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.

FUTURE LADY

Sometimes I found old drawings as photocopies. It is, of course, a wise way to do experiments with copies, not with originals.

In this case I scanned an old drawing (2006) and modified it with the very same scanning program, SYSTWEAK PHOTO STUDIO, which was an appendix for the scanning program itself. I have ordered these programs from Internet, with a relatively low price, and I am satisfied with them.

The red version will (I wish that it really will!) show an active, young lady - maybe slightly faceless - looking towards her future. Red background gives some energy to her.

"A Day in Wyborg" and tiny, green tomatoes!

Now is the color pen work "A Day in Wyborg" finished!

It shows a view of a city yard on the eldest area of Wyborg, Russia (actually the 2nd biggest Finnish city before WW 2).  There was no life (except the birch, growing on the wall of the left-side building) to be seen, so I decided to add a sitting girl and the front of a car (Soviet make, called LADA in western countries).

This peaceful scene will be multiplied very soon in the form of postcards.

The small, green tomatoes are from our own harvest. For some reason, very many of my friends have also got greenish ones - because the very odd summer, I think. I try to ripen them in our kitchen but they tend, in opposite, to rip before they turn to red! Very odd... X Files?

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.

BLACK & WHITE RULES?

I think that I shall do some selecting and mapping of my old photos. There are so many of them, and in addition, I have saved their copies several times on my hard discs! How can I find them and delete those  which only lead to the lack of free disc space?

Sometimes, in the middle of this busy (and, honestly to say) not so nice job I can find something interesting like this one among all unimportant staff: a smoggy, quiet city morning in Jyväskylä, Finland, some 6 - 7 years ago.

My next question will be: shall I try to transfer this view on a paper/canvas or thrust on its strength as a photo? All the shades of grey should be visible in the final piece of art. Graphical style should be stored, but how? "B&W Rules"?

- I continue to think. Sometimes, however, it would be better to leave things like they are. But...?