On the Street. Coffee Cowboy of Hakaniemi, Helsinki.

This fellow has hanged as a ready made drawing on my desk already for a month or so. There has been so much everything going on with my business that this poor blog has had to wait for a while.

A visit to Hakaniemi gives many times a different thrill than walking in Esplanade of Helsinki. More diversity. Like this man. I thought this was Freak Brothers live going 9 am in the morning. But with a can of coffee. Gosh, I like people who are true to the styles of their youth.

On the Street. Blue-Haired Girl, Lauttasaari, Helsinki.

Do you remember the song of Elton John? Blue eyes, Baby's got blue eyes? This lady can turn it around. Baby's got blue eyes but I have blue hair! And blue-haired girls go where they please to go. And right there I am going.

On the Street. Dive Into the Grey, Lauttasaari, Helsinki.

This little lady reflects perfectly the season we are about to dive in. November in Finland is a month of grey tones. At least in Helsinki area, where moist seashore climate melts all the possible temporary snowflakes before they land on the ground.

Autumn has stripped most of the trees almost naked. Instead there is beautiful silhouettes of dark tree trunks against the gray sky. Days are short. Moist wind goes under your skin… unless you have sense to grab over some wool.

Everything is all right, when you have a warm wool scarf and a layer of wool under the coat. This lady entertained herself with the phone (as we all do), while waiting for the bus to arrive. Chatting with Totoro? Why not? Just thinking this form, dark tones, grey fluffy scarf and the grey days we have had.

On the Street. Young Hero, Fredrikinkatu, Helsinki.

Now what do you know! It is predicted that snow is landing to Helsinki this evening. Brrr. We must release this young hero to make his walk on the runway of Fredrikinkatu of Helsinki. Namely, that was the feeling, when he walked towards me on the street a grim expression on his face. Eyes nailed straight ahead.

I haven’t participated in Inktober movement this October because absolute lack of time. You know, the idea to send an ink drawing to Instagram on a daily basis in October.  As a little compensation this illustration is done with ink only. Suits well to the darkness of this character.

On the Street. Fly With Wings, Kaapeli, Helsinki.

Penny for your thoughts, Lady. I know that this every day darker autumn season may cause deep thoughts and even depression. The lack of sunshine combined with continuous rainy days one after another really can bring added stress to life. Maybe the wings of your shoes makes your steps lighter.

On the Street. A Hard Day's Night, Metro Helsinki.

One day I traveled home by Helsinki Metro about seven in the evening. There was a lot of crowd, so I stayed standing. This man stood opposite me.

As I know if it is not totally forbidden to drink in public in Helsinki. But anyway it isn’t commonly used or recommended to drink on a bus, tram or on a subway. This gentleman was aware of this and modestly started opening the can of bear in the shield of his jacket.

While doing this I had my time to stare his style. Apparently the day had been long and it deserved some counterweight to reset the situation. Or maybe the construction site had been completed and it is time to celebrate a bit.

Celebration means grease to hair, fancy red shirt, matching red sneakers and baseball jacket. Never mind that there is still the painter’s trousers full of paint stains. The big pockets full of stuff make an interesting impact to the style. Metamorphosis from a wall painter to party animal is still in progress.

When he had his can opened I needed to turn my eyes to other direction. The gaze he gave me was that much challenging.

On the Street. Trending Pleated Skirt, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki

Helsinki Design Week filled with events was the thing last week. Foolish for me to give this tip only afterwards, but anyway, you can check on Helsinki Design Week -website what you missed and start planning a trip to Helsinki next year same time. To be honest the site is useful all time of the year giving weekly tips what to do in Helsinki in design-thinking point of view.

The Design Week starts always with Design Market in Kaapelitehdas. There design-brands of all sorts sell their products and samples. The event gathers masses of people and it is easy to spot the trends that is pop in Helsinki right now.

There is two things that fly high in the Helsinki trend sky at the moment. One is pleated skirt. The hemline of pleated skirts is 20 cm below the knee.

The other trend is black sneakers with white sole. These shoes are combined with every outfit. No matter if it is sporty, casual style or festive dress, these shoes go with it. Black seems to be most popular but there is other colors also. Anyway, high heels has not been seen on women interested in design.

The once said rule is therefore strengthen. In everyday dress code the Finnish women value the ability to walk with ease, over classic high heels feminine look.

I picked up this lady as a sample because of her brilliant color combo. Also her skirt was apparently wool blend and made a marvelous pair to fluffy yellow mohair scarf.

On the Street. Black Beret all Year Long, Barcelona.

It is the last day of summer season. Tomorrow is officially first day of autumn in Finland. It is time to present the last Barcelona street style memory of summer sketchbook.

