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I’ve been drawing for practically my entire life. When I was a kid I spent many evenings trying to copy the characters of Don Martin in MAD. My teachers had to wrap my school desk with paper because I was doodling on it all the time. When I got a bit older I played around with graffiti and in my twenties I tried to learn basic anatomy and some manga style drawing. I was never that good at it, though.

Some years ago I read about a local politician that had been telling media one thing but doing the exact opposite. I made a cartoon in response to this hypocrisy and put it on social media which triggered something in me. Using free software I created a profile picture and a family picture.

In the decade leading up to that point I had hardly touched a pencil. I still couldn't really draw. Even though I enjoyed the occasional doodle I couldn’t draw a straight line, let alone a freaking circle. My artistic life was limited to graphical user interfaces and the occasional application icon. But after that day I asked myself some questions.

What if I could learn to draw good enough to make the world a happier place? What would it take? How do I go about to find a way to at least fake some sort of skill in this area? Is Comic Sans wrong in all situations? ;-)

Another big question I asked myself was:

Q: "Drawing is a huge area, what area in drawing do I want to explore?"

A: I've always liked cartoons and comics, so maybe this was going to be my focus. Besides me being a fan of cartoons, it really is a good way to express yourself if you want to make a point. You can have a character that expresses your feelings, in that way you, as an artist, can keep a bit of a distance to what you, or rather the character says. Plus you can mix text and graphics and that is a great advantage when expressing opinions or just telling a good joke.

I reckoned I couldn't be the only one that nursed the ambition to be able to graphically express myself. So, I did set up a blog to share my thoughts and the answers I came up with when researching. I didn’t know if it would end up a tutorial on how to succeed or an orgy in failures. I thought, probably something in between.

The blog itself lived for about a year before it fell into oblivion but my interest for creating visual brain farts had been awaken and I could actually call it a hobby. Since then I've been drawing, more or less, every day and I've studied a plethora of aspects of illustration, cartooning, design, painting and animation. I've been doing freelance work like logotypes, album covers, beer labels, posters and t-shirts to name a few.

Today, I’m a forty-something (born -76) year old husband and father of two who lives in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. During office hours I work as a integration architect/system developer at a consultant company that I co-own. My past time is mainly spent with my family when I'm not crouched over a sketchbook or tablet with a pen in my hand...