new engines joining!

A new character making his first debut to the TDRS!

Hawthorn (right) is one of the many new engines you can meet in The story of Dagmar

Alot of things are happening right for the TDRS. During writing a lot of new faces appear and new characters are formed. 

Hawthorn however, is NOT one of those. I first thought of him in 2013 when i was having thoughts about a book telling random tales from the very early times of railways in Denmark. 

The idea was to tell the story of how he and his siblings was rebuilt from tender engines to shunters in the early 1900's. 

This idea of course havent changed but introducing him to the series this early on is! 

But exactly how and when i'd still like to keep secret (hehe).

All i can say is: he's gonna be a very interesting part of the story. 

And thats all folks! see you soon!

UPDATES!

New logo and updates on snippets

The new TDRS logo in all its glory.

As you can see, the previously mentioned logo is now complete, or actually its some time ago but i forgot to tell you guys. That thing about having two blogs running in each their language isn't easy you know.

Even so i'll try to get you more up to date! 

After the logo was complete, work on a series of snippets was put into action. These were to serve as test so that i could practice before jumping into any official book work.

One test was Elias and the highspeed train which i'm gonna redo now that i've practiced with another book.

The "other book" is of course The story of Dagmar which is due to arrive together with the Elias book in 2016. 

With the Dagmar snippet i had the chance to try out some new techniques which actually are improving my art, to a state that i'm getting impressed. 

And i hope you'll be too the day when i finnish off my books.

Meanwhile you can always follow the progress on this blog, well between the times that i actually remember to put something up here! 

Thats all i had for now, i'll be back at some point with more news when there's more to tell :) 

~Sebastian, the author

not much

sketch of coming logo for the series

Not much..
But still a few things to report none the less. The english translations are slowly moving forward. As of this moment i'm still working on the 2nd draft of the first chapter in The story of Dagmar.

Meanwhile, as my art is begining to improve, i thought it was time to refresh the "image" of my series. This being done by first, renewing the logo.

As F 477 was one of the first engines to be introduced to the danish railway series, its still gonna be in the new logo. However this time it'll be joined by "Odin" (denmarks first steam engine) and the red highspeed train from 1935. Both to illustrate some important moments in danish railway history!


So thats all for this time chaps, i'm gonna keep you all up-to-date on whats happening :) cause i'll do my best  to have some books out next year, and if i have to say so myself: My recent improvement on the art makes the books something to look forward to, EVEN FOR ME!

Anyway, stay safe out there and enjoy the weekend.
author
Sebastian 

my tablet is working again! (also "the story of Dagmar updates)

A test illustration for the book "The Story Of Dagmar"

Though there's not much to say about the books at the moment, alot is actually going on. For example ive got my tablet to work again resulting in a test in a diffrent art software that i had lying around on my macbook. The end result was very surprising and a promising factor to the times ahead.

The illustration is a test, for a final illustrations that i will make later on when the final draft of the mentioned book is being worked on.

Speaking of draft, the first draft of the translated first chapter of the book has been returned to the author from the TDRS editor and is now being read through as new changes will be made, before sending the text back to the editor again. It is my sole wish that i can push as much history into the book as possible but still keeping it a fun and educating book.

There's alot of danish railway history to be put into this one and what i can reveal is that Dagmar will tell a little resumé of the beginning of railways and how they came to Denmark and the impact they made on the population.


I'm trying the best i can to keep the to versions of the TDRS, the danish and english leveled, but working on two languages at the same time is somewhat difficult. Very difficult actually.

I know that both versions will have the same story, just told in a way that fit the certain language used in each version, though danish words will be added to the english version in order to teach children about the original danish term for diffrent things.

Updates on the second book in project 2016, Elias & the highspeed train, is still in the works and undergoing some much needed writing. But so far no illustrationtest are being carried out, but are to be carried out later this year and before the planned start of the "official" final illustrations, that are to appear in the The Danish Railway Series books.

Anyway this is all i had for now, more news later!
sincerely
Author
Sebastian Berthelsen

Things are moving!

A sketch for an illustration for the book "the story of Dagmar"

Things are moving, as the first chapter of one of the books for project 2016 has now been translated into english and sent to the editor for the final editing. That means that the first work for the english part of the danish railway series is now on!

I cant yet asure you that project 2016 will be a succes and you'll get the two books, but I can asure you that i WILL work hard to the last hour in order to complete the task!

a new year and new plans!

Project 2016 is GO!

Now for the careful reader, some might say: "dont you mean 2015?" and the answer to that will be no. The reason why i call this post "Project 2016" is because i've hit a point in my work where i like what and i draw and what i write. On top of that i've collected some excellent friends to help correcting my english in the books.

When talking about the artwork i have two examples to show you, the one is a frontcover illustration the other is a back cover:

Front cover test, for "Elias & The highspeed train"
Here shown with the title in Danish.

A sketch for the backcover of "The story of Dagmar"

Now as you can see, the artwork is starting to look better than it has ever done before. This is the result of hard work which started back in 2012. 

What is the plan for 2016?

The plan for 2016 is having one or two books out in December on the 22nd. However priority is with the danish edition but i'll try the best i can to have the english translation run parallel to the other. Should i manage doing that it'll be a double language publish that year. 

Until i have more news, this is what i can tell you so far. The books have never been this close!

Until then, take care!

TDRS releases a snippet!

Read the snippet from the upcoming book Elias & the stories of the accidents part 1 here:

Snippet