Joyful Landscape

1. INTRO : Have you ever wished you could turn off the noise, slow your thoughts, and reconnect with yourself? Just for a little while. In this class, you won't need any fancy skills or perfect drawings. You'll simply need curiosity, some watercolors and a few quiet minutes to create joyful mini landscapes that come from your heart. Hi, I'm Sana Asad artist, art educator and holistic art therapy practitioner. Over the years, I've learned that art doesn't have to be realistic or perfect to be healing. I just need to be honest. Together we will learn the basics of landscape composition, explore calming color theory with the focus of complementary colors, and paint tiny intuitive landscapes that help the mind slow down and the spirit breathe. You'll walk away with a handful of joyful mini paintings and a deeper correction to your inner creative voice. Let's begin gently and joyfully. 2. Material : Hey, everyone. In this video, I'm going to show you what material you exactly need for this class. Watercolor paper or any thick paper. I prefer watercolor paper, 300 GSM, cold press. A basic color palette will work. You can use Du pines or palette, washy tape to make a nice border for a crisp edges. Here I have some water based oil pastels, paint brushes. You can cut the watercolor paper into small card size. This is according to your own choice, how small you wish to do it. Watercolor brushes, again, it's your choice and the size depend on the size of your paper. First of all, try to see what material you already have it to begin the class. Once you feel confident, then invest in your material. All you need to do is just start, create for yourself. 3. Class Project 1 : For the class project, first complete the full course, and once you do, you will feel confident and you will be able to create your own personalized joyful landscapes. You can download the guide, paint your mini landscapes, cut them out, and arrange them in your journal. You can also use the prompts I have shared in the PDF and don't forget to share and upload your project in the gallery. I would love to see your wonderful creations. 4. Landscape composition : Before we dive into color, let's take a moment to understand how landscape work. On a mini card, draw a simple horizontal line. That's your horizon. Now imagine the space in three parts, foreground, middle ground, and background. In real landscapes, objects closer to us appear larger and more detailed. While those farther away are smaller and lighter, you can suggest that just by adjusting scale and contrast. Want to add depth, try one point perspective. Just place a dot on a horizon and draw lines that vanish into it. That could be a path, a river, or just energy flowing inward. This gentle structure help your brain feel anchored like giving your creativity a soft place to land. Understanding structure can help calm anxiety. When we break big ideas into small parts, the mind feel less overwhelmed and more empowered to begin. Try to repeat these steps few times, make mani cards as many as you want. Try to explore your own imagination, if you wish you can always get some help from different photographs and pictures of the landscape. But I encourage you to go intuitionally. Don't see any reference or picture, feel it where and how you want to see your landscape. This is your imagination. This is where you want to be. This is something you want to create out of your imagination, out of your feelings, out of how you feel. And 5. Watercolor landscape 1 : Welcome back. And in this class, I'm going to show you how you can start painting with a simple techniques wet on wet, nothing much fancy. I'm using my journal and going to start adding tape. You can use regular paper tape or washy tape, whatever you have. Or if you don't have, you can just simply draw boxes or you can use the cards. After completing all these boxes, I need to think about how I want to see my landscapes. I will try to add all in which I can see something far from me, something near to me, one point perspective, and something just come right away without looking at any picture. The tip here is after you complete your pencil sketch and before starting watercolor, try to use kneaded eraser or just the regular eraser and erase the pencil lines. You should only see your impression of the lines, not a very dark pencil line. I did not erase completely because I want you to see the division between my horizon, ocean beach and the mountain. I will tell you why I ask you to erase all the pencil lines at the end of the video. Let's follow. You can also sketch all your landscape and then begin your painting or you can do it one each. I am going to start with one box at a time. Begin with any color, spread it with a line, a dark pigmented line, and then use water to blend. For this guy, I'm adding wet on wet. These landscapes are not a hyperrealistic one, but more flowy, abstract, and intuitive. Feel free to use the colors what you want to do it, what feels good to you. Right now I'm in a mood to do blues, so I'm spreading blue everywhere, and wherever I feel I need to see more highlights, I can just add some water, lift the color or use tissue, and just soak it. Sand with brown, you can notice I always add high pigments and then spread them water with a circling motion. Wait for the layers to get dry before you add the second layer or if you wish to do the dark ones. If you are happy with your first layer, you can just leave this and move it to the next box. And if you want to have more brighter colors, then wait for the layer to dry and then start adding. Like over here, I want to make my horizon bit more dark, so the beach will start creating depth, adding a little bit more extra in my mountains and little bit more ripples around. Just feel free to bring your own imagination into this landscape. Now it's time for the next box. And for the next box, you can follow along exactly. So this video you can follow with me step by step, and try to take another page and then recreate the similar landscape into your own style, into your own colors. This way, you will be able to practice as well as get master in this skill. After completing two boxes, now I feel that I need to add more depth, and the depth will come with one point perspective, in which I'm going to add, like, a path, and then both the sides will be land or maybe a grassfeld. So let's see where my brush will take me. Start with your one point