Our Christmas Gif to you!

As you may have heard, Christmas is upon us and we would love to offer you our very special Christmas Gif: A Christmas Tree at Zero Gravity! 

We also have good news about the Empty Spaces project. We have spoken with a Sandnes Kommune representative who confirmed that they are interested in Empty Spaces. We are now in dialogue with property owners to discuss how the project can work for them. 

The collaborative project with writer John Hughes is well underway and we are starting to accumulate quite a collection of sketches and ideas. We plan to meet and talk with John in the new year about the design and production of the book. The sketch below illustrates a dusty drive along Route 66 as the evening closes in. 

This will be our final post before the Christmas holidays so we would like to wish all of our followers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Don't forget the Åpent hus exhibition at Tegnerforbundet is now open. The exhibition includes Ian's prints from 'The Way The Wind Blows' and runs until Saturday December 22nd. The prints are in a limited edition of 5 and can be purchased from the exhibition or by contacting us directly at info@whitehole.no 

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Empty Spaces developments, book cover commission & more from John Hughes collaboration.

It's been a very busy and exciting week at White Hole with new developments to the Empty Spaces project. 

Sandnes Kommune have expressed an interest in working with us to develop the project and have begun speaking with local property owners about their possible involvement. Our aim is to encourage the property owners to open up their vacant commercial premises to creative individuals or collectives to use as work or exhibition spaces at affordable short-term rents until they became commercially viable again. It will be interesting to see what kind of response we get and we will discuss how we can develop the project later this week.

We also sent off this sketch for a book cover commission…

… and continued working on the collaborative project with Oslo-based photographer and writer, John Hughes. The sketch below illustrates the gloomy atmosphere inside a Greasy Spoon cafe in London's Kings Cross.

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Book cover illustration

Last week, Fagbokforlaget (an academic book publisher) in Oslo gave me some more details about the commission that they offered me at the beginning of the month. They have asked me to produce an illustration for the cover of a school textbook that presents Norwegian literature and the development of the Norwegian language.

I've begun to sketch out a few ideas ideas for the book cover. The challenge is to come up with something that looks modern enough to appeal to students and at the same time, academic enough to appeal to teachers. Here's a detail from one of the sketches. 

Don't forget the Åpent hus exhibition at Tegnerforbundet is now open. The exhibition includes Ian's prints from 'The Way The Wind Blows' and runs until Saturday December 22nd. The prints are in a limited edition of 5 and can be purchased from the exhibition or by contacting us directly at info@whitehole.no Follow us on our Blog, Facebook and Twitter. 

Åpent hus exhibition

We are really pleased with 'The Way The Wind Blows' prints, printed by Steinar & Mats on their Duplo printer. The prints are part of the upcoming Åpent hus exhibition at Tegnerforbundet, Rådhusgata 17, 0158 Oslo from 29th November - 22nd December 2012. http://www.tegnerforbundet.no/kommende-utstillinger/
Each image is printed in a limited edition of 5 and can be purchased from the exhibition or by contacting us directly at info@whitehole.no.

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The Way The Wind Blows

Last night we completed the images for our latest project, 'The Way The Wind Blows'. After developing a concept to illustrate change, influence and pattern, we produced a series of images and selected the two that communicated these ideas the best. The files are currently with Steinar and Mats in Oslo who are printing the images on a Duplo printer. We selected this particular method of printing for it's low-tech retro qualities and expect the finished prints to look slightly different from the digital files with regards to colour (a bit like an old polaroid photo). 

Duplo printing is limited in the number of colours it can reproduce so most of the colours in our images are made up by combining halftone dots of different colours. The registration of colours is never perfect and the results are sometimes unpredictable making each print unique. We have always advocated risk-taking at White Hole so introducing this philosophy to the printing process has got us very excited to see how things turn out! 

The images will be displayed at the upcoming Åpent hus exhibition at Tegnerforbundet, Rådhusgata 17, 0158 Oslo from 29th November - 22nd December 2012, and will be for sale in a limited edition of 5.

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More from John Hughes collaboration plus details about a new drawing project

Last week we began working on a new drawing project with a working title of 'The Way The Wind Blows'. The project uses the visual language of traditional TV weather maps to illustrate change, influence and pattern on a micro and macro scale (see sketch below). Two of the finished pieces will be on show and for sale at the Åpent hus exhibition at Tegnerforbundet, Rådhusgata 17, 0158 Oslo from 29th November - 22nd December 2012. 

We have also been producing more illustrations for the John Hughes collaboration. This sketch illustrates a piece of writing about a tense relationship between a farmer and his pig in the days leading up to the pig's slaughter.

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New publishing assignment and more on Empty Spaces

Last week we received an email from Fagbokforlaget (an academic book publisher) in Oslo inviting us to join them for a new assignment. Fagbokforlaget is a Norwegian independent publisher of literature, distributing material for use in teaching and professional growth for nursery, primary, secondary, adult and higher education. The project sounds very interesting and has a deadline of December 1st 2012 so it will be a busy November at White Hole! We are looking forward to working with a new client and hope it may be the beginning of a longer professional relationship with Fagbokforlaget. 

