![Black and white hand-drawn illustration of a small character holding up a magnifying glass with big eyes looking through](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F504ca72f-72ee-4cfa-9aa0-1d87def40aaa_4000x4000.png)
Interview by Kesia Inkersole with Erlend Peder Kvam
Welcome to Conversations, a new content series from OS.
For our first Conversation, we chat with illustrator Erlend Peder Kvam, the mind and hand behind our OS mascots. Erlend is a Norwegian artist currently living in Leipzig, Germany.
Kesia Inkersole: Hey Erlend. As an illustrator, how would you describe the way that you observe what's happening in the world around you? How do you turn what you see into what you draw?
Erlend Peder Kvam: As an illustrator, I'm a big consumer of visual media. I consume a lot the whole day, every day. When I'm in my drawing mood in front of my paper, it's more about observing my brain - what's left of it - than observing the world. For me, drawing is about observing how your mind is working after everything it's seen through the day.
![Black and white hand-drawn illustration of a character holding a paint brush in the air](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcbd66722-9b86-46c4-bac7-5157dc356a54_4158x4158.png)
KI: Interesting, so for you it’s really about reflecting on how you feel after observing, rather than the observing itself.
EPV: Yeah, I hardly draw anything at all from reality. I never go to a place to look at it and draw it. My way of working is rather the opposite, it's more about the line and what it communicates in itself, not just depicting something as it is in the world.
KI: So when you draw, it's about letting how you feel come through the pen onto the paper?
EPV: Yeah, maybe that's the result. I like spontaneous ideas, the more stupid the better. With drawing as my profession, I have the privilege to formulate this stupidity and make it into a vocabulary, so that’s what I have to observe. As an illustrator I care a lot about communication and it's not like I'm creating something completely abstract, I just have to think about the drawing having its own expression too.
![Black and white hand drawn character holding up small flowers with eyes on them](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc64e859b-9f4a-4b77-9332-7d39c9257e3f_4000x4000.png)
KI: I love that you are often drawing from imagination and it becomes a language in itself. Is there a process that you go through to make sure everything maintains a red thread, or does that happen naturally?
EPV: I draw a lot in my sketchbook and if I have to draw something around a certain theme, I might browse through my sketchbook to see if something I already have works towards it or inspires me. The last years of drawing to me have been so much about trusting my intuition, and your intuition is based on your own observations of the world, as well as observing what appears on the paper.
KI: So when things appear on the paper that you might not have expected to come from your imagination, does that ever influence how you then go back and observe the world? Does how you draw impact how you might perceive something in the street?
![Black and white hand drawn character holding up a frame with its eyes poking through](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0676efaa-888b-4593-9b99-7d206fae2d80_4000x4000.png)
EPV: Illustration is drawing as a language. As a painter you could see a book, then mix the colour and paint the shape of the book, but I think as an illustrator, it’s more like drawing the idea of the book. For me, it's a lot about categories of things that I watch out for. Many things in the world are manufactured in similar ways and I think that’s also a language. I look for categories within objects, like ‘openings’ for example - a window, the opening of a trash can or a mouth. Whatever sticks out, something that exists as one but it often consists of more, you rarely see it alone.
KI: Yeah we see that categorization a lot with AI now but we are actually doing it in our brains all the time! We have our own ways of grouping things and drawing similarities between them that are unique to how we experience the world.
Are you somebody who draws on the go? How do you think people perceive you when you're drawing?
![Black and white hand drawn character with its head and body detached from one another](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F97f19048-0801-4aff-b8db-cfe95b7bed66_4000x4000.png)
EPV: I'm quite a private drawer. I use my Sketchbook a lot, I never go anywhere without it, that's kind of an addiction I guess, but I never show it to anyone. When I used to look at other people's sketchbooks, they could look so perfect and cool. Then I realised people do it differently. The sketchbook is your main tool but you have to figure out how to use it and collect your observations in a way personal to you. I prefer my sketchbook to be ugly. I don’t like training the drawing as much, I train the concepts more.
KI: Does drawing ever help you to feel more in tune with your senses, or do your other senses ever come into it?
EPV: I think a lot about texture, because you can sometimes feel texture just by looking at it. I also care a lot about music and listen to music while I draw. Sometimes I think what I listen to transfers into my work, because I listen to a lot of music that helps to loosen up my mind, which is my goal when I’m drawing. It also adds a layer of unpredictability which I like.
![Black and white hand-drawn image of a character drumming in the air](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8f054dea-633b-4977-9966-bfeda0bc6c8a_4000x4000.png)
KI: How was your process and what were your ideas behind drawing the OS mascots?
EPV: We were exploring different ideas of observation, which is quite general but also can be specific. At first it was this idea of observing robots driving around, a group of aliens who had some robots observing the humans, and I wanted it all to be in this office space. I started to be less strict with this idea when I started to draw it because even though I liked the idea, I didn't enjoy the drawing so much. Then I let myself be looser in the idea, playing more around the theme and being more curious. As illustrators we always appreciate time to test the ideas a little bit, make some adjustments and then it will be nice in the end.
I have actually been doodling a bit while we were talking:
![Black and white hand-drawn doodle of a character with long petruding eyes](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc41c3960-a675-4303-8904-239ccd8f2ca9_3024x4032.jpeg)
KI: Obsessed, I love it! From our conversation comes a new observation… Thanks so much Erlend, it’s been really great to chat.
EPV: Thank you, Kes.