Artist of the Month is an interview series where Tegnerforbundet each month introduces a member who is represented by artwork in our Sales Department. With this initiative, we want to give readers an insight into the members' artistic work and highlight the importance of drawing in their work.
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Sverre Skjold (1971) is a Norwegian illustrator, visual artist and graphic designer who combines realism and light surrealism in his work. With a spontaneous approach to drawing, he allows his motifs to develop organically, often with humor and a playfulness in the line. Skjold's work is characterized by a distinctive circle of motifs, where people, birds and animals appear as characters in an imaginative universe. His project, #dailysketch, is a fascinating artistic experiment in which he creates and publishes one drawing a day on social media, always before midnight. Skjold lives and works in Haugesund.
TF: Hi Sverre, can you tell us a bit about your artistic work?
SS: I'm 52 ½ years old and live in Haugesund with one wife, two daughters, an inexplicably kind dog and a murderous cat. During the day I work as an almost ordinary man on the design and user interface of a gigantic website with free digital teaching aids for upper secondary school (www.ndla.no). In other words, a fairly ordinary life. But then I've sneaked into an exciting adventure park in general. There are drawings and nonsense going on. Some days the drawing is a little commentary on my day, other times based on a strange word or expression. Throughout my life, I've dabbled in the noble profession of teaching, graphic design, illustration and visual arts. When you have children, a mortgage and an A4 life, you're a kind of happy prisoner in a busy life. But the concept of "fixed income" also gives me the freedom to draw whatever I want. Every now and then I take part in a project or exhibition. In the long term, I see that I have to try to draw more and work less with things that adults say you should do.
TF: Why do you draw? Tell us a bit about your work process.
SS: For as long as I can remember, I've been drawing in my notebooks in elementary school, in meetings at work or when I'm thinking about other things. I always have some kind of sketchbook and drawing equipment with me. Always at the ready! I draw with a lot of things that make marks, really. But most often pen, pencil, pastel chalk and/or watercolor.
Sometimes I have a mental sketch of a plan before I start. Other times I just start. I like to let the image emerge in stages, and then I try to stop in time.
TF: Can you name any artists or illustrators who inspire you?
SS: The drawings of Werenskiold, Kittelsen, J.C Dahl and Tidemand have followed me all my life. And then I grew up with Franquin, Jean Giraud and many other comics. Of Norwegian cartoonists, I immediately think of Per Dybvig, Øyvind Torseter, Finn Graff, Siri Dokken, Marvin Halleraker and Morten Mørland. That's a lot of newspaper cartoonists.
From other parts of the world, I must mention Oldrich Kulhanek from the Czech Republic, the drawings of Käthe Kollwitz, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. By the way, it's worth mentioning that in Denmark, Kristian Eskild Jensen is drawing us all.
TF: What themes preoccupy you as an artist?
SS: I love looking at people. My imagination is nothing compared to the figures I can find in any airport departure hall. I also have an infinite weakness for humor. Life is a wondrous journey and I'm passionate about it.
TF: What is the role of illustration today?
SS: Good quality illustration will survive just fine in the future. Right now, many people are concerned with generative AI and images. But I think we're getting some tools here that allow us to work even more efficiently than before, and then the skilled illustrator and communicator will choose what is best for the job to be done at any given time.
I think newspaper drawings in particular are a good illustration of this. There are so many layers of meaning and so many delicious subtleties with which to comment on society! A so-called artificial intelligence can't handle this kind of antics. At least not yet... Here in Norway, we're very lucky to have so many talented examples of the newspaper cartoonist species.
TF: Can you tell us about the #dailysketch project
SS: The project is based on a combination of several postulates:
I'm a climbing coach for a group of young people. I see that training with a plan and with continuity over time leads to progress. This should also apply to drawing.
In the past, when I had to take part in exhibitions, I had to perform skipping strokes and "crank" my drawing arm to create something "proper". If I could draw something "properly" every day, I wouldn't have this yo-yo existence. I feel that works.
You can't put too much pressure on yourself. If I think I'm going to climb four times a week and only manage three, I fail. If I think I'm going to climb twice a week and manage three, I've done more than I should have.
That's why I've set the bar so low for myself that I can just fail and still experience mastery. The rule I've made is to draw at least one line on a sheet of paper every day. This must then be published on social media before midnight. I feel that this has also worked well so far.
As of November 1, #dailysketch has grown to 519 drawings.
At times, characters and entire stories have developed that I wonder if perhaps should have been collected in book form. We'll see...
TF: Tell us a little about your work in the Drawing Association's sales department
SS: All the drawings are part of the #dailysketch project. Some of them are about the series I call "Dei gule støvlane". A small universe has grown up here over time with characters that I've grown to love. Otherwise, there are glimpses from my life, comments on other art or a bird I've met on my path. There is always a humorous or thoughtful title to each picture.
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