Designing Christmas cards

I've been practising my new computer skills and worked on some Christmas card designs for this year. I usually make just one illustration, and paint it in gouache. Now I decided to go along with my new passion, surface pattern design, and combine some of that in the cards as well.
When you are so used to mixing your colours on a plastic palette instead of millions of options on computer screen, the possibilities can become a bit overwhelming. So I couldn't do just one card, but six...It's like playing a game with colours, motifs and compositions, because it's so much faster way of working. BUT I will also keep on painting with my lovely gouache paints for my other illustration work. Nothing beats mixing the paints and spreading them on smooth watercolour paper!

Book publishing party!

First spread of the new book. 

We had a book publishing party on Tuesday with Kerttu, the wonderfully energetic author of Elsa ja Lauri -bookseries. The top floor of a nice Café Talo was packed with our friends and relatives. Trio Pullakka, our very own house band played (me as the percussionist).
Here are some photos from our cheerful little celebration. And a tiniest little peek from the book I'm sketching at the moment...it's still a work in progress and a bit of a secret again :)

Kerttu and I celebrating!

The lovely little boy also named Lauri who has been Lauri's "model" in my mind.

Trio Pullakka (quartet) playing!

Plenty of colouring to do.

Mini fraction of the sketches that are piling up on my desk.

Helsinki Book Fair and our new book!

Last weekend was the Helsinki Book Fair; four days packed with events, interviews and book sales for all book-loving public to enjoy. Our latest picture book "Elsa ja Lauri matkustavat" (Elsa and Lauri go travelling") made it just in time from the printer to be presented and sold at the fair by Oppi&ilo, our publisher. 

Kerttu and I had a book reading session and afterwards we created paper airplanes with the children and their parents. It's always a great pleasure to see children listening to a story. Their attentiveness and concentration is amazing to watch. And the colourful paper planes were flying around the children's play area. Apparently some of the planes travelled all the way to Italy, Greece and Dubai, and even to Minecraft world.

I was also taking part in Kuvittajat's (The Association of Finnish Illustrators) stand and spend a couple of hours there as a cashier. Next to me was illustrator Maija Hurme drawing mini portraits of people for free. This caused quite a queue, so I jumped in to help out and did a few quick portraits myself (see the very poor quality photos...). It was nice to talk to people while drawing.  I'd love to that kind of thing more often, though without cashier duties at the same time!

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?

Shooting time-lapse photos of me painting

Setting up the "studio", before filming

Finished illustration!

Yesterday I was participating in the making of a short video based on Elsa and Lauri book series written by Kerttu Ruuska and illustrated by me. I made this little illustration of Elsa while a camera was looming behind me taking time-lapse photos. Kerttu and I talked about the books (and of great many other things) while I painted away. And my hand didn't shake, well done me!
Once the video is ready and published, I will post it in my blog.

Taking part in Lilla Rogers' GTS competition

Here is my entry for this year's Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search. The brief was to design sneakers for a fictional character, Antoinette from Brooklyn. The assignment was really exciting with lots of clues to Antoinette's daily life and the things she enjoys. So even though I didn't make it to the next round, I thought the competition brief was really enjoyable and I would buy my feather-patterned sneakers any day!
I even managed to overcome my problematic relationship with a certain computer software to get the final piece to look the way I had imagined. Luckily I am working next door to a Photoshop wizard...

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.

Back to school/Holiday mood

Elsa and Lauri, the main characters of the picture book (written by very talented Kerttu Ruuska) I recently finished illustrating, are going for a vacation. Meanwhile in real life, our son is back to school already! I don't know how this summer just flew by. I've managed to fill my calendar with many things big and small, but this weekend I will enjoy the sun, swim in the lake and pick some lovely blueberries in the forest!

Masterclass by Svjetlan Junaković

It's been a while since my last update. Yesterday I finished a picture book that I have been working on this summer. I have also been enjoying summer holidays, although this summer has been one of the coldest in 50 years!

In June I had a chance to participate in a two-day illustration masterclass taught by Croatian artist, illustrator and sculptor Svjetlan Junaković. He is one of my favourite artists, so being taught by him was a privilege. He is such an inspiring, enthusiastic teacher and a charismatic person and storyteller.

From one portrait to another, magic!

We painted with mixed media, using acrylics, gouache and whatever pencils and crayons we had in hand. I really enjoyed this technique and had lots of fun with it. Th theme for the workshop was "Portraited in Illustration". We interpreted well-known fairytale characters with our own stories behind them.

The fish on the left was painted by Svjetlan on top of many different faces.

My Princess with the Pea. She's had enough of the fuss and decides to get rid of it.

Princess is feeding the Pea to Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf.

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!