Finding Your Soulful Line
This week, I am excited to talk about the soulful line and share thoughts behind the new course Drawing Soulfully. This blog post can be watched as a video here!
We want to achieve something grand with art, but in reality, art begins with something so small it almost goes unnoticed. Art begins with a line. Style begins with a line. Bringing soul to paper begins with a line. When we say we can’t draw, it means we haven’t become friends with our line.
At first, a line can be clumsy and closed off. But when it opens up, and a connection is found, drawing becomes a channel for our creativity. Even when we draw every day, we don’t have to draw just everyday life, but we can also escape it by drawing. We can draw more than we dare to dream, because on paper, even the impossible is possible.
That is why art can’t be born only in your head; it is born when you create. Through the pen, you see further. Your soulful line connects you with art, making you understand your taste, your style, and as it all develops, a new world is born. Your art is born.
From Living Line to Soulful Line
For a long time, I have wanted to create a comprehensive course on drawing. In the past, I have had courses like that — Inspirational Drawing and its successor, Inspirational Drawing 2.0. Those courses were retired quite some time ago, and over the years, I have discovered new ideas and concepts that weren’t included in them. However, the core philosophy (which also forms the foundation of my own artistry) remains the same: in art, the line is the beginning of everything, the seed of expression from which everything else grows.
I decided to make the new course and name it Drawing Soulfully.
I have talked a lot about the living line, but when I started working on this course, ‘living’ no longer felt like enough. Our line may look lively, but do we live within our line? Do we feel the line all the way in our souls? This is what an artist wants to strive for!
Drawing Soulfully
Drawing Soulfully is about expressing yourself through drawing. It’s a journey into your artistry and teaches a way to work towards your style. We will draw mostly with black pens, and then color some of the drawings with watercolors and colored pencils. We will use reference images for some projects, but in a creative way that broadens your perspective.
In Drawing Soulfully, I want you to think about your artistic roots – the cultural history that touches you. In the course, I also share some of mine. At the end of the 19th century, many artists who studied or worked in central Europe came back to Finland for the summer. They read, wrote, and painted in their summer cottages, and thus, captured the best season in their souls. Yet, in the past, they didn’t have all the ways to express their emotions. There were walls that no longer exist. Nowadays, we can free up our pens and pour it all out on paper.
Your line is your voice. Just like for a singer, a great voice isn’t just about physical technique — it’s about connecting the voice to the soul.
Drawing Soulfully – Sign Up Now!
Drawing Soulfully begins on August 25, but the early-bird sale is now on!
Get 20 EUR OFF! >> Sign Up Now!
Sneak Peek at The New Course
This week, you get to see a sneak peek at the upcoming course! The course is about expressing yourself through drawing. It’s a journey into your artistry and teaches a way to work towards your style. We will draw mostly with black pens, and then color some of the drawings with watercolors and colored pencils.
Drawing a line is in the center of the course. How to draw is not only about how to draw realistic objects so that they are recognizable, but also about how to find a living, soulful line that makes you want to pick up a pen again and again.
I believe that without the ability to draw, it’s impossible to create any visual art. Everything is based on a line, and thus, on drawing. And not just any kind of drawing but …
Drawing is not about sketching something that you quickly erase and change. When you draw soulfully, the pen opens up a new horizon, and you live within your drawing.
We will use reference images for some projects, but in a creative way that broadens your perspective.
You not only learn how to draw but also how to get the most out of the practice.
Your Journey to Drawing
In Drawing Soulfully, I want you to think about your artistic roots – the cultural history that touches you. At the end of the 19th century, many artists who studied or worked in central Europe came back to Finland for the summer. They read, wrote, and painted in their summer cottages, and thus, captured the best season in their souls.
But it is also so that in the past, they didn’t have all the ways to express their emotions. There was suffocation, which no longer exists. Nowadays, we can free up our pens, the colors, and pour it all out on paper.
When lines are soulful, so will the art be.
Drawing Soulfully will begin on August 25th. The course will be published in three parts and will last three months. The early-bird sale will begin next week.
What do you think? Will you join me?
Drawing a Summer Ornament
This week, I want to show that an ornament can be more than just a decoration. An ornament can be a framework for expression in the same way as a portrait, a still life, or a landscape.
I love drawing ornaments. It feels as though the universe is shouting at me: “This is right, this is a good thing!” If I’ve had past lives, I’d think this is the work I’ve always done in some form, because it feels so natural.
Step 1 – Grid
If I decide to draw an ornament, nothing holds me back—not even the requirement of symmetry. This time, I made a grid to help me achieve similarity on both sides more easily.
It’s good to have center guidelines, but there can be more and placed anywhere. All guidelines are helpful when drawing the ornament freely.
Step 2 – Pencil Sketch
I sketch the biggest symmetrical parts in pencil. But I try to keep this phase short because the best part of drawing ornaments is letting loose and discovering how the symmetry can be broken.
Drawing an ornament is like putting your soul into a lion’s cage and then watching it break out with cleverness, rather than violence.
Step 3 – Getting Creative with a Non-Erasable Pen
For the actual drawing, I use black markers. Here, I’m using Copic FineLiner pens and a Copic Gasenfude brush pen. An ornament is like a meandering canvas where you can draw anything. You can draw both the realistic and the abstract, and it all looks great because it’s embedded in the ornamental structure.
We currently have summer here in Finland, so I wanted to draw summer-related things: the sea, a garden, and birch leaves.
Step 4 – Getting Lost in the Details
When I have most of the things in place, I put on an audiobook or a talk show and focus on the details!
My ornaments almost always have jewels because I find them fun to draw and the result rewarding. A jewel comes to life when you draw geometric shapes with a fine pen and fill them differently.
I always include elements that are pitch-black to create contrast. The brush pen is quick in these details.
The Freedom in Drawing Ornaments
The longer I draw, the more I want to create tension and asymmetry. In this ornament, the lines took on a life of their own and spread beyond its borders. Ah, so liberating!
It’s exciting and even contradictory that such freedom can be evoked from a rigid ornament.
The Summer Ornament
Here you can see how I’ve used the pens for the fine details in the center.
I hope this summer ornament inspires you to pick up your pens and start drawing!
For more inspiration, see also these blog posts:
Dramatic Peonies with Colored Pencils and Black Pens
This week, I have a free video for you. Create these dramatic peonies with me!
Use colored pencils to add the softness and color, and black pens to bring in the drama!
I used regular colored pencils and two black pens – thick and thin. My thick pen is the Copic Gasenfude brush pen, and the thin one is a Copic fineliner, size 0.5. You can use any brands. This is an exciting project with many things to learn.
Dramatic Peonies – Watch the Video!
By following the video, you can create your dramatic peonies. Start with the soil, and then grow a garden on it. Watch the video below!
It took me about an hour to create the dramatic peonies, so this is not a big project. The effect is based on sharp contrasts rather than details.
Dramatic Peonies and Your Living Line
In the video, I talk about discovering your living line. The longer I have been an artist, the more significant that has started to feel. When I look at my past work and compare it with the current paintings, I can see a glimpse of my style here and there. It all started with a simple line, so I wish I could inspire you to wake up your line and let it show the way. I am currently building a new course where learning from your line is the key content. Stay tuned!
Inspiration for Colored Pencil Journal
You can create dramatic peonies either on a separate sheet of paper or in an art journal. I created mine in an A5-size colored pencil journal, and the drawing fills the whole spread.
Useful links for you who want to start or make more pages for the colored pencil journal:
- Starting a Colored Pencil Journal
- All posts tagged with “Archer & Olive notebook”
- The course Fun Botanicum – Make a chapter for your colored pencil journal!