This older gentleman is kind of previous edition of the guy illustrated below. Same building blocks of style, white shirt and sort of black trousers. Only the time has worn out the deep darkness and turned white shirt to greyish. Despite the hot sun in Spain, the sleeves stay long, not rolled and woolen beret stays in the head. I believe the beret has been an essential accessory through his lifetime. Maybe already as schoolboy it has belonged to the school uniform.

This brings to mind an old phrase. "Why change anything what has once been good." In style issues this is quite true. In other words we talk about style classics. In some other issues some change might still be a good idea. Like, we didn’t have mobile phones in the 70s, why should we have it now? Well… Maybe it is good to think again when some issue is thrown in front of you. At least just a second. 

On the Street. The New Essentials, Barcelona.

On my summer holiday the destination was Spain and Barcelona district. I was curious to see how does the street view differ from Helsinki’s. The result was that there is so hot that the most common combo is T-shirt and shorts. Like pigeons they all look the same.

Still one detail in men’s style was a trend of short trousers. Ten centimetres too short compared to the classical measure. I saw even a grey striped suit with short trousers. And socks, I mean no socks. It is up to watchers eye if the guy looks a little like clown or super cool in these short pants.

Of course the sound of style depends also of the person who wears it. In this case I have drawn a chap that turned my head with his style. So simple, white shirt, black pants and yet interesting.

The place was a outlet mall near Barcelona, La Roca Outlet Village. He seemed to rush to have a break from his duty of the salesman of men’s clothing. In hurry to tobacco and in hurry to track social media. The modern life.

On the Street. At the Airport of Helsinki-Vantaa.

Sorry for the delay of coming back from the summer break. It is time to have a look inside the summer sketchbook. I have to admit that the result is lean. On holiday I had a garden to look after. It took all my attention. I love plants and the variety of species wowed me totally.

On the way to holiday spot we needed to take a plane. That means a visit to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Did you know that birds are singing in the toilets there? Well, they do.

Standing in the queue to the airplane, behind me stood this narrow lady constantly gazing her telephone. So I had a chance to look at her secretly. Kind of impressive dark blue and white combo in all her longitude.

On the Street. Yellow as Sunshine, Stocca, Helsinki.

As you see from the outfit of this young lady, we have had quite a chilly summer so far in Helsinki. Word ”summer” gives us Finns good vibes. Mind is remembering the warm lovely days when everybody forgets the meaning of a pair of socks. Living near North Pole means that things can appear differently in reality. I have been going in same anorak parka that I use in May.

I saw this girl in the queue of the bookstore few pencils in one hand and queue number in the other. She had the sunshine in her anorak that lacks from the sky. I liked the primary color combination in her outfit and the idea of mixing two different plaid patterns.

What next? Warmer days to Finland, I hope. So that the kids of summer 2017 can get their feeling of never-ending wonderful summer days.

For my part, I will head to summer holiday of 100 % security of sunshine. Therefor, Flash For Zonzon takes a summer break as well. Next post will be online about August 10th or so. I did get my supplies from bookstore, new sketch books size A4 and A3. Plan is to take it super easy and draw whatever interesting I see.

You too, have a nice relaxing Summer Holiday, My Friend!

On the Street. Summer Boy, Teurastamo, Helsinki.

Teurastamo is a nice area in Helsinki Kalasatama (also metro station name) filled with urban city culture, street food, bars and many happenings. Teurastamo means butcher and the area has formerly – from year 1933 – served as department of slaughterhouses.

From year 2012 the area has offered a hang around place for the citizens. In summertime there is free happenings with live music. It is a real summer living room and backyard. There is a possibility to grill your own food, repair a bike and sauna for rent. Just to mention few things.

This little fellow was seen in a starter happening of summer season. Hanging with his parents around the barrels. A true summer boy with his wild curly hair and bright colored clothes. It starts to feel like summer, right!

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Teurastamo website is in Finnish only, but anyway worth a visit, to get a feeling of the area.

On the Street. Green Flow, Espa, Helsinki.

Green days are here again. By this I mean Nature. The big thing is the tidal wave of green tones that suddenly burst from ground and tree branches. It is fascinating and brings pure joy. The trend colour of the season is light green of all the new growth.

This lady seems to enjoy to the fullest the green trend, looking the world through green round lenses. By the way, right now this Little My -inspired hairdo seems to be quite popular among young women on the streets of Helsinki.

On the Street. Pencil Skirt and Ballerinas, Kamppi, Helsinki.

After weird spring weather it seems that the temporary snowfalls and the coldest spring season in sixty years is gone and we can finally move towards warmer days. It also appears in the Helsinki street view.

