Seriously, he WASN'T.

Another Hayden can't hurt. I just saw a trailer of his new film, Jumper. There is a chance it could be at least remotely interesting, even though the concept is kind of silly. I read his interview in the latest Glamour magazine (which btw had an interview of LINDSAY LOHAN as well, and a photoshoot of her in a terrible dress), and he said how he loves travelling, but hates the act of it. I couldn't agree more. I like it when I'm in places other than Finland, I just detest the flights and packing and everything else that comes with it. If only you could just jump everywhere in a matter of seconds!

I also noticed how convenient the English language is. I'm often frustrated during lectures when I try to make notes in Finnish - I have to abbreviate every freaking word so I don't lose track of where the lecture is going! But if the lecture is in English, I even have some spare time between taking notes! The same goes for writing essays and papers: The sentences in Finnish just become ridiculously long, even when you're saying something really simple. Not to mention how easily you can mess the case endings if you're not paying enough attention. In English, you will notice if you've missed a preposition, or an article. In Finnish, it's so easy not to notice if there is one or two letters wrong at the end of one word!

Having said all this, I don't hate Finnish, I have learned to cherish my opportunity to write a paper in Finnish for the first time during my studies. In fact, I hate it how so many people use English words and phrases in the middle of speaking Finnish. I'm like, why are you polluting your beautiful language like that? Have you no respect for your mother tongue? English isn't nearly as beautiful as a language as Finnish, it's simply a lingua franca you can't get rid of. Don't mix the two. I suppose I'm being a little tight-assed about this, but I can't help it. I do love English, though, I just don't appreciate how some people seem to sprinkle in a few English words here and there, just to show that they can. And as one of my English teachers once said, "that is just something really annoying".

Alien 3 was on tv last night. I had to watch it, having seen it only a gazillion times. It was still just as enjoyable. I love the ambience all the alien movies have, even if they're not scary anymore. Sigourney Weaver is a seriously wonderful actress. It's a pity she's so old now, I can't see her doing yet another Alien movie as a granny.

The aliens versus predator films have been nowhere near as good as the alien ones... what is so difficult in creating a real story for a film? Is it too much to ask to have characters that have a tiny bit of credibility and, you know, character?? I can't understand for the life of me why anyone would shoot a ridiculously expensive movie, only to ruin it with a non-existent story line and zero suspense.

For what it's worth, the predator and his space ship looked nice. The aliens you could hardly get a glimpse at, which should have made them more scary, but it didn't. Sigh.

I used to draw aliens all the time a few years back. I should dig out those pictures and put them up here, since otherwise this is going to be oil colour pictures only. I don't use pencils for serious artwork, I only ever use them when trying to come up with an idea for a painting. I think it's boring to make a picture using only a pencil and no colour. I need colours.

The Revenge of the Sith was a good film. And Hayden wasn't that terrible.

This is obviously an old painting, since it was painted some time after the Revenge of the Sith had come out in Finland. I think in April, or May 2005... gosh, that was 3 years ago! I can't believe time goes so fast. I'll be a bitter old spinster before soon.

Well, I had sort of a crush on Hayden Christensen, although I can't see now what it was I saw in him. He's so feminine, it's overbearing. There are still times, though, when I temporarily get hots for him. Weird. But whether or not I think he's hot or not, he does have a good facial bone structure. He makes for an interesting model for a painting.

I might add that I didn't use any white on the face, only on the background, which I think is somewhat of an achievement, considering how hard it is to create form without using black and white. I truly think this one turned out quite alright, and I like the angle, which is from the side, and slightly from above. The picture I used wasn't from this angle, which makes me wonder why I painted it like this. Heck, it's been 3 years - how could I possibly remember?

Another self-portrait.

This is one of my earliest paintings. I'd forgotten this one, and how much I actually like it. The profile has only a faint resemblance to me, so mind you, I'm not this ugly. And I don't have red hair. Or light blue skin. Or an insanely muscular neck.

What I like about this picture is the colours (now there's a surprise), but for a different reason than usual: here, they're not exactly in harmony. As much as the Brits may like their flag with its horribly disharmonious imperial blue and red, I don't think anyone can sincerely say that they go well together.