perspective and lighten up all the pencil lines, so you will not be seeing very dark pencil line, as you can notice in my other previous two boxes, you can see the pencil lines. This is the reason I was encouraging you to erase the pencil line. I'm starting with the purple, and if you can notice, you will see I use little pigment and then take lots of water to spread the color mixing purple and blue together and leaving a little bit space to add the highlight of the sky. Last box, and let's play with the lines and color. Here I'm creating a sea curve, which is a very nice deep curve. I want to I feel that I want to create a lake with a little bit of height. So for this box, I am starting with a big f curve and then using my brush in horizontal movement and adding the brush in the right direction is the key to achieve the realistic look or to get the feeling of the landscape. Remember, when you want to make the land, you need to make sure that the direction of the brush is going horizontal and you can see when I will start giving the depth of the height, my direction will change to vertical. So you can pause the video here. And follow along with me to achieve the same result. I want to create more drama in this box. I'm using a pink color for the sky, which will give me a nice feminine feeling. For the lake, for the water, I am adding blue with lots of water, and you will see the difference it start giving when I will change the direction of my brush in vertical strokes to create the height over here. This is what I mean. Because the paper is completely damp, it is dissolving. It's just flowing in its own and creating the shadows and reflection in the water. If you're an absolute beginner, I would suggest you to practice at least two, three time on a different sizes, maybe one full A four size paper, one small, maybe half of the A four and then mini card. Little by little, slowly you will be able to achieve the same results. I'm adding a little bit more extra pink to make my clouds effect and adding some yellow. Again, lots of drama in the landscapes we will be creating in the next video. Do practice, keep practicing and come back again to follow along. 6. Complementary Colors : Hey, everyone. Welcome back with another very easy and simple color composition, which is complementary colors. In this lesson, we'll explore complementary colors opposite on the color wheel that brings each other to life. Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. When placed side by side, these colors create vibrant energy. In this video, I'm going to show you how you can use just two colors to make amazing landscapes. You don't need so many colors or you don't need fancy materials. You can even use watercolor pencils or oil pastels or acrylic paint to follow along with me. To begin, I want to add the color swatches. I'm adding a tape and leaving just a one finger or two finger space. These are mini cards, and the first color composition is orange and blue. As you know, when you mix both of the colors, you will turn the color palette into brown. So if you don't have brown, you can always mix them. I'm using lots of water to make the shades light and dark, but only going to use these two colors. So let's start. Start with the horizon. In this lesson, I'm not going to use any pencil. All the landscapes will be just with a paint brush. On the surface, they might seem contrast, but when paired with intention, they create a powerful visual balance. Why does this matter? Because your brain craves harmony, complementary colors stimulate different parts of the eye, and when placed side by side, they create a sense of wholeness. Instead of overwhelming us, these opposite can actually feel soothing. It's like witnessing balance being restored visually and emotionally. Now it's time for yellow and purple. Yellow is a color of light, clarity, and optimism. It uplifts the spirit, like sunshine warming the skin. It can help shift mood, boost energy, and awaken creativity. Purple on other hand, is the color of intuition, stillness, and spiritual depth. It encourages reflection, connection to your inner world, and calming the nervous system. When these two come together, yellow and purple, they balance each other out. One activates, the other soothes one opens the eye and others soften the heart. In these mini cards, you will be able to bring the balance. Don't rush. Observe how your body feels as the colors interact. You might notice a quiet tension at first. That's natural when opposites meet, but stay with it. Let the brush settle the conversation. This is not just color theory. This is color therapy, a gentle reminder that light and shadow, activity, and rest, joy, and quiet can all exist in the same place. Now let's explore color pair that's bold, emotional, and surprisingly grounding, red and green. These are complementary colors, direct opposite on the color wheel. Yet when they meet, something powerful happens. Red is a color of passion, energy, movement. It's the beating heart that sparks the fire, red stimulate. I remind us we are alive. Green by contrast is the color of nature, rest and renewable. It brings us back to Earth. It soothes the eyes, lower the pulse, and offer calm after intensity. When you place red and green together, you are painting a dialogue between action and rest, between courage and peace. You may notice memories, emotions, or even tension arise as the colors meet. That's okay. Again, let your brush hold space for all of it. 7. Lesson Part-1: In this lesson, we begin the most soulful part of our journey, intuitive landscapes. You warmed up your colors, explored balance, and sketched a few guiding shapes. Now we begin to let go, let go of control, of pressure, of ding things to be certain way. Start by dividing your watercolor paper, 300 GSM or journal page into small boxes, six, eight, maybe ten. These are tiny window into your inner world. Take a moment to breathe. What do you need today? Calm, joy, focus, maybe a little release. That becomes your intention. The quiet thread that guide your brush, you don't have to write it down, but hold it softly in your heart. Now dip your brush into water and paint freely. Start with a single color, let it move across a box. Then let another color meet it. Maybe a curve become a hill, a splatter become a tree, or maybe it stays abstract, rhythm and light. In these boxes, I will encourage you not to use any pencil, just your brush. Wait for the