We have also been developing our Empty Spaces project and have begun making contact with a number of potential partners. The project is still in it's early stages and it's success is dependent on the co-operation and assistance of various groups and individuals. We are currently building a network of volunteers and partners that we hope can bring the project to fruition. You can read more about the Empty Spaces project here. If you have any suggestions for this project or are interested in participating then please leave a comment or contact us by email. We would love to hear from you! This film shows how a similar project is working in Newcastle, Australia. 

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Empty Spaces

In May of this year I spent a month in Sandnes in the West of Norway as artist in residence at KINOKINO Art and Film Centre. My experiences of Sandnes were all positive and I found the city had a friendly atmosphere, combining it's industrial past with it's more recent modern development.

I particularly enjoyed walking through the pedestrianised 'Langgata' with it's cafés and markets but couldn't help noticing the numerous vacant premises on this street and some of the surrounding streets. It seemed a shame that the otherwise vibrant atmosphere was being shadowed by these empty spaces and I felt they were having a negative effect on the atmosphere. 

I believe that opening the spaces up to creative individuals or collectives to use as work or exhibition spaces at affordable short-term rents would optimise their use until they become commercially viable again. It would also bring life to the spaces making them a more attractive prospect for retailers. I have conducted some research and have found projects successfully using a similar model in Australia and Canada and across New Zealand. 

Using these projects as a model I am developing a similar project for Sandnes city centre that will bring mutual benefit to creative individuals and collectives, property owners and the people of Sandnes. The project requires further development and funding (that could be acquired from both private and public sources). If this is a project that you would be interested in supporting or contributing to in any way I would be very happy to hear from you. 

Meanwhile, to help digest all of this, here is another sketch from the collaborative project with photographer and writer, John Hughes. 

This one is from a piece of writing about a larger than life character who works as a 'head of security'.

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Illustrations and book design completed! Plus more from John Hughes collaboration

We are excited to announce that we have completed all of the illustrations, redrafted and expanded the text, and designed 14 double-page spreads! 

Over the coming weeks, we will be presenting the work to 

publishing companies in Norway. If you know of any publishers that may be interested in the book, please let us know. We would like to talk to as many publishers as possible and we are interested in publishing the book in different languages. 

This is one of the final illustrations from the story showing the main character waving goodbye to the astronauts after they have dropped him off at home.

Now that all of the preliminary production work is complete for the children's book, we are focussing on our collaborative project with Oslo-based photographer and writer, John Hughes. 

We have already posted one sketch from the project and here's another one about the complexities of interpreting and explaining abstract art.

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How we make illustrations for the book

We hope to complete the current phase of our children's book project by the end of this week. Our aim for this phase is to produce an expanded version of the text and to design 14 double-page spreads showing the finished illustrations and the position of the accompanying text. For now, the text writing is complete and we only have a couple more illustrations to complete. 

We thought it would be interesting to give you an insight in to how we develop the illustrations so we have posted images showing three stages of process. 

Each image starts life as a thumbnail sketch only a few centimetres across. It communicates the basic information from the narrative and is used as a starting point to develop further sketches that include more details and how we intend to use light.

The more detailed sketches are approximately 20cm x 20cm and are a combination of pencil drawing and indian ink that are edited in Photoshop. The sketches are used as a guide when building the models and shooting the photos for the finished illustrations.  

Where necessary, the photos are edited in Photoshop, although we prefer to get the photographs just right and minimise post-production. 
This particular illustration shows the main character of the story trying to sleep.

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White Hole in print, Collages from White Ink and a collaboration with writer John Hughes

Last week, we were excited to receive our copy of 'Norwegian Illustrators no.4' featuring work from White Hole. The catalogue contains some of the best in contemporary Norwegian illustration, presenting work from 92 illustrators and cartoonists. It is a great resource for anybody interested in illustration and can be purchased from Magikon Forlag.

Our sister company, White Ink design studio has been posting some interesting collages made from fragmented remnants of old religious propaganda. Produced by Tine Merakerås at White Ink, the compositions disrupt and rearrange the printed matter to suggest new order and meaning. 

Read more about White Ink on Facebook. 

One evening in December 2011, Ian attended a poetry and story recital by Oslo based photographer John Hughes. Inspired by his tales of chance encounters, missed opportunities, drunken lust, the joys of smoking, desperation, loneliness, success, failure and contradiction, we contacted John to ask if he would be interested in collaborating with us on a project that would combine John's words and White Hole's pictures. 

We were over the moon when he said that he would work with us so we started developing ideas immediately. Unfortunately due to other commitments, we had to put the project on ice for a few months but we are pleased to say that we are now picking it back up again and are excited to see how it evolves. 

The image above is a sketch based on one of the poems set in and around the Belle Vue pub.

