I have written and illustrated a second childrens book called Pixlarna (the Pixels). The scheduled release is set to March of 2024.
Author: Samir.Belarbi
-
Breakfast at RABéN
This morning I took part in a so called “book breakfast” at Rabén & Sjögren. Oskar Kroon, Lena Ollmark, Fabian Göranson, Daniel “Puppet” Blomqvist, Stef Gaines and myself gave short presentations about our newly released books and talked about our work in general.
It was fun (and I got to feel out of my comfort zone) to meet members of the press, bookstagrammers, librarians and others over sandwiches and coffee.
-
Article In LOCAl paper
I was interviewed by local newspaper Mitt i Stockholm about “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!” and how it is, in some ways, influenced by my experience from games. I think the reporter Märta Lefvert and photographer Sacharias Källdén captured me and my story in a very good and positive way. Want to read it, please click this link.
Quote from the article:
“– Jag ville framför allt berätta en fängslande och rolig historia men det är förstås roligt om boken också kan väcka samtal om gränserna mellan rädsla och fascination och mellan sanning och påhitt, säger Samir Belarbi.”
-
p4 stockholm interview
Today I visited the radio station P4 Stockholm to talk about “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!”. If you want to listen to me ramble about how I came up with the narrative idea and about the differencies between creating images for games and books, please go 45′ in to the show.
-
Soon available in Lumparland
Found out yesterday that the library in Lumparland, the smallest commune on the island of Åland, have ordered “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!” to their public library.
It feels surreal, but at the same time it makes me happy that the 372 inhabitants of Lumparland, a place outside of Sweden, will be able to read what I have written and illustrated. I sincerely hope the kids there will enjoy it and be able to relate to the story.
-
Great review in BTJ
My book “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig” got a great review by Maria Nestorzon in the purchase guide for the Swedish Libraries (BTJ – Bibliotekstjänst). She writes that my way of writing is fast paced and that it is easy to get caught up in and mesmerized by the story, that there is a lot of humour in the images, that I have an unique expression and that the book is entertaining.
Couldn’t be more happy to read these inspiring words and I hope this will have a positive effect on book sales to the Swedish libraries. Below is two quotes from the review, in Swedish.
“Samir Belarbis språk är rappt och det är mycket lätt att fångas och fängslas.” ” Även i bilderna, som ackompanjeras av charmiga barnteckningar, finns mycket humor och ett alldeles eget uttryck. Det är intelligent berättat – med ett stort plus för den oväntade upplösningen – och mycket underhållande.”
-
Ready for print
My book, soon to be published by Rabén & Sjögren, is print ready. I just sent the final tweaks to the editor. The title will be “Tigern kommer att äta upp mig!”, which roughly translates to “The tiger is going to eat me alive!”.
The release is set to September 2021.
-
New role at Mojang Studios
I have signed a contract with Mojang, creators of Minecraft, to join as Art Manager – working with the artist to set them up for their future sucess. I very much look forward to join the company, supporting the team with my experience and skills. I will start the employment in March 2021.
-
Baking new stories
Sketch – Work in progress I have started writing and illustrating my second picure book. It has the working title “The Cake” and the story revolves around a group of kids trying to enjoy a delicious cake while out in the woods. I hope to have a first draft ready to send to publishers by the end of this year.
-
My first book contract
Exciting news!
Since leaving King I have focused very much on finishing the first stretch of a children’s book project I call “Sumatra is going to eat me alive“ (in Swedish: “Sumatra kommer att äta upp mig”). It’s been a very inspiring journey and I have developed a lot, especially as a writer.
In May I sent the manuscript, a more or less finished first draft with both text and images, to some of the bigger publishing houses in Sweden. A big step for me and I was thrilled that two of them got back to me short after and showed an interest in the book.
After a few meetings I’m now happy to announce that I have signed a contract with the legendary publisher Rabén och Sjögren.
The plan for the coming months is to finish the book together with their skilled editors and then release it sometime next year. I’m looking forward to working hard to make this the first of many books.
-
Strangebird & the Golden Blimp
I added two more images that I did late last night, while testing a couple of procreate brushes. The ones I used for the Strangebird had nice gouache qualities to them and for the Golden Blimp character I used a mix between “markers” and “pastels”. Both experiments came out nicely I think.
-
Consulting Tuyoo
A few months ago I started to consult the Chinese game company Tuyoo. Every now and then their art team sends me small assignments, usually a bunch of questions about art in general and “problems” that they encounter in their productions . The team in Hong Kong is super skilled and they have good art direction on sight already. But hopefully I’m able to give them a fresh point of view – I analyse the material they send and then deliver my thoughts and solutions. It’s basically feedback and the team take my recommendations and use it in a way that suits them the best.
The work is interesting, not very far from some of the work I did at King, and I hope that I’m able to contribute to the future success of Tuyoo in a good way.
-
New web page design
During the last weeks I have redesigned my portfolio web page. It took a little longer than expected because of some technical problems with a couple of the Word Press plugins. But now it’s more or less ready. The last bits, hopefully an e-commerce functionality will be added later this week.
I hope you will like it!