French painter Gustave Doré
is said to have drawn illustrations
for various novels.
He gained great popularity
by drawing illustrations of
various novels and poetry
collections such as Don Quixote,
Little Red Riding Hood, and
Dante's Divine Comedy with
meticulous expression.
In particular, through
the illustrations contained
in the Bible, he made his name
known all over the world and
laid the foundation for
the illustration, which was only
an incidental element,
to be recognized as an
independent painting.
Artist @HTH, who was selected for
the Hall of Fame in January,
is also showing a new world of art
through black and white sketches
and beautiful illustrations in color
The artist's work is full of
beautiful imagination.
The works that harmonize
landscapes and characters create
a different and mysterious feeling
by containing a world that is not
often seen.
Along with this, the delicate
expression created by lines and
colors has a realistic feeling
in a dreamy world, making people
more curious about the story
contained in the painting.
We wonder how these works came to
be created.
So, let's start the interview with
the artist.
Q1. @PENUP
Hello. This is the PENUP.
First, congratulations on being
selected for the January 2023
Hall of Fame.
Please give a self-introduction and
your impressions of selection.
A1. @HTH
Firstly,
thank you for the HOF selection,
it's a great honor.
As for me, I live in Finland and
have been working as a freelance
illustrator for over thirty years.
I have done pretty much everything:
Book covers, posters, comics,
storyboards, game design,
production design and much more.
Q2. @PENUP
The first piece was uploaded
in March 2020.
Since then, you have been uploading
works steadily.
We are curious about how you came to
know about PENUP and how you came to
upload your work.
A2. @HTH
I bought my Samsung Galaxy Tab
Active2 tablet in 2020 and
when getting to know the device
discovered the PENUP app.
I had tried some painting apps
on my previous tablet but I wasn't
really interested in drawing on
a small tablet as my work days
are spent on a big 22 inch drawing
tablet connected to my pc.
But little by little the PENUP
managed to win me over. And now
there isn't a single day when
I'm not using the app. :)
Q3. @PENUP
It was full of wonderful works,
from sketches to beautifully colored
works.
We wonder what kind of devices and
apps these works are created with.
A3. @HTH
Basically I use just either PENUP or
Photoshop or mix of both in a single
drawing.
My work illustrations are done
solely on Photoshop so it's natural
that I use it also on my hobby art.
Q4. @PENUP
You drew various works in detail,
such as landscapes, people, animals,
and aliens.
We are curious about what inspired
you to paint.
A4. @HTH
I have drawn and painted ever since
I was a little kid. One of my first
concrete memories of drawing is
me drawing the Eagle ship from
tv show Space:1999 for many of
my classmates. I have always been
interested in scifi and fantasy,
whether in books, comics or movies.
So those are the topics that I have
mostly drawn. The interest in
realistic landscapes came later
in life.
Q5. @PENUP
We were able to see various
landscapes in the work.
We wonder how you get inspiration
for these landscapes.
Also, we wonder if there are real
places.
A5. @HTH
Sometimes my landscapes are just
imaginary and sometimes they are
based on photos I discover online,
but even then I always try to infuse
them with my imagination and I may
change them quite heavily.
Q6. @PENUP
We could see a lot of works of
imagination, such as exploration,
adventure, and space.
We wonder how you were inspired to
draw these works.
Also, we’re curious about
what expressions you pay attention
to when you draw something like this
A6. @HTH
Like I previously stated,
my main interests in fiction are
sci-fi and fantasy topics. And more
specifically, the exploration
aspects of those. Many times
I like to draw the moment of
discovery and surprise.
Also, many times I add characters
that are shown from the backside,
that has two main reasons. They act
as an alter ego for the viewer and
also help bring a story aspect into
a static landscape.
Q7. @PENUP
We were able to see works that were
painted with a different expression
from the existing works, such as
pointillism or watercolor-like works
We’re curious as to why you use
these different expressions.
We are also curious about what
expressions you want to try
in the future.
A7. @HTH
After drawing professionally for
as long as I have, many times I just
use the styles that are familiar
to me.
But once in a while I like to
experiment. Couple of years ago
I got interested in watercolor
painting for the first time ever
basically. That has led to also
some experimenting in the digital
side of things.
Q8. @PENUP
You also included pictures of
various characters.
We wonder who the people
in the picture are.
A8. @HTH
As for these two specifically,
the one in the left is the poet
Rabindranath Tagore, a fellow PENUP
artis asked me to draw him.
The one in the right is
a self portrait of me.
Maybe the fourth time ever that
I have drawn myself.
Q9. @PENUP
Looking at the delicate and
realistic expression, it seems
like it will take a lot of time to
draw the work.
We wonder how long it take you
to draw one piece.
A9. @HTH
You are also presenting a variety
of works, and we wonder if you have
a topic you want to draw
in the future.
The more intricate landscape or
fantasy pieces on Penup usually take
3-5 hours, very seldom longer than
that.
On pc when dealing with much bigger
image resolutions, I have drawn
sometimes much more epic topics
that may take 20 hours or so.
Q10. @PENUP
Last question.
Please tell us
improvements or comments
you want to share with us
while using PENUP.
A10. @HTH
The one thing I wish
Penup would have is an overlay
function on the layers.
Meaning that I could later color
a line drawing on Penup without
messing with the linework. Now,
if I want to color my line drawing
later,
I have to use Photoshop. But other
than that, I'm very happy with app.
After all, it's the only app
on my tablet that
I use every day. :)
How was the interview with @HTH?
It is said that Gustave Doré made
efforts to constantly create new
inspirations and works, such as
caricatures, posters, and sculptors.
The artist was taking on various
challenges for beautiful paintings,
such as expressing various themes
and stories through works and
drawing in a new style of painting
as well.
To all of you who are reading
this article, why don't you draw
the subject you used to draw
in a new way?
We assume it will be fun to create
a different look of the material
through a different method that
I have not drawn before,
and to color it.
With everyone's work, we hope that
PENUP will be filled with
works full of challenging spirit.
