work in progress

Some collages are coming up nicely.
Downside is that my living room looks like... well, some might say like after a bomb but I think it's more like a disorganized treasure cove.

Tree globe

I'm going to do a couple of collages for a coming group exhibition and this was a warm up piece I did yesterday night when I dragged all the boxes full of roots and branches and random junk out of storage and spread everything on my living room floor.

"yhtä hyvin olisin voinut rakastua puuhun / itseasiassa me menimme naimisiin"

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

"The Keeper of Dreams"

Sleepless

Work in progress

A couple of nights ago I couldn't get any sleep, so instead of lying awake in my bed, I got up and drew this guy. And last night when I once again realized that my brain just didn't want to turn off, I got up and inked the picture. I guess I need a third sleepless night to do the colors. But I don't want to. I just want to sleep.

Wolverine for the Hero Tribute Project

Check out my Wolverine for the Hero Tribute Project!

Snakes

Work in progress

Maybe there should have been two different kind of snakes instead of a mirror image, but before I started to draw this today, I already had been working 12 hours without a pause, so a little shortcut with this one felt like a good idea.

work in progress

Drawing a book cover. And instead of a little baby hand, it would be so cool if there was a slimy octopus tentacle coming out of the weird cloth wrapping thingie the woman is holding ( I don't know what I drew, no cloth is wrapping like that, but it looks fine, so it's okay).

But I guess I have to stay on the plan. Maybe... maybe not...must...draw...tentacles...

Updates on portfolio

I did a big update on my portfolio, that has been badly neglected way too long. Added lots of new stuff and cleaned up irrelevant crap. Now it's clean, up to date and with a new layout. Check it out: markku.groteski.net

In The Land of The Dreaming

"with every dream you are closer"


Have a closer look

work in progress

What to say about this one? Just the inks are finished and it's only a detail of a much bigger picture. Let's see where it goes from here.

Hero Tribute Project

Another book illustration with DGPH coming up, I'm doing an illustration for their upcoming book about childhood heroes. Check out DGPH's Hero Tribute Project on facebook.

Skygods

Illustrations for an album cover, Demonic Death Judge - Skygods

work in progress

Almost done with the inks.

...and the colors are coming along nicely too.

work in progress

Still a lot of inking to do...

Sheens T-shirt

The illustration I did for Sheens turned also into a T-shirt. It's nice once in a decade to design a band shirt that is something else than black. And this also has to be the only white shirt I've ever had in my whole life. My precious.

Trust me, I know what I'm doing

I think it has been 17 years since I last drew a horse. Maybe it would have been appropriate to mention that before promising to draw such things. But I think this is coming along nicely, not at all as painful as I thought it would be.

work in progress

Well this was a quick one. Only 7 months after I first drew it, it finally told me what it is about. So now I can go on with the inks.

stars

I needed some stars for a background of a drawing. You would think that spraying some ink on the paper would be done in a couple of minutes, but oh no, it's not just random spots, they have to be the right kind or random spots....

Ah yes, just the constellation I was looking for

The Weight

No pictures todays. I had trouble falling asleep last night and came up with an idea of a picture I wanted to draw. But instead of sketching it with lines and shapes, I sketched the idea with words:

the weight, you know the weight?

the weight that pulls us under into the deep fathomless ocean of our decrepit thoughts of worry

thoughts of love

thoughts of hatred

and everything in between in the endless deserts of not giving a fuck

dry and arid as my mouth as I tried to speak, to explain - not to you - but to myself the consequences of sinking too deep in search of peace, silence and all-consuming and devouring self-denial and the harsh promises it makes, whispering in your ear in the middle of the night

when everyone else is asleep but not yet dreaming

when you can taste the emptiness

the pressure that makes breathing feel like swallowing needles

when you can almost touch the detachment and you can hear the slow crumbling and withering sound of the city around you that is just an enormous casket for all the bodies littered in tiny apartments behind locked doors that are supposed to keep them safe from the beasts from gnawing their flesh while they sleep, the sound of cracking bones in the teeth of the carrion eaters as their lullaby, as they fall deeper into the slumber, carried by the comfort of pretended safety

