27 Jun 2011

Nudes of the week #2

nude of the week 2

...and again the week kicks off with the nude of the week and some fancy knee socks! The proportions and the positioning of the left leg keep on bugging me, but considering the amount of minutes I spent on drawing the sock instead of getting the proportions right I might have to forgive myself this time. Besides, who cares about proportions when there's a pink sock involved!

22 Jun 2011

Sneak peek!

Here's a little sneak peek of the latest work I've done for Drawing Room. I'm almost there with the entire deck finished, just on time for those rainy summer days when you're stuck in a cottage somewhere in the middle of the forest, the only entertainment being either staring out of the window, filling in crossword puzzles or playing cards. That said, I vouch for playing cards.
Playing cards preview

20 Jun 2011

Nudes of the week

nudes2

I figured that whilst being busy with finishing the techno-insect illustrations, I should let the cyberspace know I'm still alive by throwing in some nudes from yesterday's life drawing class. Happy unclothed Monday evening everyone!

PS. I'm not big on drawing faces, but yesterday I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave one of the models a nose. Impressive, no?

11 Jun 2011

Visually Appealing Things

So this is my theory: most people like Visually Appealing Things*. Some of these people are also capable of producing such things. These two qualities combined make up an individual with an urge to contribute to spreading nice stuff around his environment. Hence, he/she takes every opportunity to make sure that the population of Paint- and Power Point-made designs reduces, whilst the amount of Visually Appealing Things grows. Result: a prettier world, a more satisfied individual.

*definition likely to be subjective

A while back, my dad asked me to help him out with T-shirts he wanted to print for a nerd club he and his friends formed already before flat screens and laptops existed. They're all computer guys and their club is called TMK, which stands for Tikkakosken Mikrokerhoilijat (translated it would be Microclubbers of Tikkakoski, Tikkakoski being the place where we used to live in Finland). My "briefing" was to create a logo for their summer tour around the Netherlands, and my dad insisted on having some tulips in it to highlight the fact that the tour was taking place in the Netherlands, the land of tulips. (He also suggested having a leaf of cannabis incorporated, but after my mum gave us a strong "NO" from the kitchen we decided to settle for tulips). I was already drowning under my to-do lists and wasn't quite sure whether I would have time for a little side project like this, until my dad said the magical words: "If you don't have time, I can also just quickly put something together with Power Point." Now, referring back to my theory, my mission was to not let this happen!



This is the result printed on a T-shirt after one morning of sketching and photoshopping. The flowers give the shirts a bit of a feminine flare, but I'm sure the microclubbers are men enough to handle that. Cheers to my dad, the TMK Summer Tour shirt and not using Paint nor Power Point!

Note: I always, ALWAYS, use the word "nerd" with a positive connotation.

6 Jun 2011

Dear whoever,

If you ever happen to be in London, you should pop in The Vintage Emporium café. It's the loveliest little café/vintage store fusion on Earth. And if you're the kind of whoever who likes drawing, make sure you go there on a Wednesday evening, because then you get to gather around a table with other artsy people and draw the centerpiece, which happens to be a nude model. I used to go to these sessions whilst living in London last year, and next to my friends, scones and coconut filled naan bread it's one of the things I miss the most in that city.
But back to Amsterdam and life drawing business: I've made a comeback and started going to life drawing classes again. For some weird reason, I find it really relaxing, drawing something that is supposed to look realistic whilst my illustrations usually rely heavily on my own imagination.
life drawing by Emmi Ojala