Poetry Girl and Bosom Friends – Start Drawing Again!
Let’s get you out of the creative rut and have quality time with your inner child – the poetry girl in you! Join us for a course that will get you excited about making art again! >> Sign up here!
Poetry Girl and Bosom Friends
In Finland we have two lovely words: “runotyttö” and “sydänystävä” – “poem girl” and “heart friend”. Runotyttö means a dreamy young person – poetry girl – and sydänystävä means a close friend – a bosom friend. I think the best courses are like the bosom friends that bring out the poetry girl in you.
They make you see new possibilities, but they do it in a gentle and fun way.
>> Sign up for Hearts and Stories!
Here’s how we get out of the creative rut in the course Hearts and Stories.
Out of the Creative Rut – Step 1
First, we will restore the joy of drawing simple shapes.
Out of the Creative Rut – Step 2
Second, we will go for an adventure that travels from one small picture to another.
Out of the Creative Rut – Step 3
Third, we will find a connection to fantasy through characters.
Out of the Creative Rut – Step 4
Finally, we put everything together so that we are excited to continue creating.
Art is a mood and a direction. It shows where you are, and suggests where you want to go.
Join us for a course that will get you excited about making art again!
>> Sign up for Hearts and Stories!
Vermeer Girl With Heart – Draw With Me!
Draw a Vermeer girl by following my formula!
This drawing is a modern version of the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. Here, the earring is not the center of the attention, but a heart and flowers steal the show. I have made a simple formula to draw and color the girl’s face, and then you can put your own twist on the head and add whatever decorations you want there.
Supplies
You can use colored pencils, watercolor pencils, watercolors, acrylic paints, oil paints – or any medium that has a possibility to create color mixes. My example uses colored pencils. For the face, you need three browns: one dark, one middle, and one very light brown. You also need a little bit red for the lips and black for some small details. White is optional. When working on white or almost white background, you can just leave the white areas uncolored as I do in my example. I do use a little bit white to blend the red of the lips into paper white.
I created my Vermeer girl directly on an art journal page. My art journal is Dylusions Creative Journal Square. Pick a journal or a paper that works well with your supplies.
Vermeer Girl – Shape by Shape Formula
To succeed you have to trust this formula. Don’t look at the original painting, follow the picture below only. Copy the shapes as accurately as you can, and don’t think about drawing a face. The girl will appear when you have all the puzzle pieces in place!
Start from the first picture and color the shapes so that they have sharp outline edges. Then blend the skin colors so that the transition from one shape to another is softer.
Starting the Drawing
If you want to put all kinds of fun stuff on the girl’s head, place the face on the left bottom corner. I marked the spot where I started the drawing with a green arrow on the photo below.
At first, the face doesn’t look like one at all. But this kind of abstraction will bring out the realistic look. Reality is always more abstract than we think.
Drawing Sharp Shapes
Human faces are very organic, so the shapes are too. Examine the curves of the formula in detail, and avoid straight lines. The more beginner you are, the more you are tempted to draw too straight, avoid that!
Once all the pieces are in place, the face makes sense. Take the image in front of the mirror to see if there are any distortions. If the mirror image looks wrong in some way, get back to the formula and check your shapes!
When you are satisfied with the sharp shapes, go to the second step of the formula: blending.
Vermeer Girl – Achieving the Old World Look
Old paintings have softness that our photo-oriented era doesn’t often express. We prefer sharpness over blurry. However, life is often blurry and your Vermeer Girl will look much more alive if you soften the edges of shapes, especially on the skin.
Color on the top of the shape with the neighbor color so that the shapes integrate and look less separate. Now you can also adjust the shapes a bit more freely. I lengthened the big dark brown shadow because my face became a bit longer than in the formula.
Small changes in faces can change the personality quite a lot. I think that’s fascinating! You can start from the Vermeer girl, but then end up with a character of your own.
Drawing Decorations
First, think about the size of the decorations: do you want plenty of small ones or only a few large ones. Beginners easily draw something between, but I think this portrait will look better if the decorations are either a bunch of small ones or a few large ones. I chose the latter and placed a couple of big flowers and a heart on her head.
I colored the decorations freely and used no references for these. I like the contrast between the face’s carefully constructed softness and the free coloring of the flowers.
I move on to color the background just before I am finished with decorations. This way I can still change them a bit if needed. The background often gives life to the whole image and brings in more ideas for the drawing.
Starting the Background
Not only the girl’s face is composed of shapes, the background can be like that too. The only difference is that now you can freely improvise the shapes. Start with one color and sketch by coloring!
Think about the streams of air and imagine how the girl moves when she is posing in front of you.
Building the Color Scheme
To make the portrait look unified, you need to repeat the colors. My background started as blue, but in the picture below, it has started to get more brown tones. The pinks of the flowers also blend into blue. Color several layers and use a lot of blending near the edges.
I added the surrounding colors to the center of the heart like it would be a mirror. This also helps in harmonizing the atmosphere.
