I have many long phone conferences, so I doodle. Normally I sketch what I see from my office window.
Roadworks under my office window in Espoo, Finland.
There are benefits to really long and pointless teleconferences.
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The holidays are over, it’s time to get back to work
Starting a new Moleskine in the plane.
Travel Sketchbooks 2010: Festival international de jazz de Montréal
Another great jazz festival in Montréal, with plenty of excellent free concerts. I managed to sketch some of the performers.
Downtown Montréal.
Black Joe Lewis
Trombone Shorty
Allen Toussaint
Train passengers, Helsinki 2009
I started sketching during my daily commute once more.
Train doodles 2009:
Helsinki sketchbook: Sunny Windowsill full of Cacti
Helsinki sketchbook: Sunny Windowsill full of Cacti, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.
As my day job grew more and more demanding, I had no time to paint. I realised I had to start sketching once more, simply to keep my artist self alive.
Inspired by Danny Gregory’s “Creative Licence”, I started drawing objects around me. It’s something I had done before, but not as a conscious exercise.
Travel Sketchbooks
After a while routines started to settle, and I drew less and less of my everyday surroundings.
Just as people normally don’t snap hundreds of photos on their way to work, but photograph everything they see when on holiday, my sketchbooks became synonymous with travel journals.
When on holiday, I drew on everything at hand, including my Filofax.
Hakone – Lake Ashi and Mt Fuji. After three days of waiting in the mist, suddenly the clouds parted in the morning.
The hotel’s room service menu included the following item: Watercolor kit so you can paint your own views of Mt. Fuji.
I found the idea of ordering painting supplies from room service great I had to do it. The kit proved to be as good as their breakfasts.
We still have the waterbrush that came with it.
The domestic tourist, Helsinki 1991
I kept drawing almost everyday, recording everything around me. I was living part of the year in Paris, so I felt like a traveler in both countries.
Rosanne painting ceramic sculptures.
Old Saame at the railway station, Sketchbook Helsinki 1989
The sketchbooks became a way of showing people what I had seen during the day.
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 