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Peony and Parakeet

Fly to Your Inner World and Color the Emotion

Creative Process

The Joy of Drawing Paper Dolls

This week is about drawing paper dolls. At the same time, we celebrate the social nature of hand-drawn paper dolls.

For an artist, the difference between a doll and a human is that the doll opens the door to a fantasy. Thus, drawing paper dolls is very different from painting portraits. But if I have to pick from the two, I would say that paper dolls make you more of an artist.

Paper doll as a nature's spirit. A digital collage of hand-drawn art. By Päivi Eerola, Finland.
A digital collage of hand-drawn art.

Compared to a human, only a doll can be a creature of the imagination – for example, a plant and a spirit at the same time.

Dream Wardrobe

Only a doll can have a wardrobe where every piece is organized.

Drawing paper dolls. By Paivi Eerola of Peony and Parakeet.

Only a doll can get out of the box and go where ever the imagination takes her.

Drawing paper dolls and their clothing.

Only a doll can wear a butterfly as a wig and rose leaves as a bodice.

Flower fairies and beyond. Drawing paper dolls with colored pencils.

To be a fashion designer for a doll is the play we can’t resist.

Unspoken Secrets

Only a doll can hold the secrets that every artist has.

A hand-drawn paper doll.

Because isn’t it so that no matter how close we are, there are dreams that we can’t tell anybody? Dreams that would perhaps sound silly, too grand, or too selfish. Dreams that make you an artist.

True Friends

Only for a doll a true friend is easy to find.

Drawing paper dolls and their world.

With paper dolls, I examine the social aspect of an artist’s life – how we can feel less lonely when creating and how the result can be a bridge between all the art that we have created. And when we give or share a picture of a doll, it also invites other people to play and connect with themselves and others.

Doll World – Drawing Paper Dolls

Come to draw adorable dolls and their dresses with me!

Doll World - an online art class for drawing paper dolls and their clothing.

Doll World lasts from January to May. When you sign up, you will get the published lesson right away. >> Sign up Now!

Create a Chapter Cover for the New Year!

This week, we are creating a chapter cover for our art journals that marks the new year.

New chapter cover for the new year. From the colored pencil journal of the artist Päivi Eerola, Finland.

When I think about the new year, there are lots of uncertainties that first come to my mind. What will happen in the world, what will happen in my life, and what will happen in my art? I can only present educated guesses about the threats and possibilities. This kind of wondering makes me feel passive, and it’s not very uplifting, so I rather pick up my pencils and start drawing.

Draw a Chapter Cover for a Journal!

As I told you in the recent video blog post, I got the idea of making a chapter cover in the colored pencil journal, marking where the new year begins. So all I had to do was to add the numbers on the next spread and then color a bit on them and around them. This project was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it!

Play with Numbers!

Just as the world is not only based on facts, the numbers are not just numbers either. Their shapes don’t entirely define them. The number “2” can be a kneeling woman with stockings and a skirt, or a flower that bends down – or both! The number “0” can be a mirror that not only reflects the surroundings but open ups a new scenery. Isn’t that what we want to see in the new year – not only experience the chronologically bypassing days but also make them take our minds to a new place? Stairs that are ahead can lead to nowhere or everywhere, and the fingers that hold a treasure can, at the same time, be the leaves of a plant.

Decorating numbers with colored pencils. Creating a spread for an art journal.

The way we can combine everyday life and fantasy creates joy and hope, and uncertainties feel not only exciting but necessary.

Numbers as Fashion Models

Every time I build a course, I learn something new myself too. But this time, with Doll World, I feel that there’s a lot that comes in the shape of a person.

Coloring a chapter cover for an art journal

When I am more familiar with drawing human figures, I seem to be better able to see those everywhere, for example, in numbers too. And it often seems to come to my mind that I can dress up a shape and, that way, make it more imaginative and fun.

Year of Art

The year 2022 has been a year of art for me. I acknowledge that eight recent years have been like that in one way or another when I have been a full-time artist. But this year, it felt like Art came out of the cellar and opened her heart. And when asking what to do next, she usually said: “Leave me alone,” but this year, the answer was softer, sending a question back to me: “Tell me what you want to see!” Art, who was an animal that used to escape and hide, became a pet, even a caressing spirit. She wanted to stick around and show how something little can grow to become enough – how I can be enough.

Art vs. Artist - Päivi Eerola, Finland

It all felt like a gift even if I had suffered for years by trying to tame Art’s spirit, trying to understand her, trying to stick around even if she would only live in a dark cellar. And now, when I play with the pencils, it doesn’t feel like I do that without her, but with her,
even if I am not painting.

Art journal love: creating a new chapter cover between pages.

When we spend time together with Art and together as artists too, every year is different. We don’t stay the same, but our foundation becomes more similar. And the older we get, the more we inspire each other, and our art is like a group of fairies that gently fly around us. At least, that’s what I hope for the upcoming year.

A chapter cover for the new year. This divides the pages in the art journal.

Time will tell how this journal continues!

Doll World – Join Us!

Come to draw adorable dolls and their dresses with me!

Doll World - an online art class  for drawing and coloring dressed-up human figures.

