Colored Pencil Tutorial “Limitless World”
This week, I have a step-by-step colored pencil tutorial for you. It’s called Limitless World. We color without outlines and end up with something that is partly realistic and yet more creative and limitless than any traditional drawing.
Supplies
This tutorial uses regular colored pencils, but feel free to try it with watercolor pencils, watercolors, or any media that can be layered. Choose the paper that goes with your supplies and is durable. I used Fabriano Accademia Drawing Paper (200 gsm/94 lbs). You can create the drawing in any size, but my piece is A4.
Introduction to The Colored Pencil Tutorial
You might be familiar with the work of Hilma af Klint. She is a wonderful example of how our inner world and intuition can guide the hand. Her art has been the main inspiration for my course Mystical Minis. In this project, however, we reach from the inner to the outer world—making the outer look limitless, too.
Before you start reading the step-by-step tutorial, watch a 5-minute introduction where I tell more about the project.
I hope you enjoy this colored pencil tutorial. Let’s start!
Step 1 – White Shapes
Pick any color. Create abstract white shapes by coloring the background.
Press fairly lightly. We will add more layers over the background.
Make sure you have a wide variety of abstract shapes in different sizes.
Tip: You can turn the paper in different directions during the process and decide on the final orientation later.
Step 2 – Colorful Shapes
Pick any colors. Color abstract shapes so that they form a new layer on top of the background.
Make sure that the colorful shapes extend over the white shapes and don’t follow their outlines.
Also, add new shapes on top of other colorful shapes. Press fairly lightly so that you can add more layers later.
Keep the expression abstract. Don’t guess what the drawing is about. Just color a variety of shapes in different sizes and enjoy the freedom.
When the paper feels full, but you can still easily see the background and the colorful layer, move to the next step.
Step 3 – Connecting Colors
Pick colors that are close to what you have used before. Use one color more than others. My main color is green, but I also use other colors.
Color over the previous layers so that the two layers are no longer separate. Focus on the edges and color a small area at a time. Leave only a few areas blank, mostly near the center.
In this step, you can adjust old shapes and color new shapes, too. Think about attaching two pieces: you can either glue (spread the color over) or tape (add a new shape on top).
Tip: Now you can decide on the orientation and get ideas for the drawing’s topic.
Step 4 – Discovery
Find people, animals, plants, trees, furniture, water, and any realistic objects in the abstract drawing. For example, I have someone in the corner who is like an observer of everything happening in the drawing.
Adjust the shapes so that the viewer will also realize what they represent.
Tip: Remember that we are drawing a limitless world, so odd things can appear! The drawing can make sense emotionally, even if it isn’t rational.
You can also use an eraser to adjust the objects.
Having an eraser pen is handy, and it’s very useful for the course Mystical Minis, too!
Step 5 – Advanced Level
When your drawing feels finished, you can either stop or take it to the advanced level.
Basic level: The drawing feels finished, and you feel quite drawn to it. For a viewer, it may look a bit chaotic, busy, and difficult to comprehend.
Advanced level: The drawing has an engaging atmosphere, and the viewer is gently guided around the drawing.
To achieve this:
- Increase contrast in the middle and reduce contrast near the edges.
- Increase intense colors in the middle and reduce the intensity near the edges. Don’t leave blank areas in the areas that are less important.
- Make the shapes less clumsy by adding notches and lines. Make lines curvier and thinner.
- Direct the viewer’s gaze with contrasting shapes and lines.
Tip: Some areas can be more realistic than others. The world of imagination has no limits!
What Does Your Drawing Tell?
I usually work in my little studio, but this time, I finished the drawing in our living room, and I think that the aquarium, the furniture, the glassware, and the birds chirping outside … they all found their way to this drawing. But every drawing will become different. What does your drawing tell?
This kind of intuitive process is natural and free, and at least for me, much more exciting than making a stiff sketch and then coloring it. I hope this colored pencil tutorial marks the start of a new journey for you—one we can continue together, for example, in the course Mystical Minis!
