Mari Ahokoivu

Bazar Masarin: Barnkonventionen

© Mari Ahokoivu

Mari Ahokoivu

Intervju: Susanne SandströmWho is Mari Ahokoivu?

I’m an illustrator and a comics artist from Finland, living in Denmark.

How did it all begin…how and why did you start making illustrations/picturebooks?

I have a background in comics, and just recently started to do more illustrations. I’ve always loved to draw, and quickly found out drawing was the best way for me to express myself. I grew up reading comics like Elfquest and Tank girl as well as Finnish artists like Ville Ranta and Katja Tukiainen, who inspired me to start drawing my own comics.

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With comics I always felt like my style was too ”cute”. As a woman drawing comics, cute is something you don’t really want to be called, or at least I didn’t. So when I started to draw children’s books, in some way I felt free to draw as cute as I can. I enjoyed that very much, and I think that has pushed me to do more children’s books. I still draw comics, and consider comics artist my main profession.

What does your (creative) working process look like? What techniques and tools are important for the process?

I work with both digital and traditional techniques, depending on the story and the mood I want to bring to the illustrations. My go to technique is photoshop+cintiq drawing board, but I also love watercolour and gouache and also just traditional ink and a dip pen. At the start of a new project I usually do sketches of the characters with different medias and see what feels the best way to go. This usually is the most time consuming part of a project, I tend to be quite quick with the final drawing.

Where do you get inspiration from? What, whom are you influenced by?

Where ever I can! I like watching movies and reading books, sometimes it feels like I’m always at work, trying to soak up inspiration from everything really. I kind of have a horror period right now, I’m watching a lot of horror movies and reading scary literature. I’m working on a horror comic and my dream is to one day do horror books for children.

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Lately I’ve been very inspired by Carson Ellis and other illustrators working with gouache. I’m also very much hooked with instagram, following many insanely talented artists.

Challenges? On an individual and Market level - Which are they?

Do you have a favourite illustrator/artist/picturebookmaker?

Mauri Kunnas is THE picture bookmaker for me, but I also love Carson Ellis, Aino-Maija Metsola, Kate Beaton, Richard Scarry and of course Tove Jansson.

© Mari Ahokoivu

I live in Denmark, but work mainly for Finnish and Swedish publishers. Sometimes the distance causes a bit of problem when I can’t have face to face meetings that often, or when I have to explain the tax office about my income, but usually everything works smoothly with e-mails. The huge pressure of being active in social media sometimes takes a toll, but I try to be as much myself as I can and post as often as I can.

Which books from childhood do you remember (cherish)? Why this specific book/illustrator, do you think?

I loved children’s horror when I was a kid, and my favourites were The little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg and Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World by Eric Maple and others ( called Noidan käsikirja (Witche’s handbook) in Finnish). Finnish illustrator and author of children’s book Mauri Kunnas has also always been my favourite. From comics I read a lot of Elfquest, Asterix & Obelix and Donald Duck, very mainstream stuff, until I discovered Finnish artists like Ville Ranta, Katja Tukiainen, Kaisa Leka and Terhi Ekebom, and expanded my love of comics to pretty much all the genres there is (I still love Elfquest btw!).

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The best and the worst when it comes to being an artist/illustrator?

The best: you get to draw all day and decide on your working hours. The worst: you have to draw all day, even if you don’t feel like it and when you decided yesterday to have a day off, you have to work late to the evening today. The thing is with making something you love your job, is that you have to prepare for the times you will hate it. You will hate drawing, and you just can’t get in to the zone, but you HAVE to keep on drawing because of the deadlines. Sometimes this can feel too much, and you just want to quit. But if you can push past those times, you will get back to the flow of inspiration. And when you finally get the finished book in your hand, the one you struggled with, and even though you can see all the ”mistakes” still there, the feeling is so great you will start to plan your next book immediately.

Dream assignement – what would it look like?

I would love to try my hand on drawing horror for children. Children’s horror books are the ones I grew up with, like The little Vampire and Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World, and loved them so much.

I would want to try my hand on doing something like that myself.

Can you tell us about the making of Gulliga lillebror?

Raben & Sjögrèn had published a children’s comic I made with Kalle Hakkola, so they knew my work from that. I was asked to illustrate Gulliga lillebror, and loved Moa Eriksson Sandbergs story immediately. We mostly worked via e-mail, and I got a chance to practice my Swedish (witch is sadly not that good). I had lot of fun drawing Dorran and the other characters, and got lots of very useful feedback from Raben & Sjögrèn.

What are you currently working on?

I’m illustrating couple of children’s books for Finnish publishers, one is a fact book about climate change for children, written by Laura Ertimo, another is a picture book about differen researchers and what they do, written by Tero Mielonen. I’m also working on my next graphic novel, a horror story adaption of Edith Whartons short story the Lady’s Maid’s Bell. At the same time I’m also planning to do more webcomics and other children’s book illustrations. So I’m keeping myself busy!

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