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Lukulahja lapselle

In Lukulahja lapselle -project every child born in Finland during 2019-2022 is given a book gift bag at Finnish child health clinics.

The gift bag consists of reading cards and a picture book for toddlers, and a fairy tale book to read when the child is a few years old.

I had the priviledge to be a part of this hugely important project by getting to illustrate half of the stories for the fairy tale book called Satulahja.

Here´s a few examples of my work for the book.

#book illustration #illustration #illustrator #books #reading #lukulahjalapselle #lukulahja #book gifts #anssi vaalio

Character Design for KVS

The Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation - KVS - asked me to design characters for their online schools Kulkurikoulu and Nomadskolan. Kulkurikoulu (found here) is a school in Finnish language for Finnish children living abroad. There is an odd old Finnish saying "oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka" - "homeland is a strawberry, other countries are blueberries", and I based my characters on that.

Nomadskolan (check it out) is an also an internet school for Finnish children living abroad. It's like Kulkurikoulu, only for Swedish speaking Finnish people (Finland has two official languages). Blueberry is a common berry in Finnish forests, and so in the illustration a very Finnish blueberry is investigating a quite exotic coconut! :D

#illustration #illustrator #character design #characters #education

Sankaritarinoita kaikille

Finnish publishing house Into Kustannus asked me to illustrate the portrait of Mina Mojtahedi for their book Sankaritarinoita kaikille (2020). It's a childrens' book full of hero stories. Mina Mojtahedi is the president of The Finnish Paralympic Committee. She's also been a professional wheelchair basketball player.

I wanted to combine these two elements. I illustrated her doing something she clearly loves doing. In the picture she is teaching basketball to young players.

#mina mojtahedi #basketball #paralympics #paralympian #coaching #Illustration #illustrator #sankaritarinoita #kuvittaja

Sankaritarinoita pojille (ja kaikille muille)

Sankaritarinoita pojille (2018) is a children's book filled with encouraging life stories. Finnish publishing house Into Kustannus asked me to illustrate the portraits of Michael Monroe and Tuure Boelius for the book. Michael Monroe is of course Michael Monroe, the glam rock legend known t.ex from Hanoi Rocks and his solo career. I wanted to draw a portrait of him from head to toe, 'cause a lot of Michael's charisma comes from his energetic and lively body language.

Tuure Boelius is a YouTuber, singer and an actor. I drew Tuure as seen through his own phone being in touch with his viewers and fans.

#michael monroe #tuure boelius #sankaritarinoita #book illustration #childrens illustration #illustrator

Pyöräsankarit

Pyöräsankarit (cycling heroes) is a part of The Finnish School Sports Federation's project to promote biking in it's various forms in Finnish schools.

I drew different biker profiles for the project in 2019.

#Illustration #illustrator #cycling #bikes #double_size