A memory

I have recently developed a habit of randomly photographing my outgoing mail art. Some cards start to grow on you and suddenly it gets difficult to part with them, so before I let them go I often throw them on my windowsill and snap a couple of mundane little pictures. I will need to remember how they felt, what kind of creatures they were and how I experienced them. Somehow scanned images can't quite contain and translate all this information. I like the way the things I draw gradually change their shape, tone and texture: I'm interested in the blackness of the Indian ink compared to the black of the fineliner pen - things like the reflections or the grain of the paper. I feel the need to capture some of this organic essence. Also, pictures of past pieces are always nice to browse. I find it interesting to document the process of sending or receiving something but I'm way too absent-minded to do that regurlarly.

Thoughts on paper

As a person who likes to sketch, smudge and cover everything with paint I'm a bit selective with the papers and the structure of the books I bind. I need them to be compact, open well, resist wear and tear, tolerate odd water media and not fall apart.

I mostly use fine, archival quality Munken papers which are manufactured in Europe by Arctic Paper. My favourite is the off-white and cream shade Munken Pure which is FSC & PEFC certified, uncoated and fully biodegradable. In some of the chunkier sketchbooks I like to use sturdy drawing papers like Canson Mi-Teintes, which seems to be suitable not just for pastels but for all sorts of media including inks, acrylics, pens, pencils and even tea or watercolour. I have tried them all and am entirely satisfied with the results! I have made the same experiment with 120 g/m² Munken Pure, with similar success. Never until now I have understood how much I love good paper.

When I ruin a book experiment I usually repurpose it as a personal journal - the sketchbook pictured above was screwed up last year and then got quietly decorated with ink portraits of V. Butusov (...). I find it easier to draw in awful looking books. As long as the paper is fine, everything is fine.

White

The new issue of ArtTrader magazine has a nice little article on white pens that also features my ATC of universal self-pity (the one pictured).

White gel pens truly are annoying creatures, it's hard to find a proper one that works well on different sorts of surfaces and doesn't get clogged all the time -

I'm a Gelly Roll man, or more like used to be, because about a couple of months ago I ran out of white Gelly Roll and haven't bought a new one because I'm so lazy. So I accidentally found Daler-Rowney's permanent white acrylic ink to be the easiest and also the most versatile medium for the sort of things I make. I have never really paid too much attention to the tools and things I use but gel pens have started to feel like so much plastic rubbish for so little fun, to be honest. I rarely need to write white text in guerrilla situations anyway so the bottled ink is just fine. Hooray for that and a glass of gin.

Art in Hand II

Some of my photography & handdrawn ATCs will be exhibited at Art In Hand II in New Jersey, 17th of April - 22nd of May 2010.

If you're interested in my random art life read my interview from the spring issue of ArtTrader Mag - it's mostly just me talking lots of rubbish but the magazine is very nice!

Moss

This is just an old thing that I still like very much. I always like sketches and unfinished works better! Watercolour crayons on cereal box cardboard, 2007.

Illustration Friday: Flying

I made this for the Illustration Friday, then decided it's too stupid and badly executed - it looks good in thumbnail, though..! It's acrylics and ink on a watercolour sketch. I'm trying to do one (possibly crappy) illustration every week and I really want to concentrate on themes & techniques that make me uneasy and helpless; I could've made a very surrealistic and delicious dream vision for this thing and it probably would've looked much better. However, I love planes and especially the liftoffs, and so I made a simple picture out of the first idea I had in my head.

Puolukka

This is a recent sketchbook spread. I sketch maybe once a month, I'm that lazy and pathetic! I can only concentrate on it while I'm somewhere locked up and can't leave or do anything else - that'd usually be my archaeology classes.. hence the notes.