Here, the blue, let's say person, really jumps out from the background, because it is cold in tone, and the background is warm. Moreover, I mixed in some white to create an impression of form to the person, whereas I didn't mix the red at all. Somehow, the person looks like an ancient sculpture, you know, the nowadays colourless marble sculptures from Ancient Greece and Rome.

I also think the violet-yellow character on the background really agrees with the red. Violet and red is such a lovely combination. I feel so inspired by the colours in this picture, I definitely have to dig it out from my closet as soon as I have some time to paint something new. Which means, pretty much as soon as it's summer again...

Me as bald.

Here is one attempt in my sad series of self-portraits. It's crazy difficult to paint yourself. Especially when you don't have a mirror that you can have conveniently by the painting table, having to hold it upright yourself while you're painting. There is also the concern of coming off as too self-absorbed when showing the result to someone. But at least it's been done by myriads of painters before, so there's my excuse. In addition to the fact that it's only healthy to have some level of self-interest.

This was back in time when I was worried I might go completely bald. My hair is naturally quite thick, but I lost most of it about two years ago, for some reason. It was horrible. No woman should have to go through that. I need hair. It's kind of weird how important hair can be to you, and you won't even realize it until you start losing it. And it's so much worse when you're young, as it can be expected that you'll lose some of your hair when you're older anyway. It's cruel to have to lose hair in your twenties.



I know this person here looks somewhat inane, but in my defense I'll point out that it's a full frontal picture, which is very hard to do. Besides, there is some added depth thanks to the strange yin-yangy colour theme. (Yeah, right.) And sometimes I really do look this retarded. I think I've captured my essence.

Clowns are creepy. But also sad.

Here's another one my mum likes. Even though his hat doesn't quite fit.

I've always found clowns scary. I think a lot of people feel the same way. Yet, some people think children love them. Are children somehow supposed to be less easily scared than adults?

All I need to get the creeps is reminisce the scariest scene ever in Bond movies: agent 009, clad in a clown suit, gets killed by some messed-up twins while stealing a Fabergé egg. Doesn't that sound really freaky even without the clowny twist? Just take a look at the sad face of a clown, and a knife sticking from the poor guy's back...

*Shiver*. Well, I'm quite busy this week so I'm leaving this short. Get the creeps folks, try not to have nightmares.

Happy.

I thought I'd do another post now before I get too busy again with everything. I remembered yesterday that I was going to post about something Amoena posted about me in her blog, way back in time. I just never got round to post about it, being busy and all. It's such a nice excuse.

I was in a pretty bad mood when I read it. I'd just had a discussion with my professor, and once again, he'd had a 5-minute giggling fit after I'd reminded him that I'm not going to graduate just yet, even though I'm finished with my first subject studies, plus my master's thesis. I mean, I can see how that might be amusing the first time you hear it, but when he started giggling about it for God knows how manyth time (since a writer for New York Times has used that expression, it must be legit), I just couldn't be ok about it. I just sat there silent, rolling my eyes.

Sooo, it has been established that I was a little bit pissed. But I felt better after reading what Amoena considers my most valuable characteristics. She had tried to pick one or two properties of each of her friends, in trying to describe her perfect best friend. Now isn't that adorable. But let me quote her here:

"Elina was a bit of an harder piece of cake, but I did figure it out: I would take her wisdom so he could make me smarter and her good spirit to keep me optimistic."

Apart from the slight confusion with my sex (I'm female if you didn't know already ;)), I thought it was a really nice thing to say. But I totally did not expect either of those points. My "wisdom"? I certainly don't consider myself completely stupid, but I'm not the most intelligent person to walk this earth, let alone the wisest. It's easy to have an inferiority complex about your intelligence when you're studying at university level, surrounded by hundreds of clever people. However, I suppose it must be that I have as much as three years more of life experience behind me than her. ;) You can grow a lot in that time, but I'm not so sure whether that necessarily makes you any wiser...

