I have had an ongoing project called Hybrid Mythologies. Inspired by stories and mythological creatures, tales from different traditions and parts of the world, I have been playing with emergent stories, characters and creatures that incorporate different elements. It is really a kind of spontaneous, intuitive journey and play of associations - oftentimes surprising to myself in what emerges. This year I am planning to publish an artbook entitled Hybrid Mythologies and if it all goes according to plan, it should be done some time in May. I will post process from this book.
I had a time, when monkeys were featured very often in my artworks. Even now, they emerge in the story-lines. Amazing creatures! This sketchbook piece is done using graphic markers, posca and pen.
We were having a thunder storm, so I figured I’d do a sketch waiting for my markers to get here. I ended up getting carried away and inking it right away. I put a few layers of fixatif on it, and I'm hoping that'll stop the paint/ink from bleeding too much when I apply the markers.
I have a good bit more to do with this but I thought I’d post the progress so far. First time using real software besides stuff like paint. Sketched out the bones of it in pen and scanned to myself.
This is quite a ubiquitous scene, fresh garlands mainly of fragrant jasmine, marigold, rose and mango leaves, hang outside temples so the pious can buy them as offerings just as they enter.
Artwork on "the other side" - playing with the bleed-through from the watercolor and intuitiviely allowing the shapes to arise. Created using watercolor, coffee, ink, graphic pens and unipen
In the Finnish mythology killing of a bear was followed by a great feast in honour of the bear (peijaiset), where a substantial part of the celebrations consisted of convincing the bear's spirit that it had died accidentally and hadn't been murdered. Afterwards, the bear's skull was hung high upon a pine tree so its spirit could re-enter the heavens. The bones of the bear were then buried under the pine. Reference for this work is my old drawing of karhunkallopetäjä/bearskullpine in the Riisitunturi. Also practice sketch of bear skull and at last photo i took of pine.
