proteesiukkonen

[proteesiukkonen]

Merry midsummer. Swim responsibly.

[proteesiukkonen]

Managed to developed what seems to be a compressed nerve in my left arm, and its making my index and middle fingertips kinda numb and tingly. It's pretty annoying, but at least I'm getting valuable first hand (ehe) information of what it feels like when your arm nerve can't quite nerve.

[proteesiukkonen]

Häpi praid mönth.

[proteesiukkonen]

hi... i always like seeing ur characters (: i realised i don't know what pepe's girlfriend's name is, or much about her story... also how did they meet?

Heyy, super nice to hear you like my stuff! Thanks for asking, I’m sure you’re not the only one who doesn’t know much about her ahaha. I’m bad at providing info for my settings / characters aside from a few moments of insanity (and Ellinor’s not even mine so it’s even worse). This might get a bit rambly so here’s the tl;dr, more behind the cut:

For context, Ellinor is my partner’s character, and the setting I tag as ”thugs and birds” is our shared 80s inspired AU for a bunch of our characters. These days it’s mostly my fixation playground and while I have my spouse’s blessing to borrow Ellinor for whatever, I do oftentimes just kinda end up vaguing about her because I’m not her main driver, so to speak. (And like a boss I forgot to consult my spouse about any of the details here before she left for a trip abroad so this is all now based on my vibe haha oops, I'll come back with an addendum if I got anything wrong.)

What's the story

So uhh in this setting Ellinor is a songstress who rose to (local) fame and fortune by arranging a, should we say, somewhat shady "sponsorship" deal with a rich and influential businesslady who happened to be looking for a new act for her upscale jazz club. This businesslady (Gunilla is her name) is, unbeknowst to Ellinor, also the leader of an influential crime syndicate - the very same Pepe works for.

The deal is such that Gunilla provides Ellinor with all the monetary help she (supposedly) needs to advance her career, and Ellinor is to work off the debt through ticket sales for her shows in the aforementioned club. The help started as private classes and down-payments for venues, but quickly escalated into racks and racks of expensive design dresses, jewelry and moving to a royal suite in a luxury hotel. So even though Ellinor brings in a good amount of revenue via ticket sales, the debt doesn't go anywhere due to all the accumulating luxuries that get written as expenses, so she's pretty much stuck in her situation.

Ellinor completely understands the state of things, but from her perspective she's benefiting from the arrangement. She has also cultivated a good personal relationship with Gunilla, and often gets taken along as her "plus one" to formal business soirées and benefit nights. While their relationship is more professional than anything else, getting to go to fancy events on the arm of a sophisticated older lady counts as a hefty bonus for Ellinor.

All in all, Ellinor may be stuck in golden cage, but she herself is also one of the things holding the cage closed.

How did they meet

SO I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE LMAO. Or like, we discussed it with my partner at some point way back when we came up with the setting, but that's kinda old by now and we haven't really gone through it again as we've continued to develop the setting, so the precise events have been left vague.

But the basic premise is, that even before they formally meet, Pepe knows of Ellinor because she is famous and because they both "work" for the same boss, while Ellinor of course doesn't know Pepe or that Gunilla has a whole entire apparatus of violence and crime up in her sleeve.

The way the two "branches" of the, uhh, Gunilla corp. is set up, is that the people on the extortion/murder/money laundering side aren't to come in contact with the people on the legal side of things, aside from a few trusted individuals. So Pepe, having the approximate value of a piece of lint, should basically avoid Ellinor like she's radioactive. But then of course she doesn't because she's stupid and they kinda hit it off in their own dysfunctional way, hijinks ensue. I'd want to examine their dynamic and reasons for why they do and don't get along in a comic format some day, so I won't go too deep into it.

...I don't know if this answered anything, but it has turned into such a wall of text that I thinks it's best to end the ramblings here. Thanks once again for asking, and especially if you read all the way through lol.

[proteesiukkonen]

Bonus no-one asked for

Someone needs to confiscate early 00s Finnish pop rock from me, it’s making me draw silly things.

[proteesiukkonen]

Someone needs to confiscate early 00s Finnish pop rock from me, it’s making me draw silly things.

[proteesiukkonen]

The main perk of drawing is getting to draw so many hands.

[proteesiukkonen]

That’s the dream.

[proteesiukkonen]

Couple of quick drawings from an idea I scrapped

[proteesiukkonen]

It’s been so long since I’ve drawn my characters that I started to think that I might as well never draw them cause they exist perfectly in my head anyway, and I think that’s a sign I should get them (and myself) out of my head for a while.

[proteesiukkonen]

Do u accept commissions

Not currently, and I have no plans to any time soon, sorry!

[proteesiukkonen]

I'm taking all news of Tumblr's impending death with multiple grains of salt, but tbh I think I'm at a point where my online existence is on the same ventilator as tumblr so when this platform takes its last gasps so will I fade into the sweet obscurity of offline lmao.

[proteesiukkonen]

It's been quiet here, I'm just very into (a game and) drawing small squiggly things I can put some ink on right now.

I’m so excited by how well my new sketchbook treats my inks - I can get even surfaces and smooth gradients, the paper can take quite a lot of water before getting noticeably wrinkly, and I need to go pretty nuts with the ink before it starts to bleed.

I’d be so powerful if I wanted to use these for anything but adding a little drop of readability to my doodles lmao.

[proteesiukkonen]

Happy birthday!!

Thank you, kind anon!

[proteesiukkonen]

Thank you for the birthday wishes, everyone! I've had a lovely weekend with birthday-related activities such as good food, good friends and visiting several art exhibitions (one of which was of surrealism and I fell in love with Tony Oursler's Talking Light).

Well if it isn't a happy birthday to me kind of a day today.

Feel free to use this as an excuse to get yourself a little treat.

[proteesiukkonen]

Well if it isn't a happy birthday to me kind of a day today.

Feel free to use this as an excuse to get yourself a little treat.

[proteesiukkonen]

I may miss my brown paper sketchbook but this new one is divine for my ink pens.