Extras

Teaching

I have been teaching at the Repin Institute since 2016 (as well as other institutions in Finland). Due to my busy schedule, I am currently taking a break from teaching. Please check from time to time for updates on upcoming courses and workshops.

Cool Resources

Here's a few resources that I’ve found useful by category. I'll be expanding this later, I'm hoping this could become a reference tool for you to always check when you have an issue that you want to get better at, buying a book on a subject and so on. I don't want to put a bunch of links here, have it as a flavor of the month type post. Instead I want to include only the ones I've throughly checked and have found useful for myself, the true diamonds.

On Visual Art

Here's a list of some of my favorite educational books on drawing and painting. I've got a bunch, and I'm picky, so to make this list is tough. When educating yourself, I believe in focusing on a few good sources and really studying them, so rather buy 1 book off this list and read it 10 times, than buy 100 books and read them…once even. Yes, I try to read every book I get. Some of these I've read numerous times, but I also know that all the answers lie here, if I just look close enough. Art really isn't rocket science, but it'll probably take you longer to master due to its infinite possibilities within its simple rule set.

Drawing:

‘Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters’ by Robert Beverly Hale. Containing 100 master drawings with really nitty-gritty analysis by one of the 20th century master teachers. As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of most of the classic art education books, so no Speed, Ruskin, Solomon, Vanderpoel to be seen on the list. But this Hale’s book is dynamite.

‘Lessons in Classical Drawing’, ‘Classical Drawing Atelier’ by Juliette Aristides. These are both excellent. To put out such concise text with lots of well thought-out information demonstrates great skill and is a trait that I value in learning.

The sculpting books by Philippe & Charisse Faraut. Wait, these books are on sculpting! Whaaa... Well, I’m putting them here, because in my view they're the best resources for studying value and form. You pick up one of these babies and draw and render using the exquisite black and white photos as your reference, and you’ve got yourself one helluva learning tool. These books blow me away with their quality.

Painting:

‘The Complete Oil Painter’ By Brian Gorst. I’m recommending this as the go-to-book for beginners. At it’ll serve you well later on, just check out the amazing paint-by-material comparison chart. Very well laid out covering an amazing amount of information within its slim packaging.

‘Alla Prima II’ by Richard Schmid. Ok, so everyone raves about this book, and it’s good. Even excellent. Pricey with a bit cumbersome format and layout, but with humor-filled text that oozes with expertise, it’s a great and informative read. And it’s got some nice pictures too 🙂

‘Lessons in Classical Painting’, ‘Classical Painting Atelier’ by Juliette Aristides. Very good both again. These works are fundamental in understanding the depth of history and methodology behind the atelier system.

‘Color and Light’, ‘Imaginative Realism’ by James Gurney. I’m obviously a big fan of his Dinotopia-books, Gurney being one of the forerunners of creating visual books, the genre that I’m trying to push forward in my own way. These two educational tomes are great at giving tons of information in a beautiful package. He’s also put out some fun videos plus the very cool blog.

On Writing

Author Level Up
I'm a fan of Michael La Ronn's friendly and clear approach, especially in his videos. There’s some good information here on self-publishing and writing in general.

Self-publishing Podcast
These guys are chock full of fun and information on writing and the self-publishing world. I'm also recommending their 'Write. Publish. Repeat.' -book that covers a lot of information, is fun to read and gets quite personal by using their own journey as an example…and that's always valuable.

Miscellaneous

tainalaane.com
Ok, so I have to give props to my wife Taina Laane. She's a phenomenal writer and an all-around guru of the mind. Her site is in Finnish, so if you're local, I urge you to check out her books and speaking gigs and prepare to get inspired by her (I do every day).

bhakticreative.com
She's the talented force behind the site you're experiencing right now.

Cryptica Background Story

The story of Cryptica was six years in the making. I got the impetus and vision for the concept when I experienced some classically painted portraits of monks by the likes of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Rubens. I started to imagine who they were and what were they doing in such a dark place. Then a pencil sketch came from deep within my subconscious, which later turned into the cover.

Me, my brother and a neighbor have been used as some of the models for the portraits. In fact, you can find my mug in two of the brothers.

The portraits of Cryptica are done in the Tenebristic style. It uses dramatic lights and darks to bring an effect. It uses very pronounced Chiaroscuro, which is a term most know, but generally misused. The artist Caravaggio is generally credited with the invention of the style, although the technique was used much earlier by various artists.

You might wonder about the cover for Cryptica and what's with the giant shadow. If you read the story, you'll discover more, but to get another angle, you might also look at some old Mad-magazines. 'What now?' you're saying. There you might find Sergio Aragones's 'Shadow Knows'-strips and it can give you more of an idea what's going on. At least I think that idea might have influenced me here—it's curious how things from childhood can manifest themselves later on in life. I certainly did read a lot of comics as a kid, so keep doing the things you're interested in (I stopped for a long time and that was not wise).

Oh, and I do have a slight case of Arachnophobia.

Monk artwork from the gothic thriller Cryptica by Paul Laane

Cryptica Background Story

The story of Cryptica was six years in the making. I got the impetus and vision for the concept when I experienced some classically painted portraits of monks by the likes of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Rubens. I started to imagine who they were and what were they doing in such a dark place. Then a pencil sketch came from deep within my subconscious, which later turned into the cover.

Me, my brother and a neighbor have been used as some of the models for the portraits. In fact, you can find my mug in two of the brothers.

The portraits of Cryptica are done in the Tenebristic style. It uses dramatic lights and darks to bring an effect. It uses very pronounced Chiaroscuro, which is a term most know, but generally misused. The artist Caravaggio is generally credited with the invention of the style, although the technique was used much earlier by various artists.

You might wonder about the cover for Cryptica and what's with the giant shadow. If you read the story, you'll discover more, but to get another angle, you might also look at some old Mad-magazines. 'What now?' you're saying. There you might find Sergio Aragones's 'Shadow Knows'-strips and it can give you more of an idea what's going on. At least I think that idea might have influenced me here—it's curious how things from childhood can manifest themselves later on in life. I certainly did read a lot of comics as a kid, so keep doing the things you're interested in (I stopped for a long time and that was not wise).

Oh, and I do have a slight case of Arachnophobia.