Tools of The Trade

I don't have any art education - im self taught - and it shows! When it comes to learning new techniques, drawing new things or trying new approaches it takes a considerable amount of effort because I'm just clueless at many occasions. It is easy to stick to what you know how to do - much harder to something new. But I dont mind, somehow I manage to finish things which always isn't a given. I have tons of drawings from my early days - not many of them are finished. Now, I get more pride just to bring a conclusion to an artpiece Ive been working on for a long time.

I use quite simple, basic items to do my art - here's pretty much all I need:

Things start with a sketch. Well, to be precise - not quite. Things start with and idea. Usually not a very grand or original idea - if its up to me - but an idea altogether. But mostly I'm lucky - customer has usually an idea what they want and its a real big help. Sometimes very detailed, sometimes just broad guidelines - but its  a starting point anyhow. Then comes the sketch where I try to grow the idea and give it life.

It can be a rough sketch:

Or it can be just a detail of the bigger picture:

But a sketch anyway. After that Sepulcral cover I've been drawing much more detailed sketches which seems to be helpful. In addition to the details I get a much better feeling how the final piece would look like. Nothing fancy when sketching, just a HB pencil - and a 2B to bring out the details. I could use much harder pencils but somehow I just tend to break the paper with them so I just stick to my trusty HB.

I do sketches either A4 or A3 - it depends. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog posts - I like it big. It gives me freedom. Details. Continuity. Lots of things. Bigger the better.

I re-draw the sketch to my (roughly) A2 size paper and start inking from there. Just basic Indian ink and a size 4 brush. I bought smaller size brushes but I never actually use them. Size 4 can hold decent amount of ink in it, so I dont have to constantly dip my brush to get more ink - and if its a good quality brush, its actully good enough size for details too (given that you're painting on a big enough paper!).

Ive yet to find a successor to my green brush - its amazingly durable, its been in my hands trough every single of my works Ive done with ink! I can't believe its still working - I've bought couple new brushes but they hardly seem last one session - let alone thru the entire work. And they've been made of badger or whatnot! Sadly, can't even remember where I got that green brush or let alone what's it made of...

Paper I use is bit more thicker than normal watercolour paper. I really don't know what is proper good quality paper for this kind of art - I just check that the ink "smudge" is minimal - so it goes where I want it to go. Paper just has to be thick enough to handle all that ink and not too coarse so It wont affect details. I have a wooden tablet where I tape down the paper - and it stays there until its finished.

I dont like ink pens a lot (well I do like them, just that Im not any good with them) but I still use them - mostly just to give few finishing touches, sharpening few edges, giving some soft shadows. Usually not much - just to give the "final touch".

My pencil pouch is self-made - from a sleeve of a Bundeswehr combat shirt!

I will go into detail of the actual techniques - how my sketching goes from idea to actual art and how the inking progresses from start to finish - little later. But other than that, this is how I work - or atleast the tools that I work with.

Until then,

-Eero

In The Tomb

Slowly, quietly working my art on my catacombs. My blog updates are far in between but I am always working on something new. This is one of the more recent ones that draws from a very classic elements of a graveyard scene. It was a welcomed change to do something without monsters and such - really had to pay attention to the scenery which has always been my weakness.

It was as fun as I thought - and great input from the customer helped to really bring it the finishing touches it sorely needed. It was also a challenge, could I bring the graveyard into life (hehe) and still keep my style. Without tentacles and all!

Well, what do you think:

In The Tomb (2012)

 It was originally intended as a magazine cover. You can easily divide the picture in two, like so:

 The magazine being on hold - what comes out of the art remains to be seen - but whatever it is, its certainly called "In The Tomb"!

I'll keep this short this time - I have a Wall of Text coming up so be prepared.

-Eero

Anthropophagy of Doom

There's one thing in common with the bands I've had been working with so far - they've all been great and they've all been something I really enjoy listening to. Sepulcral is no exception to this.

Sepulcral's new album has been out now for a while but somehow I got around listening to it just now. But what a great album it is. The band hails from Italy and draws from the same influences for their music as I for my art - old school death metal, old horror movies and works of H.P.Lovecraft. The band really got that grinding "death metal groove" which I love.

I started working with this cover at the end of last year and its been published as a CD and LP both. The band requested a cemetery like atmosphere with zombies and other 'classic' elements. I liked the basic idea but didn't want to make it too general - so I added few elements to make it bit more 'special'. A huge hole with tentacles rising from it: either spawning and animating corpses or devouring and dragging them down to hell - what is happening, its really up to you to decide.

