Let’s pick watercolors and colored pencils and make a flower for your art journal! Scroll down to watch a step-by-step video!
This flower can be a rose or a peony or any round and layered species. For me, it’s not so important which flower it is, but what kind of personality it expresses. Here I aimed for a soft but unapologetic character. Every flower you create will become a bit different, and soon you’ll have a collection!
Flower for Art Journal Page – Watch the Video!
The instructions for the flower and all the inspiration for using it on a page is in the video below! We’ll start with watercolors to make the foundation for the layered look and then add more sharpness with colored pencils. Some patience is required because you need to let the watercolors dry between the first steps.
In the video, I encourage you to adjust the center of the flower, the flower’s sould. Find a look and personality that appeals to you!
Including the Flower in Art Journal
In the video, I also show how you can use the flower with almost any background and make a spread for the flower in the spirit of Freely Grown.
This week, I have a fun video for you. In the video, I create a watercolor greeting card and talk about my obsession of painting flowers.
The card is A5 in size, so about 6 x 8 inches and I have painted it on watercolor paper.
My smallest brush is very narrow and I could have coped with two brushes. In the course Freely Grown, we use the similar process, but finish with colored pencils, so it’s much easier than working with tiny brush strokes.
Watercolor Flower Obsession – Watch the Video!
In this video I confess how goal-oriented I am about painting flowers but also talk about the importance of play.
In the video I talk about a boutique that’s not a commercial thing at all, vice versa:
“I believe that we can create the best boutique out of our own art. Imagine your workspace as a paper shop where you sell hand-painted cards, bookmarks, hand-drawn stickers, patterned papers – everything that is already art as such, but from which you can look for inspiration for bigger works. I have even come up with a name for this kind of personal shop. It’s Boutique of the Heart. There’s only one customer in the Boutique of the Heart – you, and one seller and manufacturer – you! The longer you keep the shop, the more you learn to love the things you draw and paint yourself.”
My message is that the essence of art is in play. Thus no matter how high you want to reach, you can still create art with a playful attitude and have your Boutique of the Heart. I know there are art instructors that solely focus on the techniques and those who are about fairytales and imagination, but I feel I am something between. I want to create art with people who want to move forward in art-making, but who also love imagination and free expression.
We can have obsessions, but there should always be time to play too.
I want my Black Friday campaigns to be inspiring for art-making, and this year my theme is “Black Berry Friday.” It means juicy art journal pages on black paper. I am pretty sure you have one like my black and square Dylusions Creative Journal(affiliate link).
I use my black art journal for using up old supplies that don’t inspire me anymore. And if I have leftover paint on a palette, I make a few brush strokes on a page rather than toss the paint away. This floral page was born from those kinds of careless strokes and now, much later, I finished it with paint markers.
Edges and Banners
Usually, the center of the page is the most important area, but for banners, the edges need to draw attention. Here, the circular floral design, enhances the center text area beautifully.
I made the banner in Photoshop, and boosted the colors a bit.
I also drew a long rectangle of cherries that not only makes a great banner but also looks great on the journal. I think we treat art journal pages too often as one unit when a page could be divided in sections and thus bring more variation to the journal.
My banner wasn’t long enough for all the purposes, so I made it longer by duplicating the design in Photoshop.
Colored Pencils on Black Art Journal Pages
I like to use colored pencils with paint markers. Marker pens produce thick and opaque shapes but colored pencils are softer and more translucent. Colored pencils are great for backgrounds. Look at these stripes!
I also used gel pens to add thin lines.
Again, I became more interested in the background than the center. The center is not very elegant, but here, in the banner you mostly see the edges.
Doodling on Black Art Journal Pages
My Black Friday offer is simple: All classes are 20% OFF. So I wanted the banners have some simplicity too. Doodling circles is easy and doesn’t require much thinking.
I got a bit carried away though!
I was talking on the phone and watching a movie while doodling, and once I stopped, I thought that I doodled too much. But the banner looks great and of course, there can’t be too much of anything in art!
Designs for Fabric
I got so inspired making these pages, that I had to play with Photoshop a bit more than necessary. I combined many pages into one design and I think something like this would make a great fabric.
Black Over Painted Background
I have been contemplating whether I should use both sides of the pages on my black art journal. Using only one side would give a blank page to protect the art on the opposite page. But the journal looks much more inspiring when both pages are covered!
Here’s one more idea for an art journal page, and this works on any journal. When you have painted backgrounds, use dark marker or paint on top to make shapes from the background.
I wanted to make one banner that has fall and thanksgiving themes with berries. The page became a bit busy, but again, the banner is ok, I think!
This week, I have a free video where I create these joyful flowers with watercolor pencils. These are inspired by fabric prints and are more motif-like than many of my colored pencil pieces. I love this kind of playing with style.
This is a small piece, just 8 x 8 inches. It’s colored freely with watercolor pencils on thick drawing paper.
Joyful Flowers – Watch the Video!
In the video, I talk about finding inspiration for art-making and tell stories about things that have affected my style. I just read abstract painter Darby Bannard‘s quote:
“Inspiration doesn’t follow style, it creates it.”
It made me want to share my thoughts about inspiration and style. I also wanted to create something colorful and cheerful that is not realistic, but more design-oriented. These joyful flowers were fun to make. After drawing the joyful flowers, I made something small to add to my boxes of joy. You can see that little flowery thing in the video too. Watch the video!
This video is a little longer than I usually post, but I personally like to watch long videos, and maybe you do too?
Joyful Coloring
My newest course Joyful Coloring teaches a color-oriented approach to watercolor pencils.
Start with blank paper and create freely with joy and sunshine! >> Buy here!
