This week, we take an intuitive approach to flowers and color them freely with colored pencils. This method can also be easily adapted to watercolors.

Everyone’s flowers are different, but we can all start with the same steps. I will show you how to start and how to bring intuition into the process, and then you can finish the piece in your own style.

Let’s get the colored pencils and start intuitive flowers step-by-step!

Step 1 – Background

Start by intuitively picking one main color. I choose a color that I feel strangely drawn to, or a pencil that looks a bit sad and needs some quality time with me. I may sharpen or re-arrange the pencils before I start, so that I feel more connection with them.

With the chosen pencil, color the paper lightly and softly. Leave a part of the center blank so that you will also have white in your work.

When you feel bored, add other colors for an energy boost and spiciness, but always get back to your main color. The main color sets the mood and makes sure that every flower will breathe the same air.

I use soft-tipped colored pencils, such as Prismacolor Premier and Caran d’Ache Luminance. Thin layers are a joy to color and the strokes are soft. My paper is Fabriano Accademia Drawing Paper (200 gsm/94 lbs).

Step 2 – Circles

Color a new background layer so that you leave round areas uncolored. These are like ghosts that will be turned to flowers in the next step.

Make sure you have big, small, and medium circles, not just one size. Let some circles overlap and some disappear partly near the edges. This step is simple, but not very intuitive, because we tend to create circles of one size and separate from each other.

What does intuitive mean to you?
For me, it’s an emotional connection to colors and bringing out the spirit rather than the material. If you think intuitive is what feels easy, you’re holding back your development in making art.

Step 3 – Notches

Turn circles to flowers by coloring notches with the background colors. Make all kinds of shapes this way. I try to avoid symmetry, because flowers are rarely perfectly symmetrical. The more imaginative the shapes are, the more spirit I see in them.

You can also add some color to the flowers if it helps you to form a tighter connection, but do it only lightly in this step.

Step 4 – Colors

Add more colors – and not only to the flowers but also to the background. I like to think that the spirit of the flower is larger than its outline. The flower radiates the spirit, and the color of the flower is more in its surroundings than in the flower itself. This makes the background as fun to color as the flowers.

Make stems thin and curvy when you want the flowers to look delicate.

Step 5 – Repeat!

Add more details with the techniques of steps 1-4: more background color, more circles, more notches, more colors.

The more experienced you are, the more patience you have. Intuition is a rusty vehicle. The connection improves with time, and your piece will begin to speak to you.

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Intuitive Flowers and Colored Pencils

For me, being intuitive also means being flexible. I cherish every little flower, but also accept that not every flower can remain in the final piece.

A flower can bloom and give her soul to you, and then become a background spirit only. In this piece that happened a lot.

My drawing took about four hours to make.

What does intuitive mean to you? Do you aim for intuition when you are creating art?