Some croquis after a little while

I had to persuade myself to go drawing croquis, but I'm glad I did, because it was fun... as it always is. Thank you Kunsthalle Helsinki for arranging these drawing sessions.

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.

How to protect yourself against dropbear koalas

Illustrating, like so many other things, is constant learning. Not just learning things concerning illustrating itself, but also vitally important knowledge.

An illustration project I'm working on at the moment increased my knowledge of animals with a highly important bit. I knew that there are bears called koalas - lazy, slow, harmless bears sitting in treetops eating eucalyptus leaves. What I didn't know before, is that there is a certain subspecies of koalas called dropbear. Dropbears are much bigger and they are lurking in trees waiting for a catch to drift under them... and then... oh yes, they drop down... Everyone can guess what happens when a creature with sharp teeth and claws attacks from above onto one's head. And by the way, they eat meat.

Luckily there is a way to protect yourself against dropbears: rub toothpaste behind your ears and you'll be safe.

Here's an image I drew to illustrate the story of dropbears. Unfortunately it was rejected by publisher. They wanted the dropbear instead of a person projecting himself agains dropbears.

Captain Australia sketches

Here's some sketches for a super hero character Captain Australia and his sidekick, that I just did as a tiny part of a bigger project. There had to be slightly funny and ironic touch... for example Captain Australia has a sidekick only to laugh at his bad jokes.

When Captain Australia's cape was described to be totally impractical, but looking cool, it was quite an obvious decision to place the sidekick standing on the cape.

Some final polishing in poses...

Illustration Friday - Carry

This time I went after the very first idea that popped into my mind... I just wanted to try out a new style.