You can also play with patterns: color small shapes inside a bigger one! When located in the background, the patterns can be subtle and muted, so that they don’t steal the whole show.
Finishing the Vermeer Girl
When you are close to finishing, look at the original Vermeer painting and see how she partly disappears in the background. Especially the dark brown in the neck area can be blended with the background.
Dark background looks great with the lit face. Vermeer girl with a heart makes a wonderful Valentine’s day page in any art journal!
I hope this project made you grab your pencils and other art supplies!
Hearts and Stories – Sign up Now!
Come to play with hearts and other simple shapes! We use colored pencils, felt-tipped pens, and watercolors. Sign up for Hearts and Stories!
Choosing the Word for 2025
Have you ever chosen the word for the new year and then happily forgotten it? Me too!
But last year, I had a word that stuck in my mind. It was “Integrate”. My word for 2025 is “Release”.
Here’s what I have learned about choosing the word!
Too Much Emotion, Too Little Impact
Some words appeal more to emotion, some to reason. Most often, I have chosen a word that has an emotional appeal. For example, “Imagination”, “Depth” or “Play“. There are plenty of these kinds of soft words, here are some common ones: “Joy”, “Courage”, “Inspire”, “Create”, “Focus”, “Nurture.”
These soft words that make your imagination run wild may seem like good choices, but they have this downside: when you’re busy working, your head is full of rational words. Emotional words don’t come to mind at that moment. This way, the practical connection to the word is missing.
My word for 2024 – “Integrate” – was a rather uninspiring word at first, but it became more and more inspiring over the course of the year. The idea was that even though I was doing a variety of art – drawing, painting and programming digital motion art – I could look for connections between different art forms so that I didn’t have to reinvent everything. I could also value more what I had created in previous years. This union of old and new worked out nicely, and with the word, I began to see my artistic career as a whole and not just an attempt to improve my artistry piece by piece.
The best thing about the word was that it didn’t describe the actual result but solved how to get there. So when I encountered problems, “Integrate” often offered at least a partial solution. That way the word came to mind repeatedly and helped me in situations when my inspiration was at its lowest.
Word That Changes Your Life
I think the best words are those that initiate change for the better. I have often chosen a word that is already familiar and doesn’t make me change anything. This year, my first candidate was “Elevate.” It sounded too soft, so I found a similar rational word “Upgrade.” But since I always try to improve my actions and the level of my art in general, I rejected “Upgrade” and chose “Release” instead.
To me, “Release” means letting go of what I’ve been holding in my heart and letting it come out. I want to give myself permission to be naive, naughty, brutal, overly cute, everything and anything, and start to blindly believe in my artistic vision. Release also means publishing what I’ve done openly and regularly and working with that in mind. Letting go and publishing is a bittersweet combination that really challenges me.
Release also means that I can let go of things if they hinder rather than help the cause.
Drawing the Word for 2025
Writing about the word is good, but I also wanted to process the word by drawing.
By drawing, you always find new dimensions. Even the hardest words become softer and create emotional connection.
One thing leads to another. I love this way of drawing where the result remains a surprise for a long time.
I combined colored pencils and markers here. I like the soft impression of colored pencils, but I used felt-tip pens in the highlights to intensify the colors.
When the drawing was half-finished I compared it to the little pieces I had drawn during the Christmas holiday.
The colors still needs to be strengthened and details adjusted.
Finding the Connection with the Word
Even though this drawing isn’t very big, about letter size, there are a lot of details. I took many breaks and it took me about 3 days to finish the drawing. For the illustration that combines the right and the left brain, it’s important to find the connection between all the details and understand how they express the word.
This drawing depicts my childhood in the 70s with plastic animals and daydreaming. The drawing feels revealing to me, although its style is playful.
Even if the picture feels a bit private, I want to share it with you: release, you know!
What’s your word for 2025?
Are you going to draw it?
What to Create with Colored Pencils? – Watch the Video!
This week I have a short inspirational video for you. I wanted to make a video that I can share on Instagram, so this has different portions than my videos usually are. You can watch it bigger by pressing the last icon on the menubar below the video.
Most of these drawings are made with regular colored pencils (or crayons as some call them) and some with watercolor pencils. I love both.
Coloring Freely on Blank Paper – Simple Start!
I am an advocate for coloring freely – starting with blank paper, adding colors on top of each other, and getting excited about what comes up. This doesn’t have to be anything difficult. Here’s an old picture from 2015 that I still find inspiring. You can illustrate your journaling with freely colored boxes.
Children draw freely with colored pencils, but when they grow up and become “colored pencil artists” they need all kinds of references to get started. References are great for learning some techniques, but they don’t make anyone an artist. A big part of art is in our mind – how we open up and how we allow ourselves to break boundaries.
Growing Your Skills
My love for colored pencils is based on a promise that I have made for my inner child: I will color for you and help others to color for theirs. So even if I make oil paintings and media art too, colored pencils always have a special place in my heart.
So, welcome to my courses to improve your skills and expand your artistic thinking!
P.S. You can still sign up for Joyful Coloring!