Doll World begins on Jan 1st. >> Sign up Now!

Dolls and Angels – Video Blog Post

This week, I have a video blog post for you! I talk about dolls and angels – winter, the new class Doll World and Christmas memories, among other things!

Paivi Eerola and her paper dolls.

You will also see my table at the recent sales event. I hope you enjoy the video!

Dolls and Angels – Watch the Video!

Links to Related Blog Posts

Related Online Classes

Inspired by Nature – Finishing a Series of Paintings

This week, I celebrate a big finish – the series of ten nature-inspired oil paintings that I started in July!

Four small oil paintings by Päivi Eerola, Finland. How to plan and finish a series of paintings.

The series has four small, four medium-sized, and two big paintings. All of them are some kind of floral landscapes.

Small Paintings + Video!

I worked from big to small. I like to start the series boldly and then pick ideas from them for smaller pieces. This is the last painting – Rapunzel of the Garden:

Puutarhan Tähkäpää - Rapunzel of the Garden, a small oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Puutarhan Tähkäpää – Rapunzel of the Garden, 20 x 25 cm. See more pics in the Taiko art store!

Because of the small size, this painting required very thin brushes and a lot of precision. Here’s a 1-minute video where you can see me painting it:

These are the rest of the small paintings:

Varjon lohtu - Comfort of the Shadow, a small oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Varjon lohtu – Comfort of the Shadow, 20 x 25 cm. See more pics in the Taiko art store!
Samettikukan sointi - The Sound of the Marigold, a small oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Samettikukan sointi – The Sound of the Marigold, 20 x 25 cm. See more pics in the Taiko art store!
Ruusun henki - The Spirit of the Rose, a small oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Ruusun henki – The Spirit of the Rose, 20 x 25 cm. See more pics in the Taiko art store!

I like the idea of having a secret tiny treasure, so I try to make the small paintings look like that.

Medium-Sized Paintings

The medium-sized paintings are in two parts: two are smaller, and two are bigger. I like to paint “sisters” – so two paintings in a row or at the same time so that they complement each other. It’s an easy way to create variation in the series.

Toivomusten metsä - Forest of Wishes, a medium-sized oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Toivomusten metsä – Forest of Wishes, 40 x 50 cm. See more pics in this blog post!

I like to name each painting of a series so that the titles have some kind of similarities. For example, the previous series all had celestial bodies in their names, and the one before that was a V-series – all the titles started with the letter V. This time, the similarity is not perhaps so evident, but it’s there – all the titles have a genitive form.

Unelmien kevät - The Spring of Dreams, a medium-sized oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Unelmien kevät – The Spring of Dreams, 40 x 50 cm. See more pics in this blog post!

Four seasons are also present in this series. Expressing seasons is an idea that I could repeat in future series too.

Talviyön runoelma - Winter night's Poem, a medium-sized oil painting by Paivi Eerola.
Talviyön runoelma – Winter night’s Poem, 60 x 80 cm. See more pics in this blog post!
Currently on display at the exhibition “Talven taikaa” in Galleria K, Vantaa, Finland.

In every series, there are paintings that have seeds for the next one. In this series, I like how abstract I went with Winter Night’s Poem, and the natural look in The Echo of Moss inspires me a lot. These two will set the foundation for the next series.

Sammaleen kaiku - The Echo of Moss, a medium-sized oil painting by Päivi Eerola. read her blog post about creating a series of paintings!
Sammaleen kaiku – The Echo of Moss, 60 x 80 cm. See more pics and a video in this blog post!

Usually, I am exhausted after finishing a series, but this time not so much. I have many ideas and already ordered the canvases. I like to plan the size of the series and the sizes of the paintings beforehand. Before I even begin to make any background studies, I have ideas on interiors they could fit or galleries or exhibitions they could go to, and decide the size based on those.

Big Paintings

Even if all my paintings are my children, I can’t help picking my personal favorite of the series. In this one, it’s Tiger’s Eye.

Tiikerinsilmä - Tiger's Eye, 100 x 80 cm, oil on canvas, by Paivi Eerola, Finland. See her blog post about finishing a series of paintings.
Tiikerinsilmä – Tiger’s Eye, 100 x 80 cm.
Currently on display at the gallery Gumbostrand Konst & Form.
See more pics in this blog post!

Tiger’s Eye is a sister to another big painting – Queen of the Night.

Yön kuningatar - Queen of the Night, 100 x 80 cm, oil on canvas. By Paivi Eerola, Vantaa, Finland.
Yön kuningatar – Queen of the Night, 100 x 80 cm. See more pics in this blog post!

I like the drama in these big paintings.

Nature Inspired The Series of Paintings

Often, people ask an artist: “What inspires you?” and the artist responds, “Nature.”

But I think that it’s really important for an artist to get more specific. For me, it’s the plants – who they want to be and what kind of world they hope to build. I love to imagine what kind of personalities plants have.

A flower girl. Colored pencil art by Päivi Eerola.

In the upcoming class Doll World, the plants become alive as flower girls!

Doll World - an online art class for drawing people in adorable nature-inspired dresses.

Come to draw people in nature-inspired dresses – Sign up here!

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