I like the sixties tone in this lady’s outfit. The girlish ballerinas combined in traditional pencil skirt and A-lined short coat. Handbag elegantly tone in tone. Finish with grey gloves. I start to think the women of Jean-Luc Godard’s films. Une femme est une femme. A woman is a woman.

On the Street. Winter Bye-Bye, Kamppi, Helsinki.

This is the feeling. Winter bye-bye. Would you please go on your way to somewhere else than Helsinki? It has been cold days recently. So cold that I read on the news that even the migratory birds rather turn back from Finland’s border. Too cold, let’s wait for a while, they seem to think. Right now it is even snowing. Sigh.

This fragile lady in black outfit felt like a relative to the character from Ghibli anime Spirited Away, Faceless. Dressed in black, slightly sad face. Google it if you don’t know it. Fits good in the mood of cold April in Helsinki this year.

On the Street. Strolling Own Path, Kamppi, Helsinki.

Oh, I love these people. People who doesn’t give a shit what is in fashion or considered stylish at the moment. The patterned flared jeans, 80’s style leather jacket, pink rolled and knitted scarf on the neck. Tall skinny guy eyes alert to watch what is happening around.

At the moment there was an art happening going on in Kamppi shopping center. Katja Tukiainen is the artist that uses a lot of pink color. She was mastering a community art happening going on at that moment. Any passerby could take part in the big scale painting. The colour available was all shades of pink, light pink, pink pink, reddish pink, almost red.

I wonder if the guy illustrated here was going to take part in the painting session. I was already on the way forward.

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Here is the link if you are interested  to know more about Katja Tukiainen Art.
Includes a lot of undisciplined Girl Power.

On the Street. Like a Graphic Designer, Hotel Clarion, Helsinki.

Few weeks ago I attended a graphic design day Vuoden Huiput Festival in Hotel Clarion, Helsinki. Vuoden Huiput is the competition of the best graphic design of the year in Finland. You may believe that when a bunch of creative people gather together, there is definitely some common feature that points out in the sense of style.

Few years ago the it-thing among graphic designers was massive black square glasses. But now the eyewear seems to be more brownish and roundish. Instead the biggest common trend among young male graphic designers in Helsinki right now is the tiny black beanie.

The beanie sits tight in the head both indoors and outdoors. I counted six guys wearing black beanies. The rest of this illustrated gentleman above is a combination of the target group "black beanie guys". Beards, plaid shirts, black pants, shy posture. Maybe the warm beanie gives a feeling of shelter in the wild world of our times.

On the Street. Turban Hat Revival, Kamppi, Helsinki.

My steps walked a block amount the same journey with this lady. Interesting combination with the somewhat military style cape and turban hat. All accessories colored to match together perfectly. Saved to mind and drawn later. Check.

There has been a revival of turban hats already a few years. When I was kid it was only senior ladies who used turbans. The ones were made of panther pattern or red vine color tone velvet's. Many times combined with extra amount of black eye liner, emerald green eye shadow and lipstick. In my teen age years I thought that when I am old I start to use turban too.

But as mentioned, why wait old age! Turban hats has truly made it’s way back to women’s heads in all age groups. At least in Helsinki. There is cotton options for summer and merino wool for winter. Not to mention the fact that the turban is perfect accessory for bad hair day.

Where to get your own turban hat?

Herné products in Weecos >
I have bounced in to pretty new Finnish label Herné. It is available in Weecos webshop. It is a label of Heli Väätäinen and based on ecological and ethical values. All her products are hand made in Helsinki.

Ainamuoti Hatshop from Tampere Finland >
Another option found from Internet is Ainamuoti (in English Alwaysinfashion) Hat shop from Tampere Finland. They seem to have pretty decent selection of turbans. Even made of merino wool. If you prefer click your way to English version of the shop on the site.

If you are not familiar with Weecos, sustainable marketplace – it is the best place to find ecological products from Finland. It gathers responsible companies under one platform and gives consumers easy opportunity to make better choices in terms of sustainability. There is a wide variety of products for home, men, women, kids, bags and purses, accessories, jewelry, shoes, beauty and cosmetic products.

Go ahead and make visit to Weecos >

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I’m sharing these tips for pure joy. It is the concept of finnhits in this blog. There is no collaboration with the brands mentioned in this post. Check the finnhits tag below if you like to know more.

For Fun. Modigliani Exhibition in Ateneum Art Museum.

Folks it is Friday and we have weekend ahead. Many ideas rolling in the head what fun things to do. For a lazy Sunday a visit to a tranquil museum is a good alternative.