Find out more about our projects at our website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Update: Why Does The Moon Shine Whilst I am Trying To Sleep?

Producing the book has been great fun allowing us to experiment across a range of disciplines. Over the last week we have been writing, model-making, drawing, photographing, photo-editing and designing page layouts.

The model house now has windows and a door as well as some interior walls and furniture. We have been experimenting with lighting to create the illusion of moonlight shining through the windows but there is a bit more work to do here before we achieve the effect that we want. 

We have also been developing the narrative and the text has been expanded, redrafted and combined with the images to create a series of double-page spreads. 

More images next week. 

Follow the progress here on our blog, Facebook or Twitter. 

Update: Why Does The Moon Shine Whilst I am Trying To Sleep?

We are busy working on our children's illustrated book 'Why Does The Moon Shine Whilst I am Trying To Sleep?' The book (written and illustrated by Ian Dent at White Hole) was 1 of 5 projects selected from over 90 applications in 2010 to receive a grant from the Norwegian Illustrator's fund. Our commitment to other projects has prevented us from completing the book sooner but we are happy to be back on track and hope that this will be the final push!

We are producing the illustrations by building 3-dimensional models and photographing them. The photos of the sets, models and drawings are then edited to produce the 'final' illustrations. Examples of the 'finished' illustrations can be seen here. 

To give you an idea of the process, we have taken photos of the different stages of production. The picture to the left is the model and set used for shots of the moon. More pictures showing how we constructed the set can be seen here. 

This is the model house that we are currently building. The exterior walls are more or less complete and the final job is to add the windows and door before we begin work on the interior. We will be posting pictures weekly so that you can watch the illustrations evolve. 

It is a long process but we believe these results could not be achieved any other way! Follow the process here on our blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Norwegian Illustrators no.4

Norwegian Illustrators no.4 book featuring work from the White Hole studio was launched on Saturday. 

Our illustration commissioned in 2011 by Saatchi & Saatchi for the Toyota Yaris advertising campaign has been used as part of the publicity for the event. Can you spot it in the photo below? 

Norwegian Illustrators no. 04 contains some of the best contemporary Norwegian illustration, and presents 92 of Grafill's illustrators and cartoonists. The catalog is full of illustrations and demonstrates the breadth of Norwegian illustration today. It is an art book, a catalog and a resource for anyone who wants to use illustration.

The Grafill illustration panel is responsible for the production, and this year's release is the fourth in the series. The catalog is sent out free to Grafill members and potential clients of illustration. It is published by Magikon and can be purchased through their website. 

Regnskapstjenester Linda Dalan

The interior wall piece commissioned by Regnskapstjenester Linda Dalan in Oslo is now complete. 

Click here to see more pictures from the project

We would love to hear your comments about the work. You can leave a comment here on the blog or you can reach us through Facebook or Twitter. 

Back to work at a new address

After a break for the summer White Hole is now operating from our new address at Askveien 3, 1446 Drøbak, where we continue working on a handful of projects started before the summer, and also initiating some new projects and collaborations. 

Currently, we are in the final stages of an interior wall piece commissioned by Regnskapstjenester Linda Dalan. 

The client asked for something modern and colourful to brighten up the stairway of their Oslo office. 

Here is a preview through the stairs of the work in progress. Pictures of the finished work will follow next week. 

When is New?

See the work from Ian's exhibition here.

When is New?

There is still a chance to see Ian Dent's exhibition at KINOKINO in Sandnes. The exhibition ends on Saturday 9.6.12 at 18.00. Click here to find out more.

KINOKINO Game On 2.0 Ian Dents exhibition in Sandnes opens on the 24th May. Click here to find out more.

White Hole creative studio has created a new division operating as White Ink graphic design. Lead designer is Tine Merakerås. To find out more about the services offered by White Ink, click here

The project Game On 2.0 is well on its way and Ian will travel to Sandnes on Monday to complete the installation there. We are also nearing the end of our work for the Varangermuseum, as well as working on a major restructuring of our studio. More information on all these things will come soon!

KINOKINO - Artist in Residence

We are pleased to announce that Ian Dent at White Hole has been selected through a national open competition to complete an exhibition for KINOKINO Center for art and film, in Sandnes. The exhibition is about the history of video gaming (Game On 2.0), and Ian will be spending the month of May as artist in residence developing and producing the work. The exhibition opens on the 19th of May.
For more information click here

Murman - the coast of hope

We are pleased to be working on the design and production of a traveling exhibition about the colonization of the Kola coast. To find out more about the exhibition click here

Creatures and creature prints

See our creatures and creature prints on our website

Comment on our blog!

After a few complications, we are finally welcoming any comments you may have!(We know you are following us.....)

Hvorfor lyser månen når jeg prøver å sove?

....this is our book so far......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

White Hole is back at work, and we open our exhibition for a final Saturday on the 21.1.12 from 12 - 15. The address is Fredensborgveien 15a 0177 Oslo.