Painting and Drawing Fruits
This week, I share my love for fruits and give inspiration for fruit-themed paintings and drawings.
Here’s one of my newest paintings called Jupiter’s Bowl. This oil painting is a part of my series Linnunrata – Milky Way, where I explore planets and outer space. (See previous work: Uranus here, the Moon here, Mercury here, Neptune here, Pluto here, the Earth here, Venus here, and the Sun here!)
Fruit Storm in a Magical Bowl
The idea for this painting started from the orange storm that the planet Jupiter has. But then I thought about the Finnish saying “myrsky vesilasissa” which is “storm in the water glass” in English and similar to the saying “storm in a teacup.” It felt playful and funny to compare the planet to a small bowl and make a still life that doesn’t look still at all.
The first layers were very different from each other, and it felt like there was still more to come. The final version has brighter colors and juicy fruits that burst everywhere. Here’s a closeup of some:
I love lemons and oranges. I think they are one of the most attractive things in the world. Their smell, taste, and look captivate me. And they are not difficult to paint or draw either!
Decorative Slices in Black and White Drawing
Here’s a line drawing from 2018 when I participated in Inktober for the first time. The slices were fun to draw, especially because I treated them like Faberge eggs: filled with jewelry and other decorative elements.
Back then, I was finding out things that I really like and bringing them together in my drawings.
Intuitive Fruit Painting in Gouache
In 2019, I made a gouache painting (see the video!) that reminds me of Jupiter’s Bowl. It has fruity and fresh colors and some stormy vibe too.
I was a bit clumsier painter back then, but the idea of refreshing fruity burst is evident.
Fantasy Fruits in Colored Pencils
This year started by making a new class called Fun Botanicum. The second lesson of the class is about fruits and berries. Here’s my example from the class, made with colored pencils.
I wanted the spread to look juicy with my own fantasy fruits. Practically, you can draw a circle, add shadows and decorations, and it will look like a fruit!
Juiciness vs. Fruits
When I took pictures of Jupiter’s Bowl, it was late May and grass and tulips were in full bloom. There’s a lot of juiciness in summer colors.
My suggestion is to focus on the juiciness when drawing or painting fruits. If you think about how the fruits look in reality, the result gets stiff more easily. If you let go and focus on the juicy part, creating is much more fun and the result more expressive. Anything can have the spirit of the fruit, and art can be juicy without presenting the actual lemons and oranges.
Tell me, which are your favorite fruits? Do they appear in your art too?
Art Inspiration from Period Dramas
This week, I am sharing art inspiration impacted by period dramas.
Visual Deliciousness of Period Dramas
I am a fan of period dramas. Recently, I have been watching Gilded Age and Bridgerton. Both of them have beautiful outdoor and indoor scenes, and dresses too, of course! My eyes like the delicious visual world they illustrate and my heart always feels a bit lighter after an episode or two.
Even if the dramas have historical settings, their colors are not dull at all. A picnic in the forest looks vibrant and is full of sunlight.
I like how flowery everything is, and how the jewelry frames the faces of young ladies.
Being so inspired by period dramas, it’s no wonder that my art is full of romantic and old-fashioned elements. They speak fantasy to me.
Fantastic Old-World Impact
I think that every artist needs to find their approach to fantasy and fairytales – how to use imagination and what to express with it?
I am fascinated by the power of the inner world and all my pieces are inner sceneries in one way or another.
Pablo Picasso has said: “Art is a lie that tells the truth.” Similarly, I would say that art is a fantasy that gives us what we need.
Bringing Fantasy to Life
I often talk about seeing art as a story or a collection rather than a single piece. In the new class, Fun Botanicum, we create a set of illustrations that are all unique but still a part of the series. This is a great project for setting a style and bringing different coloring techniques together.
Plants are a fun theme to explore what you can do with colored pencils and imagination!
>> Sign up here!
Pink Inspiration
This week is full of pink art inspiration. I hope that this post will get you to find your pinks and start creating sweetness!
Dreamy Pinks in Colored Pencils
First, one of the journal spreads that we will create at Fun Botanicum, the newest class.
The softness that you can create with colored pencils is divine and you can highlight that with sharp strokes. The versatility of colored pencils always amazes me. With one pencil you can create the whole value range from light to dark so a few pencils go a long way. I like those shelves of individual pencils in art supply stores because it’s like picking candies!
Pink Handdrawn Playing Cards
These cards are from the class Magical Inkdom. They are drawn with a black pen and then colored with watercolors.
