Speedpainting

Yes! Finally some work and not mindless photos featuring ducks and snow!


Time for some Photoshop-speedie paintings. These 7 together took about 3½ hours to finish. Some of them I started with a line/ink sketch from my sketchbook.

Santa Claus *spoilers

*It's me!

Impersonating my childhood hero.

He used to bring me all kinds of presents. Now I have taken his form and used it to enter other people's houses and infiltrate their sacred family traditions.

How did it come to this...






Jonna playing some kind of entrance tune for Santa.



It all started with us preparing christmas presents with some beer and some textiles. The plan was..


















...and it succeeded! It happened exactly like that!



- Christmas update completed!


Cau!

Darkest day

Merry Christmas! (rejected draft version of a commissioned card)
Suggestions for changes included more positive colors for the card, no guns, no blowing out anyone's brains.

Fair enough.








So tomorrow is christmas eve! Somehow it's been the last thing I had time to think about in the middle of arranging a flat, trying to bounce around between seeing Jonna and old friends and getting a job, arranging myself back into school... what about taking it easy for a few days and just sleeping? Where the hell did that option go?

It's my fault of course. Who the hell decides to move back and try to take care of everything during the last week before christmas? Mistake.

So it looks like Andrea, Karina, Avigael and Teemu are all coming to visit Finland during January! Such good news. We can eat snow from roadside, suck icicles and also get to know other Finnish traditions.

Photos:















So, 21. Dec. was the darkest day of the year. It's getting better each day from now on. Strangely enough, the darkest day was the brightest one in a long time, since the sky was clear blue with bright sunshine all day.










I took a couple of lenses with me and went to lake to spend the last hour of sunset shooting. So nice.




big ass panoramic shot of Cattails (2mb)

















Posting all these photos makes me think a lot more about composition. Taking a picture and then editing it to this widescreen format makes me go through the thinking process twice. So useful and never before I had a good reason to think about it: photos have only been a means to gather reference, ideas, textures for my paintings and drawings. I'm sure this is yet another way to develop my sense for creating pictures, another part of my brain in urgent need of training.



See you later!

This is what Finland looks like!

Swamps!

Animation test - Blue cat

.


5 seconds/4mb/quicktime




Settling back to Finland is quite hectic, but I took a few hours to take it easy last night, and tried out some After effects basics, 3d layers, etc. Too bad I concentrated on everything else but the actual animating of the cat.



Cau!

Praha I will miss you

...


So I'm finally at home in Järvenpää, writing this from my dear computer. It felt so strange to be the FIRST one of the erasmus group to go, leaving everyone in the city I like so much.

At least I got a nice good bye committee to take me to the airport, thanks so much Teemu, Avi and Andrea. And Karina also... even though, yeah.. but it's the thought that counts.

So, I could'nt upload anything in a long time, due to some technical problems = NO COMPUTER and NO SLEEP during the last 2 weeks or so. These photos will be the last part of Praha, but I want to continue with the blog, so it will just stay the same and I will be posting work and unrelated things. Yay!

No figure drawings for the last 2 days of the course, I had my hands full with good bye beer. Instead:




The first 4 pictures are things found from the ground. And also the lousy December of Praha couldn't stop me from wearing my sandals.


Frozen asphalt can be so pretty.




Kiki the poor 4-toed baby-something.


Tipu!




The last three ones are taken with inverted 24mm lens:



Text!


Toilet paper!


Sink - chain - plug. This is the chain!





Praha can look so nice. This is from a good byeish party


Kristyna's boyfriend. Such a nice guy!



---


The final, last panorama from the Metronome:



So pretty.


Returning to Finland was.. dark.
Here's a view from Helsinki:



Equally pretty. Makes you want to visit, huh?! huh??


But! This cutie thing was waiting for me!


Finland.. next time more of that.




I found KEIKO pictures!!







Last night in Praha, Keiko buying me a beer. Thanks!






And finally, bonus images for everyone to enjoy!! Note: includes also the main tourist attraction in Praha! Keep your pants on!




Incredible.



The famously beautiful amazingly Charles Bridge!





Cau!