Midsummer Love Spell

Today the fourth mystic maiden is joining the Midsummer Eve celebrations…

She is whispering midsummer love spells. Those ancient magic words.
It is the Midsummer again.

Pink dreams, heart-shaped clouds.
Secrets of the midnight sun and the magic of the wildflowers
- Hmm, maybe also a touch of purple…?

But could that Midsummer spell, indeed,
even make those centaurea flowers to bloom?

Magical Midsummer Eve to you all <3

Above is the sketch of the Finnish "Midsummer Love Spell". This illustration  was once designed together with the Midsummer Dryad, Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Naiad. Can you still remember those mythic characters from the previous blog posts? Together they are creating a series of mythic midsummer illustrations. 

All these illustrations were inspired by the Finnish midsummer mythology and mythical creatures from the Finnish folklore. And of course the amazing Finnish nature, wildflowers and midsummer magic were giving me a lot of inspiration on the way.

For the fourth “Midsummer Love spell” character especially the pink, magenta and purple colors helped to create a unique theme. And also for this illustration I collected the wonderful Finnish wildflowers to match the selected theme colors. Stunning pink and magenta colors were guiding the way when searching the right flowers for the floral dress. Especially the red campion just had that right mood for the midsummer love spell theme...

Red campion flowers were a lovely source of inspiration when creating this illustration with the midsummer love spell theme.

And how magical,  suddenly everywhere seemed to be heart-shaped reminders of the romantic theme.

In this illustration I wanted to emphasize the mystic sense of the midsummer and love spells. For that reason the chosen flowers for this illustration were red campion, red clover and fireweed. The selected wildflowers had romantic pink tones, but especially the purple hues gave that needed strength, saturation and mystic sense to the illustration.

The flowers of the fireweed even looked like small magical spells themselves...

There is something mystic in the Nordic white night. Being surrounded of that magical glow is like experiencing the fairy-tail dream world, but fully awake. In this illustration that dreamy and magical midsummer glow influenced again the color choices. I emphasized the cooler pink shades in characters skin color. And also the white color in the highlights was a way to describe that magical moment in Finland when night and day is merging together during the Midsummer Eve and the night is white.

In this illustration the aim was to combine that sense of Nordic white night, the pink romantic nuance and on the other hand the strong and colorful vision of the Midsummer love spells.

Those purple colors in the wildflowers emphasized the theme of Midsummer love spells. The color balance was adjusted with some violet tones from the Centaurea flowers (knapweed).

And how the Centaurea flowers were already blooming right during the summer solstice...? Well, that must be midsummer magic! The myths and stories about a spell that could make the flowers grow faster also gave an extra twist to this midsummer love spell themed illustration.

When creating the illustration the green leaves of the red clover were reminding of the growth and midsummer verdancy, and eventually helped to unite all the ideas into a one blooming floral dress.

Overall wildflowers have a fascinating role especially in Finnish Midsummer celebrations. The traditions of Midsummer Eve go way back to olden times. Old beliefs have included traditions of midsummer spells, like for example collecting different wildflowers and placing them under a pillow for a night. Those wildflowers had then a special meaning and for example consequences to dreams.

If you want to read more about the midsummer love spells, check out the Visit Finland link below to the fascinating article and the beautiful video that tells more about different love spells from Finnish folklore. And of course the amazing site is visual experience for everyone interested of Finland.

So, what does it mean to collect those different Finnish wildflowers – or  roll in dew…?  

visitfinland.com/white-night-magic/

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