The pictures show no faces

The pictures in these guides are graphite pencil sketches. The subject is a piece of kit, not a person. One clear object on porous, bone white paper, measurement arrows and construction lines left visible, edges deliberately unfinished.

Three subjects show what that means. Worn leather field boots drying beside folded wool socks, laces loosened, insoles pulled out. Three clothing layers laid flat in a row on the ground, sleeves aligned. An open rucksack with its contents in a neat row beside it. Nobody appears in any of them. Each one is still the trace of someone.

A drawing states

A photograph presents a situation. A drawing states an object. The difference sits in our own guidance as one line. A drawing states, it does not advertise.

We borrowed the technique from old field manuals, where kit was drawn open as an illustration plate. It is the imagery of lived military culture, not a style laid over the top of one.

The same technique repeats in every article. A locked style makes an article look like Potero before a line of it is read, and the chosen subject keeps the picture tied to the text. A generic stock illustration would do the opposite.

The scene version was rejected

Two versions of the style were put side by side. One was an object study, a single subject and a lot of empty paper. The other was a field scene with forest, figures seen from behind and the whole situation at once. Both were acceptable pictures. We chose the object study and locked it.

The reason is not style. A drawn scene is a claim about how something is done, and a picture like that gets examined. An examining eye always finds something. Wrong spacing, wrong order, wrong stance. An arrangement cannot be wrong in that way, because kit laid out in a row is the thing that actually happens. Kit is spread out, checked and packed again so that what is needed can be found in the dark. None of that needs acting out.

The beginning and the end get into the picture

Subjects come from a short list. Forest, rain, snow, darkness. Maintenance of kit, coffee, boots, gloves, rucksacks. Hands and details. The ordinary transition, the car, the yard, the path, the gym.

The list carries one condition that does not look like a condition at first. From training, the beginning or the end qualifies, not the middle. The picture gets the moment when kit is dug out or put away, not the moment it is used. It is the same line as the boots left to dry. The trace qualifies, the event does not.

Hands are the exception. They may show, faces may not. A hand says somebody did something without saying who. A figure seen from behind works for the same reason. That is as much of a person as the picture takes.

The look is borrowed, the content is not

The sketch borrows the look of a reconnaissance drawing. Arrows, hatching, measurement marks and a careful freehand line are allowed. A map, coordinates, a grid and unit symbols are not. The same goes for faces, name tapes and weapons.

The line is harder than it looks, and hard on purpose. A picture says what something looks like, not how it is done. A map in the sketch would be good drawing and the wrong picture. Our guidance puts it in one sentence. Document the culture, not the procedures.

Heritage is handled by the same rule. Illustration plates in old field manuals are culture, and anyone is free to read them. Insignia are not. We do not draw a unit marking into the sketch, or anything that would look official. Potero Standard is not in official cooperation with the Finnish Defence Forces and does not use Finnish Defence Forces insignia, and a picture must not suggest otherwise.

The paper is the picture, not a backing

The surface of the paper belongs to the picture. Fibrous grain, small flecks and uneven tone stay visible through the graphite as well, like old manual stock. The description of the paper was written into the guidance more precisely on purpose, so that the grain shows for certain.

The notebook was ruled out at the same time. No covers, no binding, no page edge, no tape and no desk for the paper to rest on. A notebook in the picture would turn the sketch into an object being looked at. Without it the sketch is what is being looked at.

A Finnish description is also written for anyone who cannot see the picture. It says what is on the paper, not how the picture feels. Boots drying, wool socks folded, insoles pulled out. The same rule as in the drawing. State it, do not set a mood.

What the rule costs

The easiest picture is the one the rule does not allow. A person in a hoodie, looking at the camera, face recognisable. It would do more work in a shop than a drawn boot. We pay that knowingly.

The second cost comes up every time. One picture is made per article, and the style is not adjusted picture by picture. If text, a map, a face, colour or a weapon appears in it, it is not corrected into shape and no stock photo is found to replace it. The article is published without a picture. An empty space is cheaper than a wrong picture.

The front stays quiet and the back print carries the design. The same order applies to the pictures. A drawing does not fill the paper, and it is not meant to.