

Huge. ((This word pretty much describes most things we experienced in the US))

Powaaaah!!

Back to the future!

  All the big videogame and comic companies was there. Big booths, a lot of "booth babes" (both female and male ones) and cool sculputers, life size models, figurines in glass cabinets... So much to see!!

These historical originals was displayed for the charity auction, check out the starting bid!

Also, there was a lot of shops and smaller companies and studio's there, selling all from nerdy T-shirst and self-published comics to steampunk stuff and small production toys.

Yes, a steampunk keyboard...!

 Lego also had a booth, with awesome models like these of Gandalf and Bildo. They're smart, they know their audience is not only young kinds but old kids as well!

We had to check out the Artist Alley, which was in it's own big hall. So many fantastic artists! Most into the American comics style, but also some into manga and more European styles. Mike Mignola had a table, which just shows the level of artists there. Some where more green though, and the diversity was appealing. So inspiring!

I usually don't buy prints, but since some of the artists was so freaking amasing, I just had to. I think we spent more than 100 dollar on prints alone!

I also took the chance to talk to editors at Yen Press (yes, I know, I'm a workaholic!) and their great and insightful feedback made me change a lot of my agendas and plans. They where harsh and honest, which I love!! Hopefully a collaboration in the future, a great contact!

The next day, we went for a walk in Central Park. Here's the statue of the sled dog Balto, who aslo got his own animated movie, remember? 

Even the squirrels were huge! And cute~

 We stopped by the Natural History Museum and checked out the space exhibition and the dinosaur skelettons!

HUGE!

 

Saturday, and back at Comic Con. If we ever though it was packed on Thursday, this was HELL. So much people it took us 3 times longer to get anywhere. 

A lot of awesome cosplayers and people dressed up for the costume contest.

So... much... people...

The Artist Alley, a little more packed, huh?

The Javits Center (where Comic Con was held) from the outside. Um... huge?

 On Sunday we had the chance to check out Midtown and Downtown, and especially the shops we had maked on the map before the trip. Among them was Forbidden Planet on Broadway and Midtown Comics at Times Square. Both have a lot of comics and figurines and made me even more poor...
We also went to Chinatown, Financial district and walked along the High Line, a former train bridge that was turned into a floating park along the West side of Midtown. 
We walked a lot... I meassured on the map, and we went like 60 km all 6 days! O_O

Monday was return day, but we still had the chance to go on a visit to Parsons New School of Design thanks to my friend Dinah (the same Dinah that helped me back when I got my contract on Ein Lied für Elise with TOKYOPOP back in 2010). It was interesting to go there, see the school and participate in a lesson.

Wow, a trip I will remember and that mattered a lot to me. Tired and dirty we returned home to Sweden.
Feels like this trip was like a piece of the puzzle of my life, put in the right spot and made things a little clearer. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now some tips for you who think of going to NYCC any time in the future:

1. Book a hotel on Manhattan, as close to NYCC as possible. The island is HUGE and walking in the city makes your feet hurt... Bring good shoes as well!
2. Make sure you have the ESTA (a traveling visa you have to apply for at least 3 days before your trip). The Americans are super duper careful, scanning every inch. And don't lock your bag, they have to be able to check it if they want to.
3. If you are a librarian, artist, game developer, publisher or any other professional, apply for the NYCC Professional Pass at least 2 months before the trip. It's so much cheaper, plus you get entrance to the Show room at Thursday, which is the only day you actually can breathe in there.
4. Do a lot of planning before the trip! Check the Internet for shops and restaurants and attractions you wanna go see. Print out maps, mark the shops and restaurants and always have the addresses written down. Did I mention that the city is HUGE? People are helpful though, so as long as you have a map and an address you'll manage.

Nerdy trip to Portugal

I'm back from my vacation at my aunt and family in Portugal!
It was a hot, tasty and nerdy trip, so here's a report and some pictures:

We travelled the country with my aunt and my father (also visiting his home country). First we visited Buddha Eden, not far from Caldas da Rainha where we live at my aunts place.
Buddha Eden is a huge garden made by a rich wine farm owner who loves art and Asian culture. The garden is next to his wine farm and when you buy an enterance fee, you also receive a wine bottle!

