Color the Emotion

Pick a few colors and create without stiffness.

How to Combine Watercolors and Colored Pencils

In my new online course Freely Grown, we will use watercolors and colored pencils for a flower painting. Here are the basics for using both in the same piece.

Abstract floral watercolor painting that has been finished with colored pencils. By the Finnish artist Paivi Eerola.

Watercolors and colored pencils have quite a lot in common, even though one is used for painting and the other for drawing.

Choosing the Paper

Both like thick and smooth watercolor paper. Of course, watercolors like textured paper too, but colored pencils are a bit more selective. I find it most enjoyable to color on Hot Press quality paper that has very little surface texture. But if you only have textured Cold Press paper in your stock, just start experimenting right away and buy smoother paper later!

All Brands Work Together

In both watercolors and colored pencils, you can combine different brands.

Well-used watercolor set.

I also have many different brands in my watercolor set and even though I work with pans, some of the pans are pressed from tube colors. And I love to try different brands of colored pencils and organize them by color family.

Proceed Layer by Layer

When creating, it is good to start carefully with both watercolors and colored pencils. Introduce a new color little by little and change it layer by layer. Always dry the lower layer of watercolor first before adding another layer on top.

Different kinds of watercolor brushes
I like to use at least three brushes for watercolors: one flat, one round, and one narrow.

Translucent layers produce new color mixes. By saving the effect of white paper, you will have a more effortless look than if you color white later.

Watercolors First, Colored Pencils Second

You can color over a dry watercolor painting with colored pencils, but not vice versa. Sure, there are watercolor pencils that dissolve in water, but I usually use all of them dry. So I do a watercolor painting first, and then finish it with colored pencils.

Choosing colored pencils for a watercolor painting.

Painting with watercolors is fast, but drying between layers takes time. Colored pencils are slow, but the mark is detailed and you can immediately add a new layer.

Finishing a watercolor painting with colored pencils.

The quickest solution is to paint most of the work with watercolors and only emphasize the highlights and add details with colored pencils.

A detail of a watercolor painting that has been finished with colored pencils. By Päivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

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Watercolor Fairies – Painting the Magic of Nature

I’ve been going through my art supplies lately and reflecting on my path as an artist so far. In recent blog posts, I’ve featured drawings, but now we’re moving on to watercolors. This post is about painting watercolor fairies and the wilderness around them.

Watercolor fairy by Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

Watercolor Surfaces – Aquabord vs. Paper

I love thick watercolor paper, but I made a special find in my stash: a hard base meant for watercolors. I bought it years ago but had forgotten it. But now I had to try this Ampersand Aquabord!

Watercolor painting supplies. Ampersand AquaBord replacing paper.

Watercolors have a built-in sense of surprise that keeps me interested in the work. Still, you can also do accurate and illustrative details. I like to use a lot of water at the beginning and less at the end. Even if Aquabord is surprisingly absorbent, I prefer the effects that a good-quality paper creates. But maybe this is the thing that would need more practice. It is said that to get to know a certain paper, tens of experiments are needed.

Starting an intuitive painting. Painting on Ampersand Aquabord.

When the painting progresses I move on to negative painting, so paint the background in such a way that I leave the shapes from the previous layers exposed to maintain the brightness.

Lifting color from Ampersand Aquabord. Painting in progress.

Aquabord turned out to be more convenient than paper in keeping the painting light. It is easy to wipe off color with either a rag or a dry brush. But even if lifting color is harder on paper, I still would prefer watercolor paper, especially 100% cotton, because it feels so wonderful! However, for beginner watercolorists, Aquabord is great because you can erase and start over!

Watercolor Fairies

About four years ago, my watercolor set was a close friend, and I thought I was at my best in watercolor painting. One of my favorite subjects in watercolor was fairy-tale characters – spirits of nature that rise from the surrounding greenery and have the sensitivity of a butterfly. It was also fun to come up with names for them!

Cherimona / Symbiosis II, a watercolor painting by Paivi Eerola, Finland. See how she paints watercolor fairies!
Cherimona
Shyeling, a watercolor painting by Paivi Eerola, Finland. See how she paints watercolor fairies!
Shyeling
Aquanora, a watercolor painting by Paivi Eerola, Finland. See how she paints watercolor fairies!
Aquanora
Mirimer, a watercolor painting by Paivi Eerola, Finland. See how she paints watercolor fairies!
Mirimer

When painting a watercolor, a character can appear by accident. It’s fascinating to see who comes up as the round shapes of the plants encourage the spirit to emerge.

