Innovative Portraits

Expand your ideas and skills for portraits

Refresh the Way You Draw and Paint Faces

Innovative Portraits is an online class for making captivating and non-traditional images of human life.

Whether you want to become a mixed media artist or fill your sketchbook with fun ideas, start creating with Innovative Portraits!

This class is especially for you who wants to …

… increase artistic looseness and move away from flat facial stereotypes
… stop controlling the face with lines and learn how to use shapes with style
… invent ideas for portraits so that you never wonder what to put in the background
… not just create the staring face but to express the dimensions of human life through portraits

Innovative Portraits contains 34 pages of ideas and instructions + 9 inspirational and practical videos (over 3,5 hours of carefully edited video content).

Module 1 – Modern Women

Create stylish and modern abstract portraits. 

In Module 1, you will play with geometric shapes, modern surface patterns, and bright colors. You will learn to simplify and stylize.

Also: Inspiration from famous Helene Schjerfbeck’s paintings, drawing without any reference photos, making a layering plan, and communicating a visual story.

Module 2 – Female Superheroes

Create visually rich and dynamic power figures.

In Module 2, you will discover personal symbols and find ways to include them in portraits. You will learn to add more depth and flow.

Also: Ideas from a vast collection of Paivi’s self-portraits, choosing references, using many references for one image, how to enjoy following a reference, expressing age and attitude.

Module 3 – Rising Stars

Create ethereal spirits that glow quiet power. 

In Module 3, you will use light and shadows so that they will intensify the expression. You will learn to blend and use color gradients.

Also: Using the elements of expression, getting ideas from old portrait paintings with practical examples.

Your Mentor – Paivi Eerola

I am a full-time fine artist from Finland. I believe that we all have personal superpowers that can be translated into our art. Innovating new approaches to ordinary things is one of mine. In this class, I teach you to paint and draw one of the oldest subjects – human faces – so that you can be as minimal or as maximal as you like without falling into the trap of just repeating the same old thing.

Mixed Media – Use Your Stash!

You can use any art supplies for the projects. For sketchbooks, Paivi uses regular graphite pencils and colored pencils. For bigger projects, she uses thick paper (for example, smooth watercolor paper), acrylic paints, oil pastels, colored pencils, and regular graphite pencils. The mixed-media approach that we will use in the class makes it possible to use different kinds of supplies together.

Bonus: Membership for Art Community Bloom and Fly!

With the class, you will also get a basic membership for the Facebook group, where you can share your work and have conversations with fellow artists. This membership is for the end of 2025, so you can continue creating and sharing for the whole year.

Immediate Download – No Refunds – All the information and services are provided in electronic format. You will need Internet access and a personal email account. The document is in PDF format, and the videos are offered as a streaming service on a web page. You can access the material as long as you want if you download the document and the videos to your computer within 6 months after the purchase. If you download videos, you will also need an application to view and download MP4 videos. You have to be over 18 to join the Bloom and Fly community. All sales are final.