SWEDISHGEEK

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisradsby/

It’s a really nice 1 bedroom apartment with lots of space and a lot of natural coming in since it’s on the top floor. The TV in the living room is quite small at the moment, it was supposed to be a big LED-tv but it broke a week before I moved in. So it’s in the workshop right now getting repaired, I’ll probably get it in 2-3 weeks.

The apartment is only about 15-20 minutes away from work if I walk, I can probably get there in 7-10 minutes if I take the bike. I’m looking forward to spending 6 months here, it’ll be good.

I’ll try to keep up with my photography a bit more..
Until next time

/Chris

During my visit in Gothenburg I decided to go to the local skatepark together with Alexandra (my girlfriend) and I talked to some of the local skaters if it was alright for me to take some shots.

I used my trusty Canon 550D and f1.4 50mm Lens for these ones. I positioned myself close to the rails to be able to get some good shots of the kids doing some nice grinds. This is my first time shooting something that speedy but it was a great experience and a lot of fun. The guys at the park were nice and liked the fact that someone was there taking some photos. I ended up giving out some of my details to em, I’ll get some more shots of the skaters up later, this is what I’ve got so far. Right now I have other things that are of higher priority.

I spent some time at Malmö Central Station in Sweden. I took some shots of some people walking by minding their own business. Some of them smiled, some of them got nervous and some of them got a bit pissed.

I took it inside the station in the afternoon, the sun had a nice warmth to it and people were hurrying to get to their trains. It was really busy but I managed to get some decent ones, not perfect but I still like to go out and get some shot like these. Out of my comfort zone and stop being afraid of taking shots of strangers.

I had my Canon 550d and 50mm Lens with me so I had to get pretty close to get some decent shots. I also spent the day together with my new girlfriend which was 100% awesome, a day filled with good food, laughter and lots of ice cream.

So another post, it was quite some time ago I made my last one, probably about a month ago. Let me bring you all up to speed. When I got back to England from my vacation in Sweden I went to work for about a week, then we all got the news that we might get made redundant. Sony put down the hammer and some studios here in the UK lost some people, one being my mentor and inspiration: Andy Gahan. Me being a contractor in that situation had me worrying quite a bit.

Luck has always been with me though and I got to keep my job. I really hope everyone else will land on their feet and find something new for them to do. Soon after the redundencies I also got the notice that I’ve been offered an extension to my contract but I’d be working for Sony: Studio Liverpool instead. I had a meeting with the Liverpool Studio Art Director, I went in with a confident smile and everything went alright, so now I’m working here in Liverpool.

Up till now I’ve been on the lazy-side being occupied with working on my portfolio, meeting new people and planning for the future. I assure you though I will get some more photographs up in the coming weeks. I have another trip to Sweden planned as well at the end of April and I’m going to spend it in Gothenburg. I’m really looking forward to it. There is a lovely woman I can’t wait to meet there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisradsby/

So on March 5th I decided to join my friends for breakfast and head into town with my good friend Nils. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the new hot couple in town even though they didn’t want me to.

Then I spent some time with my friend Nils Norell, we walked around town talking to strangers, and had fun. I got some nice shots of Nils, it was a really nice day for some portraits, good thing I brought my lenshood.

So I decided to go on a photo-adventure, I asked to of my friends Per & Nils to come with me, and these shots are what we got from the trip. I brought my 28mm & 50mm lenses though I ended up using the 50mm most. It was a really good trip, we had a lot of fun and it was nice to get away.

You can find the shots over at my flickr account as well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisradsby/

As you can see on this one below, we actually had coffee on a picnic table placed on top of frozen water. Probably boot-deep.

On all the shots where you can see snow and ice on the ground, we were actually standing on/in? the ocean. We checked if the ice was thick enough then we ventured out onto the sea to try and get some really nice portraits. We were lucky with the sun shining through at the end as well, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some nice shots with more dramatic lighting.

This one below is quite interesting, I ran ahead of my friend and got down on my knees. I tricked my friend into laughing and pulled the trigger when he started smiling. The shot came out beautiful. I really love how his leather jacket looks in this kind of lighting. The funny thing is that all the snow and ice acts as a fill light or a reflector from the left :) You gotta love the snow sometimes. Great stuff.