Watercolor painting in progress. Painting organic plant shapes.

Even though nowadays I mostly paint with oil, I still want to step into wild nature with a brush and listen to my intuition. Watercolors have taught me a way to first splash freely and then finish with intention.

Magical Forest with Watercolor Fairies

I have also made a watercolor course about this kind of intuitive nature painting: Magical Forest.

Magical Forest combines light with hope, trees with spirituality, water with flow, and wilderness with curiosity.

Flower or Fairy?

In this work on Aquabord, I first thought that the weird purple flower could be enough of a character. But after looking at the flower for a while, I felt that someone was squatting under it.

Watercolor painting in progress. First a flower, and after this, a fairy!

And it wasn’t a shy spirit either, but quite lively.

Painting facial features for magical characters.

I even painted hands for her.

A detail of a fairy painting by Paivi Eerola, Finland.

The butterfly flew there too as if by accident!

What Makes a Fairytale?

In my opinion, a watercolor painting with a fairy tale character can leave a lot of guesswork. The mystery is allowed! There may be abstract shapes that only describe the atmosphere rather than anything else.

Holding a small watercolor painting, painted on Ampersand Aquabord. By Paivi Eerola, Finland. See how she paints watercolor fairies!

When the shy watercolor fairies started appearing in my art in 2019, they represented the part of me that is needed for making art. Now my artist fairy is more confident and cooperative and is not afraid to appear when called.

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Magical Forest online course

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Art Supplies and Emotions

This week, we ponder what kind of feelings and emotions our art supplies raise in us.

Do you remember these small paintings from a few weeks ago?

Four small oil paintings by the artist Päivi Eerola, Finland.
Four small oil paintings, 15 x 15 cm each.

I now got the fourth one finished, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of them together. These are only 6 by 6 inches, and the small size enables me to study a style or an idea before making a bigger painting. So, in a way, these are like pages in an art journal – small art that is delightful to create and look at but that doesn’t fill a wall. It’s the first time I feel I can create quick experiments directly in oils. And this brings us to the topic of art supplies.

Crayons, Inks, and All the Possibilities

I have now painted on canvas in oil for over two years, and most of the other art supplies don’t inspire me so much anymore. I have all kinds of crayons, inks, and paint tubes that were purchased in a different mindset many years ago.

Playing with crayons.
Derwent Art Bars. See more crayon love!

Back then, a new supply meant a new beginning. Purchasing a box of crayons meant that I still believed in myself – that there was still hope that I will become an artist. See a video of me working with crayons – a blog post from 2017.

Created with Derwent Art Bars and Faber Castell Gelatos. By Päivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet. See her post about art supplies and emotions!
Derwent Art Bars and Faber Castell Gelatos. >> See more crayon love!
Rising Star - graphite pencil, acrylic paints, oil pastels, from the class Innovative Portraits. Creating mixed media, choosing art supplies.
Rising Star – graphite pencil, acrylic paints, oil pastels, from the class Innovative Portraits

I like many of the pieces that I created back then, but now when I look at those boxes of crayons, the magic has gone away. All I can hear is the calling of my beloved oil paints.

There are two exceptions though.

Colored Pencils Are the Easiest Art Supplies

Colored Pencils bring me back to my childhood when I was drawing with my elder sisters, admiring what they did with them. For me, colored pencils were not just pencils, but dolls that had names. It was sad to see a doll that I loved get shortened and then finally thrown away!

Compared to oil paints, colored pencils have an advantage. There’s no preparation involved. When I paint with oils, I need to build the palette, clean the caps, select the brushes, protect the tabletop, etc. But with colored pencils, I can just grab a piece of paper or open another page in a journal and start coloring freely. When I am tired but still want to create something, it’s really nice.

Colored pencils on a journal. Choosing colored pencils as art supplies.
Autumn colorings from 2022, see the video where I talk more about colored pencils!

I have also liked to maintain my illustration skills, and colored pencils are great for that too. For example, see the newest course Doll World!

Watercolors Are a Great Teacher

I am also emotionally connected with my watercolor set. Even if I haven’t used it much lately, I feel that painting in a watercolor set my style. Many techniques that I use in oil were learned when I was painting in watercolor, for example, negative painting and building an image layer by layer.