and every morning they wake up from the cold metallic grip of their useless locks and shackles, with pieces of their bodies and minds missing and out of fear they don't speak about it, they say nothing to each other, pretending not to see the bleeding gaps and wounds, hoping that everyone else will do the same; to let the silence fill the holes and paint over their losses

and they never cry out of them, they never mourn out loud what they have lost, their tongues rotten out by shame and they never reshape themselves back together

everything that is missing is never to be recovered, slowly digesting in the bellies of the beasts, who rise every night to feast on their diminishing bodies until one night there is nothing to feast upon, the slowly waking minds having no bodies in which to return and there will be only the dream and the empty world that has no weight or inhabitants

an empty shell in a shore of a dried-up sea

...the weight

I've sunken too long and far too deep in this lie, in our shared misinterpretation of us becoming one with it and not to be able to tell the difference anymore

to separate the consequences from the cause

the weight, the weight is real

our inseparable attachment to it is not

without the weight this darkness spits me out

without the weight I'll rise

will you be there when I resurface?

work in progress

I think I'm going to be all out of clouds after this project is finished. Well, at least for a couple of days.


Detail:

Head in the clouds

Last night's drawings, some clouds. And today I'm going to draw more clouds. So I'll put on some cloudy music and try to think white and puffy thoughts.

Sheens

Ok, Summer holidays are over, back to work. A big cup of tea, paper, pen, curtains closed, music & headphones, here we go.

And for the starters, here's something I did before the summer, an illustration for Sheens. Go check them out, sheensrock.com, their debut album is coming out this Autumn.

Come with me and I show you things others can't

"come with me"


I cannot promise you stability, I cannot promise you wealth and I cannot promise you everlasting happiness. All I have is my mind and the worlds within it. The worlds I want to share with you.

Work in progress

Illustration for an album cover. When someone asks me to draw a pin-up girl with snakes, how can I resist? Oh wait, or was the girl my idea...? Well, anyway, I can't resist drawing album covers, whatever they are.

And my only regret is that I let this sickness be my eyes

"with blinded eyes" 


Do I see clearly now then? Or is my vision just shrouded by some other thing?  By something that again takes years to unlearn. And what is this new way of seeing? Is this clarity, is this how it's supposed to feel? There are still things I don't want see, things that makes my eyes bleed, things that are too bright or dark to watch. But I guess it's ok. I see now, no more blindfolds. I see you, I see you all. Sometimes it makes me scared. More often it makes me smile.

Print madness

A pile of prints which is supposed to turn into a form of an exhibition tomorrow. Lots of sorting out to do tonight.

Work in progress

...and the lower part. Something still to do, ah yes, the middle part.

Work in progress

Almost finished inks for the upper part of the drawing.

Mauseri

Go check out http://www.mauseri.fi/taiteilijat
There's a couple of words about me, my work and a hairless monkey. Plus a new picture every week until the end of May.

Ride the current

Lately I've spent a lot of my time with a music project, Riders Of The Lost Current. Things have been developing fast since the group was formed just a year ago. Last week we were playing at taf, in Athens and next performance will be in Berlin. The musical void I've been suffering for years has been finally filled. Self-expression through music is something I need and I'm really happy that I've once again founded a way to do it. This time it's something totally different than ten years ago, it's a long way from singing in a death metal band to playing experimental drone and ambient music with circuit bended toy instruments. 

Here's our website, ridersofthelostcurrent.com and check also the facebook page.
Videos and music are coming soon.

Now it's time to take a little break from the music and pick up the pencils. So many things to draw, I'll try to post something as soon as the lines find their places on the paper.

Pystylasti

I love the smell of fresh print products in the morning. Illustrations for a book cover. Published by Ivan Rotta & Co.

The horned ones

Details / work in progress.

And now there's horns on everything I draw. What if I combine spirit animals and horns? I think I'm on to something here....

spirit animals

A couple of details of some things I'm working on. Strange spirit animals seem to be appearing on everything I draw, maybe I've been watching too many nature documentaries? Or then the spirits are restless, trying to tell me something.

work in progress