Happy New Year 2012

Merry Christmas One More Time

Christmas Lightning

My dear blog readers, I am sorry for my long absence but you know how Christmas time can be. Suddenly everyone is organizing all kind of fun celebrations plus there is the school works that have to be done before the semester ends.

But now. Now I am all free to spend the holiday anyway I please and before I escape to spend the Christmas with my family I will treat you with a new post. I want to share another Christmas card illustration I did this year. This one is done to my friends and amazing Finnish band called Ukkosmaine (which means in English The Thunder Fame).

First sketching the christmas elfs and composition of the card. Then drawing it again in the actual scale. I used the red pencil in the sketching since it is easier to edit away in Photoshop after scanning.

Coloring I did in the computer using all kind of textures (like wood, glitter and fabrics) and one spruce pattern I did with fun online program called BgPatterns.

Wilhem Meister sent me a package with the printed cards and they looked pretty fantastic. Salamoivaa Joulua! would approximately mean in English Lightning Christmas! Bonus surprise was the Ukkosmaine button and magnet he sent with the cards. Thanks Wilhelm!

In an hour I'll hop in to the bus to Turku and if I don't have a chance to see you again before Christmas I'll wish you all now magical, merry and lovely Christmas! Love and hugs.

Clay Head

Even though our course is called Painting & Drawing today - at the last session before Christmas - I molded clay instead.

Paavo Paunu - the teacher - showed a new way to use clay: if you mix it with plastic clue it's not necessary to bake it in oven.

So say hello to my laughing little evil-angel.

My classmate found the sculpture frightening but I think he looks just content and almost holy.

Anyways molding clay might be one of the most therapeutic activity there is in the world to do. I recommend it dearly to everyone!

Emperor Tamarin

Emperor Tamarin - Keisaritamariini

This drawing has little to do with anything but we do have an interesting project going on in the Helsinki Zoo.

Näky Christmas Market

Next Saturday on the 10th of December we have the Näky Christmas Market here in Pori Puuvilla. Näky is the student association of Aalto University's Art and Media Pori department.

I was asked to create the poster for the event. As a reward I got a free market table for myself.

Here is few stages from the designing process. First I drew raw sketch where I wanted to see what would be the elements that the poster should contain.

Then I concentrated on my favorite part: creating the illustration for the poster. I drew out happy Christmas shopper -character girl.

The christmas tree I drew separately. I added the pictures later on to the ready-made poster layout playing with the sizes of the images thinking about their relation to the text.

With the background texture, the illustration and the text, the joined composition should be somewhat harmonic. All the important information, like what, where and when, should be easily spotted.

If you're around Pori area be sure to visit our fantastic Christmas Market! I'll be there selling postcards, magnets and some dyed clothes. But even more importantly I'll be there singing christmas carols and spending a lovely christmasy day! So see you next Saturday! ;)

Printed Postcards

Jey! My printed postcards for the Näky Christmas Market arrived today. I'm happy.

Loving Red

If I would have to choose my favorite color it would be red no questions asked. I'm drawn to red and own many red things: like clothes and items. Christmas is good time for me since having red color around becomes a norm.

This Red Book is dedicated to Aamu Song's Red Dress and it's visit to the London design week this Autumn. The Red Dress is and concert venue where the artist wears the red dress in the middle and the audience sits in the pockets of the hem. It's design installation, art and a wonderful red utopia.

Aamu Song asked Liisa Jokinen (who is the creator of Hel Looks) to gather Red Looks - people who wear red - for the book. Since we have red history together (Liisa made once before an article of people who wear some color a lot and I was the one who represented red) she called me if I'd like to wear and talk about my redness with her again. And of course I did.

And so that's my relationship with red. Do you have a strong relationship with some color?