Päivi Eerola, After Winter - Talven jälkeen, 38 x 28 cm, watercolor, 2019.
After Winter – Talven jälkeen, 38 x 28 cm, watercolor, 2019.

I also learned a lot about pigments and their behavior back then. It was a good learning experience to paint many pieces in a row.

Watercolor paintings in a studio. Choosing the art supplies that produce the best emotions.
Watercolor paintings from 2019.

I have several courses on watercolor, for example, Magical Forest for fairies and Floral Fantasies for floral still lives!

What about all those inks, crayons, and such, did I learn anything from them? Yes, of course, but when I look back, it feels like when I started to focus more on one media instead of mixed media, I also took a big leap forward in skills. My art went forward when I no longer tried to find a solution by changing the media but by growing the skill. I was also able to get a more emotional connection with the supplies and somehow that feels very important to me.

Oils vs. Acrylics as Art Supplies

Before oils, I painted in acrylics for some time. They are more practical. They don’t smell like wet oil does. The painting mediums have less odor too. They dry fast so painting is much faster, no need to wait for days before adding a new layer or making the finishing touches. Acrylics don’t require a similar kind of knowledge of pigments and painting mediums as oils do. In oils, you have to be careful with some pigments and the use of mediums because they may cause crackling.

Varnishing small oil paintings with Gamvar.
Varnishing small oil paintings. I do my best to build the layers of the painting so that it will last the test of time.

Despite all that worry, when I open my box of oil tubes, I feel different than if I pick acrylics.

The Emotions I Get When Painting in Oil

The oil paints connect me to the past. They take me to the time before I was even born.

Within seconds, I travel back to the beginning of the 20th century, meet the early abstract painters and impressionists, then continue my journey to the 19th century and meet pre-raphaelites, and move from them to those who wanted to capture the realism, and to those who were more romantics. Then again, within seconds, I go to the 18th century and admire all the floral still lives and women in beautiful dresses.

And at best, I continue the journey to the 17th and 16th centuries and see big paintings full of details. Then I also meet the masters that had the patience to make really thin layers and wait for each to dry before adding a new one.

This time traveling enables me to meet long-time friends like Wassily Kandinsky, Peter Paul Rubens, and Leonardo da Vinci and if I do some browsing before I start painting, I always find a new one that I want to meet and learn from.

Oil painting in progress. By Päivi Eerola, Finland.
One of the paintings that I will show you later this spring!

And now when I am painting for the upcoming Albert Edelfelt -themed exhibition, I also learn from him.

Kirsikankukka, oil on canvas, 15 x 15 cm, Paivi Eerola, Finland.
“Kirsikankukka” (Cherry Blossom), 15 x 15 cm, oil on canvas, inspired by Albert Edelfelt’s painting The Parisienne (Virginie)

There are many great artists today, but I feel that tracing what you love back to history is essential to artistic growth. I also get satisfaction from knowing that I belong to the chain of generations. Artists from the past, still live through me.

A small oil painting with thick edges. By Paivi Eerola.

Paintings In Progress

I have been painting quite a lot recently, and there are many more paintings in the queue.

Oil painting in progress.

These are in-progress pictures! I will show you the finished ones in the near future!

Oil painting in progress. By Paivi Eerola, Finland. See her post about art supplies.

I usually reserve a whole day for painting and try not to do anything else at the same time. If you want to follow a painting day, look for my Instagram stories where I usually post in-progress photos when I am testing the composition and such.

What are Your Favorite Art Supplies?

Miniature oil paintings by Paivi Eerola. The attic series.

Tell us what are your favorite art supplies at the moment!
It would also be interesting to know which supplies raise emotions in you
.

Autumn Colorings – Video Blog post!

This week, I have a video blog post for you. I talk about this journal spread that I made for my colored pencil diary, but there are also more autumn colorings, art ideas, and inspiration for creating in the middle of life’s small happenings.

One of the autumn colorings from Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet. A spread from her colored pencil journal.

In the video, I am talking about colored pencils, the upcoming class about paper dolls and human figures, my friend’s artistic success, blooming orchids, Japanese woodblock print style and style development, and I also draw a Halloween pumpkin from start to finish. There are all kinds of autumn news and autumn colorings!

Autumn Colorings – Watch the Video!

I hope this video inspires you to create and give some extra TLC to your colored pencils!

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