Inspiring Art Journals
This week is dedicated to inspiring art journals that hopefully make you start creating right away.
Towards the end of last year, I started to really miss drawing. When I want to come up with ideas, I need a pen and paper! Or maybe I should say that I need my art journals because that’s where the ideas stay in good order.
I made this spread in my colored pencil journal. 2023 is an old romantic woman that is going away and a young girl who is ready for adventure will take her place.
There are only a few pages after the previous year’s spread.
I hope to make more pages in this colored pencil journal this year.
Inspiring Art Journals
This week, I picked up random art journal books and browsed them. I especially love the one in the upper left corner with the black and white drawings the most.
The drawings have no color but they are all full of ideas that still inspire me.
I now want to add ink drawings to my colored pencil journal as well.
Tiny Pages
Last year I bought a very small art journal. This is a pretty cute page!
All the reds and pinks looked very nice together.
Years go by and my skills grow, but even the clumsiest covers still seem to fit with the new creations.
Doodler’s Resort
While browsing the journals, I found a spread with a transparent film in the middle. I had printed doodles on it and I still quite like the effect. This idea is from 2020, when the world stopped and I couldn’t do anything but mindless doodling.
This art journal also has a lovely inside cover.
Divide the Content!
I don’t understand why it took so long before I realized that I could add annual pages, inside covers, chapters, and other pages telling about the content of the book in art journals.
Nowadays, I have a course called Fun Botanicum, where you make a chapter cover, themed pages, and an end page in the middle of an art journal.
Inspiring Art Journals Tell About Time
It was fun to look at old art journals and wonder how these are connected to everything that is going on now.
Time is a mysterious place. It is like an illuminated palace that blinds us. We can only walk away from it to the darkness. But as long as we are alive, we can start the adventure and get creative. “It takes a long time to become young,” said Pablo Picasso.
In my opinion, only by drawing can we know what we really think. The more you draw, the more your skills grow, and the more you will find out!
Do you agree?
Watercolor Greeting Card – Watch the Video!
The year is coming to an end, and it’s time to celebrate. Thank you for this year, my readers and students!
My gift to you comes in the form of a video. Let’s paint flower cards for everyone celebrating in the coming year! The following watercolor greeting card video is especially a bonus for all who have taken the latest course Freely Grown where I give more detailed advice.
Watercolor Greeting Card – Watch the Video!
In this video, I not only paint the greeting card but talk about art-making in general. I hope that the video inspires you to keep creating, and if you are not currently creating anything, there’s a short speech for you too!
The paper used for the card: Arches Hot Press watercolor paper, thickness 300 g/m2, 140 lb.
I mostly use three brushes: one flat, and two thin brushes for details. I also use a small and sturdy round brush for removing the paint. When you have a good-quality watercolor paper, you can rub it quite heavily. Use a cotton cloth to remove water after rubbing and then, let dry well before painting over.
In the video, I mention the botanical artist Marianne North. See her paintings here!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
This is the last blog post of 2023. After a short break, we will meet again next year.
I hope you will have a wonderful time with your close ones, and of course, I hope you will spend some time with art-making as well!
Writing About Art
This week is dedicated to writing about art. I tell how I write these blog posts, and why it’s beneficial to write about art.
See more pics of this piece in the Taiko online art store!
How I Write a Blog Post
I have been writing these blog posts for years directly in English, so, in a language foreign to me. I wanted to develop my language skills and it seemed like the best method, even if the expression was sometimes limited. This year, I started to write these stories in Finnish first. Once the Finnish text is done, I translate it into English. I edit the translation 2-4 times before the story is finished.
You might imagine that this is a slow road, but I have developed as a writer in such a way that it feels natural to push the story out first and then edit it. When editing, the subject becomes more clear and the images and texts work better together.
I love the interaction between two languages.
When I write in Finnish, I’m already thinking about English. In Finnish, passive constructions and long expressions are used a lot. I’ll try to be more concise right at the beginning. Words and expressions also differ. In Finnish, I can easily get a relaxed and even humorous tone, but I can’t translate it into English, and neither can machine translators. However, I don’t mourn the matter, I think that the union of two languages is like a marriage: both have to give way.
Joyce Carol Oates talks about having a journal separate from the stories and novels. The journal could be more honest and raw, and use a little different style than what ends in the publication. For me, the Finnish script is a bit like that – a stream of thoughts that gets refined with edits.
The Relationship Between Images and Text
I used to enter the images into the post first and then write the texts directly between them. But these days I work in a word processor so that I only focus on the text. I can write more freely and the texts become more authentic and have more content. I can then fit the images between the text and add captions if needed.
