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.

Friends!

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). 

Music, music, music...

I browsed through my stuff on the computer looking for illustrations with musical instruments. Here are a few in a chronological order starting from 2004. Personal projects, educational publishing, artwork from my exhibitions, Christmas card and even one Santa Claus!

Pencil line, mixed media, oil pastels, gouache, touch of Photoshop...and an obsession to get the musical instruments drawn as correctly as possible with the artist's freedom and simplification. Tuba and euphonium are almost painful to draw, but excellent practice for patience!