Another live drawing session - Multicultural school -seminar

Not so long ago I did my first live drawing session, and just a couple of weeks ago I did yet another. This time it was slighty different case - I was drawing in a seminar - Multicultural school.

There were few speakers, a panel discussion and approximately 100 persons in audience. I was given a place on the side, and one of the three screens was reserved for my drawings. There was a document camera where I placed a drawing when I got it finished.

Although the day was slightly stressful, thanks to the interesting topics and speeches, it was also very interesting one and gave a lot to think about.

Inevitably there's an encounter of different cultures... in which should a culture be hided or put in safe..?

It's awkward to hear examples of prejudices about other cultures. They do exist, both ways, and I'm not sure whether they can ever be totally avoided.

Normality, if there is such thing, there also has to be someone to define it.

What if the adults are making problems out of nothing, maybe everything is going just fine?

In a worst case scenario the authorities has nothing but a strong wish, while in the end the responsibility of integration is left to a seven year old.

Oh, and happy New Year 2015 to everybody!

My first live drawing session

I've been drawing more than twenty years, but last week I drew the first time in a live session. It was a brainstorming-kind-of-workshop to generate new ideas and point of views for the future pedagogy. I sat randomly in different groups and listened the discussion trying to visualize either groups' thoughts as they were pointed out... or even better, produce new interpretations and points of view or even question their thoughts. In other words, with my drawings I tried to feed groups' thinking even further - give them nice gentle kicks in an illustrated form.

I was pretty nervous before the new experience and I even gave myself a permission to do some sketching, but in the end I drew everything without sketching. What helped me to get into nice work flow, was that I managed to lower the bar of my self critique.

Of course, when I look those drawings now, I get tempted to do some redrawing here and there, but I try to remember the different function they served.

I got a feeling that people in the workshop liked what I did, but what's more difficult to say is how much added value my work managed to produce. Actually I think it's not just what I do and draw, but also how the participants of the workshop can utilize visual stimulus in their thinking.

So, can visualization offer more than just nice entertaining for workshops, seminars or conferences? Hard to say for sure, but personally I believe in visualization. I say YES!

Petteri Koponen - ready for basketball world cup 2014

As the football world cup in Brazil is now behind, it's basketball's turn. I believe that the finnish basketball fans are already looking forward the Basketball World Cup in Spain as it's the first time that the finnish national team managed to make its way to the tournament. Oh, and it's certainly a rare chance also for the players.

Petteri Koponen is one of the key players of the team. Here's a player portrait I made as a Photoshop practice.

... and some close ups.

Ice hockey team SaiPa's season 2013-14 in infographics

My favourite hockey team Saipa's season ended today. Even though it ended with a loss in a bronze game - all in all - the season has been a great one - there has been ups and downs, moments of joy and bitter losses and... what I've been most happy about... a lot of good fighting spirit.

Like last year (season 2012-2013 here!), I have made a visual wrap up of Saipa's season. Hopefully I have all the details correctly.

Click to enlarge the image!

EDIT:
Link to the previous season added.

A lightly armed villager character

Here's a little something I drew to get familiar with my new drawing toys. The iPad Air and Wacom's Intuos Creative Stylus I already have had a little while, but now that I ended up trying ProCreate's drawing app I guess I've found the light - ProCreate is really a mind blowing drawing app! I guess I'm happy for a while with this holy trinity.

A stressed truck driver

One of my recent works was an editorial illustration for a magazine. It was about how much money is spared with a decent driving style. Not to mention how ecological it is. Once again, it was more juicy to present how things are done the bad way. Therefore the actors of this play are a stressed truck driver, a heaten up engine and a draining gas tank.

I ended up presenting things in infographic'ish way.

... and here's some close-ups.

Pappa-Tunturi summer shirt

So it's summertime, which means t-shirts... As there's never too many of them I decided to make one for my upcoming vacation. For a print - summery enough - I chose this Pappa-Tunturi illustration which I did for Happy Pappa-Tunturi Drivers couple of years ago. Some minor customization I did to make it work better in dark background.

Happy summer!

Downshifting by a tiny vegetable garden

Here's a recent illustration I did for a short story that was about downshifting. Maybe it's the summer time that got me to use a vegetable garden as a symbol for slowing down and taking easy. The office costume may now serve as a scarecrow. Happy slow summer!

