One night, we were once again sitting on the sofa in our living room with my mom, watching TV and Scent of a Woman was about to start. My mom recommended the movie and I stayed up to watch it. It was one of the best movies I've seen. There were some outstanding scenes that were really tangible and honest, for example the Ferrari scene and the pseudo-courtroom scene.
By the end, I was so overwhelmed by the screenplay and the acting that I wanted to draw a portrait of Al Pacino and the same night I started it. I really wanted to capture the feeling on his face through the pencil. There is something marvellously brilliant in the way some actors/actresses are able to portray stories and characters, and by that so many things. It's the same kind of glimpse that you get out of a good song, photograph or maybe silence. Stroke of genius or brainwave, how ever you like to call it and where ever you possibly happen to find you.
The tools I used were pencils, a black coloured pencil, the reference photograph and erasers. This picture on the right is the cover for the movie.
Drawings that I have recently completed. The first three are special requests and the rest just for my own amusement. I made quick 20 to 30 minute practises on small pieces (A5) of paper. I have had a great time working on the drawings and I can't wait to get more work done with the projects I've now waiting for me.
rap artist Tommy Too Shugs
2013
pencils
2013
pencils
2013
pencils
I made another drawing of this fellow. This is smaller than the previous piece little larger than A5.
I have had this summer breeze song stuck in
my head for a week now and I still do. It's not that bad..it's a nice
song, but the fact that only two or three lines of the entire song won't
leave my mind, is getting pretty exhausting. It's worse than in a long
time, I have a hard time trying to concentrate on anything else than
jasmine or summer breeze. I have never understood why can't one have a
whole song stuck in their head! I hope the track gets changed soon.
Apart
from summer breeze, autumn is soon here and schools are open. Again the
time of the year when it's not OK to not know which day of the week it
is or to decide to stay up all night. At least mainly...
Lately I've been in a mood that could be called as notquitehere. It's nothing new really, but getting back to normal daily life makes me pay more attention to it again. Everything seems so abstract, but still amazingly concrete. Yea, I know bla bla bla. I love it to sit somewhere and observe stuff around us. Sounds, moods, conflicts, tastes, noses, mouths, knees, talking, wind, trees, shapes, shadows, corners...it's absolutely fascinating and still I don't quite believe it. Tricks for the senses and I love it.
About two months ago, in June, I visited my friend in Germany. I stayed at her house for two weeks and overall it was a blast! I felt like part of the family and at the school the class that I was staying with was very welcoming. As I was there I knew I would miss it - everything I got to know - later and that's how you know something is right.
The last weekend of my visit was one of the best weekends of my life. I shall remember it. We, three friends and I, went to the Holi Festival in Frankfurt. It was amazing, everything I had expected and more. Every hour there was a countdown and when we hit zero, there was colour everywhere. It was some kind of powder and it got easily stuck on people's clothes, faces, hair or on any surface nearby. The ground was overlayed with sand and it took me three hours to realize that it was sand, because it was all green! Almost everyone were dressed up in white clothing so that the colours could create nice ,and unique for sure, desings on them.
There was music, food and drinks too. The atmosphere was very enthusiastic, relaxed, emancipated and just great. Several DJs were playing music, which was amazing to dance to and we danced straight up seven hours. It didn't have any lyrics just beats and rhythm, mostly house. I remember one moment when I took a moment to look around me as I was dancing and I could see thousands of people covered in colour, hanging out, having a great time together. It really felt like a let's all fall in love and never have wars again moment. If I could have captured that feeling in a bottle, I would have done it. Then afterwards I could have been able to open it and feel like I was back there, surrounded by the feeling. We stayed untill the DJ said goodnight.
We traveled to the festival by train and metro. The way there was really not that smooth, in the beginning it was fun and we were positive, but as we got a little bit confused by where we should be it wasn't that fun, but still we were positive! I had the privilege to be a stupid tourist who doesn't know German, so I just followed my friends. Although I could have read the English signs.. Most of the time I had no idea where we were. The way back was nice, we didn't have to change trains so we got to sit in a train for about two hours. As we were walking to the train station of Frankfurt, there were "our people" everywhere and people who weren't part of the festival crew looked at us in different expressions and the same thing took place in the metro and train. The train was full of us too and the colour powder was all over the place. If we made any movement with our heads there was a powder cloud on top of us. It was cool. When we got out of the train, I threw my hair back and forward and so much colour came out of my hair! There were people walking behind us and they were like wow and pointing at the cloud on top of me. Having a shower felt really nice as we got back home and it took a week for the colour to entirely vanish from my skin.
Having friends in foreign countries is great, because - Finland isn't the only country to have amazing people to have the honour to meet - when you have a place to stay at you can save money - the experience you get out of the trip can be a lot different from staying in a hotel - and because I love it. On the contrary it is difficult, because they are so far away. We do have the internet and telephones and all that and we can travel more than mankind should even be able to desire, but I want to actually be with the person I'm talking with, see their face and hear their voice. It is frustrating to say goodbye to people, when you don't know if you'll ever see them again. Anyhow, if I would have to choose between not being able to meet any people and having to say goodbyes, I' choose saying goodbye. World is worth seeing.
My sister is now spending her exchange year in Ireland. She left Finland last Saturday and she was so stoked to go and I don't wonder why. :) I'm sure she'll have a great time there and what I have heard from her, which is not much, agrees with me. She said she would start a blog about the year, but knowing her I'll be very surprised if she actually does it. The day after she left I painted in our room. She doesn't know about it yet and I think the white walls in our room are shouting for even more colour...by the time she gets back she won't be able to recognize the room. No, I'll control my need to make a mess.
By the end, I was so overwhelmed by the screenplay and the acting that I wanted to draw a portrait of Al Pacino and the same night I started it. I really wanted to capture the feeling on his face through the pencil. There is something marvellously brilliant in the way some actors/actresses are able to portray stories and characters, and by that so many things. It's the same kind of glimpse that you get out of a good song, photograph or maybe silence. Stroke of genius or brainwave, how ever you like to call it and where ever you possibly happen to find you. 
