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...

My sketchbook project

I've been working on learning some social media skills. So I joined Instagram a couple of months ago as well as set up a Facebook page as an illustrator. This has been all very exciting, and it has taken a fare bit of my time to figure things out. But it's been so enjoyable as well! 

These illustrations are from my Instagram account @nadjasarell. I'm taking part in a creative challenge with #the100dayproject. I found a lonely A4 Moleskine sketchbook in my studio. So I thought I'll draw in my sketchbook something every day. It's only early days at Day 11 today, so we'll see how it goes...My theme is very wide with #100daysinthewild. So I can draw almost anything, really.

I have also had a few workshops with children, a book publishing party, an exhibition, coursework for Make It in Design School's Module 2 and Make Art That Sells Bootcamp's monthly assignments. Both courses are fantastic, and I hope I had more time for them. I'm determined to master some serious surface pattern design skills this year. But I've also done a big job with one competition and almost finished a project of educational illustrations for use in speech therapy for young children. So at the end of next week I'm very happy to have an inspirational week in Berlin!

When everything starts to grow

Here is a small illustration I did experimenting with all kinds of pens from felt tips to fine liners, gel pens and my son's magic pens. Shame that all the lovely neon bright colours don't show here! This is my prelude to spring :)

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.

All kinds of happy birds

Welcome back, all you lovely birds of all kinds!

Birds singing in the morning!

It's very cold and finally we have plenty of snow, a proper winter. Early this morning I heard a bird singing at five o'clock. It means that the days are getting longer and the spring is not that far away anymore. This design is inspired by the light and birdsong. I have been working on my picture book illustrations, so I felt I had to remind myself of how to use the AI again. I have a rubbish memory! So I came up with this design by using my earlier motifs and playing with the scale and colours.

Happy New Year ! !

Greetings from my studio and happy, creative, joyful year 2016!

It's freezing outside, but I'm very lucky to be painting green grass, flowers, patterned dresses, barefoot children and lots of juicy, lovely colours with my favourite gouache paints. And Santa got me a new desk lamp that has improved my life enormously! Time management is the key this month and deadline is pressing me on. Great year to come, I have a good feeling about this!

Happy Holidays!

More snowy card designs in the hope of SNOW

Here are two more of my Christmas card designs. I thought that maybe if I post them here now, we just might get the first snow soon. It's this hideously dark and chilly, damp month of November, my least favourite of all...The rest of my family thinks that November is great! For me, sleeping through the whole month is very attempting.

Below are some character drawings of my Santa Owls. Actually they have another name too. Someone from our Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course thought, that these fellows look like the Tribbles from a famous episode in Star Trek!

The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design course

I'm very excited to be part of Make it in Design's online course and finally be learning the basics of surface pattern design. The course is taught by British surface pattern designer and illustrator Rachael Taylor. She is a truly motivating and inspirational teacher.
For the last few years I have dreamt of designing for wallpaper, fabric, stationery etc. Now I have signed up for the Module 1 of the course titled Designing Your Way. We are on Week 4 out of 5 at the moment, and it has been really fantastic. And I have overcome my negativity when it comes to using computer software. That is quite something. Learning to use Illustrator and Photoshop feels almost like arriving on a whole new planet!

I thought I might share some of my experiments here too. I don't know where I'm going with my designs, but I love every minute of finding my way.

Hey birds, what a surprising subject for a motif!

Below are some colour versions of a flower themed placement print that I drew spontaneously while having a cup of coffee in a lovely MOKO Café & Design Market yesterday. I had just bought new pens, so I was trying them out. Then I came back to the studio and experimented with Photoshop. It was fun, slow and not so easy! Well, hopefully one day it will be as natural as riding a bike...

Enjoying a very large cup of coffee and drawing, what a bliss.

 

Three colour versions out of...twenty?

Watercolours, patterns, flowers!

Last week was the Night of the Arts in Helsinki, a yearly event with hundreds of happenings and performances spreading around the city. For me, it was an enjoyable evening painting watercolour cards to give away to the customers of Gudrun Sjödén store.
I had some lovely discussions with the customers and I kept myself busy painting almost 30 cards based on a few designs I had thought of in advance. All the cards were painted in the spirit of Gudrun Sjödén, one of my favourite colourists and pattern designers.

Botanic garden sketches

Last weekend I participated on a two-day course drawing plants at Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden's glasshouses in Helsinki. Well, only the first day was sketching on the spot. On the second day of the course we were asked to paint anything we like based on our sketches from the previous day. I got the jungle fever of some kind with my oil pastels. It was really enjoyable to just draw what you feel and have enough time to do it. So definitely more of this soon, I hope.

The Night of the Arts in Helsinki

Here are some photos from the event we arranged at Gudrun Sjödén Store on the Night of the Arts in August. Every year, for one special evening, the city fills up with arts, music, performances, exhibition and activities in shops and galleries, parks and streets.
This year we arranged a spontaneous happening at one of my favourite designer Gudrun Sjödén's store, where I work from time to time with some wonderful, talented people. The night included Fado songs, live models in the window and improvised watercolour painting.

Detail from the randomly painted patterns

Me and Lumimarja, the live models

Siiri and Elsa enjoyed painting...

...and wanted a new white sheet to paint on!

Artwork by Siiri and Elsa

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!

Wall paintings

This summer my friend asked me to paint the children's room wall in their new house. It was the first ever wall painting experience, and I thought it was really fun. Though it was hard work to keep the brush line so clean, but with some help and good tips I managed to finish the painting in one week, and without getting the paint on my friend's new carpet!