Release the bats!

Hello again dear readers.

As you know this blog has been pretty much on hold the whole summer. Truth to be told I haven't felt like blogging for quite a while. I haven't felt motivated and so I have been avoiding it... but I have thought about the matter.

Obviously I have had some good reasons for not blogging. I have concentrated pretty much on my new work as a graphic designer / illustrator. Another very god reason is our new furry family member, a little black cat called Béla. I'm going to make a separate post about him later, so you just have to wait but yeah, he demands quite a lot of my time, and I really enjoy spending it with him, but of course that time must be taken out of something else. :)

The most pressing reason, however, is fear, at least I think so. Last spring I realized that there are indeed people out there who do not think too highly of me and since that harsh realization my self-esteem hasn't been what it used to be. I fear to speak out, I keep thinking what to say so carefully, for so long, and finally I end up saying nothing. In fear of criticism I have put up virtually no new photos of myself during summer on my Facebook. I have spent my days in jeans, ballerinas and cardigans nearly every day, instead of my beautiful gothic clothing, to blend in with the crowd. Well, I have had some good days, but mostly I have just felt very vary of my surroundings. Living life like this, however, has made me feel like I'm losing myself and turning into something dull and grey. I want to start living again, and I will. The old me is still here, hidden away in my batcave and now I'm releasing the bats!

This also means, that I will make this blog more personal and therefore interesting, well, that's what I think at least! I love to read blogs about daily lives of interesting people, but sadly this blog hasn't been like that for a long time. This is something I really want to improve in the future. :) So, as promised next post will be about our new kitten Béla, and after that I'm going to make a post about our new apartment. :) But I will return to that tomorrow, now I'm going to watch one more episode of Downton Abbey and go get some beauty sleep. :3

© Pauli Tavasti

Hush little baby don't say a word.
And never mind that noise you heard.
It's just the beast under your bed.
In your closet in your head!

Like a bat out of hell!

Long time no see, darklings!

I am sincerely sorry that I just vanished from the face of the internet, but I had some rather unexpected changes in my life recently. The biggest one of those was a sudden change of apartment! We had been living in our (now ex) apartment for a year and this whole time our sewers kept on giving us shit (yes, literally). We have had to call plumbers to out apartment probably over twenty times during the past year, often in the middle of the night, too. Finally our landlords suggested that we should move out to another apartment, so they can rip out the floors and really find out where the problem lies. Long story short we ended up changing the scenery a bit more than we intended at first, we now have a slightly bigger apartment, which is also nearer to the town center and almost next to a really nice graveyard. :) Moving was a real pain in the butt though, since we didn't exactly plan it, but we managed, thanks to our friends & family who helped out a lot.

We also ordered a new couch, which will arrive tomorrow, whee! It was sort of an anniversary gift from us, to us, since last Saturday me and Wolf had our anniversary (we have been together six years now ♥).

Besides the moving, I have had some pretty draining deadlines and stuff, but I'm just happy I have some work! It is not easy to find work as a graphic designer, with the economy like this and all, but I hope it'll get better in time. :)

Ahem... and the real reason I'm posting now is that I finally had time to edit some photos of my paintings in the Guilty Pleasures art exhibition. Some of the works I have shown you earlier in this entry, but here's all the new ones!

Strapping Young Man, 2013

Glossy, 2013

The Sacred Heart

Divine Punishment, 2013

Heavy Rubber, 2013

Hush, 2013

My Heart Will Go On, 2013

Spellbound, 2013

The Plea (Self Portrait), 2013

These Boots Aren't Made For Walking, 2013

Do tell me what you think of them, which is your favorite, would you have something like that hanging on your wall or do you do art yourselves? :)

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! ♥

At your service!

Teehee, today was a bit special day for me, because... ta dah! I graduated! So I'm officially a graphic designer now, at your service! ♥ I asked Wolf to take a picture of me and my friend J, who also graduated.

I just came to make this quick announcement, before heading to celebrate our graduation at friend's parents' summer cottage. A little bit of bubbly, barbeque, lovely weather and great friends, could life be any more awesome right now? ♥ I need to behave, though, since tomorrow I'm going to a local erotic shop's ladies night to show and tell a little bit about burlesque with lovely Madam Hardware! If you lovely ladies out there are interested by the way, here's the Facebook event for the evening. ;)

Tic tac toe tags

Hello lovelies! Phew, I am happy to announce that it indeed seems like I will be graduating by the end of the week, if everything is in order. :) So that also means that finally I have time to post these photos from my burlesque performance at American Car Show 2013 in Oulu a few weeks back. I pretty much think that I nailed it this time on the stage, my best performance so far. :3 I am super happy about the performance and the American Car Show in general, too. I had an amazing time there and the vehicles were all to die for, next year I'll definitely go again! The pictures are once again taken by the talented Pauli Tavasti, thank you! ♥

So what do you think of the pictures? Would you like to see more stuff like this? :P I have tons of things to post about right now, hope I will get Blogger to bend to my will and fix the appearance as well soonish. But at least I need to blog about some big events that have recently happened to me! For now, good night pumpkins! ♥

Stupid Blogger

Hello. Sorry about the terrible layout of this blog right now. I'm trying to change a few things, but Blogger has some stupid bug (again) and it won't cooperate with me. Seriously considering to stop using the whole service right now, especially since Tumblr is flirting with me oh so temptingly...

The long black Cadillac

Hi ya fellows! Just dropped by to do some last minute advertising! Madam Hardware and the Kinky Carnival will be performing in 34th American Car Show in Oulu next Saturday, wanna come see us? ♥ Go check out the Facebook event to learn more!