🍌The Banana Sketchbook Tour

From game student to game maker

Hi pal!

Last week I talked about how excited I am to start drawing in a new sketchbook.

It’s been 7 years since I started my last one! It’s been a whirlwind since then. I didn’t realize so much time had passed.

Today I will give you a tour through my last sketchbook and tell you what was going on in my life along with those pages.

The Banana Sketchbook Tour

In 2016 I started studying game design and art at a school in Stockholm called Forsbergs Skola. On September 15 during a concept art lesson, I was given this sketchbook.

Banana sticker added later.

They gave us an exercise to brainstorm characters using only their silhouettes. The idea was to practice making expressive silhouettes that communicate what the character is about.

“Gliding as if on ice-skates, even uphill. Kinda hovering a bit over the snow.”

While that was a very fun lesson. I wasn’t quite happy with the quality of the school. (a subject of its own) So I applied to a similar but more established school nearby and got in. I swapped to Futuregames 2D graphics course after only 6 months at my old school.

The new school’s goal was mainly to get people employed at big game companies like Dice, King and Avalanche. I didn’t have much interest in going to those places though. I wanted to make my own video games and comics.

I had big plans for the Interaction Boy franchise.

Technically I was at Futuregames to become a 2D artist. But I was way more excited about making actual games rather than improving my art skills. So I taught myself programming, game design and 3D modeling. I was a bit obsessed with an idea I had called Interaction Boy 3000. I often stayed late at school, coding a 3D controller. It was addictive to make stuff move around in the computer.

Sketches of a Futuregames promotional illustration and two classmates during a lecture.

The last six months of the Futuregames studies was supposed to be an internship. Which we had to secure ourselves. I sent about a hundred applications all over the world, with no luck. Except for one place where I really wanted to work one day, right there in Stockholm. Called Toca Boca. I went to their office for an interview. They gave me an art test. I didn’t cut it.

After that I didn’t feel like there was anywhere else in Stockholm, or the world, where I would rather be. So I lowered my expectations.

I found Gro Play, only a five minute walk from school. They made educational games for kids. I wasn’t thrilled. But I got an interview and they accepted me right away.

Lots of notes about stuff to fix, ideas and sketches of a machine from the game.

Despite my first skepticism, the place proved to be great. The people were fun, we played a lot of video games during lunch breaks and we chatted a lot while working (I also met my partner there ❤️). I got to work on an Alfie Atkins game which felt huge because I loved Alfie when I was a kid. Most of the time I had my sketchbook by my side with this above spread open.

Plantland sketches everywhere. Except for “Silver Screen”, that was an art test I did for King (the Candy Crush studio).

After graduating Futuregames I started drawing a graphic novel called Plantland very seriously while I applied for jobs at game studios. They made me do several art tests. One company made me work for an entire week and then didn’t reply or confirm that they had received my test until a couple months later. I thought

“I’ll show them, I don’t need them, I can do this”

Out of frustration I decided to make a game by myself.

Character ideas for Dropert and some programming notes.

I put Plantland on hold and started making a mobile game because I had contact with a publisher. The idea was to pitch it and get them to fund the project. It went to hell and I ended up finishing it without them. Selling 30 copies after 6 months of development. I thought

“Woops I didn’t show them”

Just before I finished Dropert something unexpected happened. Toca Boca, the dream workplace where I got denied an internship, had an offer for me. They offered me my old dream job, to draw fun stuff (characters, items, environments). It was a dream I had given up on and moved on from. But it was still irresistible. My own thing didn’t seem to go anywhere. So I went for it.

My apartment, sitting on the couch and sketching while watching TV. Dark outside.

For the first time since early primary school I didn’t have an active personal project. Toca Boca gave me a work sketchbook because of NDA stuff, so I barely touched my sketchbook during this period. All my creative juice went into work.

It was a blast. But over time I started to miss the path I had been on. After working at Toca Boca for over a year, I gave my work-sketchbook to my boss (which was a great guy). Then I decided to quit and move to my partner.

A couple months after coming to France, I started Surmount. I did some freelance work while I pitched it. One day it received funding. Exactly what I dreamed about during my studies!

Random doodles and some Surmount sketches.

I still didn’t use the sketchbook much though. The apartment was tiny. I spent most of my days at my desk, working on Surmount or freelance art. The desk was this big.

So I couldn’t easily keep my sketchbook open next to me like I had done at Gro Play. I did make some marks in it though.

Joking to entertain myself while the computer is loading heavy game dev stuff.

I think living with my partner and working on Surmount had a healing effect on me. I rediscovered how much fun it is to just muck around. I played in it again.

I drew lots of gross stuff and imagined having my art displayed in a gallery in Paris.

I drew these naked peeps on a beach in the south of France while my partner was snorkeling. I was sitting under blistering sun, surrounded by sea-trash like plastic bottles and condoms. (it was a beautiful day).

Sketches and notes for my next comic idea.

We went to Moulin Rouge, my partner asked me to draw one of the dancers.

The 17th of January 2023 I drew on the last page.

Looking back I feel a bit sad seeing how I didn’t fill up some pages completely, as if I could have made better use of them, but the moment is gone and I don’t feel like I should go back and tamper.

My skill level seem to fluctuate from page to page. Progress doesn’t look linear.

Part of me thinks it’s too long to spend 7 years to finish a sketchbook. But we’ve been through a lot together. In a way I’m glad I didn’t fill it up faster. Makes it feel kinda special.

Goodbye Banana Sketchbook.

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It took me about 4 hours to write this. Mostly because it was hard to keep it short… This was the shortest way I could manage to talk about it the way I wanted to.

What’s the longest you’ve carried a sketch/notebook?

Thank you for reading! ❤️