Mini-Mindful Watercolor: The Art of Gestural Brushstroke Technique

1. Introduction: Watercolors are my favorite medium. I use them for my artworks, my illustrations, for my personal pieces. I also use them as a form of relaxation. It's like an active meditation. Hi, I'm Shelly Scale. I'm an artist and illustrator from Edinburgh, Scotland. I paint and I teach. I also work in IT. I'm a m. I'm a home improvement overthinker, and I kind of thinking about all the things all the time, kind of a person. And that's where this class comes in. This is all about creating a little time and space where we can sink into our brusroats and leave everything else behind. This is a short and fun self care art practice where we paint mindful leaves in our favorite color. Best bet is we'll be honing our skills while we're being mindful. What art skills? These ones. Learning to use your brush as an extension of yourself to suggest shape instead of drawing it precisely like you would if you were using a pencil. This class is perfect for beginners or anyone who would benefit from winding down, unraveling all those obsessive thoughts, and just focusing on their brush trokes. So are you ready to learn a fun, mindful watercolor art practice? Great. Let's dive into our gentle greens and calm creations. 2. Class Project: In this class, we're going to use mindful brush strokes to create a leafy, relaxing piece of art that looks the way it felt to create. You just need basic watercolor supplies, so paint brushes, paper, water, and some rags, and you're good. So gather your supplies, and let's get started. 3. Brushstrokes: The first thing we're going to do is learn to use our brushes to paint these leaf shapes with just one stroke instead of kind of using it like a pencil where you would maybe draw the outline with paint and then fill it in. We're not going to do that. We're going to learn to create the shape with just one stroke. I call this gestural mark making or suggestive brush strokes. So to do this, prepare your paints. I think we'll go with a nice leafy color. But, you know, pick whatever color you like. Doesn't have to be green. So what we're going to work on is changing the angle and the pressure of our brush. And by doing this, we can make thinner and thicker lines. So we don't want too much liquid on your brush, and you'll need to experiment. And what you're wanting to do is if you hold it upright with very little pressure, you can make a very thin line. If you then tilt it and apply more pressure, you make a fatter line. And what we want to do is practice moving between those two states to create a leaf like shape. I was teaching my daughter this and she said, Oh, yeah, it's like a trust fall. You start up, you go back and you get caught and put back up to vertical. So we start up high, increase the pressure in the angle, and then bring it back up straight again. Start by making just rows where you're practicing that movement and then shorten it so that you're making individual leaves because that's what we're going to use in our next class. So once you're comfortable doing your gestural leaves, come join me in the next lesson where we'll do our class project. 4. Project: Your First Stalk: Now we're going to connect a bunch of these one stroke leaves together to make a nice, leafy stock. So prepare your colors. I'm going to make some greens and maybe some turquoise in here. But really, pick your own favorite colors. Uh, we want this to feel good making it as much as it'll feel good looking at it. The first thing we're going to do is paint a central sk. The leaves are all going to connect off of this. So I'm going to have it here. I'm going to give it a nice meandering sort of shape. I'm keeping this stock wet. I'm adding a bit more paint to it so that when I connect the leaves, they all look like they're joined and there's no drying lines. Now, I'm just going to add the leaves in that we've just been practicing. I'm going to have them coming off the sides alternately. This is really an opportunity for you to really sink in to your brush strokes. Watercolors have a smell. I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but take the opportunity to engage your senses. Appreciate the smell, the sound that it makes. That delicate little sound of the brush against the page, how it feels in your hands. Mm. As we get towards the end, I'm making the leaves smaller and finishing with one leaf, by the end there. 5. Project: Making a Bunch: If you have time in your day, you can add more stalks into this and they can overlap. If your climate is dry, you'll get some nice crisp layers. If it's a bit less so, they might blend into one another and create a really dreamy look. Both are fantastic. So just roll with whatever your environmental conditions are and enjoy this. I'm going to add two more stalks in now. I'm going to change my colors a little bit, make them a bit bluer, just for variety. Again, I start with my central stock and it's not going in the same direction exactly as the first one, but it complements it. Then I add my leaves. I'm going to do one final stop. And there we have it. A little composition made of one stroke, mindful leaves. Alright, come see me in the last lesson for some final thoughts. 6. Final Thoughts: Thank you for joining me in this short and sweet self care art practice. You can use this anytime you need a moment of calm. I have classes with longer self care art exercises and also watercolor technique, if you're interested. I'd love to see what you've made. Please pop it in the class project section. If you could also take the time to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. I hope to see you in another one of my classes soon. Thanks. Bye.