Buddha with the sun behind him.

On our visit to Lisbon we went to my yearly must; the comic book store BdMania. It's like a real goldmine for comic nerds like me, so I highly recommend it if you go to Lisbon some day! 

The store has American comics and graphic novels, Japanese manga, European
comics and I even found a book in Swedish by Knut Larsson, a Swedish graphic novel artist.

Later, we went to the big bookstore chain FNAC to look at their range of comics, and found Banzai in their shelves! Awesome!! 

 We also went on a trip to north of Portugal, and while checking out Porto, we found this comic book shop, Mundo Fantasma. 

 Annother fantastic store for a comic book nerd, with an impressive range of manga! No wonder why, the manager Vasco who I met and had a long and interesting chat with is huge a manga fan too. We talked about the industry and the talents of the manga here in the West. 

They also have exhibitions in the room next to the shop, with both
national and international artists. The framed picture in the front is
a Craig Thompson original, made for the shop!

I also had the chance to meet up with one of the editors at Banzai - Ricardo - and talk some work. You know me, I never take vacation... Hahaha...

Just before we were to go to the airport, we squeezed in one more nerdy activity: we went to the Museum of Popular Art in Lisbon because they had a video game exhibition! Over 120 games to play, friggin awesome!!!!

Game On - an exhibition of the history of video games, with both new
and old games from Pong, Donkey Kong and Astroids to Tomb Raider,
Guitar Hero and Star Wars Kinect.

Hand held consoles - from old to new!

And some original art of games like Sonic and Pokémon!

Of course, the trip also included great food and deserts, like these pasteis natas, bought and consumed at the famous Pasteis de Belém: 

And I also took a lot of reference photos for my future mangas, of houses and nature like the one in the national park in the north, close to the Spanish border.  

An amasing trip, warm and fun but also tireing. Now I will rest, before going to NärCon in Linköping this week end. Phu~
Hope I see some of you there! :D

Alla äventyr har sitt slut

Den gångna veckan har varit äventyrlig!

Först har jag jobbat som gästlärare på Malmö Högskola (!!) på kursen "Serieteckning och visuellt berättande", i ledning av Gunnar Krantz. Han ville att jag skulle lära ut serieskapandets grunder, vilket jag gjorde på 5 dagar. Det var pirrigt, mest för att jag är så ung och då är det ibland svårt att känna sig auktoritär i ett klassrum med folk som är äldre än en själv, och speciellt på högskolenivå!
Mitt unga utseende skapade även problem när jag försökte ta mig in i den låsta lärarmatsalen...


Det var kul att gästlära där, och jag kände mig så proffsig! Jag hade gjort ett fint kompendium åt deltagarna, hade lektion i varje steg och visade exempelserier, samt träffade en del duktiga och flitiga tecknare!

Sedan, mitt i en tajt deadline med Häxfolket bok 4, kom den inplanerade resan till Barcelona med pappa och syster Catta. Väl där mötte vi upp med faster, farbror och fasters vän, för att fira fasters 60-årsdag och hennes väns första pensionsdag. Det ledde till en helg full med god mat och gott umgänge i troligtvis Europas vackraste stad!

Catta, pappa och jag framför ett av Gaudís mästerverk,
Sagrada Famillia (ännu inte färdig, de har inte ens kvar
hans ritningar eftersom de förstördes under Franco-diktaturen).

Det var en trevlig familjeträff och underbart fint väder, definitivt en stad jag rekommenderar! Min andra vistelse i Barcelona, men inte sista, det vet jag. En annan sak jag nu vet är att om jag hade haft råd att designa min egen villa, så skulle den vara inspirerad av Gaudís hus, utan raka linjer och räta vinklar, som ett unikt sagohus...

Så fort jag kom hem var det tillbaka till arbetsbordet, för att avsluta Häxfolket 4: Folket som försvann. Det gjorde jag i onsdags, och med en stolthet utan like skickade jag över de sista bilderna till Bonnier Carlsen.
Det har varit en väldigt rolig, lärorik, stundvis utmanande och stundvis inspirerande erfarenhet att få illustrera Jo Salmsons bokserie. Jag har lärt mig massor om hur de arbetar, men även om hur man ska tänka som illustratör och bildberättare till en barnbok med så mycket bilder. Det har funnits stunder då jag känt mig lite förvirrad och vilsen, men redaktören och Jo har varit två klippor i samarbetet, och hela tiden lyft upp mig med konstruktiv kritik och beröm. Tack till er båda, och alla på BC!

