I write in margins

A while ago I made a posting with similar title and presented Science Fiction and Fantasy illustrations which had made me an impact. This time I present a selection of the work from fantasy illustrators describing the worlds which do not exist either - but now focusing on to sceneries and planets instead of futuristic or fantasy architecture.  Andeavenor's Planet Rise is a typical scenery from an non existing planet. Rough, hostile but also with a romantic views to the skies. I had to select one of my absolute favorite's Mézières' illustration of the imaginary New York. Sometimes you just do not need 3D in order to create an illustration letting your imagination to fly. I selected this unknown artists' illustration becase this is a try to illustrate a world working with a different kind of aesthetics. Unknown: Scenery from outer space. What if buildings were really reaching to the skies. Replacing the world skyscraper with spacescraper! I love ...

Finnish gaming industry has got lots of publicity recently after successes by Rovio and Supercell. But this is not about the gaming - this is about other great Finnish applications which have somehow affected my life and working in digital world. My personal history of digital drawing I have drawn comics and illustrations commercially since I was fifteen. Already early in the home computer era I nomaded in to the digital drawing and I am still on that journey. During the past 20-30 years I have used the most graphical tools there are and many times desperately seeked free solutions to do the basic graphics stuff when the expensive proprieraty solutions were out of reach. Sumopaint is in the cloud Some years ago I was on the road and needed to have an graphics application for my digital illustrations. I like to keep my presentations visual and I hate to snatch and use images which are made by someone else than by me. So what to do? I did not want to use the crappy Paint in the...

Rudolf Koivu (1890 - 1946) is one of the illustrators which has affected me most. Even if Finland's most known illustrator died already in 1946 there is no one which has escaped Koivu's sensuous lines, magical creatures from childrens' stories and Christmas cards. I claim, Koivu is for Finns the same than Carl Larsson for Swedes or Mucha for Czechs. Or perhaps even more than that. Last summer I visited an exhibition full of Koivus drawings to different Childrens' stories. It blew my mind out. Pictures to the stories by Grimm, Topelius, Andersen were all presented. Thinking of the fact that the world was not full of images Koivu's characters, trolls, sceneries and mystical creatures were amazingly original ones. Unlike today's illustrator who has grown in a world full of images, Koivu had to bring these creatures from his mind. That is a thing which often has been neglegted. My first memories of Koivu, though I did not know that by then, were the sensuous cov...