Life

Ink

Inktober is here and this year I’m participating for the first time.
Of course, one could day In creating as I am busy inking Lady Phantom anyway – but hopefully I will manage to share some other things as well!

Ink is a medium I have fairly limited experience in.

I’ve always preferred pencils and various colour mediums and when I  accepted the Lady Phantom project I had to think long and hard about whether or not I wanted to do traditional inks or take another approach. As you can see I chose ink. I figured my first proper comics project should include as much as possible of the craft.

And inking is a valuable skill to have as an illustrator.

As with everything, I’m trying to approach inking from a very personal angle – learning from but trying not to copy what others do, and still adapting my technique to the requirements of whatever I am working on.

You can follow my progress for inktober on instagram: @rallwin

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

Oh, hey there – nice of you to stop by.

Things are a bit hectic here, but I’m glad you dropped in. As you may or may not know In taking this little sideshow of mine and making it the main attraction; I’m going pro, grabbing life by the dangly bits and holding on like my life depended on it – which isn’t that far from the truth, perhaps.

So what does this mean for you, Dear Reader?

Well, for starters it means you will see me update as  bit more frequently again. You’ll see more art, more ramblings and more insight into my professional life. You see, drawing and writing is now my profession – albeit part time – and this page is now turning from a private side project to the face of my business:

So if by chance you have the need for some art to brighten your day, your life, your project – or why not your workspace – feel free to get in touch and we can discuss it. Otherwise, just hang around and I hope I’ll keep you at least mildly entertained.

Oh, and in the near future you’ll see some further additions to this page.

There’s a lot to do yet. I’m preparing for a little ‘ launch party’ of sorts – or maybe a wake for the passing of the last vestiges of my free time.

Ah well, I’ll get plenty of rest when I’m dead.

New Year’s Eve

Tempus Fugit. 

Time indeed flies, Dear Reader. Even as I’m writing this I am running late for tonight’s festivities – which I hope will be more relaxing than festive (Lord knows I could use the rest).

Tomorrow marks seven months since the birth of my son and those months have been a whirlwind. Between baby, day job and creative project there hasn’t been time much else – and on top of that we are in the middle of renovations for pending apartment sales.

But…no rest for the wicked, eh?

By today I had voted to give you all another preview of the comic In involved in, and I was hoping to draw and publish my homage to Carrie Fisher (may she rest in place). Alas, life had different plans for me, but I’ll get there.

The first three months of 2017 will be every bit as hectic as the last three months of 2016 have been, but after that I hope things will have settled enough for me to really step up my efforts on Lady Phantom.

Time waits for no man, though – and so I wish you a Happy New Year.

Too Old To Die Young

“The most fantastic thing about the present time is that we’re actually still here.”
—William Gibson

Another day, another year, another lap around old Sol.

This past year has probably been among the best years of my life, despite all the tragedy and confusion taking place over the world. We lost a whole slew of Great Artists, the like of which I’m not sure humanity can produce still.

My life went from calm and carefree to super-busy and full of responsibility.

Photo by Timjan Dahlén

I know it’s cliché to say it, but parenthood really does change you in ways you can’t fully understand until you are there, holding a helpless little human who somehow managed to hijack your entire existence.

The journey of self-discovery and self-reconciliaton I began last year entered a new phase, and so did my creative pursuits.

As a result of everything else, the blog here had to take the back seat. But that’s okay. I started it mostly for myself, and even though I’ve managed to get some very loyal (and highly appreciated) followers I still write as much for my own sake add for anything else.

Life changes, but it keeps moving forward – relentlessly – until with a little luck we are too old to die young.

Lady Phantom

Dear Reader –

I haven’t been posting much lately, and there are three reasons for that:

  • First and foremost, having a baby boy (he just turned 5 months old) takes a lot of time and effort.
  • Second, with the advent of our child. me and my girlfriend are busy planning our future and working toward finding a home for our family.
  • Third, the project I’m working on – the one I have been teasing here and elsewhere:

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So what is Lady Phantom, you may wonder?

