I was immediately captivated when I first came across the artworks of Pete Revonkorpi from Finland. My little inner child came out to play and intermingle with these amazing fantasy images, and so now at last, I am able to publish a little biography on his behalf here for you all to see! Don't we all have childhood impressions and memories that we cherish - even if our personal circumstances were not always all they might have been? I'm sure that if anyone hasn't come across his works yet, you will also find yourself thrown back into another world when you take a peek at his gallery...

Biography of *pesare

How It All Began

My first memory of drawing, and really expressing emotion by drawing is from my childhood. I was angry at something and doodled a number of messy lines with crayons on the walls of my room. I doubt it helped me feel much better, probably just got me grounded. But I think it does say something that I do not remember the anger, or why I was angry, or what happened after that, but I do remember the lines and even the colors.

More seriously, I started to draw and paint actually just two or maybe three years ago (although I have been doodling for my whole life). I have always wanted to be a writer, or at least as long as I can remember. And I always thought I would write these serious books that have over a thousand pages and give you a headache. Or deep poems that would touch the very core of humanity. That was when I was a teenager and read authors like Dostojevsky and Goethe. But then something happened when I was about twenty, and I read a story called Ronja the Robber's daughter.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter was the first book and the first story I remember ever reading or even hearing when I was still a child, then about fifteen years passed and I had forgotten all about it. But when I read it again it was an incredible experience. I could actually smell certain scents from my childhood, and remember little things that were wonderful but had no importance at all. I really was back in that forest where I played as a child - and all because of a "simple" children's book. I cried through all of the pages, and when I closed the book I thought: "This has got to be the most powerful form of art there is."
And so - I became an aspiring children's book author. And after that, because the books would need illustrations, I decided I would learn how to illustrate too.

I don't have any formal art training. I'm self taught - although, I really cannot say self taught, because I've learned by watching the paintings and illustrations that others have made. And by putting that into practice, of course... Making a picture and then when it looks awful, trying to find out what it is that looks awful in it and then trying not repeat that in the next picture.

At the moment, I would say that it is, and it is not, my way of earning a living now. I'm a freelance illustrator, which basically means that I'm just trying to survive. Where ever I can get a buck, it is welcomed. We say here in Finland that "in small crumbs is my bread scattered around the world", and that is pretty much the truth.

Influences and Sources of Inspirations

There are other, varying, artists in my family: My father does photography, and actually has a gallery here at dA - My older brother is a musician and plays the drums in a band called Leverage and he also does some graphic designing; and my younger brother does 3d-animation and design, so there's an inherent artistic nature in our midst.

I would say though that I am mostly influenced by other illustrators, and there are a lot of great ones that I admire and have learned from. To give you some names I would say Tove Jansson (not so much the style but the spirit of her work), Julia Gukova, Maurice Sendak and many many more...

So far as what inspires my work goes, I'd say anything can be inspiring, but I try to look at things and see the invisible side of them.

It's like when I was a child, there was a house in our very very small home town that burned down. And after it had burned, everybody came to look at it. Everybody talked about it. But it wasn't the house itself that was interesting (it was just a pile of burned wood), however, what had been going on inside the house? Who or what caused the fire? Did somebody die? Was there crime involved? Those were the reasons people came to see the burnt house, not just the pile of burnt wood and rubble that was left, although everyone of us tried to take a peek through it's windows, now that they had no glass!

My artistic preferences are mostly childish or fantasy flavored. But the subject itself makes no difference to me. You can see magic and beauty everywhere.

When I create a picture, I use Corel Painter IX, in which I mostly use oil and acrylic brushes, that I then tweak a little depending on what kind of result I want or need.

Three Favourites

These below all represent fairly well what I do and want to do as a whole...

Starfisher: I like the atmosphere of this as it really does remind me of my childhood, and especially those summer nights and the fishing trips with my grand father.

The Gardener: I like the over all soft and natural look I managed to pull out in this one.

The Land of the Lonely: This has been in my gallery for a while now, and it still doesn't annoy me! And it has the theme of loneliness (which is something I seem to do a lot, more or less knowingly), but it also has some hope, and even a little irony in it. It also speaks of coming friendships.

Advice For Others

I'm not sure if I'm in a position to give advice, but I guess I would say that the most important things are the ones everybody keeps telling you...

Paint a lot, and keep your eyes open where ever you are.

Share your work, don't hide the fact that you want to be an artist from people.

Tell people you paint and show them your work - even if you don't think you are that good. You'll learn a lot. And fortunately, these days, we have places like deviantArt.

And The Future?

Do I have plans for diversification in the future? Well yes and no! When it comes to the techniques and the media, I'll probably continue to paint digitally, as it just suits me and my purpose so well. The only downside of digital paining is that you don't create original artworks (on paper or canvas) - but that doesn't bother me, because I make pictures and not objects.

I would, however, love to learn new techniques, if for no other reason than just for fun. In short, my future plans are to become better at what I do.

A Selection from Pesare's Gallery

Digital Works




Traditional works




<sub>(I have carried out a series of interviews, and hope to continue to do so. If you have never seen any of the previous ones, please click HERE and you will see links to all of them listed in my journal. Some were carried out with `DWALKER1047 also.)

Here is a stamp for anyone who has been interviewed by me to use on their journal or shoutboard if desired...



Or if interviewed by both of us...</sub>