As for the "good spirit", then? Like, what?? I've always thought of myself as more pessimistic rather than optimistic. Most of the time I'm moody, and often feel depressed. I can be very cynical, hopeless and sarcastic at times. But I do have a solution to this one, as well: I tend not to mope when I'm with friends. I just see no point - why not have fun, since nobody really can laugh and have fun when they're alone? You can enjoy your lone time, but I rarely laugh when I'm alone (only the Friends and Conan O'Brien with his sophisticated beard can make me do that). It's a social thing. So, I try to make light of everything around friends, within reason of course. Especially when I notice that a friend of mine is feeling a bit down, I try to make them at least smile. So I guess that attitude can come off as a good spirit.

Ok, now onto the painting of the day. For once, I really, really like this one. I gave it to my mum for Christmas two years ago, and she really liked it, too.

The original model is actually Asian, or Asian-American, for all I know (an NPC from the game Half Life 2, rightmost at the bottom; God I love that game), but I don't know how much of her is left here. I'm quite happy with the linearistic style and the smooth shading, even if the features of that woman aren't quite natural. I still can't make it look right when I paint faces a little from the side, especially the mouth area. Yet, it is the most common pose used in portraits! Maybe it makes anyone's face look thinner? It's also supposed to be easier than, say, painting a face staring straight at the viewer. Silhouettes, for their part, can be easy, but are also dull.

I'd love to do more Half Life -inspired paintings, and as a matter of fact I have made another female NPC painting, but I think I could expand to male characters, as well. As much as I want to, I don't think I'm ready to mimic any of the wonderful environmental and architectural scenery that is so compelling and beautiful in the game. Hey, here's an idea: if you haven't played HL2, you should play it, if only for the sake of its amazing art.

Which reminds me of a book that I got for Christmas in '06: Video Game Art. Can't find a link or remember the name of the author, but it was a good book. The pictures were really inspiring, and the author had some pretty good points about how to give credibility to video game art. This is only my hunch, but I don't feel like video games are appreciated as pieces of art. For sure, they are appreciated occasionally when it comes to a good narrative, but the visual experience is praised only in game reviews. Which don't exactly reach the whole population. I hope this author will contribute more to his cause in the future.

Through the Looking-Glass.

Ok, it was about time I remembered I have a blog! I've had this feeling for days that there's something I should do whenever I read my email at university computers, yet I couldn't put my finger on it.. It's so difficult to remember which sites you should/want to visit, and whatever else that you can only do online, when you can't keep a list of bookmarks. All you have to rely on is your memory. And that, my dear, is fallible, especially in my case. I'm such a scatterbrain.

What is more, I got a new, expensive usb storage device (is it called a 'memory stick' in English, as well??), and these Goddarn uni computers can't even recognize it!!! For ***** sake, what the **** is wrong with these ****ing things??!! The only reason I need big portable storage devices (sounds a bit show-offy doesn't it) is so I can transport big files from uni computers to my home laptop, since I have no internet connection at home. And there goes the sole purpose of my new device, right down the drain.

But let's put that sucky situation aside now. Last night, I actually slept more than 6 hours! Yay! I feel so refreshed. I guess my neighbour thought I should get some sleep at least every couple of days, since she fired her cannon only once, then stopped. Yes, that's what it sounds like, more or less - whatever it is that she does every morning at 5 am, it sounds like a cannon blast. And then I sound like a bloodthirsty tiger when I deliver my usual profanities and death threats at her.

Ok, so I'd forgotten I'd done this lovely little painting. It was so long ago - I feel like I've come a long way since, in all respects. I think this is when I realised how much more fun it is to paint alla prima, not letting the paint dry, but instead finishing it at once. But I'm not exactly sure why the face on the right looks kind of overexposed.

Oh, and the background was done with a palette knife. You can make a nice, smooth surface with it, if you use a lot of paint. It's a good thing when you've blended too much of some colour, and have no other use for it. But the downside is, that coat of paint will probably start to crack or peel over time.

These are the kind of creatures I used to love to draw when I was younger. Sort of caricature-like, grotesque, often had wings and fangs and what else. Now I just go for naturalism, trying to make the faces look as much their owner as possible. It's actually quite dull: all I ever paint these days are faces, continued with a little bit of neck.