pic by Cecilia Levy

Dan Morelle: Please introduce yourself.

Mattias Adolffson: I’m Mattias Adolfsson, Illustrator living in Sigtuna just outside of Stockholm Sweden.

Dan: what is your background?

Mattias: I’ve had quite a lot off odd jobs prior to taking a Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design in 1995, after that I’ve been working with computer games and 3D animation. I quit the games industry last summer and am now working as a freelance illustrator.

Dan: What was your role in the games industry and who did you work for?

Mattias: I started out in a small game company called Tati (later renamed Vision Park and now Pan), just out of college. My thesis work was made briefly game called Kosmopolska, in that company I did lot’s of things from game design to the actual making of all the visuals. Then I worked for Dice (now a part of EA) a much larger company with over 200 people employed, the last stint I did for a company called Simbin in Gothenburg. In the end I tended to do more and more technical stuff, more programming than actual visuals, I lost the interest in making visuals.

Dan: Was illustration a major part of that career?

Mattias: No. I made no illustration as a game designer, well the first company maybe, you could make games with a very limited staff then, I did 3D modelling and animation and later as a tool maker making tools for other artists.

Dan: Were you drawing in your spare time then?

Mattias: Very little. I got kids at the same time and had very little time over, I restarted drawing a couple of years ago.

Dan: At what point did you decide to take up illustration full time?

Mattias: I was very bored with making games and had to find an alternative, I started doing it on the side, at the same time I started blogging. At first I thought I could combine the two working with games day time and illustrating night time, but found it hard to combine with a family.

Dan: So you work from home now?

Mattias: Yes me and my wife has transformed a garage into a studio for two.

Dan: Your wife is also an artist?

Mattias: Yes we met at college, she also works as a book binder as well as being an illustrator and graphic designer.

Dan: How do you find working from home?

Mattias: The last employment found me commuting two hours each day, so working from home suits me fine. I have not ruled out the possibility to getting a studio closer to Stockholm in the future but as of now this suits me fine.

Dan: How many hours a day do you draw?

Mattias: At the moment I have very much work so maybe 5-6 hours daytime (a couple of hours disappears online) then I usually draw something while watching TV maybe for an hour more.

Dan: You seem to enjoy drawing and warping architecture (and reality in general), how do you come up with new ideas?

Mattias: I have a couple of ideas in my head all time, I often get new ideas when I’m out walking or running, a lot of my more elaborate drawings more kind of evolve. I start without any clear picture of what I’m going to do and let the drawing lead me. Sometimes this is a problem when I start with a small piece of paper and have to continue on another sheet.

Dan: How long did this one take you to complete?

Mattias: This I made over a couple of days in between a project I’m working on. At first I thought it would be a ordinary house, I think it took about 6 hours altogether.

Dan: Do you create these with the intention of selling them?

Mattias: At the moment I have stopped selling originals, I have a publishing deal for a book and I like to use as much of my originals as possible prior to selling them. I’m planning on buying a new computer and will probably rescan all drawings and maybe then organize a show. At the moment our studio is pretty crammed with drawings so in the end I hope to sell as much of them as possible.

Dan: What are the projects you are working on at the moment?

Mattias: At the moment I’m working on a project for a museum in Lidköping and a book for Bonnier Carlse (a Swedish publisher) called för mitt barnbarn (for my grandchild) it’s like a scrapbook, at first I was only meant to do the cover but they liked it so much they changed the whole concept for the book. Then I have a personal project meant to happen later this year but this I can’t dwell deeper into at the moment.

Dan: Elements of you’re style are similar to Serge Aragonés, Quentin Blake, Hayao Miyazaki and Jacek Yerka. Are you familiar with these artists and do you regard them as influences?

Mattias: Only Sergio, the other I found out much later. My main influences is OA (Oskar Anderson Swedish artist died 1906), Tove Janson (of moomins fame) Kjell Aukrust. (Pinchcliffe Grand Prix) and Herge.

Dan: My kids watch The Moomins now.

Mattias: You have to go back to the original, she made a Moomin comic, they are wonderful, so light and funny the books are much more darker.

Dan: I will search them out. Herge as in Tintin right?

Mattias: Yes I re-read them for my kids recently, the attention to detail is stunning check his use of poses quite extra ordinary. And the humour they are so funny.

Dan: Your Moleskine sketchbook was recently displayed at the London Book Fair as part of the Moleskine exhibit, how did you get involved with that?

Mattias: Moleskine contacted me and some other artists, we all got a nice bunch of sketchbooks in return, they are supposed to be showing them in Frankfurt later this year as well.

Dan: I was at the LBF, it was a real treat handling all those books stuffed with original art work. It seems to me that the Moleskine has become a form in itself.

Mattias: Another of my contacts saw it as well, maybe I’ll go down to Franfurt and check the exhibition out.

Dan: I think you will find it inspiring. What is it about the Moleskine books that you like?

Mattias: Well I haven’t tried so many other brands so I can form the whole opinion, but i do like the format. I used to work in much larger books, and I like the paper in the Moleskine. Some find them hard to color though but I like the effect you get, its a bit arbitrary how the color will stay put.

Dan: Your style ranges from complex to very simple looking drawings, which do you prefer to do?

Mattias: I don’t think I prefer any over the other, doing a complicated drawing is like running a marathon (full of pain) but nothing beats the feeling when finishing. I like the feeling of making simple drawings to, or the fact that I’m allowed to make a simple drawing.

Dan: Do you work spontaneously or do you do a lot of planning beforehand?

Mattias: Most of the time I work spontaneously but sometimes when they get to complicated I start planning the larger picture. Most cities are not planned but evolve over time, most of my drawing come to life this way too.

Dan: Who are some of your favourite contacts that you keep a regular eye on on flickr?

Mattias: Camilla Engman, Peter O and Ellis Nadler I check out, lately I have had little time checking things on the Internet out, but I hope to find more time soon.

Check out more of Mattias Adolffson’s work at these URLs:
http://mattiasa.blogspot.com/
http://www.mattiasadolfsson.se/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattiasa/