Workshop of old colour pen drawings!

Quiet winter nights of Muuratsalo are excellent for silent work with drawings. I do not paint with oils in our home (poor ventilation, limited space etc.) but drawing on the kitchen table...that is great and very much therapeutic. Like some kind of meditation?

I have several drawings from past years which were not finished. Main reason for this situation is too careful working: what more should be done, what not...?

I follow the guidelines of educational art books and start with light colours which can the be deepened by new colours (this is the opposite way to oil painting where highlights will be set at the end). It is always possible to draw darker lines with pencils but all additions of white is impossible. This is why I always start with light shades.

There are still many dark nights left during this winter time. I love them.

R.I.P., "Music Center" Rantala.

RANTALA was an active site for our rock band on 60's and 70's. It was an old, wooden house with two floors in Joutseno, Finland, on the shore of Lake Saimaa. We have spent several evenings, even some nights, there by playing blues and rock. The bands we respected most (and whose recordings were originally published in those years!) were THE CREAM, JOHN MAYALL, KING CRIMSON, ELP, COLOSSEUM, LED ZEPPELIN..."Those were the days", indeed!

This building has been demolished for years ago. Still missing it......

Portrait of "Blink Blink Girl".

Night-time is absolutely the best time to focus on new things. Portraits have, honestly to say, not been "my business" but I started to train them last night (I am living during night-time because the darkness of Finnish late autumn - I tend to sleep during day-time).

After drawing landscapes and buildings already over 20 years, I am not afraid to seek the shapes of faces. What is difficult are the shadows and tones.

I tried to finish the shadowed areas by using a heavy pencil hand and then lighten the shadows with an eraser. This technique works but may result an uneven shadow (ref. the left-side cheek of the girl). Very thin lines may be a better solution?

I told my wife this morning that "I have spent my time with commercial girls: they have all the time of the world and they do not get angry if the final drawing isn't good".

Next I try my color pencil. Let's see....

"A Day in Wyborg".

You may recall my post about the familiar yard in the old town of Wyborg?

After finishing this drawing I went to my framing company in Jyväskylä city (Flyktman Ltd., I strongly recommend it!). My wife prefers relatively strong-colored passepartout, and she was right!

I think that the value of this work is hidden in its details.

As you know, Finland has lost this ancient Hansa town to "CCCP" after WW II. Very many specialists in Finland think, however, that this event actually saved the old, fine buildings of Wyborg center - no "carton box architecture" like big hypermarkets but the old houses are still there! Not in the best conditions, maybe, but some of them are fixed up in recent years (The Library by Alvar Aalto is the best example).

My wife said: "There is a feeling in this drawing", and she is (again) right. I think that I have put something in the details of this, otherwise relatively humble, drawing.

Late spring on the shore of Ala-Kintaus Lake.

This is an example of those rapid drawings which I preferred to do some ten years ago. When travelling, one has not too much time to prepare his/her piece of art (if not taking a photo and continue afterwards with time).

The horizon is really over there: it is the opposite shore on the left side of the drawing. The shoreline of the cape and vegetation on the lake are NOT horizontally installed; they actually followed the reality. They have, therefore, some odd, confusing effect - but I still let them be like they are. Nature not always follows our orders....

Technique was simple: just drawing with calligraphy felt-tip pens and color pencils. I tried to express some feelings of Finnish spring (1.5.2006) when there were no leaves yet, water was icy and everything was waiting warmer days of early summer.

New box for drawing tools!

I have found a most practical thing from the bargain sale of local artists' shop in Jyväskylä. This wooden box actually has an easel on its upper deck and is spacious enough to store all color pencils, inks etc. needed for drawing. Painting tools would need a much bigger bag, of course, but this very box (British make)  fulfills the needs of a travelling drawer.

This is the night site for my drawing activity during wintertime: our quiet kitchen. The table stays by the window and I can watch the nearly-dark view towards the neighbors below (we live in the middle of a hillside). Traffic is almost stopped during winter nights which also helps to focus on drawing.

Final site for the drawing of Summassaari church

Here it is, at last: drawing of Summassaari in the middle of new frame!

Framing was actually very cheap: an old frame (with glass) from second hand market = 1 € and passe-partout from a local art shop (prepared to the final form)= 8 € makes total 9 €!

Reflection on the glass is certainly a problem - not a big one, but one should still look for a satisfactory point of view to see the drawing. I may remove the glass - I am not sure yet. My wife, however, says: "Let it be".

Final edition of Summassaari postcard

This postcard shows the small but most beautiful Orthodox church, dedicated to Archangel Michael, situated in Summassaari village, Saarijärvi, Central Finland. The process lasted over half an year and began after a short discussion with Father Alexander - he has taken a photo of this tsasouna and sent it onto the website of our local Orthodox parish. I got the right to use it as a model for the work of my own (thank you, Father Alexander!). After some months of "not-so-regular" evening sessions with paper and colour pencils, I carried the finished drawing to my friend Eira who scanned it and printed four versions of it on a beautiful cartonboard, having a slight shade of yellow (thank You, Eira, too!). Discussions with Eira, my wife Sanni and Vicar of our parish, Father Timo (many thanks to all!), led me to the agreement about the superiority of the darkest alternative among the four different brightness levels. It will reproduce the colour of the timber in a right way and also give the best impression of the depth in the landscape. This version is, like I tend to say, "much better than the original"! This modest postcard of the Summassaari tsasouna is now for sale in Christ's Resurrection Church, Jyväskylä. Only the manufacturing costs will be excluded from the price and all the cents earned this way will be directed to the benefit of Anastasis Choir, singing in services. There are other artists in our choir, too (greetings, Erna!) and we have already sold some cards of our own during the Eastern week at our church.

Orthodox Church in Summassaari, Saarijärvi, Finland

This small, self-built (!) Orthodox Church is situated in Saarijärvi, Central Finland. I was joining its opening ceremony in summer 2011. All of its constructions were made in an excellent way! It follows the traditional features of Carelian churchs.

I started this work with a pencil and continue with colour pencils. Only light brown (of the timber itself) and light blue has been used for the decoration of this small temple. In opposite, a wide variety of beautiful flowers are surrounding it.

Final version of this work will be published in this blog soon.

"Would you like to know a secret...?"

It is most fascinating to watch ladies, telling secrets to their best friends. These two girls were drawn with calligraphy felt-tip pens, some years ago, in Isola, Slovenia. Colours were added just yesterday. Without knowing any word of Slovenian language, I could understand that they were really telling big secrets to each other.

"Postcarding" continues....

Some new color pictures are under work. "Night shift" with pencils therefore continues.

A tall lady with her dog.

One of last summer's drawings has now got its colors. The dog was added into the picture just today to give some life into the front area. I chose his photo, among several ones, from a Dog Handbook (he isn't therefore Aarne, my GR) and I wish that he "sits" well there, by the lakeside of Jyväskylä Harbor.

Sleeping Aarne, the Golden Retriever

This color-pencil picture represents sleeping Aarne (2,5 years)and the warmth which he radiates into the surroundings. This gesture is, by the way, very typical sleeping position of dogs, called "kieppi" in Finnish.

The Fisher Lady

I have to admit that my wife is a much more experienced fisherman than I myself. She is responsible for the fishing with the net - I only row the boat and take photos (and sit at the net...). This picture tells about a sad situation during mid-summer evening when very few fishes can be found - but, in opposite, late May and early June give us overwhelming big portions of pikes, breams, whitefishes and pike-perches.

This picture was based on a photo. First the main lines with a pencil, then with very thin (1 mm) calligraphy felt-tip pen and - at last - some shades with color pencils.

Orthodox baptism

Naming of the child takes place very early after the birth in Orthodox Church. It can be performed separately or in the Holy sacrament of Baptism. Only one Christian name is preferred and this name refers some holy, sanctified orthodox person - in this case, Holy Miriam.

Photography of color pencil drawings is not an easy task because the difficulty of color reproduction. This photo has ignored all bluish shades which cannot be corrected with the relatively simple tools of PowerPoint program. It is therefore most important to secure the right shades in the final photo. I think that this problem is especially often faced when trying to copy the relatively delicate shades of color pencil works.

The summer 2011 has started! Birds are singing during the early morning hours, everything turns green and nights get shorter all the time. It is therefore time to start drawing because the Annual Exhibition of KOPRU will be opened already on the 2nd week of August and something new shall be produced.