And lastly some shots of yours truly, taken by my good friend Per. In the first shot I tried to tell my trigger-happy friend how to handle the camera which ended up with a lot of shots of all the funny faces I make when I speak. Yes I tend to use my arms a lot and make weird facial expressions. But I know you guys love it.

Yes, it’s really cold in Sweden right now. That’s it folks, for now.

Me and my beautiful friend Athena went to Delamere Forest for a couple of hours out, this gave me a chance to get out of my apartment and try out my new Canon 50mm f1.4 USM Lens.

I had to be a bit sneaky with my camera and I ended up with these shots that came out a bit more honest than the rest. She was sitting in the car fixing herself up and I had to get in there with my camera, I called her name and then snapped when she turned her face to me. You gotta love it.

I wanted to make use of my new portrait lens so I decided to take some self-portraits, hopefully I can convince other people than my roommate to let me take their portrait. I feel a bit ego uploading stuff like this but hey it’s allowed right?

If you stare long enough, you’ll see all my flaws. I dare you to find them.

I’ve wanted to start a B&W-series, and I thought I’d give it a go today. From all the shots I took I decided on 3 black and white and 3 colored shots.

I thought I’d share some thoughts about talent. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine said to me:

“I hate you naturally talented people”

It was of course not said in a harsh tone but it still got to me. I remember the days when I used to tell myself: I wish I was naturally talented. Just like me back then most people are not able to see beyond the canvas of the artist: All the hard work,  the studying, the anxiety that keeps you awake all night forcing yourself to put more work into your art and lastly the frustration of having a great idea for an art-piece but realize you do not yet have the skills to materialize that idea.

We have all felt as such.

I believe that there are many things in life that are within our comprehension as well as things beyond. Our minds works in different ways and I cannot disagree on the fact that some are more suited for certain jobs than others. Some people have a certain aptitude towards certain fields. I would call this natural talent. However the perception of natural talent is often skewed in a sense that when people see a great art piece they conclude that the artist must be naturally gifted. When in most cases it is not so.

These days “natural talent” has become a social defense-mechanism that makes people lazy and gives them an excuse to not aim for their dreams. I understand, it’s easier to say:

“I wanted to be an artist, but I had no talent for it so I dropped it.”

Than to say:

“I will sacrifice all my spare time to become better at what I want to do in life”

Because that’s what it is, it’s about working harder than everybody else around you. This is also why there is a chasm, a big rift that separates the minds of hard working people from people that are fine & satisfied with what they have. Hard working people will have a tough time understanding how people can just sit around all day, and satisfied people cannot understand the troubles of those who seriously want to master what they want to do in life.

I cannot lie when I say that I’ve grown rather weary of people complaining and not taking initiative to make a change. I cannot lie that I get rather frustrated trying to explain the concept of Hard Work to people. I cannot lie that I feel guilty when I say that I need to work on my art rather than spend time with my friends.

In the end, it all comes down to one thing: Will power. Knowledge comes with experience, skills come with practice but the key to a brighter future comes from within. It’s that undying will to become better. Maybe you know of this feeling? It’s the feeling you get when you see great works of art, it’s the feeling that makes you spend those couple of hours of free time working instead of relaxing and lastly it’s the feeling that will ultimately make you become the person you want to be.

Lately I’ve started to plan, write a list of things I want to become good at or eventually master in my lifetime. People have this weird thing about that you can only master one thing. When they say stuff like that I say: Why limit yourself? Keeping a mindset that you can only do one thing limits your creativity, we all know that some time in our lives we’ve looked at other people and their skills and said: I want to be able to do that.

The only thing stopping you is your fear of failure. Most people believe that good artists are naturally talented and that talent is imprinted in their DNA. It’s not true, being an artist is about being dedicated. Spend those extra hours a day trying to master your skills.

The things I want to master has come down to:
2D Concept Art (Landscapes/Characters)
3D Character Art (Stylistic/Realistic/Low-poly/High-poly)
3D Environment Art (Stylistic/Realistic/Low-poly/High-poly)
Photography (Black & White, Portraits, Landscape)

These are the things I eventually want to master, taking in mind that I’ve already progressed in some of these categories I must also recognize the fact that each category has sub-categories that are difficult to master. If we look at the specific Art categories we could easily split them into Realistic styles and Stylistic/Cartoony styles. Each needing their own time and practice to master. It’s also true for creating artwork for low-poly consoles like Nintendo DS or PSP. Lucky for me, progressing in some of these categories automatically allows me to progress in the others because most art-related skills are transferable.