Semi-Abstract Floral Still Life: A Painting Inspired by Dutch Masters
This week, I want to show you a piece called Damask. It is a dark, semi-abstract floral painting. I often try to create lighter works because they sell faster, but if it were up to me, I would paint almost only dark pieces.
There is something valuable and very private about dark tones. The painting felt so private that I originally thought about just posting a photo of the finished work and keeping the process to myself. But the purpose of my blog is to inspire you to create. Seeing only the final result rarely inspires as much as seeing the imperfect beginning where everything started.
Inspired by Dutch Old Masters
My painting is about how ornaments can be traced back to nature, but it is also a tribute to 17th and 18th-century Dutch floral paintings. The concept – dark background, lots of details, beauty after beauty – doesn’t leave me alone – it is like a recurring fever.
>> See the blog post “Flower paintings at Rijksmuseum”
And there is only one cure: starting a new dark still life, without references, just by painting freely.
How to Start a Semi-Abstract Floral Painting
At first, I used a broad brush and painted simple shapes with different colors.
Then I decided what flower to enlarge and what to hide. Some flowers appeared, but then disappeared when the painting progressed. I like to think that some flowers are born just to give birth to other flowers.
Why Mastering Technique Is Never Enough
I have noticed technical progress in my work. As things get easier, I can set more challenging goals for myself. However, I don’t believe that art is just about mastering technique, or that painting flowers is only about using them as decoration.
When you start a new work, you create a space around you.
It is a private and special place.
While I was making this piece, I felt like I was in an old room. I could hear the wooden floor creak and the wind blowing behind the old window glass. And yet, I felt I was wealthy. I was far away in the past, but I didn’t feel homesick at all.
The longer I have made art, the clearer my vision has become. Intuitive work is not about copying an image from your mind. It is about your work and your imagination starting to share the same atmosphere.
Here you can see the painting in different stages. Some might please you more, but I was after the special place, remember.
Here’s the finished piece, ready to be photographed.
Your Intuition – Your Private Atmosphere
So, what matters is the atmosphere you want to build. This is why it doesn’t really matter if you paint flowers or faces. From this perspective, all art is abstract. It is not just about thinking of the composition as abstract —it is about the character of each detail and how it connects to your private place (that then opens up to the viewer, too).
Here are some detail pics of my semi-abstract floral painting called Damask.
Friends in Art
Art is a private experience. Through my online courses and videos, I am visiting your private space. I often imagine that we are visiting each other. When the lesson ends, we both return to our own worlds, feeling inspired. It is hard to grow—both technically and as an artist—if you always keep the door closed.
Welcome to my courses to improve your skills and your artistic thinking! If you need more inspiration, feel free to browse my blog archives by date, category, or supply. I have shared my journey here every week for over ten years.
Crazy about Ornaments!
I believe that in every artist’s journey, there are moments when you feel you’ve hit the core—or at least, you’re getting very close. For me, many of those moments have been about ornaments. I simply love drawing and painting decorative lines.
>> See more pics and a video at Taiko Online Art Store
This week, I share a recent watercolor painting that is full of ornaments and how I fell in love with ornaments in the first place.
Ornaments in Watercolor
This is how the watercolor painting started.
Ornamental shapes are much easier to draw than paint. In 2020, I made this watercolor painting.
I can now paint much more elegant shapes.
I have been after this skill for so long.
Ornaments – Are They Scary or Harmless?
An ornament is an animal. At first, it’s like a fox that is a bit too tame. You meet it on an evening walk and feel like shouting: “Don’t follow me, I’m not giving you a home!”
Then someone says, “It’s just an ornament, a harmless little decoration. It’s not a fox, it’s a bird.” And that’s when I realize I am dreaming about a magpie, picking only the oldest and most beautiful spoons from the pile.
But when I go to my imaginary pile of spoons, I see snakes. I can only catch the slowest and clumsiest one. My line was quite ugly for a long time, yet it has been my mascot for years. For just as long, I have been searching for the core of my expression.
