DRAWINGS A quick concept sketch made on the iPad while waiting for a train. I gave myself about 30 minutes to experiment with the first image that came to my mind. Sometimes I find it useful to make simple digital paintings like this as a «warm-up» before a session of work on a more detailed drawing or a series of concept sketches. Here are a few more sketches of some house ideas, as well as an idea for a megastructure. I have always primarily been an environment artist, but I also enjoy drawing other things (especially people). I am going to start working on a some new ideas for more substantial visual stories/graphic novels again when I do not have a lot of work to do on a house. I first began to draw some comics last year, when I became especially inspired by the manga «The Walking Man» by Jiro Taniguchi (first published 1992). My first attempts were not bad, but they were pretty bland (laughs). Now that I have experimented and failed a bit with the genre, I feel ready to make somet

Various pages from my sketchbooks, July - August 2026. A variety as usual, with a focus on environment design. I have also discovered the ballpoint pen over this period! I will always prefer the soft shading that can easily be done with pencil, and since I make a lot of mistakes I always like to be able to erase. I will though have to make a lot more drawings in pen in the future. ***

DRAWINGS Various sketches of some house ideas. Drawn as usual on an iPad with Procreate app. There are few things that I enjoy more than coming up with ideas for small houses. Here are also a few interior images from an ongoing renovation of a small house that I am working on in Haugesund, Norway. At the moment we are testing out various material options, at the same time as we deal with the typical feedback from the municipality! These renders are made from a 3d-model that I export from Rhino to Blender. Blender is one of my favourite 3d-tools at the moment. With relatively simple settings in the Cycles engine, it is possible to produce results like this (even with simple photo textures). READING This week I finished reading «East of Eden» by John Steinbeck (1952). All in all, it was a solid book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The story was slightly less dramatic than expected, compared with my other favourite family saga novels («Independent People» by Halldór Laxness and my all-time fav

DRAWINGS An environment concept sketch from this week’s drawing practice. Ideas for environments often come to me spontaneously, and when one happens to appear I try to put down a rough sketch as soon as possible before it disappears completely from my mind. When I later have time, sometimes I complete a full painting. I am not entirely sure what this place was meant to be. A maze of concrete walls forms a series of small gardens that lie in a dilapidated state. A large greenhouse looms in the landscape in the distance. Its pristine condition and the plants within suggest that it is still in use, or perhaps in the process of becoming overgrown. The process of completing a painting like this from sketch to finished render takes me about 4 hours. Of course I have also found moments to do some simple pencil drawings in my sketchbook. REFLECTIONS No amount of anxiety really makes any tangible impact on the outcome of a situation. Most people have heard the phrase «We suffer more in imagina

Some recent drawings of random streets in Kyōto. Kyōto is one of my favourite cities. It is a wonderful eclectic mix of the old and the new, the traditional and the modern. Japanese urban streets have a fanstastic unique character. There are power lines criss-crossing everywhere, colourful signs, narrow alleys, bicycles, small houses and buildings in all different styles, and of course the majestic temples and their gardens. If you are lucky, you will also find a friendly cat (laughs). I could spend all day drawing Japanese streetscapes. Here is also an environment study of the shopping mall "SMS" in Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands. I have a special affinity for shopping malls (I worked in what was at the time the world's largest back in 2009-2010). When I first stumbled across this building while walking in Tórshavn in 2016, I was blown away by how cool it was. The concept is quite simple: seven volumes with pitched roofs are lined up along a rectangular central "indoor street". Despite

Recently I have been doing some more digital paintings of zen gardens, inspired by the aesthetic sense of "yūgen": the profound, mysterious beauty that is sensed rather than seen, and that suggests depths of experience beyond human understanding. I draw these free-hand on an Ipad with the Procreate app. I will add them to the "Drawings" section of my website soon. Occasionally I like to browse through some of the books that I have lying around my studio for inspiration. A couple of years ago I found a short collection of essays "Three Japanese Buddhist Monks" from Penguin Books' series "Great Ideas" in a bookstore. On one page, Yoshida Kenkō (c.1283-c.1352) offers some insightful thoughts about house design which are in my opinion still valid to this day: I was also reminded of this amusing story about the priest Jōshin, also told by Kenkō. I have great respect for strong personalities, people that dare to create their own meaning in the world and do what they want. Personally I have a