birds

Comic: Apokryfia – Venus and the Dream Machine (2011-17)

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avalkis_gorki_ja_bantuApokryfia is a series of graphic novels and comic strips. Graphic poems, if you will. The visions often start from sketch books, visual diaries.

Here’s a psychedelic companion musical piece for listening while reading – When It Is Raining from My Arms (2001):

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Etching: Kantele Swan (2008-09)

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An etching aquatint: Kantele Swan | Kantelejoutsen | Aurinkojoutsen (2008-09). 14×11 cm. Below is the pencil sketch.

I made this as a Finnish national-romantic theme with our national bird Whooper Swan (“laulujoutsen”) having our national instrument, kantele, as a wing. There is also a stamp with this motif I designed for a competition.

Drawing: Fountain of Africa (2011)

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africa2011-11-08Color pencils and ink, 10×15 cm. Inspired by Afrikan tähti (Star of Africa) board game, that is legendary in Finland. I have the original game by Kuvataide from 1950s in my collection which I inherited from my dear grand mother – she was an oil painter. We used to play the game a lot and I have fond memories of it. I also have the extremely rare Commodore 64 game adaptation (1986) made by Amersoft.

This art is from the Apokryfia sketch book #10 Kappa the Color where all the illustrations are in color, instead of mostly black and white of the other volumes.

By the way, Madagascar has traveled all the way to the exact opposite side of the “pool continent” here for some reason.

Fountain of Africa is from December 8th 2011 and it was a follow-up and based on the proximate black and white ink sketch from November 8th 2011. Mountains and some kind of a huge tree-sized plant make the surrounding setting in both and I picked the woman-motif and giraffe for the color work too,

The particular November-sketch on the other hand originates from my morphing graphic novel Apokryfia: Zeta (April 2011) — see the post Venus and the Dream Machine. There is a section happening in Africa with skeletons in the middle of the story where all this started from.

Character: Sprite of Spring (2002-11)

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Sprite of Spring or the Springbringer or Calÿaja (in fictional language) represents life and rebirth in the world of Springbringer. It fell from space as a seed and landed on a pond of swans one ancient evening “3000 suns ago” and began to sprout.

I saw the Sprite in my dream on December 2002 (the comic book image where the sprite and the swan meet).

Here are various manifestations of this fragile flower-like being of light:

  • an etching aquatint: A Garden of Stars (2009), 11×25 cm
  • a digital work made from a water color painting (2009), used as a poster for the Springbringer film
  • a color pencil drawing (2011), 10×15 cm
  • a clay statue (2007), 21x17x15 cm
  • comic book pages where the Sprite meets Qwaidun the swan (2002-09)

Graphic Art: Swan Mirror (2008)

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The final A4 illustration and original 2008 pencil sketch, which was finally to be an etching aquatint graphic work (2009). It is 21×31 cm and there are about 10 prints with slightly different tones.

This scene depicts a story set in the Springbringer fantasy world.

The layout construction was inspired by the legendary Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress (1982) role-playing game box’s panoramic artwork (the game was released by Sierra On-Line Inc. / SierraVenture).

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Another graphic print of Swan Mirror (Proof Series ][) on a more reddish tone than the one above which is more yellow.

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Above is a deleted scene from the post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi film Soulweaver: Requiem for Earth (2017).