Old fireboat, Helsinki harbour, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
I drew this in the harbour during a brief sunny spell. Rain started falling before I could start adding watercolour to this, so I had to add some digital colour at home.
architecture
Two Cranes. Ruskeasuo, Helsinki
Two Cranes. Ruskeasuo, Helsinki, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
A quick sketch from our balcony before going to work.
I have no idea what they are building, but it’s big.
Pyramid House, Pikku Huopalahti
Pyramid House, Pikku Huopalahti, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
The view from my window. The pyramid belongs to a recent, architecturally a bit more daring neighborhood in Helsinki.
Senate square, Helsinki
Sketchbook Helsinki, August 26, 2010_2, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Senate square, Helsinki
I kept being interrupted by heavy downpours that almost washed away this drawing. I opened my umbrella and switched to water-proof markers.
Most of the buildings on the square were designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, all in the neoclassical style.
I love this square because it exemplifies the forces that shape a city. On its four side are:
1) The Church
2) The University
3) The Senate
4) A mixed bag of commerce: Shops, a bank, a café that also shows art movies (one of my favourites, but now closed for renovation). The mayor’s residence is squeezed a bit on the side, and there used to be a police station, but they got bumped.
– And The Czar in the middle of the square.
I’ll get some more sketches done later when the tourist buses leave…
Yes, it’s a huge ferryboat behind the building. It’s bigger than the buildings in the old town. They cross the Baltic between Helsinki and Stockholm daily.
Travel Sketchbook 2010: Tallinn
Sketchbook_elokuu 15, 2010_11-2, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Drawn from the boat between Helsinki and Tallinn.
Luckily there’s still time for a long weekend away.
Sketchbook_August 09, 2010_3, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Tallinn old town, seen from Toompea ramparts.
Tallinn is just two hours away from Helsinki, but it’s another world. An older and in many ways more cultured city, full of history. No city in Finland has managed to keep its medieval center intact, and Helsinki is a new town, mostly built in the 19th -20th century.
Sketchbook_August 06, 2010_10, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
Alexander Nevsky cathedral (1894-1900).
Done in watercolour from a sidewalk café in Tallinn.
Watercolour Sketchbook, Hämeenlinna 1990
I started experimenting with larger notebooks so that I could include more detail. We spent the summer in Hämeenlinna. While my girlfriend excavated a lost viking-age city, I drew and painted.
Bibliothèque Fornay, Sketchbook Paris 1988
Bibliothèque Fornay, Sketchbook Paris 1988, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
By the time I moved to Paris, I was sketching almost every day, recording everything I saw. I started using a fountain pen, the same I wrote my notes with at the Sorbonne.
Mille Croquis 