Här kommer en sista tjuvtitt på bok 4, som kommer någon gång runt/efter nyår:

Vänner är bra att ha!
Eno och Sol från Häxfolket av Jo Salmson.

Så nu sitter jag och avslutar sådant som legat och väntat ett tag, som t.ex. japanska versionen av Circus Romantique, cirkus-mangan jag tecknade till Nosebleed Studios antologi.

Dock måste jag bli bättre på att utmana mig själv, känner jag! Jag vill känna att jag pushar mig själv, och lever för dagen. Tar chanser här i livet och vågar mig på saker.
Jag är höjdrädd. Ändå slängde jag ur mig "Kan vi inte gå och klättra någon dag?" till min sambo, och tyvärr tog han mig på orden. Vi kollade upp den lokala klätterväggen, och idag var vi där på en testa-på-dag. Det var så pirrigt!! Man började trevande, steg för steg. En meter, två, tre. Fingrarna värkte och benen skakade av nervositet, och jag fick intala mig att fortsätta, att jag klarar mer!



Mitt mål var den orangea stora biten jag nuddar i slutet. Jag klarade det!! Så stolt jag är över mig själv!

Det påminner mig om Gunnar Krantz lektion som han hade med min klass på Serieskolan, då jag gick första året där 2005-2006. Han pratade om att rita serier är som att bestiga ett berg (och att karriären är lite så också, tror jag?). Varje ny sak man gör är en ny klippsats, men när man väl tittar upp kan toppen fortfarande se så avlägsen ut. Det är därför viktigt att titta ner ibland och se hur långt man kommit, hur mycket man lyckats med!

Att titta ner när man är höjdrädd är inte så smart, kanske, men jag kände faktiskt inte av min höjdrädsla när jag gjorde det. Jag såg bara hur högt upp jag var, och sedan tänkte jag:
"Inte kan jag sluta nu? Jag har bara en bit kvar till mitt mål (den orangea biten)."
Så jag fortsatte, och det var en sådan kick att nå den!

Så, mitt tips till alla er aspirerande tecknare där ute är att sätta mål för er själva och nå dem!

En solig helg i mitt liv

Helgen var ovanligt solig, både metrologiskt och mentalt. Först smet jag in till SF-bokhandeln i Malmö och hade signering med Åsa Ektröm.


Det gick finfint, hade med Nosebleed Studios nya antologi och signerade den och Mjau!-böckerna. Tack till alla som kom och alla som köpte!
Lotteriet gick tydligen också bra, och vinnaren som fick min bild såg glad ut!

Skånkan kom in lite senare och fotograferade under Zombie-eventen med Apart förlag:
Zombies och mörker på seriedag - Skånskan.se

Sen smet jag hem och tillsammans med Emil hoppade vi på bussen till Lomma Beach~


Lagom lite folk och perfekt med sol och vind! Där låg vi och knapprade på grönsaksstavar och läste och jäste. Skööönt!
Sen blev det glass! Yaay!

Efter det smet vi hem igen, bytte väskor och traskade ner till stationen för tågfärd till Småland. På söndagen firade vi hans far i sol och grönska, med tårta och grillat och riktigt god vegetarisk mat lagad av hans syster Anni (kolla hennes mumsiga matblogg med recept och foton!).

Löjtnantshjärtan utanför huset, så fina.

Hilda följde med upp, för att hon skulle vänja sig vid huset och vid Elsa (hennes mamma och katt-frun i huset) men det gick lite sisådär...

Hilda var åksjuk upp och åksjuk ner, och väl där var hon värre än en bortadopterad tonårstjej med hormonproblem mot stackars Elsa. Men Elsa tog striden, morrade och fräste tillbaka och satte henne på plats. De kommer nog lära sig att gilla varandra nån gång... hoppas vi.

Väl hemma var det en sak Hilda saknat.

Knaskatt...