The Style
Every artist has their own voice, personality, temperament and preferences. I think that analyzing can be harmful during the creative process; you are better off making what feels right. Analyze and editing should be done after the basics are in place.

Most creation (invention) comes from accidents/mistakes. It is up to the artist to be alert for the interesting findings that hides in the “chaos” of ideas and possibilities.


How to develop it
Of course hard work is the most important thing. But also by analyzing your own work, after it’s done, over and over again is very powerful. If you create something that blows your socks off and then look at it, and come back to look at it again and again, then, sooner or later, it will turn into mediocre stuff, or worse. It can be discouraging in a way, but the benefits are greater because what you have done is developed your creative eyes. In fact, I think that in many cases just by looking and analyzing can be as good or even better that to “blindly” create one picture after another without reflecting over it.

I have found that music is powerful aid to, while analyzing or imagining stuff. It helps at least me to expand my creative thinking. Some other people use marijuana or alcohol (moderately of course) for the same reason. I would not be surprised if  Music and drugs in small doses have the same effect on the brain. Just my guess.


Visual Communication
I always tell my students to have a reason for every single decision that they make. Nothing in your creation should be there just for the sake of decoration, unless decoration is the topic. And only use as many elements that you need to make your point. Because the fewer elements or the greater simplicity, the more powerful the end result will be. The faster you will get your message across. And you will also avoid confusing people and make them think about other things, such as “Why did he make that thing in the background? etc etc. It's distracting and leads your message away from what you want.


Adapting to the changing times
Three times I have changed my career, simply because I had to, for different reasons. The first time was after moving to New York and to find my way as an illustrator there. I had built up a small client list and I got going. Then the 9-11 terrorist attack happened, along with the IT crash, Enron scandal and other things. I did not get any work for about three months after that and I became slightly desperate. I went down to Seymour Chwast for advice. I spread out all my work on his desk and after walking around it a couple of laps, sucking on his pipe, he picked up a postcard I had made depicting a 3D cartoon of W Bush selling Ice cream on the north pole. He thought it should be a market for 3D caricatures. At the time(2001) no one was doing that and I went home to make Woody Allen, Björk, Pat Metheny, Mao among others in 3D.

Not long after, only a few weeks in fact, my characters had landed a series of entertainment shorts for SO Animation and therefore they hired me full time to make character designs and 3D models for them. I had created my own market and it kept me in the animation business for 8 years.

After working on a handful different animation studios in New York, Copenhagen and Paris I found myself in Shenzhen, China, where I had moved because of a woman (my wife) and while there I had become fatigued in 9 hour days of 3D modeling. I was, by chance, invited to Shenzhen University to show my work. They are hungry for “Western influences” and when I came there, with a few things under my arm, I found about a hundred students and the professor in a conference hall. I talked for about an hour about my experiences and then the professor asked the students if they wanted me as their teacher, they said yes and I heard myself accepting. It just happened like that. Nothing planned. I just didn’t see any other options at the time, and it has been(is) a very good experience.

Now recently I learned that the rules on the school has changed, even if temporarily, and the full time teachers need to work more hours for their salary. And they need my hours, I think this is a good time to start something new and re-invent myself for the third time.

Since being in Shenzhen, the product-factory of the world, I have started a new business, to create character based products. A design studio of sorts. I cannot show anything of that on this site yet, but I will do so as soon as I can. Stay tuned.

Notes on teaching at Shenzhen University;
Tomas Andreasson, Shenzhen, November 27, 2011

Getting the ideas.
I have learned that the most important thing is to keep things simple. I remember a lecture I saw at the 3D festival in Malmo in 1995. It was held by a man who had been sponsored by his wife to create a short film. I cannot remember his name but after 6 months of hard labor in his basement he won the Big Kahuna Award and that resulted in an animation job at ILM. He stressed at least ten times to KEEP IT SIMPLE in his lecture. That was enough many times to stick in my head. Despite this, I have made the mistake myself of over-ambition or lack of editing many times after... I also see this problem over and over again with my own students at Shenzhen University. We seem to want too much and don’t know when to stop. It is almost like a force of nature, and it needs to be tamed.

Brad Bird at Pixar simply said; “Find the essence and put a twist on it.”

How do we get our ideas? A complicated question and I don’t think there are no easy answers to it; all I can do is to speak for myself. I get my ideas from seeing things that reminds me of something else or imagining What-If scenarios. Associative thinking I think it would be called. Hundreds or thousands of alternative ideas is flashing through my mind every time. And kept or discarded depending on my personal taste, what I find funny or intriguing.

One day, while I was talking on the phone, I discovered some random color “blobs” I had made with a marker. I thought that they looked like animals and other characters. I filled them out with a thin black pen and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to do this again, in a more organized way. So I made hundreds of blobs with colored markers and closed eyes. I twisted and turned them around and during a week I had made about 250 of new characters. These creatures would not see the day of light any other way, because they all came from random chaos.

I know that most great inventions come from mistakes and accidents. All we have to do is to be alert for the possibilities that come our way.

I have noted that most great creations are simple. From Beatles tunes to Mickey Mouse. Or listen to Michael Giacchino’s music to Pixars UP, the basic melody so simple that it could be played on a Metal Wire Music box. But so spell-binding that he received the Oscar for the best film music. By the way, Michael Giacchino made the most memorable Oscar speech I ever heard. He said that his parents complained about his passion for creation and told him again and again not “to waste his time” and do something useful with his time. He ended his speech by saying; “But now, all the young artists out there, listen to me – Waste your time!”


A few notes about how to create a Story
Typically, the main character in a plot has a problem or a wish (beginning) and then the conflict or effort to achieve the wish (middle) and finally the resolution. (End)

Of course a story can also have a more “artistic” approach, be more subtle, allowing viewer interpretation, and convey a feeling or atmosphere.

(Of course there is a lot more to it than this and I will get back and elaborate later.)


The Power of Inspiration
Inspiration is key, especially early in the career of an aspiring artist. By looking (absorbing) and analyzing your favorite artist (art) you will learn the craft and also become motivated to create yourself. When I met Milton Glaser in his studio in New York I asked him if it was good moral to copy other artists. The reason I asked was that I had been recommended to do that because I was in the beginning of my career. Milton Glaser said that “Well of course. That is how you learn.” I never did copy my favorite artists however. But I did “Steal” Barry Blitt’s watercolor board, drawing pins and idea to mix in water-soluble red ink in the black water resistant ink. To get a slight “bleed” when adding water color.

All of my personal creative mentors have had their own creative mentors. And we all belong in a never ending chain of inspirational influence.