Sweetheart in progress images

I suddenly remembered that I had taken some "in progress" photos of my Sweetheart painting. The photos are terrible, I just took quick snapshots with my phone camera. I don't pay much attention to the quality of my "in progress" photos because there are so many paintings I never finish...so the photos are often wasted anyway :(

but maybe I should take more in progress pics and better ones :) it's fun to look at them later. I might learn myself something of it. In this painting I came up with the umbrella and tattoos much later...tattoos were suggested by my boyfriend :)

 

New painting Sweetheart

I did this new painting called "Sweetheart". The model for this painting is model "Miss Mosh". I'm myself suprised this painting came out so sweet and colorful. Usually I use less colors and my paintings tend to be a bit gloomy. But it's good to do something more happy and colorful for a change :) I think I'm going to get crazy with the framing. I want some extravagant pink or white frames for this! :D 

I hope to find the perfect frames...I'll post a new image when I have the frames for this :)

Sweetheart (40 x 40cm, mixed media on wood, year created: 2012)

Helsinki Burlesque Festival 2012

Last week was a Burlesque week for me. The annual Burlesque festival www.helsinkiburlesque.com took place in Helsinki. Helsinki Burlesque started out in 2007 when Bettie Blackheart, Kiki Hawaiji and Frank Doggenstein decided to bring Burlesque into Helsinki Finland. In the past years I've somehow always missed the festival and this time I wanted to experience the festival to the full. Therefore I took part to some of the festival workshops. I participated in the workshop of Sydni Deveraux- The Golden Glamazon “Strutting in Heels and Rhythm and Walking". I was quite intimidated by the fact that the other workshops members were mostly finish Burlesque girls but eventually I just tried to do my best and forget my nervousness. Sydnis workshop was so great and I had so much fun that I had to go to further workshops.

Next workshop I attended was the one by the reigning Queen of Burlesque Miss Indigo Blue. Her workshop “The Art of The Tease” was a great experience. I've been to different dance classes in my life (Oriental Dance, Latin Show Dance, Dance Hall Reggae, Modern Dance etc. ) and no teacher has ever taught anything about face expression. Indigo taught us a lot about how to use different face expressions while performing and she also taught us all a few very nice tricks with a feather boa and how to strip gloves. 

This years the Burlesque show  with the theme " Over The Rainbow" was a two night event. I couldn't make it to both shows so I went to see the show on Saturday. It was amazing from beginning to end! I've mostly seen Burlesque in Hamburg at the lovely bar Queen Calavera, which is a small and cosy place, so it was different to see Burlesque on a big stage. The variety of shows was great. There were performers from different countries and there were humorous and classy performances and even performances by men. I couldn't possibly describe it all...but what I can do is recommend it to everybody! :D So go see it next year if you can! To all  people who are dancers and performers (and just anybody who likes Burlesque) I would highly recommend the workshops as well! :)

Below are a few photos of the event. Of course I was early enough at the festival and had first row seats :) but unfortunately my phone camera does not take very good photos :( 
But you can always buy great photos. I bought a nice lemon print of Miss Indigo Blue at the workshop and got it signed :) After the Saturday Burlesque show I also got a print of the legendary Satan's Angel and I got it signed too :) I even got a kiss on the cheek from her :) What a lovely grand dame of Burlesque!

Here is a link to a video about the event: http://www.iltasanomat.fi/viihde/helsinki-burlesque--miss-indigo-blue-sai-tasselit-pyorimaan-vimmatusti/art-1288450104212.html

photos by askojonathan.com

Here are some random photos of me taken by my partner Asko. 
See more of his work at: www.askojonathan.com

ibify logo design

I recently made some graphics for a new android application called "ibify". The application is a free geolocation based photo service. You can watch photos popup on the map in realtime from around the world and follow live-galleries from events as they unfold. It's easy to share your photos instantly. Each uploaded photo is public and contains the images exact location. 

Shared images will popup instantly on the www.ibify.com website and the Ibify mobile application.

Below is the logo I made for the application. The client wanted me to use an ibis bird as a reference. The logo can be used in blue, black and red. 

Here are some related websites:

Ibify android market

Ibify website

Ibition.blogspot.com 
blog.ibify.com

Ibify on Facebook

Ibify on Twitter

 

Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School 28.12.2011 Helsinki

Yesterday I was again at a Dr. Sketchy drawing session in Helsinki. The evening was called "Dr. Sketchy Does Mother Russia!". I had a lot of fun drawing... I'm afraid this time I was drinking more than drawing. Maybe next time I drink less and draw more ;)

Below is a picture of me and my tipsy drawings. 

My fabulous dress was from bettiepageclothing.com

Dr Sketchy Finland website:  drsketchysuomi.com

Model of the evening was Bettie Blackheart: www.bettieblackheart.com

Below are a few more photos of the event. Photography © Tuomas Lairila.  

 

Great grandfather

My great grandfather is sort of "online". He was a while in the finish parliament, so there is a short record of him. It's nice to know a little bit about your ancestors. I know very little about them. 

eduskunta.fi

News article about Kamuko logo

There was a news article about me and the Kamuko (Karkkila music school) logo. I just scanned it. Article appeared 30.11.2011 in "Ykkös-Lohja" newspaper.

new painting nymph

I did this new painting "nymph" (acrylic paint and colored pencil on wood). 
Painting size is about 75cm x 65cm.

Logo design for a music school

I recently took up a nice little logo project. The client was a music school from a nearby town called Karkkila (english translation is actually somewhat "candy town"). I started having cute images in my head the moment I heard about the project. A music logo for "candy town", how nice is that? I had candy shaped logos in my mind...but those were a bit too silly to actually do...

My approach was to have some musical symbols for the logo...notes and/or instruments. Although I had abandoned the candy shapes I chose pink for the colour. I dared to do so, because the logo of Karkkila is pink too....so that made sense.

I made the guitar logo and the note logos first. The client liked the guitar logo, but that could not be chosen because it represent one form of music too much. What about the piano players and other musicians? A pure music note was already more it, but still too boring.

So, then I was thinking of some universal symbols that represents music in all forms. I came up with the idea of a bird. I kind of fell in love with the bird logo myself (never fall in love with your own ideas, let the client decide!!!). Sadly the client saw too much of a birdwatcher in it, so we had to skip the bird....

The color changed from pink to blue. The logo was supposed to be printed on T-shirts, so it had to be neutral and not too girly. A one coloured logo seemed a bit plain to me so I used an additional lighter blue for the logo.

After some brainstorming with the client we abandoned the bird logo for good and eventually the final logo turned out to be this "love for music" logo. I'm happy with the end results, it's not pink but it's still cute, but not in a too girly way. The "love for music" logo suits a small town music school perfectly ;)

 Kamuko - Karkkilan musiikkikoulu