Capoeira X-mas

So, it's been awhile, eh?

Been busy and all that...

But, Christmas is coming fast and a card has to be made.

The story behing this particular card is that my 6-year old son got REALLY interested about capoeira during last summer (Hämeenlinna is a small town, but we're lucky to have a real capoeira academia, thanks to Gharronne Silva and his friends) and at some point we (me and my wife) gave up and asked the capoeira people what they thought about it... and they said sure, of course he can come and train with the other kids (who are mostly from 8-10 years old). Now Joonas has been training for about four months, twice a week and he can do stuff (cartwheels, cartwheels with one hand, handstand, HEADstand, high kicks, rotating kicks etc.) I HAVE NEVER been able to do, and he just generally loves the whole thing. So, Joonas wanted to give his capoeira instructors a christmas card and I promised to design him one... and that's the picture you can see below.

Merry X-mas.



Cheerio.

Elfgirl

I really like DeviantArt for three reasons:
1) It's a good (and free) place to store your pictures and show them to people
2)There's huge amount of amazingly talented artists and art to watch
3)There's loads of reference material (photos and illustrations) to go through


Take the drawing above for example. I wanted to try and do some traditional pencil drawing stuff and went browsing through the photos in DA. I stumbled across this photo and though to myself 'she's an elf' (not the high and noble Tolkien kind, but wild and pointy-eared Charles Vess -styled creature)

So I drew her...

Cheerio.

Yay to Sami...

I know this illustrator-guy Sami Saramäki

He's very talented (and also very nice chap in general) so go see his stuff.

And here's his blog

Cheerio.

Still working...

Here's couple more recent 'real work' thingies. POSTERS to be more exact...

First some 'vintage golf'...


...and then a theater poster.


Oh, and the 'mystery project' is still going on very nicely...

Cheerio.

Weird stuff by James Jean...

Just wanted to drop by and ask if you have seen James Jean's blog?

Now, what kind of mind can produce that kind of images?

And more importantly... Where could I get one like that myself?

Cheerio.

Just couple more pictures...

Just something I found from my hard drive. Tha'ss all.

"Troll"


And "Jack"



Cheerio.

Past Victories II: Shoggoth's Old Peculiar

So, since I'm not going to tell you (at this point) more about... that thing... I mentioned earlier (well, other than it's coming along just fine, thank you)...

I thought it might be a good time to do a second part of my 'Past Victories' series.

Right. Before 'A Study In Emerald' poster thing we did a chapbook (we meaning me, Neil, Greg Ketter and Bob Garcia) of Neil's fabulous short story 'Shoggoth's Old Peculiar'. It was launched in the Fiddlers Green convention in Minneapolis in november 2004. It was loads of fun. I even did a signing with Neil and that was very much fun and VERY odd.

Anyways... here's some illustrations from the book.







... and here's a photo of the signing... umm right. (photo by Michelle Larson)


And I checked Dreamhaven website and found out they are still selling the book in here so go buy it... shoo!! And while you're at it, buy some other books too. Greg is a great chap and has a really cool comic/bookshop

Cheerio.

A sneak peek of... this thing

Right. I'm currently doing... this thing, and I hope it will turn out something cool and if it WILL, then I'll tell more about it (that was informational, wasn't it)

Anyways, here's a sketch of... this thing that will be in... that thing.

Err... yes, right.


Cheerio.

Here and there...

Been all around and mostly off-line for past couple of weeks and will continue in the same fashion for about three weeks.

Then I'll be back... Promise.

Meanwhile... here, have a scribble.


Cheerio.

ArtPad again...

The first one was so hideous that I had to go back to do another one...



This one is called 'At the Job Interview'.

And you can see it done in here.

Cheerio.

But, I DO real things too

It's not all just messing around with ArtPad or DeviantArt, or doing fun stuff with Neil.

This for example is a theater poster I did to a local group. The musical is about this gypsy tribe in Russia during 19ht century or so. And there's love and death and all that...


I mean I work TOO... you know.

Cheerio.

It's all Teddy's fault...

Went and embarrassed myself with ArtPad

... and the horrible result can be seen here...


My ArtPad moment

But seriously it's all Teddy's fault. HE made me do it.

Cheerio.

Free hands...

Adobe is pulling the plug on their vector graphics application, FreeHand.

Now, for ME (and to MANY other graphic designers as well) this is bit like announcing to cab drivers that 'We will not make any more cars, but don't you worry... here's a PDF-manual of how you can go on with your business with a bicycle... or have you thought about purchasing a helicopter?'

Christ.

The article can be found here

Cheerio.

Past Victories I: A Study in Emerald

Since some of you may be unaware about my past doings I thought it might be wise to take a brief look to (few of) my past works, don't you think. (And for those who ARE aware about my past doings... please bear with me. This won't take that long... promise.)

Sometime around 2004 I illustrated Neil's magnificent 'A Sudy in Emerald'. It was published as a broadsheet poster by Dreamhaven Books and it seems to be still on sale in here


Later I made a kinda small-newspaper-type-of-PDF-thing of it for Neil's web page. And the PDF (about 5.1Mb) can be downloaded in...
here

I really loved doing the little ads.






Cheerio.

Same girl... different hair

'-because she's worth it'


... and since Neil liked this version better, I'm sure it will sooner or later appear also in
here

Cheerio.

Something to my CV.

(a quote from Neil's email)

'-- you manage the pretty-but-not thing brilliantly...'

Now, I think it's pretty much the nicest way of saying that your pictures are bit... odd (even when I just try to draw teenage girls)
;-)

Cheerio.

Pencilled Party Girls III

So here's the third and final picture to Neil's 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties'.


Neil had little different hairstyle in mind, so I might change it, but this is OK for now...

And this too can be found
here

Cheerio.

Neil knows everything, Neil sees everything...

Welcome to those who linked here from Neils journal.

I have NO IDEA how he knew about this blog.

He obviously has some magical powers.

But, since there's only couple of pictures to see on this blog at this point I strongly suggest you should visit my old online-garage of weird pictures in... here

Please help yourselves with the drinks and enjoy your stay.

Cheerio.

Pencilled Party Girls II

Here's the second one.


You can see it also
here

Cheerio.

Pencilled party girls

I've had the pleasure of working together with Neil Gaiman on couple of smallish projects during the last few years. He is amazing writer and a very nice chap.

Few days ago I emailed this pencil sketch...


...(a character from his bloody brilliant Hugo-nominated short story 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties') to him and he liked it and now you can see it in
here

Sometimes life is so sweet.

Cheerio.

First look...

Ok. Here's the first picture... it's called 'Visiting Hour'

Cheerio.

Shiny new places...

This is another desperate attempt to join the millions of active online-personalities.

Let's see if I can actually KEEP this up and active more than a week..

Cheerio.