Intuitive Flowers with Colored Pencils
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.
Grow Your Skills at Fun Botanicum!
Fun Botanicum is a great course for all who want to grow their skills in drawing plants and learning more techniques for florals.
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?
Let’s Paint like Emily Wrote – Emotional Connection with Childhood Novels
This week, we are reminiscing about childhood novels while painting naturally with watercolors. Do you have this kind of emotional connection with the books from your childhood?
See more pics at Taiko Finnish Online Art Store
Now that spring has arrived in Finland and the plants have started to grow, two words have risen above others: “warm” and “natural.”
In January, I decided that my word of the year would be “Release.” This word takes my thoughts to childhood. Again, I want to be a person who is expressive, but also warm and natural.
Can Art Be Natural?
I think art can be abstract and original, but still natural. In this introductory video for the course Freely Grown, I open up about this way of creating.
Watercolors are perhaps the most natural art supplies. When a color meets water, it blooms, and as Henri Matisse said, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
When painting naturally, seeing and creating alternate. A hazy spot that looks like a mistake can be the seed for something bigger.
Natural vs. What You Expect from Yourself
With the word “Release”, I have been thinking about how difficult it is to let go of conventional interpretations and expectations. Can you paint dandelions – doesn’t everyone want roses?
To some extent, I identify more with the dandelion: persistent, sometimes pushy and overwhelming, often stepping over the borders.
The more I think about my shortcomings, the more I think about L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon, a brave orphan girl who wanted to be a poet. She felt like a real person to me. Her story was also a growth story of an artist that had a big impact on my life. I recognize this kind of emotional connection with other childhood novels, too.
The Brave Girls of Childhood Novels
In Finland, we had a popular children’s book series written by Anni Polva. The main character there is Tiina, a pretty wild young girl. Tiina isn’t an artist, but an adventurer. Isn’t it so that to release is also to go for an adventure?
What about Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five books? You could also go on an adventure in those, and in good company.
I also read L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series and Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women books. Memories of these girls’ books and the word “Release” strongly resonate with me right now. We are living turbulent times, and need to be brave and adventurous – but still in a warm and natural way.
Do you too have an emotional connection to childhood novels?
P.S. I also wrote about children’s books in these blog posts:
In 2023: Watercolor Flowers in Louisa M. Alcott Style
and in 2022: Turning Memories into Paintings
Why Draw in the Ready-Made World?
Have you recently asked yourself: Why draw? Here’s why we need to keep drawing no matter what!
Writing This Blog Post Was Difficult
I enjoy writing about art, but this time the task seemed difficult. First, I thought I would write about how you get ideas for colored pencils when you paint a bottom layer with watercolors.
But it felt like something I’ve written about many times before. For example, see the posts Wild Botanical Art – Create with Colored Pencils and Watercolors and How to Combine Watercolors and Colored Pencils.
Then I thought about writing about the quality of watercolors and colored pencils, but that didn’t seem like a very inspiring topic.
At last, I started writing about how to make a visual voice stronger, but the text became too theoretical. And I have nice posts about the topic already. See, for example: How Inktober Strengthened My Visual Voice and Enrich Your Art – Play with Shapes!
In the end, I decided to write what I have really been thinking about recently: “Why draw in the ready-made world?”
Feeling Blue
Lately, I’ve had the feeling that I’m in an ancient profession and that I am ancient in all other ways too. It’s odd for me because I love technology and I’m always learning new things. But I’ve seen too many images produced by artificial intelligence and depressingly enough hype about how you don’t have to create anything yourself anymore.
In addition, all kinds of insecurity have increased in the world, and that’s also toxic to creativity.
Despite feeling blue, I don’t want to give in. I still want to believe in the basic human need to create something new. It has helped that the upcoming course that I have been finishing, feels like a safe and cozy place. I hope it will have the same comforting effect on you.
Why Draw and Believe in Visual Self-Expression
There has been a lot of talk about freedom of speech lately, but human expression is not just words. I deeply believe that drawing allows people to express themselves more directly than writing.
And at its best, a drawing offers an imaginary view to which not only the creator but also viewers can attach their memories and meanings.
If we don’t approach life with our imagination, we lose our inner harmony. When we put pen to paper, we open up a connection to our inner world.
Not everything that comes out is necessarily masterful, but it is authentic to ourselves, and through that, there is an opportunity to also find a connection with others.
That is why I have been making art almost every week for over 10 years. Even if art were to one day no longer be my profession, I would still maintain this connection in my life, which only requires pen and paper.
This is the reason why I want to be an advocate for drawing and imagination.
Hearts and Stories – Sign Up Now!
Let’s turn your art journal into a storybook and make the most out of simple shapes!
Hearts and Stories will begin on March 17, 2025. >> Sign Up Now!
Flower Painting Comes to Life – Watch the Video!
This week you get to paint with me in my little studio. We follow the birth of this flower painting from blank canvas to an exhibition.
In the video, you see me painting and chatting, and also get to visit my current exhibition at the gallery Gumbostrand Konst & Form. The exhibition is from Feb 12 to March 9, 2025 in Sipoo, Finland.
From Blank Canvas to Exhibition Piece – Watch the Video!
While I paint the flower painting, I talk about making art, becoming an artist, and what it’s like to paint freely and not use any reference photos. This is a longer video than usually because I have collected the material for it many months.
In the video, I talk not only about painting but drawing too. I love to play by drawing, and that play affects my paintings. Never underestimate the effect of play, and always keep playing and drawing, no matter how high you want to reach!
Hearts and Stories – Sign Up Now!
Let’s draw for your inner child and make the most out of simple shapes!
Hearts and Stories will begin on March 17, 2025. >> Sign Up Now!