Creative Freedom and Colored Pencils
This week, I want to celebrate creative freedom with colored pencils. There’s also a short video for you!
Enjoying a Concert
Last Friday, my husband and I went to a Baroque music concert. We went to hear the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for the first time, but what made the biggest impact was the French countertenor vocalist Theo Imart. I think that the fall splendor we now have in Finland and his miraculous high notes found their way into this drawing, even if I just drew freely without any references.
The orchestra played Vivaldi – not The Four Seasons, but other pieces. I find his music super-inspiring! In 2021, I blogged about creating while listening to music, and there’s also a Vivaldi-inspired painting. See the blog post: “Painting with Music and About Music”
Creative Freedom and Colored Pencils – Watch the Video!
In this 1-minute video, you can see how I started the drawing with simple strokes and then moved on to adding more layers and details. I also talk about my mentorship group at Mastrius and how it’s not only for painters, but also for everyone who loves colored pencils.
Get Creative at My Mastrius Mentorship Group!
Starting in November 2026, I’m mentoring a small group of artists at Mastrius! Mastrius is an online community dedicated to fostering community and mentorship amongst artists of all skill levels.
In my new mentorship group, we’ll be focusing on:
▪️Abstraction without references: Connecting lines, shapes, and color
▪️Expressing your own nature: Light, spirit, and mood
▪️Making your art more captivating
▪️Supportive group critiques
▪️Inspiration and motivation
If you’re new to Mastrius Mentorship, enjoy 50% off your first two months. Use coupon code 2for50 at checkout. >> Join here!
Colored Pencils – More Pictures about My Process
Because the video is very short, here are a couple of in-progress snapshots I took for you. I picked a limited selection of pencils out of their boxes and gradually added more layers.
There are not many pencils anymore. I now only have three boxes and could soon fit them all into two! I only buy single pencils occasionally since mixing colors expands my palette.
There was a long straight line under the big white flower, but then I remembered how Baroque music should be played: not sharply, but softly and fluently, so I changed that.
The long vertical line no longer dominates the image. Compare with the finished picture below!
Join My Mentorship Group at Mastrius!
My mentorship group is for aspiring artists who want to create freely without references and find their style.
Together, we will step away from the traditional route and enter the jungle where anything is possible. That jungle is the place where loosening up happens.
Mentorship Group in a Nutshell
- Zoom meetings in a small group.
- Personal guidance and feedback.
- Ongoing monthly membership. Join and cancel anytime.
If you’re new to Mastrius Mentorship, enjoy 50% off your first two months, plenty of time to meet your mentor (me!), settle into your group, and start feeling real momentum. Use coupon code 2for50 at checkout. >> Join here!
Loosen Up Your Art!
This week, I want to share what I think about the popular art term: “loosening up”. For me, loosening up isn’t about interpreting a reference minimalistically and thus aiming for something more abstract. Instead, I loosen up when I create freely. Imagination, empathy, and playfulness play an important role in this kind of art-making.
Loosen Up Your Art – Watch the 1-minute Video!
I find this free approach inspiring, and it makes every piece an adventure.
Imagination and Intuition
The longer I have created freely, the more I have started to value the ideas and expression behind the drawings and paintings, and not just focus on their technical quality.
Yes, we want to grow our technical skills, but it can’t be the only goal! The flow of ideas and inner connection matter. Thus, loosening up is freeing the mind and creating a mental connection, not just strokes.
Imagination and intuition – how important are they to you?
Join My Mentorship Group at Mastrius!
My mentorship group is for aspiring artists who want to create freely without references and find their style.
Together, we will step away from the traditional route and enter the jungle where anything is possible. That jungle is the place where loosening up happens.
Mentorship Group in a Nutshell
- Zoom meetings in a small group.
- Personal guidance and feedback.
- Ongoing monthly membership. Join and cancel anytime.
>> Join here!
Creating Art Inspired by the Garden – The Story Behind My Latest Floral Painting
Let’s create art inspired by the garden! This week, I share a couple of short videos about my latest painting called Jardin.
Let’s Finish a Painting – Making of “Jardin”
This video shows parts of the painting process, and it only has music. It’s a shortened version of the video that I published a couple of weeks ago. >> See the longer version here!
The Story Behind the Painting
Here’s the second video where I talk about the ideas behind the painting and share inspiration from our garden.
Transcript: We have two gardens – one in the back, one in the front.
As a painter, I often think of Claude Monet, who had his garden in France over 100 years ago. He said that the light and the air vary continually in the garden. And it’s so true. Every day, the light, the weather, birds, growth, and decay make our gardens look different.
Capturing the cycle of life is important to me. In this painting, plants at different stages are gathered in a tree-like vase. Right in the middle, there’s a bud that’s just about to open.
Monet once said he’d like to paint the way a bird sings. I think about birds a lot too – not their song, but their flight. I’d love to paint the way a bird flies. Imagine if their paths left trails in the sky, adding new shapes to the landscape. That’s the richness of nature’s motifs that I wanted to capture in this piece.
The hardest part was connecting the earth and the sky. A garden needs water and light, so it acts like a mirror to the sky. And the stronger the roots, the higher you can reach.
I brought the blue of the sky down to the bottom and filled the top so your eyes always have somewhere to land. Even a small garden can feel endless with layered plantings. That feeling of infinite space is what I wanted to create in this painting too.
I hope these two videos inspired you to paint and draw inspired by flowers, plants, and the beauty of gardens!
Make Old Art Journal or Sketchbook New Again
This week, I have a 1-minute video about revamping my old art journal!
This sketchbook is from 2018, back when I was practicing different portraits and creating a course called Innovative Portraits. There’s still plenty of empty space left in the book.
My Old Journal and How the Cover Was Decorated
My old art journal is from The Pink Big. I decorated the cover around 2020.
I cut hand-painted papers, added shadows, and protected the collage with gel medium. See an old blog post about how to create the collage!
Now I brought the book back out to start filling it up again.
Oil Pastels in A Journal
The first page was done with smudgy oil pastels, so I left the opposite page empty.
Oil pastels are fun, but maybe not the most practical for journals. See an old blog post about ideas for using oil pastels!
Abstract with Colored Pencils
On the next page, I made an abstract drawing using colors that go well with the original 2018 page.
Fun with Sakura Gel Pens
These brown pages are great for trying out gel pens. I made a new drawing on the opposite side.
My newest course Drawing Soulfully is about drawing all kinds of lines, and it was fun to use those techniques here.
Flowers and Fabric with Colored Pencils
I placed a paper sheet to protect the previous page, and then colored flowers with colored pencils. The opposite page only had three faces, so I added flowers there, too. I love historical styles, so the main figure got a big, decorative sleeve with dramatic folds.
The next spread is already waiting! I hope this inspired you to make an old art journal or sketchbook new again and use your past pages as inspiration.
P.S. You can still sign up for Drawing Soulfully! >>Sign Up Now!