Multiplayer

Signed some limited edition prints today and posted them to Gallery 1988. I'm participating on their coming Multiplayer exhibition.

And don't ask me, I don't know exactly what happened that my drawings ended up in Gallery 1988. Most of the time I'm still baffled about it.

The lonely people are getting lonelier

"Christmas tree"

The local newspaper asked a couple of local artists to do their version of a Christmas tree, so here is mine.

Where has all the time gone?

I'm not complaining about the projects I'm working on right now, lots of great stuff and great people I can work with, but the downside is that I have less time to draw. And when I draw something, it seems I'm always drawing something for other people, not for myself. So there are some things that are piling up inside my head, and they are getting a bit annoyed, some of them are already lighting up torches and stuff, and I'm guessing it's just a matter of time when I have a full riot in my head. I Need to get them out of my head soon, need to draw them out. But.... there isn't enough time. And I'm just wondering how my life turned out this way.



Here's a couple of details of illustrations for print products, I'll post the whole pictures when they come out of the printing machines.















Bunny Patrol, illustration (detail) for a magazine cover














Dark River, illustration (detail) for a book cover

Autumn wings

today's work

A sketch of something I first thought to be an epic fail, but it wasn't.

work in progress

A couple of details from a couple of things I'm drawing. Trying to get something done though I've been dead tired all this week.

A Grim Lullaby

"solitude sings a grim lullaby"

Well this was a slow process, first lines were drawn in February. Too often I abandon unfinished drawings for months, starting always something new before the old ones are finished.

work in progress

Aberrant feelings from the summer

"Your persistence makes me question everything"

Although I started to draw this at summer, it turned out to be quite autumnal now when I had the time to finish it.

Autumn Spirit

I was walking in the forest, when suddenly the sky darkened and the smell of mushrooms and burning leaves filled the air. One of the autumn spirits stood before me as tall as the surrounding trees.
"You have to choose", it said with a voice that sounded like dead leaves rustling in the wind.
"Choose what?" I managed to ask after my feet had refused to move and running away screaming was no longer an option.
"You have to choose what I'm going to take away from you. It has to be something you care about, something that matters, something you want to keep."
I felt sick. My head felt dizzy and I thought I couldn't breathe.
"Why?" I whispered. "Why I have -"
"You know why", the spirit interrupted me. "It's autumn. Something must die, something must be lost, something must be taken away. You know that this happens. It has always happened, and so it will happen again. This is what I do. So choose and give me what I came for."
And so I did. With my head hurting and struggling not to throw up, I chose and gave the spirit something I wanted to keep. Because somehow I just knew there was nothing else I could do.
"Can I have it back later?" I asked, though I already knew the answer, but the question still slipped out of my mouth.
"No", the spirit said. "You cannot have it back. And even if I gave it back to you later, it wouldn't be the same anymore, it would be changed then, turned into something else. It would be different. So no, you can never get it back. It's lost to you from this moment on."
The spirit started to fade away, but before it disappeared into the woods it leaned towards me and pressed something very cold in my hand.
"Now I give you something in return. I give you mourning, emptiness and longing. And as long as you have these inside you, I'm not going to take anything from you. But as soon as you let go of my gifts, I will meet you again in the autumn and we will trade like we have done before."
The spirit stepped backwards and just vanished, leaving only a slightly rotten smell and coldness hovering in the air. I looked at my hand, but there was nothing, it was just freezing cold. The smell of autumn hang heavy around me. The warm days were over. The winter was coming.

morphing

Been sick all week and my head and hands and eyes hurt and too much work and too much things and just started to draw something without thinking, thinking hurts too...

work in progress

Today I have been mostly inking... and now my aching wrist says it's time to stop.

So many pictures in my head and so little time

I'm struggling to find some time to draw, but it's not looking good. Maybe I have more time for my personal drawings in the winter... But here's something I managed to draw while hiding from other time consuming things.

street painting

Still haven't been drawing anything myself, but instead trying to get other people to draw something. Last Monday we had a community art happening where we gave the people a chance to color our gray little town a bit more colorful.

Check out Kouvostoliitto-blog, here is some pictures and we also had a live video stream the whole day.

video installation

It seems (again) that I have very little time to draw anything. It's making me more and more irritated and restless. There is some hard to find peace in those midnight moments when the whole worlds seems to be sleeping and I'm alone drawing and listening music. I can't find that peace and the feeling of clarity anywhere else. Now I have to sleep at night and it's next to impossible for me to draw at daytime, it just feels unnatural.

So instead of a drawing here is a video installation I did with the Kouvostoliitto-group. The installation is a part of Min Kouvola exhibition at Kouvola Art Museum.

