Even Amundsen on Reinventing Elements of Fantasy
Some of you may remember our 2016 interview with Even Mehl Amundsen, and we hope that you’re as excited to catch up with him as we are! For those of you who don’t know, Even is a Norwegian concept artist who specializes in fantasy art.
In the past, he has lived in Canada, Czech republic, Norway and the UK, and he has had the opportunity to work for companies like Blizzard Entertainment and VOLTA as he made his way around the world. Now you can find him back Norway, or more specifically, Oslo, where he is working on TEGN. This is Even’s art-book series, a project he started when he challenged himself to draw three hundred and sixty-six unique, story-laced illustrations over the course of one year.
TEGN is a series that aspires to create a “full universe in three books,” and TEGN: book two is currently available for pre-order, with book three set to come out this winter. This is why we thought that now is the perfect time to catch up with Even! And so, in this interview, we wanted to learn more about how he got to a point where he can publish a series of art-books like this, and how he feels about where the project is heading. Without further ado, let’s meet with the man behind all of the trolls, vikings and witches once more!
“366 days, 366 sketches telling 366 stories, some smaller, some greater.” This is quite a concept! When did you decide that you really want to make TEGN?
Hmm, that’s a questions that defies a “good” answer, as it was more of a thing that I happened upon, and then it grew into something more cohesive after a while, and it kept building up until I figured a year would be a good amount of time to go for, and a leap year at that. Making larger stories and little arcs was something that came along once the project had been going on for a while, and from the many smaller stories grew more complex ideas, and they demanded a world!