layers to get dry and keep working in each box separately or together. In this lesson, I'm going to work together because I want to wait for the layers to get dry in my other boxes. As you may have noticed, I had just the first layer of blue on my horizon. In the next box, I'm starting with the sky. These tiny landscapes are not meant to be real places. They are emotional spaces, memories, moods, whispers, or somewhere inside you. Let each box be a new moment, a breath, a shift, a gentle exploration of color and feeling. Now I'm done with all my boxes, and this is the time for me to add just a little bit more details. This is completely optional. I'm using the water based crayons. These are also called neo colors, or you can use the water based oil pastels. Color pencil will work as well. I have two different boxes. One is the matte finish and one is the metallic finish. If you have these, that's great. If not, then just simply use color pencils or oil pastels. I'm using these to just enhance my horizon. Water based crayons help you to not have a very solid color, so I'm just going to dip in water and just simply use it as a pencil. If the color looks really bright and dark and stiff, then I can use my brush to dissolve the color. These are the final details I will be adding in this. Again, you don't need to do it if you don't have this material. You might be thinking why I divide the paper into so many small boxes? Why not just one large paper. By breaking a large page into smaller sections, we reduce overwhelm. Each mini painting become a safe space, a tiny act of completion. This structure is soothing to the nervous system and build creative confidence. After completing the detail, I will see you in the next part of the same lesson and will show you how you can go with little bigger size. 8. Lesson Part-2 : In the last lesson, you painted small moments of emotions. In this one, we expand that practice. I'm going to use the same three larger boxes. You can choose a separate paper, however you want to. Begin the same way with an intention. I want to express calm. I want to feel connected. I want to let go tightness. As you paint, listen to your breath. Let the brush lead. Try wetting the paper first, then adding pigments and letting it spread. See how the water decide for you. These larger pieces invite you to move with your whole arm to connect more with the physical motion of painting. Use white strokes, dabs wet tissue, flick water. Maybe a storm of purple, blue sky appears or a soft glowing sun. This space is just for you. No judgment, no audience, color and presence. Try lifting color with a dry brush or tissue or adding a second wash with a new feeling. Maybe the second layer brings hope or clarity or softness. There's something magical about revisiting a painting you thought was done and realizing it had more to say. Let the painting change as your mood changes. Let it mirror your inner weather and if nothing beautiful appears, remind yourself beauty is not the goal. Connection is when you create from intention, when your color comes from inside you, what you make is already meaningful. So keep going, keep flowing, keep painting like no one's watching you because this moment is your gift to yourself. As you finish your final intuitive landscape of this session, take a moment to look at what you have created. Not just the shapes or colors, but the feelings behind them. The small decision you made without overthinking, the moment, the mood, the quiet courage it took to stay present with your brush. These paintings hold more than color. They hold your energy. They reflect your willingness to slow down, to listen inward, and to let go. There is no right or wrong here, just a rhythm that comes from within. So let's get ready to arrange all these mini intuitive landscapes into our journal. You can also frame them or display in your journal, as well as you can keep them separate or just like this. 9. Lesson Part-3: Now that all your landscapes are dry, this final step is about honoring what you've created and giving it a home. Slowly gather all your small and medium paintings, lay them out in front of you like quiet moments. I'm here adding a little bit more extra just to add final touches, bringing the color more bright because after once they get dry, I feel they need a little bit more extra vibrancy in the colors, adding few strokes, going vertical direction to show the depth as a green grass in my beautiful field. If you wish to do something extra, do it now before you remove the tape. Begin to cut them either with scissor or by tearing softly with your finger. Don't worry about straight lines or perfect shapes. Let the purpose feel organic. Trust your intuition. Arrange your paintings in your journal. You might cluster warm colors together or group soft skies. You might pair contrast with calm. There is no rules. Just what feel right to your eye and heart. As you place them, you might begin to see a story emerge, a journey from one feeling to another, a shift in light, a quiet transformation. Once they are arranged, glue or tape them down, let this feeling like an act of care, not just for the page, but for yourself before I plan to leave that white border, but then I feel, no, I don't need any border. I'm good in its own. I don't need any supportive white border. So here I am with all the small mini paintings and taking my journal and going to display proudly in my journal. I will be using double side tape, and let's see how many mini paintings will fit in my journal. Collaging your work like this can be deeply grounding. It tells your brain, this is complete. This mattered. I'm holding space for what I felt. It brings closure, clarity, and a sense of wholeness. You are giving yourself a mirror, one painting in your own colors. If you feel called right underneath each painting, a title, a word, a mood, or simply the date, or maybe no words at all, white space to breathe. What would you call this Journal page? This final spread is not the end. It's an anchor, something you can return to when you need to feel scented again. Because painting like this without pressure, without intention is not just art. It's a form of gentle resistance, a way of saying, I choose peace today. I choose presents. I choose joy, even in small ways. Thank you for making this with me. I hope you'll return to this process again and again to pause, to paint, to reconnect with your landscapes inside you.