Illustrating Children's Books e-course

I had a very busy October as I took a wonderful e-course "Illustrating Children's Books" with Make Art That Sells with top art agent Lilla Rogers and children's book art director Zoë Tucker. This 5-week intensive class covered different areas of illustrating picture books from facial expressions and poses all the way to cover design. After five weeks of working with the course assignments and other commissions I was exhausted, but very happy.

Before the course started we had to choose one of three texts to work with. I chose a text written by Zoë Tucker. It was a story about the life of Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician who is often regarded as the first computer programmer. "Ada Lovelace and the Number Crunching Machine" was my choice over a traditional folk tale and Edward Lear, as I love a bit of research!

The course was packed with information about pretty much everything. I was familiar with illustrating children's books, but now all that knowledge was presented in a fresh, inspiring way. The teachers Lilla and Zoe were fantastic and encouraging.

My main character Ada evolved quite a bit over the five weeks. I enjoyed the "Expressions" week the most, maybe because it was a good reminder of how many other facial expressions there are than just smiling, happy ones! Also "Poses" week was a very useful one to remind me of the power of exaggeration.

Since the course finished I've felt a lot more confident about my work. It was an intense five week period. It's taken a while to catch up with the rest of my life! We even got our first snow during the course, really early this year (now it's gone...).

Ada's friend, fellow inventor Mr Babbage in my neighbourhood forest!

Week 4: "Environments"

Over the five weeks I had a chance to properly experiment with new techniques, mixing traditional media with Photoshop. Now I just worry that I forget all the things I learned. The cover did require some serious help from my studio partner, PS wiz spouse. All those masks can get a bit confusing at the best of times! With my patience, well...

Week 5: "Cover"

Anyone interested on the course, I give it five golden stars!

Summer greetings!

Rainy day sketching, searching for colour

Colour explosion, marker sketching for fun

My sketchbook bird enjoying life by the lake

Me and my sketchbook birds at Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art

Collage illustration for a new Finnish band Liljankukka

Artwork for the wonderful designer Gudrun Sjödén on her birthday

Me and my birds visited Stockholm and Yayoi Kusama's Exhibition. DOTS!!

I had a lovely holiday break, though the weather could have been a bit better... Back in the studio now. I had to spend a whole day yesterday tidying it up so that I'm ready to start making a new mess. And I had my birthday present, Wacom drawing tablet waiting for me (yay!). No I just need to figure out how to use it. That's going to be interesting...

Fresh from the press

Our latest book with Kerttu Ruuska was delivered last week. Yay! This week I will put up an exhibition with some of the original artwork at Toukka, a tiny children's book shop in Helsinki. Here is a peak inside the book.

My 1920's Birds

I'm participating in Make Art That Sells Bootcamp this year. The course started this month, and there is a different assignment every month, five altogether. The first one was to illustrate a cover for a colouring book. The theme was 1920's hairstyle, makeup, fashion accessories etc. Obviously, I love 1920's style. Who doesn't? The bried was so well presented and started off with a mini assignment. The sketch above was one of my drawings for the mini, just faces and hairdos.

                                                           But then this bird appeared...

                      So in the end my final piece had some really elegant chicks! They just took over.

                                                    With the cover design looking like this!

King Gustav III in Suomenlinna

This is the third time that I illustrated the poster and leaflet for Suomenlinna Children's Adventure Tour. Here is the main illustration with handwritten typography. This time the King Gustav III of Sweden has lost his crown and children help him to solve the mystery. After all, the crown is a very important part of being a king! The tour takes the audience to the dark corridors and pathways of the Suomenlinna fortress. Torches are a must! 

Painting summer!

It's gloomingly dark time of the year, but at least it's bright and colourful in the studio! I'm working on the historical characters for next summer's Suomenlinna children's adventure tour. This time the story will be about King Gustav III of Sweden and his missing crown. Lots of research for the costumes again, which I enjoy.

The fourth book in Elsa and Lauri series is "work in progress" on my desk too. Here is the cover design. So not too many holidays for me this Christmas, but plenty of good chocolate! And books!

Holiday!

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for a week's holiday. This is a good moment to show you the cover illustration for the third Elsa book, as it happens to be on the theme of travelling. Though now it's not just Elsa, but also her little brother Lauri, travelling abroad. Such a convenient holiday trip when it comes to looking for reference!

Elsa book delivery!

Today I picked up 7 kg of Elsa books from the post office. Next week there will be the book launch and exhibition of some of the original artwork at Toukka. We are very excited! The author of Elsa books, Kerttu Ruuska and I are also planning workshops for young children, based on the themes of the two books.
Kerttu is an expert in ice skating and especially in synchronised skating! I can barely stand up on ice, so I learned a lot while illustrating the book about Elsa going skating. I'm definitely more at ease outside the ice rink, dancing my socks off.

Cover illustration for Helsinki-info

I was commissioned to illustrate the cover of Helsinki-info, an information bulletin published by the City of Helsinki, printed six times a year. I have to say I was a bit intimidated by the print run of 365 000...
Here are the original artwork (A2) and the final cover. I was very happy with this brief, great work with reproduction and layout by Heikki Sallinen (Logopolis Graphic Design). 

Journal cover

I took part in the Global Talent Search competition organized by Lilla Rogers Studio http://lillarogers.com. There was 1500 contestants from 30 countries, and 50 made it to the semi-final. I wasn't one of the lucky ones, but there was some amazing work entering the competition!
Here's my entry, a journal cover on the theme of children's playground. I had a wonderful time painting it, summer days were hot, strawberries sweet and flowers blossoming everywhere!