Watercolor Flowers in Louisa M. Alcott Style
This week, I talk about Louisa M. Alcott’s characters and painting flowers in watercolor.
They say that nature should not be humanized, but when I paint flowers, I do that without hesitation.
Splashes Start an Adventure
I love getting to know my flowers little by little. Their life begins with random splashes and I try to grow them as freely as I can.
At its best, a painting is like a good book that hooks you into the atmosphere and cannot be left unfinished. It’s always exciting to see what kind of characters turn out on paper and what happens to them.
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
In this painting, the big peony was born first. She is a girl who is sure of her position, but always ready to hug and strengthen others as well. I was reminded of the novel Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott. Could that peony be like Meg, the big sister of the family?
And could there be Amy next to her, a growing beauty and sometimes a bit self-centric too?
Right below white and glamorous Amy, there’s sweetly round Beth who left this world far too soon.
Painting the Atmosphere
When the watercolor wets the thick cotton paper, I would like to invite you to my little studio and give you a thin brush. Together, we would then paint small shapes like writers working on a common story.
However, as everything in flowers does not have to be literal or recognizable, we could just focus on the atmosphere.
Jo the Tulip
The key figure in my painting is the tulip in the background. He is like Jo, unique and more modern than others, ready to create her life joyfully, but without being forced to the center of the painting. I admired Jo as a child, and it has taken me a long time to dare to be like her – step aside and do my own thing.
Somehow I also think that when you come to my course, you too want to be like Jo – do your own thing, express the flavor of life, embrace the abundance of nature, and allow unapologetic playfulness.
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Painting Flowers Freely with Watercolors
This week, I share thoughts about my new course Freely Grown, and about its central idea of allowing the painting to grow freely.
I’ve been in a really good mood lately. I have two great sources of joy. The first is that a new period in my life will begin this month when I start a year-long half-time grant period for digital artwork. Another source of joy is the new course Freely Grown, which I started making in the summer and whose material I have now been finishing.
Freely Grown
This course has been like a friend to me and I hope it will be like that to you too. Like paintings, courses also have their own character. This course is both playful and goal-oriented. I usually look for a suitable course name for many months, but this one gave me its name right away and I haven’t even thought about alternatives!
I’ve been so enthusiastic about the subject of the course that the abundance of plants is appearing in the work planner too.
Painting Flowers Freely
I am really inspired by the idea that a plant can grow freely. I don’t think it has to be a wildflower at all. Even if a plant grows in a flower bed, the gardener can let it sprawl. Similarly, our lives can have certain routines and restrictions, but still, imagination can grow freely.
When the brush spins and twists on the paper, it’s wonderful to indulge in its play. The painting can also grow freely.
I like to consider that a painting is an independent party, not so much an extension of my own self. When I relax a little about what I want and let the painting suggest a direction, a new kind of pleasure is offered, even an adventure!
A surprising thing in this painting was that the largest flower suggested turning away from the viewer. I wondered if I could let it do that. Would the setting look impolite?
But when I study old flower paintings, their natural charm is that the flowers stretch out in every direction. So why couldn’t we let our flowers grow freely where they want?
Only when the painting was about to be finished did I realize that the flower turns towards the light as if to welcome a new era! When you give the painting freedom, you always get more than if you strictly control it.
I think this A3 size (11.7 x 16.5 inches) is really nice because it’s big enough. It’s hard for the flowers to look expressive if they are very small.
Coloring on Watercolor Painting
When I finish with colored pencils, I aim for the colored parts to continue painting naturally.
Here you can see a close-up of the coloring. I always leave watercolor visible too.
I’ve done a lot of colored pencil stuff in the last couple of years and the number of pencils has reduced. But it’s fun that every now and then I can buy an out-of-stock color and introduce a new arrival to the old pals.
I love this abundance of flowers – born by painting freely, without reference pics!
I hope you will come to the course!
How to Combine Watercolors and Colored Pencils
In my new online course Freely Grown, we will use watercolors and colored pencils for a flower painting. Here are the basics for using both in the same piece.
