Per Dybvig (born 1964) joined Tegnerforbundet in 1999. Whether he works with illustration or visual art, his approach is direct, spontaneous and fearless. With his playful and energetic drawings, he is a familiar and beloved companion in children's literature. Among other things, he is responsible for the illustrations for the book series about Svein and the rat, and the fox and the piglet. In 2015, he made his debut as an author with the book Jegeren. In Jegeren, which is illustrated by Dybvig himself, he conjures up a hard-boiled crime story from the forest with razor-thin pen strokes. Per Dybvig lives and works in Stavanger and Berlin.
TF: Per, can you tell us a bit about your artistic work?
PD: I work based on drawing as a medium and have my work as an artist in Stavanger and Berlin. As an artist, I work with book illustration as well as my own independent projects. I like to have different projects running at the same time, this ranges from animation, drawings in large format or smaller, more detailed works.
TF: How do you use drawing in your work? Can you tell us a bit about your working process?
PD: I rarely make sketches in advance because I like to work very directly. Sometimes detailed, millimeter by millimeter - other times almost with a clenched fist on very large formats. There are extremes in the way I work, also in terms of drawing technique. The drawing tool plays an important role, as for example in the book "The hunter - a story from the forest", Cappelen Damm, 2015; here the drawings are made with a pen that is so thin that you are forced to draw at a slow pace. For me, these are very detailed drawings that arise because the drawing tool is so fragile that it must be treated accordingly. Animation films are drawn by hand, and are a work characterized by direct and fast drawings. At the same time, the rhythm of the drawings is broken with each "click" on the camera, which also makes this a time-consuming process.
TF: What inspires you? Do you work from a theme?
PD: Drawing is in itself a driving force. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and when you least expect it. It can be a sentence, someone or something you see, a sound or something else. Within animation, for example, where I also work with a sound image, the sound itself can be the starting point for action and drawing.
TF: What are you currently working on?
PD: I am working on various book projects, a new animated film and working towards an exhibition in Galleri Opdahl in 2018.
TF: What does drawing mean to you and your work?
PD: I draw every day and have done so for as long as I can remember. This means that drawing is very important to me.
TF: Finally, can you tell us a bit about your work in Tegnerforbundet's sales department?
PD: The drawings are from the book The Hunter. A tale from the forest and based on a woodcut by Georg Pencz, dated 1535, entitled Hasen fanger die Jäger. The book is basically about hunter, hare and dog - and the universe that arises when the roles are reversed. The animals walk on two legs, chain smoke, drink and threaten each other with a gun and the hunter is hunted.