Anthropophagy of Doom continues the same basic atmosphere as the last Stench of Decay cover - it has lots of wide open space and light.

Sepulcral - Anthropophagy of Doom (LP, Terror From Hell/Unholy Domain Records  2012; CD,  Razorback Records 2012)

In the picture is the LP cover. CD cover is very similar - red lettering instead of blue. Here's a pic of both of them:

-Eero

Visions Beyond Stench of Decay

Well, not quite. I got one more chance to illustrate Stench of Decay's morbid music for their upcoming Visions Beyond Death single.

From everything you do - there is something to be learned. This is especially true if you draw as little as I do, you learn a great deal from previous art pieces you do and try to implement what you have learned to your next piece. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I tried to apply more 'open' feel to the Visions Beyond Death cover, trying not to get too crowded. Well, that might have worked but the open space lacks detail and the picture works quite a lot better as a which it was supposed to be - as a cover. Just because the dead space is being cropped out of the picture!

The original artwork for Visions Beyond Death. I've had a quite a long 'dry' season in art before this one.

Stench of Decay - Visions Beyond Death (7" Single, Detest Records / Me Saco Un Ojo Records 2011)

 From Stench of Decay just came out a compilation CD that puts together all of the recordings I've been part of by making covers, but also the excellent first demo. Great release by EKTRO Records (http://www.ektrorecords.com/).

My collection of Stench of Decay recordings (minus the first demo). Cover for the compilation CD is taken from the T-shirt design. 

Every piece I've done so far is done basically using the same technique. I work with ink and a brush. Not pens, but with brushes. I start with pencil sketch - nowadays I draw lot more detailed sketches, before I might have started working from a quite rough sketch. When I'm happy with the sketch, I ink over it. And big is always better, not A4, way too small. Not even A3 but closer to A2 if possible. The thing with brush is that its not as detailed as a pen might be so bigger is just better in all aspects. Easier too. Well, also lot more work too - obviously.

I like the brush because with that you really get the line going on much smoother - and you have the ability to easily adjust the thickness of the line. It just tends to be much more intuitive. My style to draw very 'cold', 'rigid' and even 'awkward' - but with the brush I get bit more 'life' to the final artpiece. Well, to be honest I do the final touch ups with a fine tip pen. Just to sharpen out some things and fill up parts that Ive missed with the brush. But its just to give the artpiece bit more polished appearance.

Well, that being said, my next piece was weird. Its small - only A4 - I only made quite rough sketch of it and I finished it up with ink pens, not brushes. And it's not a cover for a music album! Well, still music related - might be a cover for upcoming MUGRE zine. Here's the piece:

Soulbound

 That's all folks, at this time. We will continue on the cover artworks next time - not for Stench of Decay but something else altogether. Until then.

-Eero

Ascended, T-shirts and Detest Records

Right after Where Death and Decay Reign I got several new designs to work with.

Ascended's first (and sadly last) EP was to be published as a tape alongside CD and the tape version needed a cover. Tommi Sookari already knew me because of the Stench of Decay covers so he asked me to do it.

It was fun to draw but considering the actual size of the final cover, I got bit carried away. So the image is quite crowded. I sent them a version with the logo in but it didn't really stand out so the final version was just like this, no text or logos. I think it worked out better that way.

Ascended - Temple of Dark Offerings (EP Tape, 2009, Detest records).

After doing several covers, I got a chance to do couple shirt designs. Stench of Decay wanted an original T-shirt design and the shirt was to be white. On a white shirt, I think the image shouldn't be too dark so I went in with a different kind of atmosphere than my earlier works but tied the image to the Where Death and Decay Reign demo cover with the building on the background. So its kind of a zoom out of the demo cover. The image itself has much more space that in the works I had done before and also the desert atmosphere is quite different that I was used to. But I guess the haunting feeling in this picture comes from that, the vast space with no life signs around (only dead!) - so i named the artwork Where No-one Hears You Scream.

Where No-one Hears You Scream. Design for the Stench of Decay T-shirt.