We just had a marvelous Amadeo Modigliani exhibition in Helsinki Ateneum Art Museum. Wow I was amazed to realize Modigliani had painted my portrait some ninety years ago. Look at above… I am just kidding. Truth is I felt a need to paint a Modigliani style selfie after the visit to the exhibition.

There seemed to be a formula and style that makes Modigliani's the way they are known for. Long neck, narrow long nose, slightly tilted head, eyes without details, some African influence from sculptures and consistent color palette.

I have heard an advice given to young people that are studying illustration. “Try to find a style of your own. When you find it stick to it and never change.” In Modigliani exhibition I had the feeling he had heard the same advice. Well, success it was.

Modigliani was not strongest guy in the means of health and therefor he passed away in his thirties. His time as active artist lasted only ten years. I wonder if his painting style would have evolved in time. As sample his time buddy Picasso's art was in constant change until his death. Or would Modigliani have been the guy who exaggerates the longitude of necks and noses for the decades in the same manner.

Now we can only guess. The show is over in Ateneum but if you’d like to read the biography and other background stories about Modigliani you can visit Ateneum Amadeo Modigliani in web.

On the Street. Dressing Up in Frozen Days, Lauttasaari Helsinki.

Yesterday the headlines of tabloid press were screaming: infernal cold period is approaching to stay for days to Finland. It’s been like this in this winter. The winter coldest weather comes in waves. This is already third time that the inferno of freezing cold is coming to Helsinki.

The gentleman in this post is captured from the last coldness cap of a wave. The layering and color theme captured my attention. Everything tinted to orange, browns, stripes of pants, details in sneakers and even his beard was reddish. A counterweight to the  camouflage pattern backpack and hoodie. Yes, I’m impressed.

Well, inferno and inferno of coldness. All is good as long as you have proper gear. Woolen layer is the base of happiness.

One Day. Sanna Pyykkö Illustrations Featured in Doodlers Anonymous

In Finland we have the saying: Who will raise the tail of the cat unless the cat itself.

Yesterday offered one of a kind surprise, when my Helsinki Street Style illustrations were featured in Doodlers Anonymous Member Spotlight series. I have been participating in their new feature where you can upload illustrations to given sections, like Portrait, Post-It Notes, Sketchbooks, Doodles on Objects, Urban Sketching…

In Doodlers Anonymous words:
Join the Doodlers Anonymous community of over 18,000+ doodlers and submit to the gallery. You'll get your artwork in the spotlight, interact with your peers and more. It's easy and free.

It seems they liked my stuff, and I had my 15 minutes of fame. I especially like the definition:

Her brutally honest blog ”Flash for Zonzon” shows an even greater extent of her artwork with a short, quirky narrative about exactly what she saw that day. What a great way to document the current, ever-changing fashion trends of your city!

Thank you my friends in Doodlers Anonymous!!!

Here is the link to the story: Doodlers Anonymous Member Spotlight: Sanna Pyykkö

And what about you? If you find your post-it notes filled with doodles, welcome to club!

On the Street. Own Space, Metro, Helsinki.

The other day I was traveling home with metro and saw this guy. The arrogant facial expression tells the story of inconvenience. Forced to travel among the people. Oh, at least the music (or whatever he is listening) gives some barrier against the existing situation.

His haircut gives him a poetic touch together with the feather hanging the bag. The feather itself is a life saver reflector, which will flash when the light hits it in the middle of dark.

He is a good example of the Finnish state of mind. It is the fact that a Finn needs a lot more space around than many other nations. In a crowded place like metro it may feel more convenient to stand instead of sitting next to strangers.

On the Street. Pink Chunky Beanie, Lauttasaari, Helsinki.

I saw this lady coming through snowy landscape. I truly loved the atypical color combination in her outfit. The pink chunky beanie crowned her style.

On the Street. Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Postikatu, Helsinki.

Sometimes I think fashion is an ultimate form of degeneration. Walking around town quickly reveals the latest trend in fashion. Every other person looks like fallen and has therefore torn trousers knees. Ripped slit manifest itself some attention in the form of pale knees.

Then I found even from local grocery store jeans with ready made slits in knees. Humanity has come this far that we buy clothes that are pre torn for us. I think this is degeneration if any.

In these days when we should put all our effort to sustainable development this trend feels foolish. Okay maybe I’m getting old and intolerant. Forgive me.

This poor guy is my mannequin that shows us this ripped knees trend. Another trend is the quilted jacket he has. Shiny quite narrow sausage jacket, as I call it. Fits well for a narrow guy as he. Well considered detail was in his manner to reveal the ankles by rolling up trousers legs. Slender ankles, I admit.