Rock chick & Princess

Hello little batty bats! As you might remember, I recently graduated and now that I have also successfully thrown a graduation party for myself I feel I finally have the strength to talk a little about my thesis too. :D

I wanted to do something related to comics as my thesis, since reading and making comics are two of my oldest and dearest hobbies. Last summer a girl from my school that I had previously met at fashion photography class contacted me on Facebook and asked if I was interested in illustrating her comic scripts. I was so lucky, since I'm not much of a writer and I had been so worried about my upcoming thesis project because of that! I wanted to do comics but I was lacking a good story to back up my art skills. Me and this girl, Henna, met up and soon I was already sketching up characters and first strips for the comic!

 Henna already had a title for the comic, which would be Rokkityttö & Rinsessa (=Rock chick & Princess) and as you might guess the comic is about two very different friends, pretty, sexy, wild and stubborn Alma (the princess) and serious and sarcastic over-achiever Tiia (the rock chick). For my thesis I illustrated 30 strips of Alma's and Tiia's adventures, wrapped them up in an album and made a little website for the comic (as cherry on top).

Simultaneously with the comic I started doing research on comic illustration, since I noticed it's quite different to just illustrate comics from a script than to make comics all by yourself, with your own story. Eventually I found a name for my thesis and decided that the title would be: Serial illustration - Illustrating comics from exterior script. It is supposed to be a small guide for those interested in comic illustration specifically.

The thesis as a whole went surprisingly well. I got a 4 (5 being the best grade) from it and also a little diploma from the comic book, for creating a commercially functional, style-wise solid quality comic, that also shows makers' creative handiwork.

If you want to know more about the comic Rokkityttö & Rinsessa, you can visit our website and even order your own album from there (we mail only to Finland at the moment, but if you would like to order to other countries I'll see what I can do for you ♥). The essay part of my thesis can be found here if somebody is interested in reading it. :)

All in all my life is very good right now. I have some work projects coming up (from my own field of expertese that is!) and I'm also illustrating some cross-word puzzles as a part time job. :) And continuing to draw Rokkityttö & Rinsessa of course! :D Also, some Rokkityttö & Rinsessa related art is currently on display in here, Kesä kaikilla - Oulun sarjakuvaseuran kesänäyttely, among other great comic related illustrations. ^w^

What do you think of the comic, dear readers? :) Sorry about them being only in Finnish at the moment, maybe I'll translate some of the strips for you sometime? :D Also, would you like to know more about comic-related subjects? Like some art every now and then, recommendations and so on? :) Do tell! ♥