Lady Phantom is the title and main character of an upcoming superhero comic, written by Julie K. Taylor and drawn by R. Thomas Allwin (that’s right – me!). Now, don’t run off and try to find it quite yet, though – we are just starting out. For the past six months, we have been busy refining the original concept, working out the script, doing concept art and storyboards – now, we have all the preparations done and we are ready to start in earnest.

It’s going to be a while before the first issue is available.

I am just now putting pen to paper and starting the actual interior art, and between my day job and my family there’s only so much time to put it. Our plan is to start with a six-issue mini series and go from there.

Everything else will be in your hands, as readers and critics.

You will be able to follow our progress on the facebook page:

Lady Phantom

We will post updates, teasers, news and information about ourselves there – though of course there will be updates on here as well – so if you want the latest info as it happens, swing by and follow us there. Who knows, there may even be some surprises popping up there later on!

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Welcome to Costa City!

The Downward Spiral

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

– Marcus Aurelius

Is humanity spiraling out of control?

Tonight there was an attempted military coup in Turkey, before that a truck plowed through a crowd in France, before that we had sdvd everal shootings in the US, before that…well, you know the drill. Terrorist attacks, mass murders, gang rapes, civil wars, persecution, hate crime – the list goes on and on.

Every time I turn on the news it seems to be getting worse.

Once I felt that it was every citizen’s duty to stay informed about current events, both locally and globally. Now, I’m not so sure any more. With the unceasing flow of information that eaves over is every minute of every day, how can we truly stay on top of things?

Where before we had a few news channels and a handful of magazines, today we have hundreds of news outlets.

Many of those put their own twist on things, reporting of creating the news according to their own agenda, and people are increasingly picky in where they get their news from. This results secs d in us being fed only or own flavour of the truth, whatever brand of ideology we ascribe to finding the cacophony down to whatever chunks will go down the easiest or those which are distracted to get stuck in our throat.

The flow of information we choose is designed to stroke our ego and incite our rage.

Is that really something we benefit from, as individuals or as a species? Is it really necessary for us to take on the challenge of filtering out the truth from this flood of raw sewage that rises around us?

Do we really need to take the weight of the world on our shoulders?

I’m not so sure. Information is power, but only when it is applied and understood. The average consumer of information doesex we dz not have the time, tools, or even the inclination to mine the data stream for useful information and then verify it. Instead we rely on the media to do that for us, trusting them to know and career to our best interests. But they won’t. Those who interpret and select the news for us serve their own interests, not ours. They want to create emotion and reaction from their consumers by enhancing beliefs, pinions and emotions we already have – good and bad alike – thus creating a vicious circle, bringing us deeper and deeper into a cesspool of violence, hatred, grief and passion.

We put our faith in self serving oracles, letting their words rule our hearts and minds.

We serve false gods, swallowing the words of their prophets and demagogues as if it was the Gospel truth. As with any religion, the more they claim to speak the Truth the more critical should we be.

There is always a spin to the news, and more often than not it just brings us deeper on this downward spiral.


Human Behaviour

I don’t know what to say.

The world is a cruel and unforgiving place even at the best of times, and these are far from the best – or so it seems. Hate, prejudice and most of all fear have their grip on so many humans of today and direct their words, actions and views.

Fear has a taken a strong hold on people all over the world.

We’ve had several cases in the past week where cops have shot low- or non-threat suspects, motivated by fear, with subsequent retaliations only masking a bad situation worse.

We’ve seen British people vote for something many did not understand fully, and the subsequent reactions of hate and regret.

For years we’ve seen the rise of right wing nationalist and neo-fascist tendencies all over the western world, fuelled by fears real and imagined.

We’ve seen a violent and misofynistic cult of mascuöinity rise as a counter to equality and feminism.

We’ve seen the rise of conspiracy theories ranging from the plausible to the ludicrous, fuelled by a deep mistrust of government, science and authority.

We think we live in a modern, enlightened society, yet again and again we fall back on ancient tribal behaviours.

