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“Being an only child led to my love of drawing.”
Andreas von Buddenbrock had been in Hong Kong for just a day and a half before he decided that he’d like to stay. The Swede had previously thought he’d live his whole life in Stockholm but a trip to see his father in a neighbouring Asian country brought him to Hong Kong and led to a change of perspective.
That was 2012, and almost ten years on, the artist, also known as ‘The Ink Trail’ has lived in a handful of places: Stockholm, Hong Kong, Atlanta, Savannah and New York. “I have loved living elsewhere. I think it really develops you as a person,” he shares.
Von Buddenbrock says he was always going to study art. He adds that most things relate to family and that growing up as an only child certainly led to drawing being a pastime and it becoming a passion — plus the fact that his mother and mother’s side are naturally gifted in the arts. He cites the proof of his mother’s watercolours and his maternal grandfather’s profession as an architect.
For just over three years, following his graduation from the BASIS School of Art in Stockholm in 2011, Von Buddenbrock was enrolled at the now shuttered Savannah College of Art and Design in Hong Kong, where he gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration. It was supposed to be a four year course, but he was able to transfer credits over from BASIS, which abridged his experience to just over three years. According to him, it was easy to transfer between SCAD campuses and he spent about a year in the US, after which he went north to New York to look for work.
“I have loved living elsewhere… it really develops you as a person.”
Through “the Swedish network”, he laughs, he landed his first job, working for Anders Krisár a Swedish sculptor. A few days each week, he would go to his studio and mask up, to file down Krisár’s sculptures. The work with bronze, Krisár’s medium of choice, resulted in a green sheen invariably covering his skin, despite the wearing of gloves, he remembers — and, in a fateful pre-echo of his future move to Hong Kong, the sculptor’s studio was located on Canal Street in China Town.
After this work experience was in the rear, Von Buddenbrock did what every new arrival in New York does and scrambled, scouring the cityscape for opportunities. He worked for ad agencies, art websites, while looking to land his big break.
Eventually, an opportunity presented itself, working for the Museum of Modern Art, albeit their Music Festival. The job, Von Buddenbrock shares, was completely unrelated to art, but through it, he got to know lots of people, leading to his manager saying ‘Yes!’ when he asked for a transfer into the museum, where he trained as a gallery associate. After about a year of New York, the artist circled back to Hong Kong.
Von Buddenbrock had his first book, The Ink Trail: Hong Kong published in the first half of 2024. The volume is split into three sections, each a meticulous study of Hong Kong in the ink pen liners he likes to use. He now utilises photo references to a larger degree in order to incorporate more detail though he still works largely on site.
Von Buddenbrock is currently at work on his second book, a collection of drawings based on his explorations of different Asian cities, not just Hong Kong. This, he calls, the incentive and perfect excuse for extended nomadic journaling across the region — “all in the name of work”, he enthuses. Stay tuned for book number two.
Being Neighbourly welcomes Andreas von Buddenbrock’s participation in our inaugural art exhibition, Transitions, November 21-25 at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre.
Von Buddenbrock shares 3 things that have influenced him creatively
Nature trails and places forgotten by time
Nature is a big inspiration for me when it comes to making art. Hong Kong’s hiking trails offer a wide variety of beautiful vistas and stone structures that have been subject to the passage of time, and the latter I’m particularly fond of depicting. As a bonus for anyone who likes exploring, I’d recommend the Explorers Podcast, which covers the intrepid throughout history who have ventured into the unknown.
The value of looking “behind-the-scenes”
When motivation is at a low (as it is at times for all artists), I find that watching the “making of” footage of virtually any artistic project to be incredibly helpful. Observing behind-the-scenes footage of something I personally love and which I know was made with passion — be it a movie, a painting, a video-game or a song — never fails to deliver the boost needed for me to sit down and get back to work.
The beauty and skill of the macabre drawings of Junji Ito
There are many artists I could list as sources of inspiration, but few so impactful to me as horror Manga artist, Junji Ito. Whether you’re a fan of macabre short stories or not, Ito’s technical skill with the ink pen is largely unrivalled. This is especially true of his full-page drawings, which incorporate significant detail with incredibly sharp contrasts of light and dark.
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