My husband asked when he saw me drawing these:
– “Playing cards? What’s the game?”
– Well, these are like collector’s items! And you can invent the game yourself!
Because if you make more than one, isn’t that like a little oracle deck? You can ask yourself how you feel by picking a card that reflects your mood.
Lots of Pink Petals
I am already waiting for summer and see my pink peonies bloom in June. If I was a small fairy, I could live in those petals!
Petals, petals, more pink petals – that’s how the flowers are constructed! These are from the class Decodashery.
Pick a small brush, some pink gouache paints or watercolors, and paint small spots in layers!
Red and Green are Pink’s Best Pals
Here’s more pink gouache art – a small journal cover that also has reds and greens.
I love this color combination. Each color makes the other shine brighter. I can almost taste the colors when I look at them.
Pink Glow in the Dark
Pink is also a wonderful color with darks. You can paint a pink glow that makes the image look romantic.
Here’s a blog post where you can see process pictures of this painting.
Powder Pink Inspiration
One night my husband showed me new Swatch watches. I wasn’t so interested at first, but when I saw the photos and got the concept, I got so inspired that I am using that inspiration for the new series of oil paintings!
Here’s the new pink Swatch called Mission to Venus. I am definitely going to somehow incorporate all this into a painting! Not literally, but conceptually.
The powder pink with decorative details speaks of a beautiful adventure to me.
This watercolor painting has powder pinks too.
I painted this one a few years ago when my mission was to find the best way to paint flowers freely in watercolors without using a reference. I have a class about it too Floral Fantasies – Watercolor Edition!
Pinks and Other Pastels
What about selecting some acrylic paints and going wild on an art journal?
Add darks on the bottom and let dry. Then mix white to the colors and have fun with pastels. Use different brushes to have some variety in strokes as well.
You can be rough like above, or go in a more delicate direction with thinner brushes.
Black with pink is also a great color combination!
Pink Inspiration – How to Go Deeper
If you are a color-oriented artist as I am, pink is never just one pink. Challenge yourself to make all kinds of pinks from light to dark, from warm to cool, and use them all in one painting. Nature doesn’t select just one pink, so why would you?
The same goes for shapes, lines, and ideas. The more you embrace the variety, the more exciting the art-making becomes, and the more you create. Restrict supplies and increase imagination!
I hope you have an adventurous Pink Inspiration Day!
P.S. You can still sign up for Fun Botanicum and make wonderful colorings of plants!
Pop Music in Art Journal
This week – turn some pop music on and start art journaling!
Since I started working full-time as an artist in 2014, my taste for music has gone wider. Listening to different genres has enriched not only my life but also my art. Music has taken me to all kinds of visual worlds. Even one sound can bring color or a shape to mind.
I have an old book as a music-inspired art journal. I like how the variety of music is shown on its pages. Now I wanted to make a spread inspired by Asian pop.
Sometimes Music is a Human, Other Times a Machine
Asian pop music is fun to listen and very easy-going – like an acquaintance who is always ready for a visit to a candy shop and to have a light conversation about current movies.
But when I paint big paintings, I prefer music that’s more like a vehicle – no melodies, only interesting sounds that make me go deeper and deeper in concentration.
Without a repeating chorus and clear rhythm, I don’t feel the need to express the music or paint at its speed. That’s how I have become a fan of contemporary classics that I used to find too boring.
Pop Music in Art Journal – Playtime with a Friend
But this week, I wanted my friend back. I went to the Finnish radio website and turned on the newest of “Papananaaman K-Pop Show” which plays current Asian pop. My candy store was the box where I keep my red, pink, purple, and orange colored pencils.
My music-inspired pages are in the “beautiful mess” style that I show step-by-step in an art journal mini-class called Music. It’s relaxing to create step by step and not worry too much about the “proper” supplies. I played with black pens, stamping inks, and the shortest pencils.
When I create canvas paintings, I use oil paints, but acrylics are great for this kind of messy play.
The spread started as red, but I then introduced a wider range of candy colors gradually. This mono-tone approach is great when you want to keep things simple first, and then splash the colors in.
I like the candy colors and the informal look of the finished spread – pop music in an art journal!
I showed the spread to my Blythe dolls and they also gave their approval: “If that’s how you see Asian pop, we can live with that.”
Maybe these dolls have made me listen to Asian pop in the first place! One thing so often leads to another.
Music in Art Journal – Step by Step!
The art journal mini-class Music is now available as an individual class. But you have to be quick – it will go away on Feb 7! >> Buy here!