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Lumia
October 21, 2014

Lumiartistic! How Toni Kasurinen takes his art to the next level



Toni Kasurinen, an artist and illustrator from Finland, is a master at combining traditional and digital methods in his art.

In addition to his beautiful paintings and drawings, another reason why we immediately spotted him in the deviantART creative community is his Lumia 635.

“Lumia 635 is an indelible part of my artistic process, giving that extra shine to my artworks,” Toni told us. To find out about the wonders your Lumia can do to your doodles, designs and donatellos, too, read the rest of Toni’s thoughts and tips down below. Most importantly, check out his fantastic artworks as the ultimate proof that he knows what he’s talking about.

How did you become an artist and what do you do professionally?

I graduated from Lahti University of Applied Science with a BEng degree in Media Technology, Visualization Engineering in 2012. I’m currently working as a 3d artist, but recently I have focused more and more on 2d art and illustrations.

When it comes to becoming an artist, it happened little by little. I have always been interested in arts, artists, different techniques and media, as well as computers and graphics applications. I try to test all the painting and drawing programs available to see what unique features they can offer.

toni kasurinen lumia 1

In 2010 I bought the Nokia N900 smartphone and got really into digital painting. I was browsing the maemo.org forum and discovered the MyPaint open-source graphics application for digital painters. Another great thing about this forum, for which I’m really grateful, was the support from other users.

This was the beginning of a daily painting habit, which fuelled my interest to draw and paint more and more. Now I’ve even started to draw and paint with pencils in a sketchbook, which I’ve never done seriously before.

How long have you had your Lumia and what do you like best about it?

I have used the Lumia 635 for just two months now and I’m happy with it as a smartphone. I like the maps, social media and the camera, but what I absolutely love best about it is the possibility to edit my artworks on the go. There are so many free image-editing tools available. I transfer my Nokia N900 MyPaint paintings via Bluetooth to the Lumia 635. For traditional art, the transfer procedure is a even easier: I just take a photo!

I’m still amazed by how compact and powerful a package the Lumia 635 is. I don’t necessarily need a desktop computer at all to edit my artworks. There’s no problem sending my mobile artworks straight to print either, they still look great.

Could you tell us in more detail how you use the Lumia 635 for your art?

I usually crop my Nokia N900 MyPaint artworks first, for which I use Adobe Photoshop Express.

toni kasurinen lumia 2

Adobe Photoshop Express has a nice “straighten slider”, which makes it easy to experiment and discover interesting compositions by tilting the images a little.

toni kasurinen lumia 3

After I have cropped the image and fine-tuned the composition, I start to experiment with the different image-editing applications on my Lumia 635. My process involves just trying out different options to find the mood I want. Usually I leave my N900 MyPaint paintings a bit plain and pale, because I know that I can nail the look much faster in post-processing.

toni kasurinen lumia 4

For the picture below. I was sketching traditionally with a pencil, colored pencils and watercolours. I snapped a photo with my Lumia 635, transferred it to my Nokia N900 and started to paint on top of it.

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How do you combine your Lumia 635 with more traditional art methods, like coloured pencils and watercolours?

Instead of scanning my sketchbook artworks, I just take a photo with my Lumia 635. It is fantastic to know that I can adjust the colours, saturation and contrast as well as add effects afterwards. Sometimes I also take a photo of my initial pencil sketch and save it. If something goes terribly wrong, I can use it later, either digitally or traditionally.

toni kasurinen lumia 6

Which apps would you recommend to other Lumia artists and why?

Adobe Photoshop Express has a good cropping tool with the abovementioned straighten slider, and some attractive looks, like Autumn, Bueno and Dappled. The adjustments are also excellent.

Lumia Creative Studio offers useful and easy blurring/tilt-shift features as well as fabulous adjustments and some nice looks.

Lomogram includes lots of different looks and a great tilt-shift/blur effect, plus some good overlay frames and light frame effects to grunge your art.

Fantasia Painter Free excels at effects and has a very comprehensive adjustment selection, with the unique possibility of painting those on an image. I mostly use the Vignette effects, Styles and Adjustments. I’m not that keen on those artistic effects yet, but maybe I’ll make more use of them one day.

Photo Editor+ is only here because I haven’t found a resize-function in any other program. I usually upscale my Nokia N900 MyPaint paintings, it is essential to me.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your art?

My main aims are to become a better person and create more and more art. For me digital editing has always been a part of the process, but it’s only recently that I’ve accepted there’s nothing wrong with it. I can combine traditional art with digital editing and vice versa.

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Well, if you ask us at Conversations, Toni’s already done something to become an even better person by sharing his insights with us! But what do you think of his art and the magic of digital editing? Have you tried the apps Toni mentions and which one gets your thumbs up? We’re waiting to hear from all Lumia artists out there, whether aspiring or established, so please add your contribution to the comments below.