The Frog Prince

Waiting for a Kiss(collage, watercolor, pencil, feathers)

Here's my newest sketchbook page. I did the background few days ago when we were trying out collage technique with my students. Today I had a day off so there was a lot of time to finish this page. When I was looking up some ideas I saw this photo of a frog and wanted to practice coloring its different textures. It took me few hours to make this page but I think it was time well spent although the frog and the background don't quite fit together. Maybe a bird of some kind would have been a better match. Well, I'm still happy with this page.

I almost forgot to tell the name of the photographer. The original photo of the cute frog was taken by Sebastian Lassie.

Co-operative Art

Onni and the Sea (pencil)

I wasn't the only one who had some difficulties staying alert at the teachers' lecture. My colleaque Raimo looked like he needed something to cheer him up so I gave him my sketchbook and encouraged him to draw anything he wanted. I also told him that I would then continue working with whatever he drew. After a while he handed me this lovely sketch of a landscape.

I happened to find a photo of my friends' dog Onni from my phone. Onni looks a bit depressed in the photo, so I decided it could be missing someone at the beach. I think that the end result is something I wouldn't have done by myself. The background made me think differently. I think I should do more sketches together with someone.

Greetings from Tallinn!

Teachers' year started with a day that was full of speeches and lectures and because I had some difficulties to concentrate for eight hours straight I had to come up with something to do while listening. Luckily I knew how the day was going to be and was well prepared. I took my sketchbook with me and the day just flew by. Eight hours felt like three because I was drawing almost the whole time. Drawing usually helps me to concentrate on the lectures as well and I think it did so again. 

I had these two watercolored backgrounds that I had made earlier and now I finally came up with something to use them for. I went through the pictures of my cellphone and found some pictures of Tallinn. I took these pictures in December when I was visiting Tallinn Polytechnic School, Tallinna Polütehnikum. I really liked Tallinn and all of it's beautiful streets and buildings. I took a lot of photos I could make sketches of later.

I chose these two pictures because they show two different sides of Tallinn. The other one is from the old town and the other looks more modern. Both scenes have something in them that I found appealing.

For both of these works I used pencil and watercolors. Finally I added some light with white ink. I had to water the page so the ink didn't look too sharp from the edges. I added the watercolor and ink at home because it would have been too difficult at the lecture without a table. That's why I had time to draw other stuff as well. I will post those later.

Two Scenes from Tallinn (watercolor, pencil, white ink)