Again and again we fall back on an ‘us be them’ mentality where we vilify and fear those who are different. Where one we stood united as nations we are now seemingly dividing into smaller and smaller groups, using the modern tools of media and communication to find new tribes that can span over the entire globe.

People and organizations are constantly preying on our fears and weaknesses, using false information and exaggerate claims to manipulate us into supporting them. Our fear is their power.

In this Disinformation Age we inhabit, fear can make us believe anything it seems.

Where one people aimed their fears and superstitions on the unseen and unknown , imagining supernatural threats and creating personal rituals to avoid bad luck and unfortunate tragedies, today people aim their fear on the visible, reacting with fear and superstition to things we could just as easily embrace and understand.

And the world suffers for it.

While we squabble and huddle together around virtual campfires, afraid of everything beyond the edge of the skewed and distorted light, the world is careening out of control around us. The rich get richer at the expense of the poor, environmental problems keep piling up, social issues are getting worse and worse, and nations are crumbling under the weight of their own ignorance.

Or personal safety zones are getting smaller as the perceivable world gets bigger and more complicated around us.

It has to stop. 

We can’t let fear rule our lives, our nations, our world. If we do, we will break apart even further and the only ones who will benefit are those who can turn our fear into their profit.
But how do we turn the trend?

Ready for the Storm

“May you live in eventful and interesting times.”
–Chinese curse

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Happy midsummer’s eve, Dear Reader – if it is happy…which I doubt…

I know, I know – the solstice was three days ago, but here in Sweden we always celebrate midsummer’s on the weekend. In not much in the mood for celebration, though.

Midsummer marks the point after which the days grow shorter, and we are indeed heading toward darker times – metaphorically as well as literally.

This morning it was announced that Britain has voted to leave the European Union and the GBP dropped eight percent. Now, I’m not a big fan of the EU in general, but for all its shortcomings it comes with a lot of benefits as well. I haven’t studied the issue will enough to predict if the UK will be better off outside the EU or not, in the long run. It seems clear, though, that there will be a host of problems to begin with and with both Northern Ireland and Scotland murmuring about independence, ‘Great’ may soon be even less suitable as an epithet for Britain.

But the real tragedy here – the real darkness – is not the vote to leave and it’s consequences. The real tragedy here is the forces that made it possible.

We live in an increasingly divided world.

On the one hand we have the growing right-wing opinions fuelled by fear, nostalgia and personal gain. On the other we have the left-wing idealism fuelled by hope, compassion and globalistic ideals. Both sides suffer from the same ailment: naively being swayed by personal emotions and a sense of righteousness. Neither side seems capable of critical thinking when it comes to their own views.

We live in the Disinformation Age.

In this global grapevine that is the Internet it is far too easy to sway public opinion by appealing to emotion rather than intellect. Any one can publish any thing and make it look like fact. Any one can find something to support their personal delusion about the world, no matter how implausible. This is nothing new, of course – humans have reacted this way throughout history – we are just seeing it on a much larger, faster, and more pervasive scale.

That will be our downfall.

We are living in increasingly eventful, interesting, darkening times – and that, Dear Reader, is why I won’t be celebrating today. Well, that and the fact that I am stuck at work until after midnight…

On a more personal note:

I have been quiet here – too quiet – though only partly for the obvious reason: adapting to family life. We have actually established a surprisingly successful routine – one that sends to be holding up decently even to Junior’s whims. So far.

No, the main reason for my absence has been my creative pursuits. I just finished the first draft of a short story which will soon go out for consideration, and I have been busy with preparations for a much bigger project. I’m not sure when I will be able to post about that, but hopefully it will be soon.

Born to Raise Hell

Dear Reader, forgive my absence!

There is good reason for my lack of posts the past two weeks and my Word of the Week the other day was a clue.

Here is the reason:

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My son –

Ten hours old and resting after stoically greeting the world with an unimpressed ‘Mjeh!’ – he is strong and determined, despite an early arrival.

I have other news as well, but they will have to wait until I’ve settled in a bit more. I aim to keep updating the blog, and I promise that it won’t be about this wee lad…much.

Until next time, Dear Reader: take care!

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