I reckon that by the time I’m 43, I might actually have mastered one or two of these categories whilst being good in the rest of them. This will only be successful though, if I can stay dedicated and not be distracted by stuff like money or love. And we all know that love is unpredictable, it hits you like a bomb out of nowhere and to be frank:

It scares the shit out of me.

2010 has certainly been an interesting year for me. Career & new friends gained, love lost & a friend died. Emotional rollercoaster? Yes indeed.

2010 is the year I worked my ass off for my career
Summer 2009 I decided to become professional 3D-artist, I wanted to stay true to myself and work with game development. The day I decided to seriously go for it, I googled “3D-For-Games” and found my mentor and friend Andy Gahans forum. With his guidance I spent 1 year honing my newfound skills, working my ass off for at least 8 hours every day. I posted my progress on the forums, taking crits and comments to progress quicker. I ended up surpassing my own expectations and I started to learn a little more about the never-ending road of the artist.

1 year later I realized my dream together with my mentor Andy Gahan. I got a job at Evolution Studios here in England.

2010 is the year I left Sweden to move to England
Leaving ones country is hard but exciting, a couple of weeks after Andy G called me and offered me a job I packed my bags and flew to England. I didn’t know what to expect from the UK and its’ inhabitants. After a rather uncomfortable flight I arrived at Manchester Airport to be greeted by Andy G welcoming me to England. We hopped into a car and drove to the apartment where I would be living.

He introduced me to my now good friend & roommate Opinder Chaggar, an indian man born here in the UK. The first couple of days together with Opinder was interesting, we were both artistic and had the same kind of open personality. We ended up bonding over the dim light of good old movies. Thank you Opinder for showing me a more healthy & positive perspective of life.

My first day at Evolution Studios was interesting, I had never stepped inside a video game development studio. The ones I’ve seen before that were really high-profile studios from Sweden and USA, with fancy glass offices. The first time I walked into the studio I could feel it. The awesome feeling, the awesome aura of being surrounded by like-minded people.

I met another digital friend from the 3d-for-games forums. Anthony O’donnell an Irish man, great 3d/2d artist with a sense for both technical detail and the planning to comes with it. We got along well from the start, sharing the same love for movies/comic books, art and video-games. He taught me all about the pipeline and how to work the software we use to create the game. Thank you Ant for inviting me into your life, for your kindness and awesome teaching skills.

I’ve spent 6 months at Evolution Studios now. Getting to know and getting along with people from almost all departments. Wonderful studio with a wonderful set of people.

2010 is the year I went from whole to half, then half to whole.
Everybody who knew me before I started out at Evolution Studios know that I had a girlfriend since I was 19, back then she was going to another school but both our schools had their lunches at the same place. The things I liked about her is the same things I like about girls today: Independent & Strong. I asked her out in front of her and my friends in the middle of the lunchroom. She said yes. It all started there. It was a serious relationship lasting for more than 4½ years.

A month after I moved to England she broke up with me, even though I was heart-broken, it was a good and healthy break-up. I was left as a half.

In time I learned to become independent, to become myself again. I put all my focus on work and one day I woke up a new man. I became whole again, not the whole you find in a relationship, but whole as a single man enjoying life.

2010 is the year I took up photography seriously

To feel more complete as an artist I decided to take up photography, I bought my first DSLR and Lens. A Canon 550D with a 28mm f1.8 USM Lens. I spent around £1100 on my camera-stuff put together. Following in many of my inspirations footsteps. Ashley Baxter & My brother Alex being some of them.

2010 is the year I went back to my musical roots

In October-November I bought an electric piano, then a guitar to fulfill my need for composing music. As well as my need to sing, even though I have problem with my slight lisping I still love to sing and play instruments.

2010 is the year I wowed to myself to become healthy
New Years last year I wowed to myself to become more healthy and reach my ideal weight. I can proudly say that I’ve succeded and look better than I’ve ever looked before. I’ve been on a strict diet together with muscle training and minimal cardio training. Balancing work, creating all sorts of art, music, photography and dealing with my issues I’ve easily lost all the weight I gained during my University years.

I’ve become a new man: more healthy, more artistic and more in-tune with what I want out of life.

2011 will certainly be interesting.