Although I decide the topic of a blog post when I start writing it, most of the pictures exist before the text. I strive to always have new photos and I often plan the collection of images weeks in advance. Since this blog is about art and is aimed at visual people, I need lots of pictures. I want to inspire the reader to make art, so the pictures need also express the process, and not just finished works.
Writing Moves Art Forward
Nowadays, many have left blogging and moved to posting on Facebook or Instagram or uploading videos to YouTube. I too write regularly on my Facebook page and Instagram account. Every now and then I also make a video on YouTube.
But writing is magical. When you write a longer story, you don’t just write to others but to yourself too.
And I am not the only one who thinks that way. Last spring, I participated in an artist coaching program by the Finnish Art Agency, where the coach wanted us to write regularly about our art. She emphasized that working with words is important because visual artists often need to tell about their art.
Writing About Art is Almost Similar to Talking About Art
I believe that all who create art also want to talk about it. It’s just very difficult sometimes. Pictures go to the other side of the words and the ideas get mixed up.
Talking about your art can also feel like pompous boasting, even if the recipient would be interested. Long art stories can also bore the listener if she is not as deep in creating. The same applies to writing, you can feel pretentious or be afraid to bore someone, but when you write it’s easier to notice when you’re stuck and repeating yourself.
My art has not only developed by drawing and painting diligently. It evolves every time I write about it. It has developed by blog posts, manuscripts for classes, short video posts, and even description texts, where I have to briefly tell who I am or what inspired me to create a certain piece.
Writing brings out problems. You have to focus on what you really want to say and tell who you really are. There will be a temptation to find words that sound great but not say the truth. But if you can overcome the lure of meaningless words, creativity in you wakes up.
I have noticed that when I can put my wishes and ideas into words, they begin to appear in my paintings. Our creativity strives to fulfill our wishes if it can read them. So, that’s why I am writing about art weekly. Thank you for making me do that!
Do you write – or plan to write – about your art? Tell us more!
Now and Then – Development of Style
I started a grant project in October. The project lasts a year and covers half of my working time. I am making a digital artwork that can be experienced with virtual glasses. This will definitely give a boost for my artistic development, including the style as well.
I used a fun sculpting app called Nomad and a 3D modeling software called Blender.
This image is based on replicating one shape only.
One of the recent practical changes is that I have given up using a Mac computer and bought a new Windows gaming laptop, which I call Turandot. I am now writing this blog post with her. She must have imagined that she would be owned by a young man, but no – she has a woman in her fifties. Turandot must have sounded like a great name to her, but after googling it, she might have been upset: Puccini’s opera! Well, she just has to adjust and learn my style.
Style Development – Looking Back
The new big project has made me think back and explain it all to Turandot. Ten years ago, I wanted to learn to paint so well that I would be satisfied with my paintings: “I could then die happy!” I thought that as an artist I had to abandon what I have been until then and build a new vision and a new world of my own.
When my paintings started to reach the level I had hoped for, I felt first grateful and then empty. I couldn’t see forward anymore.
See the gallery of my oil paintings!
Now, however, I’m on the brink of something new again and the crises of the past seem strange: how was I so hopeless? Why didn’t I realize that everything meaningful that I’ve done in my life will tie into my art over time?
Always a Beginner
My artist friend said that I have developed quickly as an artist. However, it doesn’t always feel that way. I always have self-criticism and always notice things to improve. That’s why it feels frustrating now when I’m starting over again and building a three-dimensional digital expression. At the same time, I remind myself that the beginning of today is much further than the beginning 10 years ago – there is a lot that I already know and what I can already see, not only style-wise but in a more general level as well.
The balance between encouraging yourself and criticizing yourself is essential when making art. You have to be able to observe your pictures as if they were created by someone else and at the same time, you have to see forward – what all this could be and where it could lead when I will learn more skill and imagination.
Fortunately, I haven’t listened to those who say that everything you do must be in the same style and form a unified experience. When you’re a beginner, forcing a certain style only leads to getting stuck at a level where you really don’t want to stay. When you’ve done enough, your own style pushes out naturally.
Yarn, Thread, Line, and a Telescope!
10 years ago, my line was clumsy and closed, while now it’s elegant and curious, like a telescope that lets me see beyond what I’m currently aware of.
I’ve always liked knitting and embroidery. Thread and line have a lot in common. That’s where my style started.
Collageland teaches this style!
Now my task is to continue developing my style and step into the world of digital art. However, I will still be drawing and painting next year, so there is no need to worry that this blog will change too much!