Visual attempts to capture the essence of SISU

In Finland we have this thing called SISU. I don't know if there's an official definition for the word, but it's some kind of never-giving-up attitude. It's considered to be something so important that it's a part of so called finnish holy trinity: SISU - Sauna - Sibelius.

Some time ago I noticed that some are trying to rethink the concept of SISU, update it for this century. I found it challenging and inspiring to try to capture the essence of SISU just by drawing.

So, here they are, my three SISU-doodles.

... I just noticed that by seeing these images in order, one may calculate how much each doodle eats a pencil. Luckily those pencils doesn't cost a fortune.

The Top Dog with upgraded street credibility

I'm just working on the very last bits of a project that started already some three years ago. For sort of a mascot for the whole project I illustrated a dog character, Top Dog (here's some sketches of the Top Dog and here's the finished Top Dog character).

The Top Dog had to be kind of laid-back fellow with some street credibility. Initially I drew the character carrying a spray can, but as a school book can't be too wild the spray can was obviously a bit too much - totally understandable - and it got replaced by a thick marker pen.

Now that I've been practising with my new drawing toys (iPad Air + Intuos creative stylus + Procreate app) I often end up drawing just something stupid. This time I decided to draw the Top Dog with upgraded street credibility. In addition to the spray can that got banned I also tried a bit edgier drawing style. A dog bone must be the thing such a fellow would spray on a wall.

War helmet doodles

I believe there comes a time for every one of us when one becomes aware of his or her inner ancient-war-helmet-enthusiast. For me that was yesterday and the place was Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

Wouldn't that be nice to see for example nowaday's ice hockey or football players wear such fantastic pieces of art... made of full metal of course ;)

Football doodles during Euro 2012 QF, England - Italy

The quarter final England - Italy in Euro 2012 was expected to be a boring game due their defensive playing strategies. That's why I equipped myself with a drawing pad and pens. Even though they didn't score until the shootout, the game wasn't actually that bad.







Doodling during the game was almost like drawing croquis. Only I wouldn't recommend it if you really want to enjoy the heat of the game. Thank god for the replays :)

Plate face doodles

During the previous 3-4 weeks I've been too busy to illustrate anything special, (except my current work project, which is special in it's own way of course... and also the reason why I'm busy). What I mean is that I haven't had time to do any gorilla kind of stuff.

But I've been drawing something anyway. Every now and then, while having a cup of coffee or watching a tv program that fails to catch my full attention, I've been testing brush tip markers, which I'm not too familiar with. Among plenty of other "meaningless" things I've been doodling these strange plate faces, which put together, makes a pretty nice set. So, with this set of plate faces I'm trying to please the God of draw-something-special.