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!

 

Sketching new characters

I think one of the most enjoyable parts as an illustrator is to design new characters based on the author's text. I just take out my pencil and some paper, make notes on the script and think about how the characters look like, how they behave, move, react etc. I think about their age, clothing, facial expressions, body language and just try different things. Sometimes if I get stuck, I feel or act them out, try different moves, positions and so on. If I need to work fast, I spend less time on this, which is always a shame.

When I start to work on the final illustrations, I seem to lose the flow of casual, quick pencil lines and the movement they create. But when I get to put down the colours, it's probably even more enjoyable! Well, my point is, I love it all...

What shall I do today?

Royal Wednesday

Queen Elisabeth I

King Louis XIV

Today's favourite colours are crimson, vermilion and scarlet red. According to Wikipedia, scarlet is closer to red than vermilion that has a slightly more orange flavour. Crimson has a tiny bit of blue mixed in. These are my three top reds at the moment. Bright, cool pink gets the fourth place!

Travelling in space

This weekend I finished all the illustrations for the book I've been working on for the last two months. I even got to illustrate this classic space rocket above. In a minute I'm going to the publisher to take all the original artwork in to be scanned.
Then I might enjoy an ice-cream in the city centre as the sun is finally shining in Helsinki! Temperature is still below zero, but you can feel the sun's 'heat' in your face if you concentrate very hard...

Song about a leggy man

Today I've been working on this illustration for a song about a leggy man and his bowlegged wife ("Pitkäsäärinen" in Finnish). What an earworm it is! The song comes with step by step illustrations on how to play it with a friend. It's quite an addictive game. I find it hard to concentrate on drawing when the song is in my head and my arms and hands want move about. I just want to get it right, that's all!

Turnip thieves

These little buggers are stealing all the turnips! I keep on working on the music book project...three weeks till deadline. I dare not count how many illustrations I still need to do. But I'm enjoying this almost meditative feeling of painting with thick gouache and listening to Radio Helsinki and music by my favourite artists and bands. When I look out of the window the world is white, grey and brown. So bring on the colours!

Illustrations for children's music and play

Here's something I'm working on at the moment. It's a book for young children and their families to pass the time when travelling in a car, on a plane, train etc. The book comes with a music CD. Anyway, it will keep me busy for a while and its' a lot of fun! More about it later...

Still Life with Birds

I made these three paintings for my exhibition. They were based on the objects I found from our family's summer home in Johannislund, Kiikala and things I had photographed at Pettson & Findus' World in Gröna Lund amusement park in Stockholm.

The three 'Still Life with Birds' -paintings will be printed into postcards and sold by Putinki Oy. The original artwork has been cleverly photoshopped to be standard postcard size. I'm looking forward to seeing them!

 

The glass bottle (with text "Punssia", "Punch") in Still Life II was actually made in Johannislund Glass Factory which operated from 1813 till 1960.

My father's old study lamp when he was a young boy. 

The old mustard jar I found hidden in a cupboard.  

From Pettson's workshop.

 

Findus & Pettson kitchen art!

Yes, it's that tiny drawer in the middle.

Christmas decorations

Next weekend I'll be selling these special Christmas tree decorations at illustrators' own Christmas Market in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. The wooden birds are based on my dancing birds in the "Pas de deux"-paintings. This small, one-off edition of unique bird decorations is for sale along with acrylic, hand-painted snowflakes designed by my partner Jussi. We are impressed by Laser-Riimikko's careful work in cutting the detailed shapes.
Also original illustrations, signed prints and lots of lovely things by me and other talented Finnish illustrators for sale this weekend only!