Camilla Eriksson
Camilla Eriksson aka "Millan", is a cartoonist, illustrator, author, animator, smiley artist from Sweden. She has been making smileys since the mid 90s,[1] and her smileys are some of the most widespread on the internet.
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Smiley Style
Camilla's smileys are easily identifiable by their cartoonish style and their original movement. Camilla says that she had no influences for her style except for her pair of 70s bell-bottom jeans that had a smiley face on them.[2]
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One of Camilla's first smileys.[2]
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Smiley Ideas & Sayings
Camilla says that the ideas for her smileys come "from my brain. And requests." [2] One of the amusing aspects of Camilla's work is that she will often take a figure-of-speech and draw it literally, (as shown in the examples below).
Smiley-making technique
| Camilla credits her cat for helping her to draw her smileys. "my cat draws yellow circles straight into the graphics program, and I add the face." [2] When questioned further about this, she added: "Yes on the cat (not that hard to draw a yellow circle - the hard part is coming up with ideas and movement, and my cat is still learning ;)" [2] | 
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Physical Characteristics
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Although Camilla's smileys look quite simple because of their "cartoonish appearence," they are actually quite complex. Camilla employs a minimalist approach when creating her smileys, and only includes the parts of a smiley which are necessary to convey the idea/emotion. |
So for example if a smiley is running, dancing, or jumping, it will have legs. If not, then it probably wont. Another example of this approach can be seen in the eyes she uses on her smileys. Some of them are wide-eyed, while others have just a pair of simple lines, depending on the purpose. Some of her smileys don't even have mouths!!!
Movement
Another distinguishing feature of Camilla's smileys is their distinctive (and often flamboyant) movement, which Camilla says comes "from years of looking at stuff that moves." [2]
Camilla's Website (Millan.net)
Camilla's website has been online since 1997, and contains +10,000 original animations by Camilla.[3][4] Categories include Animations, Greetings (eCards), Flash, Smileys, Holidays, Comics, Buddies, Toolbar and Mobile. MillanNet also receives more than 15,000,000 hits/month.
Millan Extra
| Camilla also offers a subscription based service called Millan Extra, which offers its members access to extra flash animations, smileys, backgrounds, screensavers, eCards and email stationary that are not available on the main website. | 
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Notes and References
- ^ http://www.care2.com/aboutus/bios.html Retrieved on 2008-12-19.
- ^ a b c d e f Email correspondence with Camilla. (2008-12-11).
- ^ Camilla, About Millan. MillanNet Website.
- ^ http://www.millan.net . Retrieved on 2008-12-19.
| Article Information | |
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| Author: | BradLee |
| Date Published: | Article has not been published yet |
| Other Contributors: | None |
| Last Modified: | August 26, 2019 |
*** This article has been approved by the referenced artist ***