 And this is how it looked on the final product:

Stench of Decay T-shirt (2009)

With Stench of Decay and Ascended I also got to know Jerry from Detest Records as he has been putting out records from both of the bands. Jerry is very enthusiastic about music so It was easy to accept his work for a Detest Records T-shirt. And for the design, I had pretty much free hands, Jerry just said that come up with something grim, morbid and evil! I had learned from the Stench of Decay T-shirt that a T-shirt design is definately something else than doing a cover but I took the challenge and had fun with it. Around the time I started sketching this work I was reading H.P.Lovecraft's fiction and I guess it influenced me quite a lot for this bizarre tentacled monster. Nowadays I tend to draw more pictures with tentacles than without! Iä! Iä!

Here is the design:

Detest

The image was inverted for the shirt:

Detest Records T-shirt (2010)

 Looking back, every single commission work I had done this far was for Detest Records in a way or another! So I owe a great deal to the bands for a possibility to work for them - but also Jerry of Detest Records who is publishing good bands (and artwork alongside with it) and supporting the good old death metal. \,,/

Until next time,

-Eero

Second Stench of Decay demo

In 2009 Stench of Decay's second demo that was being in the making for a while was becaming reality. First the tape was out and I was to make (my first ever!) cover for it.

This was quite specially made to be a cover, when you look at the tombstone in the front thats quite obvious. But otherwise, the pic came out quite general. Im pretty sure it was not 100% what Stench quys were looking for but they approved it anyhow.

With the tape cover also the latest (and the final so far) version of the Stench of Decay logo saw light of day.

Stench of Decay logo inverted and normal.

And the finished cover looked like this with logo and album name:

Where Death and Decay Reign (Tape, Detest Records 2009)

The LP version came out later and it had a different cover than the tape version. This was quite logical as the dimensions with tape and lp are so different - not to mention size!

With Where Death and Decay Reign LP cover I came to understand that I dont necessarily have to draw album cover as a cover - but just draw a cool image and crop it to the right size. Of course I had to think about the layout and positioning of the logos and such but not to get too constricted with the limits, just fill the whole paper and use it the best way it works.
Original Where Death and Decay Reign LP cover is not considerably larger than the actual cover but still a bit larger.

Here is the original artwork:

This was probably more what the Stench of Decay was after. Less typical Death Metal zombies and more atmospheric scenery.

And here how the cover turned out:

Stench of Decay - Where Death and Decay Reign (12" MLP, Detest Records
/ Me Saco Un Ojo Records 2009)

Next Ascended, T-shirts and Detest Records!

Until that time,

-Eero

How It All Began

It  was around 2006-2007 when I got into death metal. I started getting albums of legendary bands such as Death and Morbid Angel but I also found myself searching for smaller new bands from websites such as MySpace. There seemed to be lots of interesting bands out there as I really didn't like the way death metal sounded today, I was liking the "old sound" more.

One band in particular was embracing the old school death metal in a way that really got my attention. The band was Stench of Decay (http://www.myspace.com/stenchofdecay). When it comes to original death metal, in addition to music, I really enjoyed the artwork of the genre. What I like about it that it is raw, unpolished and full of passion - just like the music itself. I really don't like the digital art that seems to be the norm nowadays, it kills the personal touch, your own style don't show through. Of course there are exceptions but all in all, I prefer analog over digital. That in mind, I wanted to try my skills creating something new for the genre and I chose black ink to be my tool of the trade. I had been experimenting with it before but I relly wanted to make more with it - and death metal illustrations seemed to be the way to go.

I figured out that in order to make good art, you have to have passion for it - you have to like what you are doing. So it seemed logical to contact Rami Simelius from Stench of Decay as I really enjoyed their music. I wanted to make new logo, artwork or anything for them. I got green light and I sent like a million different ideas for the logo. They we'rent all that great and many were imitating logo's of existing bands. But it got me started, it got me hooked. New Stench demo wasn't to be finished in a while so before I got to show my skills to Stench of Decay, I got some practise making posters for shows that were taking place in Pori.

Abigail in Finland (2007). Idea I got from the famous kamikaze photo. Note the Stench logo in its early stages.

The band scene was quite active back then, Metal Warning in cooperation with Stench of Decay and others got many great metal bands to play here. Next in the pipeline was Nunslaughter.

Nunslaughter was great. I wanted all my posters to be signed by the band. Black version of the Stench logo.

There were many shows that I didn't make posters for, for example Toxic Holocaust. But through Rami, I got to make quite a few. For example one for the great Czech band Root.

This art is just a remake of a photo, so nothing special in that way. Again, signed by the Big Boss himself and the band.

After that, the work for Stench of Decay really started. But thats a story for another time.

- Eero