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.

Book illustrations finished!

I'm feeling very relieved today after delivering the last of the original artwork to the publisher, perfectly on time. Though it was a close shave...
The book Elsa ja Lauri juhlissa (written by Kerttu Ruuska) is going to be out in March/April. January was really intense work with the detailed illustrations, but also very enjoyable. Always after a big project like this you can feel quite worn out. I'm just happy there is now time for all the other plans that have been on hold for a couple of months. And it's February, the sun is shining and spring is just around the corner! It's time to celebrate just as they do in this summery, festive book.

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.