Failed rhino head illustration

Sometimes it's good to read scripts a bit more carefully. Here's a rhino head illustration that I just finished for a book project. I was quite happy with it... only the text is about a cute baby rhino... which this one obviously isn't. So, I'm about to get familiar with Photoshop's "baby-lizing-filter".

Oh, this is my blog post number 100 by the way. Should there be a party for that kind of things?

A mental mindset of development

Just finished an editorial illustration. I tried to visualize a mental mindset of development. This time I decided to do without Pegasos and other mythic creatures.

Teenagers cleaning up the house

Lately I've been working on teenager characters for a project that started already two years ago. As I'm not able to post the new ones until they are published, here's a sample from last year's set - teens cleaning up the house. The biggest fun is to clean Ming Dynasty vases.

Ice hockey team SaiPa's season 2012-13 in infographics

I just had a course of infographics with my students. And as I do every now and then, I also did the exercise that I gave to my students.

It wasn't hard to come up with a subject as there was a slight disappointment banging in the back of my head, caused by my favorite ice hockey team SaiPa, whose season had just ended a bit too early. My high hopes were obviously based on SaiPa's good efforts during the season. Especially the season start was outstanding, as I have stated in my earlier post (Ice hockey cheerleader 1/14 - SaiPa).

Well, that's sport, and there's always the next season... Thank you SaiPa for the exciting turn of events during the season 2012-13. Keep up fighting!

Here's the wrap up. Click to enlarge the image.

Painting over the doubt

Here's a small illustration that I did recently for a magazine. It was about removing uncertainty, and I came up with hands that are painting over a question mark. It's done in Illustrator from start to finish. I tried some new things here, such as the bumby edges in shapes. That's someting I'm definitely going to use in the future. I'm also quite happy with the quality of paint rollers' track.

The mood of take off

As I've lately been doing a lot of informative illustrations, it was very pleasant to do so called mood-illustration for a change. For this illustration I needed to capture the mood of take off. This is about how I saw it...

Here's a rough sketch that I made to present my idea to a client.

... and here's a random clip from the clipboard from the beginning of the process.

Facebook profile images for Snow White and co

As a part of my recent project was an interesting version of the Snow White. Some of the fairy tale's turn of events were told as if the characters were in Facebook. Here's my vision what their Facebook profile images would look like - Queen, Huntsman, Queen (she changed her profile image), Snow White and Prince.

Set of inuit themed spot illustrations

Here's a set of inuit themed spot illustrations for a recent project. Those totem poles and masks are pretty fascinating, although slightly beyond my understanding.

Reino slippers - spot illustration

This week I was honoured to illustrate the true classic of finnish slipper design - Reino slippers - "Reinot" or "Reiskat" as they are called in finnish. Well... actually I wasn't asked to illustrate them... it was merely my own decision. I did an illustration for an article about care of memory disorder patients. As that's more or less senior citizen stuff I used an odd pair of Reino slippers to refer them.

Yes, I'm aware that some teenagers use Reino slippers as well, 'cause they think that's pretty cool.

Evgeni Malkin - MVP - Ice Hockey World Championship 2012

It was hockey time once again. This time Finland was the hosting country in the World Championship and defending the championship title in home rink. The whole nation had some wary expectations, and the Finnish team wasn't that bad. There seemed to be some chances... at least a slight one.

But first of all there was a spell to break. The hosting team hasn't won the title in 20 years or so.

And secondly there was Mr. Evgeni Malkin. Evgeni really stole the show with his outstanding performance. It was also Evgeni's 3 goals against Finland in semi-finals that put an end for the hopes of Finnish hockey fans.

So here's the Most Valuable Player of the Ice Hockey WC 2012 - Evgeni Malkin. Hats off.

The climate is getting colder in Europe

This is a piece of work I just recently finished. In case you haven't heard it yet: the climate is changing. One of my clients is saying the change is towards cold, at least in Europe. What I tried to do, was an exaggerated vision of that statement.

I only hope that this really turns out to be an exaggerated vision. I'm afraid I'm not very good at knitting woollen hats to seals.

Top Dog cardboard dummy

Couple of days ago I visited a publisher to talk about my upcoming project. I was delighted to see a cardboard dummy they had made from the Top Dog character I illustrated for a school book. It was actually a bit strange to see it in such a big size, as the characters in the book are hardly the size of a thumb.