Berry Black Friday Sale Begins Now!
This year, for some reason, I am thinking about juicy berries and their deliciousness and beauty, so the sale is called Berry Black Friday. All of my online art classes are 20% OFF!
This is my biggest sale of the year, so now is the perfect time to get new inspiration for art-making! >> Buy here!
P.S. I have also written a new page How Classes Work for those who want to check the techninal things before purchasing. These are all very basic things, nothing special, but this is for newbies who want to check everything before purchasing their first class.
Joyful Flowers with Watercolor Pencils – Watch the Video!
This week, I have a free video where I create these joyful flowers with watercolor pencils. These are inspired by fabric prints and are more motif-like than many of my colored pencil pieces. I love this kind of playing with style.
This is a small piece, just 8 x 8 inches. It’s colored freely with watercolor pencils on thick drawing paper.
Joyful Flowers – Watch the Video!
In the video, I talk about finding inspiration for art-making and tell stories about things that have affected my style. I just read abstract painter Darby Bannard‘s quote:
“Inspiration doesn’t follow style, it creates it.”
It made me want to share my thoughts about inspiration and style. I also wanted to create something colorful and cheerful that is not realistic, but more design-oriented. These joyful flowers were fun to make. After drawing the joyful flowers, I made something small to add to my boxes of joy. You can see that little flowery thing in the video too. Watch the video!
This video is a little longer than I usually post, but I personally like to watch long videos, and maybe you do too?
Joyful Coloring
My newest course Joyful Coloring teaches a color-oriented approach to watercolor pencils.
Start with blank paper and create freely with joy and sunshine! >> Buy here!
Magical Cat and Its Many Lives in Art
This week, I present a new cross-stitch pattern based on my drawings, and ponder about my word for the year: “integrate.”
It’s finally time to release the cross-stitch pattern that you, my dear blog readers, voted for in April. The pattern is based on the cats drawn for the course Magical Inkdom.
Magical Inkdom is one of my most popular courses, so no wonder so many suggested choosing a cat for the cross-stitch design.
Magical Cat Cross Stitch Pattern
The pattern is called Magical Cat. It features a soft and cute cat with sparkling eyes. I like to decorate, so I did that for the cat too. I have taken inspiration from fabrics and jewelry. The color scheme is sweet and happy, and gray serves as a good background for all the pinks, greens, and yellows.
The pattern is now available for digital purchase in my little Etsy shop Needle and Peony. In addition, you need embroidery threads, suitable fabric for embroidery, and of course scissors and a needle. Information about thread colors is on the pattern page.
I have embroidered the design on 14ct aida fabric and it measures approximately 10 x 10 inches. You can embroider just the cat if you want a smaller model. And when it comes to cross stitches, choosing the higher density of the fabric makes the model smaller.
Integrate!
When taking photos of Magical Cat, I have been thinking about what I want to give to the world as an artist. My word this year has been “Integrate” and I have allowed myself to try all kinds of things as much as I could combine them with what I have created before.
I’ve created many different things, for example, motion art based on my paintings.
And my latest course Joyful Coloring combines watercolor pencils and modular thinking, where the picture is built piece by piece.
Now, when I look back on the year, not only “integrate,” but also additional words come to mind.
Repeating Themes
One is “design,” because I’ve been using things that I learned in the industrial design degree.
The second is “techniques” because I have learned a lot of new ways to create.
The third is maybe “confidence” because even though I’ve been in the discomfort zone many times, I’ve stubbornly convinced myself that I can do it all. That has led to new confidence – I can finish and publish all kinds of things and not just leave them as experiments. Finishing gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Purchase this painting from a Finnish online art store Taiko!
Maybe the fourth word is “joyful” because most of what I’ve done has brought me joy, even though it’s been hard work. I hope that the variety of projects that I have presented in this blog has brought joy to you too. My magical cat has had many lives indeed!
But today when I look at my results, I see them as scratching the surface in many directions. I want a new strategic word for next year. I haven’t decided on the word yet, but candidates are at least “elevate,” “expand” and “deepen.”
What do you think?
Painting by Programming – Modern Vanitas
Happy Halloween! This year’s Halloween artwork combines painting and programming.
This week, I have a video that has excerpts from the artwork I programmed. The program picks four of my paintings at a time and forms a Vanitas-type arrangement with a skull, fallen crown, extinguished candles, and withering flowers – symbols of our transience. The program has 50 paintings from 2021-2024 to choose from. The music for the video is composed by me, representing a conversation about the temporary nature of life.
You can watch the video bigger by pressing the last icon on the menubar.
If you are interested in seeing more of this artwork, here’s a longer video that explains the Vanitas concept and shows more samples.
I designed the 3-dimensional shapes and then blended the paintings on them by programming.
Painting by Programming
One of my oil paintings is also Vanitas, so the theme is very familiar to me. The transience of life has both horror and beauty, maybe emptiness too that goes well with the machines. The way the computer paints with me produces fascinating details.
We can continue the tradition of Vanitas paintings and use any technique to make our own versions.
What kind of version would you create?
P.S. This month there was a digital art exhibition “Deform and re-form” on the screens of the Helsinki Central Library Oodi. The exhibition called “Deform and Re-Form” was organized by the Finnish National Gallery’s digital team. Oodi is a very popular big library building, with lots of visitors every day. It felt great to see my artwork “Queen of the Night” there.
Even if a part of this year’s art is digital and painted by programming, I still keep creating traditional art as well.