Eight countries - and eight very different Gov. website designs

Eight countries and eight government websites, well nine as I add one extra, the Swedish Royal Court website. Why posting this? I thought it interesting in how different it can look in different countries. And these are only western countries, well Russia is closing in a bit.


Swedish Goverment (Presently head of the EU for 6 months)

Swedish Royal Court

US White House

Canadian Government

Italian Government

Russian Gov, the Kremlin

UK, nr. 10 Downing Street

Japan, Prime Minister Cabinet


Enjoy the Graphic & Web design tour :-)

Stefan Lindblad
Illustrator & artist

If you are into Comics con.

We dont have Comic Con this big in Sweden. But in a country between the Pacific ocean and the Atlantic ocean they do. If you like to see what its all about, then visit the official Comic Con website. And from there see whats been put up on You tube.

A slightly smaller ;-) comic book event is Small Press Expo in the USA
Which have a even smaller SPX equivalent one in Sweden, runned by "Serieteket". And there is a film & comic con in London, England. Comics in europe though is biggest in France and Belgium. But I couldnt find any link to a Comic event in those two countries.

Stefan Lindblad
illustrator & artist

Music while drawing

This is what I am listening to right now, while drawing illustrations for a book, while using Corel Photo-Paint X4 and Wacom Intuos 4. The song is "Hon är så söt", which means "She is so sweat"
By the Swedish band Bo Kaspers Orchestra. This is a live performance via Youtube.
Enjoy.

Stefan Lindblad
illustrator & artist

Interesting article by Kelly Odell on CEO who dont get it

I read this morning in a Swedish daily newspaper an article by Kelly Odell. http://kellyodell.blogspot.com/2009/07/many-of-our-corporate-leaders-just.html

Its an interesting read on, how according to Kelly Odell, the corporate leaders just dont get it. On how they sack people instead of investing. Well better to read yourself. I know Google translate isnt perfect, far from it. but do use it if you like to read the article. It might give you an idea, until Kelly Odell translate it himself.

After I wrote this post, Kelly Odell as seen wrote, commenting on my blog that he now made a translation of his article to English. Click here for the english article>

Stefan Lindblad
Illustrator & artist

Interviews with digital illustrator artist´s

Everytime we go to a movie which have special effects of any sort, we can be sure some concept artist been involved in the movie. And just about any movie at some point or the other have used a storyboard. Advanced or a simple scribble. Point is that at any point a movie is done some illustrator artist have been involved.

Some are famous in the digital art business, some are not, but they are there.
I have done storyboards myself for commercials, still photo sessions and short movies. I have done presentations skecthes for campaigns and you name it, there are images being done all the time, by great artists never nown to the broad public. They put down a lot of work and effort. And inspires many of us.Therefore here are some nice interviews. Just cklick the links.

Have fun and hopefully be inspired.

1. Syd Mead (Blade runner concept artist)
   Nr 2 Part 1. Movie clip interview at BoingBoing TV/ DRAWN!
   Nr 2 b. Part 2. Movie clip interview at BoingBoing TV/ DRAWN!
   
2. Ryan Church (Star Wars concept artist)
3. George Hull (Matrix concept artist)
   Nr. 2
4. Linda Bergkvist
   
5. John Wallin Liberto
6. 
   

Stefan Lindblad
Illustrator & artist

Convert text into curves and transparant

I once got the question on a Swedish Graphic & illustration forum, asking how to make a text into a vector object and with a transparancy fading out. This is a very simple and fast task to do in CorelDRAW. Here is a picture where I show how I did it. I used CorelDRAW X4. Sorry for the Swedish language on the picture sample.

It says:

1. Choose typ/ font
2. Choose Ctrl+Q (convert text to curve)
3. Choose transparancy tool, an in this case drag handle downwards
4. Finished!
   

Hope you enjoy it,


Stefan Lindblad
Illustrator & artist

Reading about tourist´s coming to Stockholm, Sweden

Old Town Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by Stefan Lindblad, copyright 2008

Every year its the same kind of articles in many of the Swedish daily news papers. And I admit I always read these articles when I see them with joy. Its about tourist´s coming to my home town Stockholm, Sweden. Enjoying the scenery and the town and the people. Well that´s who they interview anyway. I am not naive, there must be people who dont like my town, but it seems most enjoy it. But what is fun is to listen to what these tourist anyway feel about the town. Tourist´s stop me on town and talk, by asking me directions, or I approach them myself to help out when I see them standing and dont seem to know where they are. I go traveling myself and become a tourist in other countries, so I am glad when people enjoy my hometown as well.

I wonder if these kind of articles are written in other countries local news papers? It would be fun to know. Here is a link to a official website about Sweden >

So if, dont hesitate to comment and link to an article in the comments field.

Today its sunny in Stockholm, Sweden. Its summer. Enjoy!

Ps.
After I wrote this post originally I found this article in the LA Times. Could be useful and fun for visitors.

Stefan Lindblad
Illustrator & artist

CorelDRAW & Photo-Paint as a Viewer

You may not know this, but you can use CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 as a viewer of internal file formats of CorelDRAW and Photo-Paint, even after a trial version of the program has ended.

Here is a quote on this from one of Corel Corps Product Managers telling this: Gérard Metrailler

Click to read more here >>
And the quote from Corel:
One of the requests that we've received on a regular basis has been for a CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT viewer. This has always been a very interesting point of discussion internally regarding how we could do this. Good news: With CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4, there now is a viewer... and here is the detail on how to get it: Simply download and install the trial version.

The trial version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 enables you to test the full version for 15 days. Once the trial period is over, the application will automatically convert itself into a Viewer, disabling all output features such as save, print, ... You will still be able to use the product, but you won't be able to save your creations. This means that you can keep the trial on your computer if you need to view CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT files on a regular basis without the need to print / save these documents.

Gérard

End quote.


Stefan Lindblad

Illustrator & artist