Watercolors and colored pencils have quite a lot in common, even though one is used for painting and the other for drawing.
Choosing the Paper
Both like thick and smooth watercolor paper. Of course, watercolors like textured paper too, but colored pencils are a bit more selective. I find it most enjoyable to color on Hot Press quality paper that has very little surface texture. But if you only have textured Cold Press paper in your stock, just start experimenting right away and buy smoother paper later!
All Brands Work Together
In both watercolors and colored pencils, you can combine different brands.
I also have many different brands in my watercolor set and even though I work with pans, some of the pans are pressed from tube colors. And I love to try different brands of colored pencils and organize them by color family.
Proceed Layer by Layer
When creating, it is good to start carefully with both watercolors and colored pencils. Introduce a new color little by little and change it layer by layer. Always dry the lower layer of watercolor first before adding another layer on top.
Translucent layers produce new color mixes. By saving the effect of white paper, you will have a more effortless look than if you color white later.
Watercolors First, Colored Pencils Second
You can color over a dry watercolor painting with colored pencils, but not vice versa. Sure, there are watercolor pencils that dissolve in water, but I usually use all of them dry. So I do a watercolor painting first, and then finish it with colored pencils.
Painting with watercolors is fast, but drying between layers takes time. Colored pencils are slow, but the mark is detailed and you can immediately add a new layer.
The quickest solution is to paint most of the work with watercolors and only emphasize the highlights and add details with colored pencils.
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Art-Making and Garden Life
This week, I talk about how gardening inspires both my husband and me. The garden is present in these two new miniature paintings as well.
It is already autumn in Finland, but we have summer in our hearts because we have done a lot of work in the garden during the summer. My husband has put all his energy there, I don’t have quite as big a passion. The garden is his canvas, but for me, painting is the most important.
Freely Grown – and a New Sweet Spot
I have a new course in the making called Freely Grown, which I hope to run in late October and get for pre-sale next week. There we will paint layered flowers in watercolor and finish the painting with colored pencils.
Lately, I’ve found my sweet spot in the way I look at plants. I can see both playfulness and soulfulness in them. This perspective has brought new positivity to my life. I think that art always has a lot of possibilities. Making art is like walking down a long corridor full of doors. Now I have found a door where I can be funny and profound at the same time. This insight also affects the creation of the course. I’ve had a lot of fun, although I haven’t compromised on explaining the details.
Making a Dream Come True
The garden is my husband’s canvas. He’s been making a bigger water feature all summer. It’s big enough to be called a pond. I wasn’t terribly excited about it, but the further the project has progressed, the more I understand his vision.
One of the hardest things both in art-making and garden life is visioning – so, dreaming! The dream must be simplified so that it can be remembered during the making. All projects have ugly phases. The dream must still be maintained.
Even these miniature paintings, for which I use leftover paints from the palette, looked pretty terrible at first.
However, I had a dream and knew these would become really nice.
I also made small paintings like this earlier this year, remember?
See this blog post for more pics!
Planning a Garden
In the spring, we hired a professional garden planner to draw a plan for a part of our backyard.
It was a bit like taking a course. We got points of view from a professional and she helped us to see further in our dreams. With that, I learned a lot about plants and how to plan a garden like dividing a house into rooms. It is not very far from a painting.
Think about a painting as a place that has its own identity. My small paintings are like tiny closets but bigger ones often like halls.
See more pics about this big painting in this blog post!
Art-Making and Garden – Back to the Pond
The pond is entirely my husband’s work – although he has probably watched all the pond-building videos on YouTube!
I feel that the pond already affects my paintings. Do you remember this watercolor painting I presented a couple of weeks ago?
See this blog post for more pics!
I think I already have a little love for that pond, its plants, its reflections, and how it reminds me of Monet’s garden.
However, winter is already coming. Art-making and garden life will be a bit more separate then. But the flowers will bloom on the canvas. And my husband will start watching YouTube again to see what he could create next summer.
Can you relate? Do you have a garden?