Three Creative Approaches that Affect the Way You Feel About Your Art
Here’s my latest oil painting called “Dreaming Ducks.” I started it in December 2017 and finished it just recently. It’s the biggest oil painting that I have made so far – 70 x 50 cm. I painted it too long, too many sessions, and lost my motivation several times. Painting became more challenging layer by layer and I demanded more of myself, never feeling fully happy what I had made.
1) Fine Art is a Stone on the Bottom of the Sea
The deeper I dive into fine art, the heavier it feels. If creativity is a sea, fine art is like a big stone on the bottom. I have to dive deep, it takes time to reach it, and then it feels so heavy, that it’s often impossible to lift it. But then, on the other hand, it’s also an anchor, the core of my visual voice and artistic identity.
But at the same time, I believe that if we only create fine art, it narrows everything. It narrows our artistic vision because we lean too much towards what is appreciated in the art world. It narrows our audience, and we no longer serve all the people we are meant to serve. It suffocates our enthusiasm because we raise the bar all the time. We forget what really matters because we block ideas based on whether it’s fine art or not.
Fine art makes us limit ourselves: “I paint abstracts only”, “I have to choose my palette and stick to it”, “I need to find my style”. When we have the mindset of a fine artist, we question what we do all the time.
2) Creative Play is the Boat Floating on the Sea
But then, there’s the surface – the fun stuff that I personally missed too many years while growing my skills to reach the big stone.
These ink drawings are like a boat to me. I acknowledge now that it’s mindless to make the diving attempts if I don’t have anything supporting me on the surface. Something like drawing witty cats! I have made many for the upcoming class Magical Inkdom!
3) We Easily Miss the Water That Connects the Two
We have been talking about the bottom of the sea and the boat, but it’s all connected, right? It’s easy to forget the water when you are going for the stone or polishing the boat! An artist friend of mine pointed out this to me. She said: “Your work always contains designs.”
Like water, it was a no-brainer: “Well yes, I used to be a designer. I like to design things.” But at the same time, it was something I hadn’t really thought about.
I went to my computer, wiped the dust from my old Intuos 4 drawing tablet, opened Adobe illustrator, and started drawing.
The blue cat got a cousin! Look how I used the motifs above to complete this digital drawing.
Three Creative Approaches
Now I think that these approaches should be the elements of every creative process:
a) diving deeper to find the anchor – discovering your visual voice
b) sailing happily in a little boat – playing with your imagination
c) seeing the water that connects the stone and the boat – becoming more aware of your current capabilities and what you can accomplish now
When I started to see the water, I got the feeling that it’s all good. Anything that I do can be connected, repurposed, and fed back to the process. What I have dreamt can begin to happen now, not years later.
What do you think of these approaches? Can you apply them into your art? Which is the hardest and which is the easiest for you at the moment?
Magical Inkdom – Sign Up Now!
I am excited to open a new art class for registration! It’s called Magical Inkdom and it’s an independent sequel to Animal Inkdom.
Watch the introductory video and sign up now!
P.S. The early-bird sale ends on June 2nd so you really want to sign up now!!
Pros and Cons of Making Postcards from Your Art
I have just got new sets of postcards printed from my art. These have been ordered from Moo (affiliate link) and are now available at Paivieerola.com. Here’s how I see the pros and cons of making postcards of your art.
Pro: Seeing Your Art as Collections
When selecting art for postcards, group similar work so that you can make sets. You can also aim for the specific set size and make more pieces with that style. This way the postcard project can inspire you to work in series and explore a certain topic, medium, and style.
One of my new sets have watercolor florals, and another has acrylic and oil paintings inspired by art history.
If you like to fill art journals as I often do, go through the journal pages too! This girl was just a sketch but I really like it as a postcard!
Pro: Saving Good Pictures of Your Art
It’s easy to neglect taking good pictures of finished work. However, there’s more use for them than just postcards. It’s easy to browse your pieces quickly when they are archived digitally. You will also share them more!
If you organize the image archive chronologically, you also see your progress at a glance. The archive also brings memories and inspiration. Whether you make postcards or not, it’s always good to take good pictures of your finished projects.
I use a tripod and manual settings of my DSLR camera to get the best possible photo. Then I crop and process the photo using Photoshop. New phone cameras take good pictures that don’t necessarily need more adjusting than cropping. Taking photos outside is also a good option!
I like to use white cardboard so that I can adjust the image according to the white area first, and then crop it away.
Pro: Playing between Digital and Physical
If you like to create digital art, seeing it in physical postcards is wonderful. I also like to play between physical and digital art so that I scan the elements of collage art, and then make the final image by combining them in Photoshop.
I really like this digitally composed but hand-drawn zebra postcard! You can find the instructions for drawing zebras in my class Animal Inkdom!
Pro: Getting Ideas for Other Products as Well
If you have good images and great collections, you can also make other products as well. There are services like Redbubble or Zazzle where you can make a variety of products. I printed some stickers to go with the postcards at Moo (affiliate link).
Pro: Postcards Market Your Art
By getting your contact information printed with the postcard you also spread the word of you as an artist.
I also like to think that postcards spread the joy that’s packed in my art. When I hear people keeping my postcards visible so that they can look at them often, it feels good and makes producing the cards meaningful.
Cons: Making Postcards Can Be a Bad Financial Decision
Good-quality postcards are expensive and selling postcards alone is not good business. Especially if you want to sell original art or bigger art prints, having postcards in the same shop or sales table can reduce other sales.
But I also have other experiences. If I go to an art fair or another small local event, I find it easiest to introduce people to my art by letting them select a business card first. Then I introduce them to postcards, then to prints, and finally to originals. That’s why I always get a selection of small business cards printed too, showcasing my latest work.
People love selecting their free image! They often explain it in detail why they selected it. It’s fascinating and useful information for me as an artist!
If you print cards – postcards or business cards – make sure that there’s some contact information where people can go to look before contacting you. Many are shy to call or send an email right away. Having a website is the best thing. But if you don’t have a website, write the address of your Instagram feed or set up a Facebook page for your art.
My final advice is to start small and print a very limited set and let people curate the collection. The image that appeals the most to you is most probably not your best seller. At least that has happened to me many times! As artists, we value the process of creating, but as customers, we only see the result and how it fits with our home and perspective. Sometimes the beauty of art is more in the process, sometimes more in the result. So, whether you make postcards or not, keep creating!
Buy my art at Paivieerola.com!
I ship every order personally from Finland!
Watercolor Girl in a Spring Garden
I have just finished this watercolor painting. It’s a continuum for this recent one:
This spring, I have been painting flowers, fruits, vegetables, vases, and pots – my inner garden – while my husband has been busy taking care of our outer garden!
I don’t intentionally paint what I see in the garden, but I am fascinated by it. Our front garden had big changes last summer so it’s interesting to see what has survived through the winter and what hasn’t. It’s a bit like when starting a painting – some details stay, and some get covered.
At the beginning of May, we got snow. We had just had a warm period but then it became really cold!
Fortunately, the weather has got warmer again. This morning, I walked in the garden and thought how perfect all the shapes and colors are. I imagined I am a watercolor girl in a watercolor world, translating all the beauty on a coarse cotton paper step by step.
It’s just magical when the old cherry tree blossoms in our new Japanese garden for the first time.
I only wish our tree would have pink flowers. But for a watercolor girl, everything is possible!
One of our flowerbeds is filled with a variety of tulips. We buy some new bulbs every autumn, and the bed gets fuller and fuller every spring.
I love to paint abstract shapes and then draw lines to make them flowers or filaments!
Does your garden appear in your art?