Finished watercolour sketchbook

It's always a grand moment when you finish a sketchbook, but especially a watercolour book. I tend to put a little more effort into the watercolours because the paper allows it.

These sketches were made between 2011 and 2014 into a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook. It doesn't have the best paper but the book is extremely well designed and portable. It has about 70 pages – not all are here, but quite a few. Some sketches were adapted from photos or tv, some from life.

Making these small paintings was a good way to take my mind off the series of flus I've had recently. While painting with a runny nose might be challenging – you need to make sure your nose is never directly above the painting – it is a good excercise and does not require two things that are missing when you're ill: a. brain activity , b. strength.

10 years, a look back

It has been 10 years since I did my first commissioned magazine illustration. I thought it would be fitting to compare progress… to my work as a ten-year-old. I had some time on vacation, so I revisited some early subjects.

I was quite a fanboy when I was little. Definitely not a fan of Wolverine, though.

That's the way it was actually spelled in the eighties. For some reason I don't remember getting into trouble for swearing.  
HB pencil vs. Procreate on the iPad

But the Hoff had a huge impact back then. I used to draw complete comic books with Knight Rider stories in them. Then I sold them to my parents for a premium, so that I could buy more actual comic books. Afterwards, I took the comics back because my parents didn't read them enough and I liked them.

That's his nose, all right? Nose.  
Cheap markers vs. Watercolour with white and yellow gouache

That's actually Garthe Knight in the 2014 image. Michael Long's (Michael Knight's pre-fake death persona) plastic surgery operation was modeled after the evil Garthe, so that he and Michael Knight ended up identical… except for the inevitable moustache and goatee. Garthe drove K.A.R.R. – K.I.T.T.'s evil predecessor who was not programmed to protect human life. Duh, the scientists should have read their Asimov.

So, what's changed?

At least some of the delightful punk attitude has gone and turned into gentle fun-poking. I still describe hair the same way. I'm more squeamish about swearing in print and less while working.

Compared to the speed I worked with in 1987, I'm like a sleep-deprived snail who forgot the handbrake on. It took an hour and a half to draw / paint a single picture of Knight Rider while back then, I would have had a complete story done. Cost-effectiveness has taken a steep down-turn.

I now have way better equipment, which is a big relief.

I still love it, but a whole lot more than as a ten-year-old.

Kuluttaja – Cover 1/2013

On this cover I experimented a bit with combining watercolour and digital painting. I like the look quite a bit but it was a huge time consumer. Pure digital is much, much quicker as is pure watercolour.

The subject was VOD (Video On Demand) services like HBO and Netflix. "VOD storms the living room" was the headline.