In 2018 and 2019, my drawing skills took a jump, and I was able to incorporate more and more ornamental expression into my drawings. I participated in Inktober and built two drawing courses: Animal Inkdom and Magical Inkdom.
Looking Through The Lens
Lately, I’ve read many descriptions of artists—both by the artists themselves and by critics. It felt as if I were forcing myself to read tiny text through a small lens, all while swallowing an ornament-shaped lump in my throat.
I believe the most accurate descriptions of how art is born are linked to childhood. My love for ornaments comes from my own.
Our family wasn’t wealthy, but we were dreamers. We followed the lives of European royalty with admiration. The large yard of our old wooden house, with its meadows and little woods, turned into a queen’s castle in my mind. I imagined grand halls, furniture, and a magnificent atmosphere. Nature became my palace once I understood that a plant should be looked at as a structure, not just a decoration.
From a Clumsy Snake to Expression
In the process of making art, however, the ornament is not a child, but an old soul. When a line is still young, it has no idea of the wisdom and beauty it can eventually store within its curves.
I believe that anyone who has the patience to feed their “clumsy snake” will eventually be rewarded. This madness—this love for ornaments—begins to transform from simple decoration into pure expressive power.
Almost all of my drawing courses are about developing a living line that can then transform into an ornamental one. A great courses to start are the colored pencil courses, especially Mystical Minis.
Painting Ornaments
It has taken me a long time to paint more ornamentally. I have had to learn to imagine an ornament as a 3-dimensional structure rather than just a decoration.
Now that I can paint like I used to draw, I can add many things that I have missed from that era, for example, tassels.
I can now also include what I learned from decorative painting when creating the course Decodashery.
There is a sense of the medieval and the Baroque here, blended with the historical fantasy and folklore.
I have also worked in this ornamental style not only in watercolor, but also in oil, but I will share those projects later.
In the world of ornaments, every line has its own age. Is your line still a curious child, or is it beginning to store the wisdom of an ‘old soul’? Tell me about your process in the comments!
Floral Watercolor Painting – Finding the Expression from the Details
This painting, “Touched by an Angel,” is the latest in a series of three floral watercolors I’ve created for the Finnish Painters’ Union’s art sales event. I will also have two oil paintings available there, but the three watercolors were also an effort because they have a lot of details.
Finding the Name
It’s quite rare for me, but I had the name for this watercolor in mind very early on. The other two paintings in this series were about scent and taste, so I wanted this third one to be about touch.
The title “Touched by an Angel” reminded me of the 90s TV show, but it also made me think of old churches with their beautiful decorations. In addition to peace and timelessness, I wanted to express spirituality, lightness, and gentleness.
My Creative Process
I usually start my watercolors simply by playing with water and paint.
Once that “mess” has dried, the real work begins. I start with the background, and the flowers slowly find their shape.
This is a process I teach in my Wild Garden course.
The Power of Subtle Details
I have found great joy in painting details in watercolor. I like to forget the “big picture” and focus on making one small part as expressive as possible. When every detail speaks to the theme in its own way, the whole painting comes together naturally.
Not every detail has the same role, though. For example, you can paint a lot of detail in the background so that it doesn’t distract the viewer. The secret is to keep the contrast low.
Believe it or not, this simple thing took me a long time to learn. The light details seem so modest, yet they make the painting so much richer!
The heart of the expression is often not about the subject you choose, but how you work on the details. When every detail builds the story, the whole painting becomes expressive. In my piece, I wanted every detail to bring up the angelic touch.
Details also make a painting feel more finished. Even if those tiny, delicate brushstrokes seem invisible to some, they add significant value to the final piece.
Also notice that when you paint details with a light touch, you can keep the color scheme more limited, and thus, more elegant!
Three Watercolor Paintings with Details – Scent, Taste, Touch
Here are all three paintings of the series.
Tell me, which of these is your favorite?