A little videoclip of the finished installation:





And here is some pictures of the building process.

The Ark Project

Some links about The Ark Project.

Here is my illustration: http://idnworld.com/creators/?id=MarkkuMetso

And here is the book: http://idnworld.com/books/?id=ark

I'm sorry I never healed the way you wanted me to heal

"mended but not healed"

just for fun?

I found a penciled sketch of this little bugger when I was fighting against the Mighty Pile Of Sketches who has made a permanent home at the corner of my desk and refuses to leave no matter how many clumps of paper full of hasty drawings and stupid ideas I rip out of its rotting flesh and throw in the trash bin. I have no recollection why I had drawn this, and then it occurred to me that this might be one of those rare pieces done in those silly little moments full of those naive thoughts that I might be able to draw something just for fun. Fun? I know that drawing just for the fun of it is totally lost for me, I can't get it back no matter what. Or maybe if I stopped drawing for at least a decade, lose all my artistic endeavors and never did another commissioned job for anyone. Maybe after that, I could draw something just for the fun. Maybe.

Thinking all this, I loosely threw some inks over the sketch and remembered how drawing was fun when I was ten and I was drawing superheroes and stuff. Now days I love drawing, I enjoy it, I can't come up with many other things I'd rather do professionally, it's basically the one thing I'm any good at. I have nothing else. But somehow it isn't fun anymore. Maybe it's meant to be this way, you have to lose the fun if you're going to do something seriously. Fun is being replaced with hate, frustration, unrelenting self-criticism and aim for perfection. It's hard. Harder than it was when I was ten. And even then I was a little bit frustrated that I couldn't draw the way I saw the images in my head. And I still can't.

Anyway, I like the way the tree branch came out, there's a nice sketchy touch in it, a very rare thing in my usually rigid inking. Maybe I try the same for some serious drawings. But thank you, my little horned friend, you made me remember something I hadn't thought for some time.

we are growing apart

"we are growing apart"

exhibition

"Broken"
March 1 - March 21 2010, Kouvola Art Museum, Kouta Gallery.

Go check it out if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

inks and pencils

Some work in progress.

Stam1na - Viimeinen Atlantis

I did graphic design and illustrations for Viimeinen Atlantis, a new album from Stam1na. The album went straight to number one on Finnish charts (selling by the way more copies than HIM, who also released their new album at the same week.)
Besides the normal jewel case, there's also two other versions of the album to which I also did the graphics, a Special Edition ( a 32-page book) and a gatefold LP. Both versions have sequential art, which I illustrated. I'll post pictures of them later, here is the jewel case:

















































A great project, great people to work with and what is most important, great music.

work in progress

Here's something I've been drawing. First one is going to be an illustration for my exhibition poster. Still trying to figure out the name for the exhibition. Names are hard, especially names that should represent a whole bunch on pictures, not just one. I do have a lot of bad names though, they are really easy to come by. But the good ones, they are still hiding.
Names and words. Words to describe pictures... one reason why I even draw pictures is that I don't have words for certain things; they must be shown, not explained. But I do have to say, that I kind of hate that when a piece of art is given such a fascinating name as "untitled 1" or even more captivating "untitled 2".







































This is usually the point where I lose my interest. Or here the most fun part ends. I got the pencils almost done and when I should start inking and coloring the pictures, I just start drawing something else. Finishing something doesn't intrigue me as much as the part of the process where I don't know what the outcome will be. Somehow you're always losing something, when things find their final shape. They become just one thing instead of being an endless amount of possibilities. The dreaming ends and all there is left is a reality which is bound into a one crippled form.

back in business

I'm sorry about the slow posting recently, but I've been very busy doing client projects for the past months. Working and getting paid is always a good thing, but the downside is that at the same time there seldom is time or strength left to do any art. It has been too long since I last had time to draw anything and it really started to bother me. But finally those client projects are now finished, and after the release dates, I'll show you what I've been doing.

Now there is time for art again, and there should be, because I'm having my first solo exhibition at Kouvola Art Museum in March. There's going to be mostly older works from past years, but I'm trying do to something new also. Let's see how much I can draw in a month...

Yesterday night, I sat down, took a clean sheet of paper and started drawing. And damn it felt good after a long time. Once again I remembered, that this is where I find my little pieces of happiness: to be able to draw all night, listening good music, drinking tea, and not be distracted by anything or anyone. Doing something I somehow feel I'm good at, doing something that matters to me, no matter how small it might be in the eyes of the rest of the world.

So you can expect to see some new pictures soon. I hope you all still stick with me despite the occasional down time.