Maja Lindberg lives and works in Lomma, a small seaside town in the south of
Sweden, where she runs her own company, Majali Design &
Illustration, specializing in fine art prints. Her illustrations are mostly inspired by fairy tales and mystery, she loves combining colors and texturtes, creating a certain mood. With tradeyourtalent she speaks about curiosity, creative ideas that come at night and why she would like to illustrate one of Astrid Lindgren's books.
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| Maja Lindberg |
Can you tell us a little about your
creative process?
Many times the best ideas come at
night when I have trouble falling asleep and hundreds of things are
going around in my head. I try to focus and a picture builds up in my
head. I finally fall asleep and in the morning I start composing the
picture.
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| Maja Lindberg |
A lot of my inspiration comes from
fairy tales, dreams and myths. I start by sketching the
creature/person/animal with pencil and paper, when I’m satisfied
with the illustration I scan it and continue the work on computer. It’s here where all the colors and shades are made and
actually my favorite part in the process. I love combining colors
and the textures, together they’ll form the special mood that I’m
looking for. I want my illustrations to be mysterious and dreamy and
hopefully they’ll bring some curiosity to the viewer who creates
their own fairytale/story when looking at it.
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| Maja Lindberg |
Do you have favorite artists?Is there
an artist you always wanted to cooperate with?
One of my most favorite artists is John Bauer, a swedish illustrator who lived around the turn of 1900. I
love the mystery with the dark forest and the light that he so ably
captures.
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| Maja Lindberg |
Other artists that have inspired me are
Elsa Beskow, Marit Törnqvist, Shaun Tan, Sven Nordqvist and Tim Burton.
If Astrid Lindgren still had lived I
would’ve loved to illustrate one of her books. Her stories have the
ability to catch childhood memories.
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| Maja Lindberg |
Did you always want to be an artist? Could you imagine working in another profession?
When I was small I wanted to be an
actress, but when growing up I understood that I wasn’t that good
at acting so I went to art school and became a ceramic artist.
I worked in my pottery studio for five years, it was hard to make a
living out of it, so I got an education in IT instead and
started to work as a web assistant. But the lust of creating has
always been there, so it felt natural when I decided to start over
again and begin with illustration and art. Right now I'm very happy
that I took that decision and I feel very lucky to have the
opportunity to work with something that I love doing. But sometimes
I still dream of being an actress.
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| Maja Lindberg |
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