Outsmart Your Inner Perfectionist: Make Art Through Play

1. Outsmart Your Inner Perfectionist: Make Art Through Play: Be honest, does perfectionism prevent you from enjoying the process, or maybe you fear the white page and you are experiencing some artist's block? Have no fear, my new classes here. And today, the focus is not on making good art, but creating enough art so that good things have a chance to happen. By just playing and enjoying the process, we will take the pressure off and just have some fun with our art supplies. This class is short and sweet, but still packed with tips on how you can handle your art supplies. And as usual, I encourage you to go rogue on me. I'm just here to get you started, gather your favorite art supplies and do the lesson in a way that's fun for you. This class is perfect for students who love to learn things by just doing some playful exploration. If you don't know me yet, I am Jerney Marisha. I have a background in art therapy, and I like to pull you out of your rut and just enjoy the process. By the end of the class, you'll have six little artworks and a whole bunch of inspiration. If that sounds fun to you, then grab your art supplies and follow me. Go. 2. Prep Your Papers: Let's prep our papers. I am using mixed media paper because it's nice and sturdy and I can use liquid media without having to worry that it would buckle too much. Of course, you can also use watercolor paper, but this is a little bit cheaper, and that way, it also really takes the pressure off to perform, you know? We just want to play and have some fun. And maybe there will be a tiny masterpiece in the end, and maybe not as well. We just want to explore our art supplies and maybe try some new things, you know. Maybe you'll discover something that you would like to explore on a larger piece of paper. So don't hold back and just try out stuff. And of course, if you prefer, you can also just divide one big piece of paper in six parts. But I like that I can just remove the tape and don't have to worry about cutting it up after the fact. Right now, I have full control over all my edges, but, you know, to each the zone. So yeah, just think about how you would prefer to work. You know, I'm just here for the inspiration, and it's your art, your decision. But it is important to have enough little canvases to play on. So I really recommend that you, you know, do at least six of them. That way, you'll just up your chances that you will create something that you really enjoy. Now, are you ready to play? Then let's move on to the next video. 3. Conquer the White Page: Et's conquer that white page. I'm using a couple of washes of Indian ink. You can also use watercolor if that's all you have. I just really like that when the ink dries, that it tastes put and you can't really lift it anymore. Of course, acritic inks are also perfect for this. Just use what you have. And do you notice something? Before I started doing this, I have actually wetted the top three of my papers, and that is why the ink is really blooming and spreading out after I put it on. And on the bottom there, I left it dry for the most part, and that is how you get the sharper brushstrokes. So I recommend that you do the same thing. Just take half of your playgrounds and take white brush and just brush on water on there so that you can really experience the difference. Right now, I'm just making some splatters and you can see how different they look on the top from the bottom. And while the ink is wet, I'm just putting some salt in there. You can experiment with different types of salt so that you can see which textures you like best. And this is also a nice way to create unpredictable marks. You just roll your brush on its side over the page like that. And remember, we're not trying to force anything. We just want some mark making and some contrast, and that is all that we need. Okay, I have this sponge right here. I really love the natural sponges because of all those holes in there. And I'm squeezing out a lot of the water, and I'm dipping it in the ink, and gently, I'm pushing the sponge on top of the page. Don't go too rough here. Otherwise, you'll just get black blobs and you'll lose that texture. So this is what you'll get if you use the wash. And now I'm just going to pour on some ink right from the bottle. And I'm going to do the same thing. And that way, you'll get layers of values, you know? So maybe you can take it a little bit easier than I'm doing right here, leave some more breathing room. But there are enough papers there to find your way. And look, here, I'm just smudging it on there, and I'm getting a paper towel, and that way you can lift some of it again. So if you take it too far, just try that, and then you can just build more layers on top of there. A lot of people are a bit nervous about working with inks, but, you know, as you can see, you can put something on there and take it away. It's no big deal. Just take the opportunity to really relax and just see what kind of possibilities there are. Another way to lift the ink is to really dry that brush with a paper towel and put it in the wet ink. Same thing with watercolor, of course. That's another fun way to yeah, make some shapes, and you can't control it too much. I could paint these lines, but it would look totally different. Let's put some more ink on there, and I'm going to show you the same kind of technique, but with a frumbled up, is that a word, paper towel. You can just play around like that. And just continue playing, figure out what you like. Just using one color and one art supply for a while, it helps you with overwhelm. You know? If you have too many options, then it can work a little bit paralyzing. So just take your time and explore your art supplies one step at a time. And right now, I'm just going to take another wash, and I'm going to slab on that paint there. Doing random stuff with my brush. Just little spots here and there. Don't need to cover up the whole thing and try to come up with as many ways to put on that ink on there, you know, as possible. A brayer is also pretty fun. And the less ink is on there, the more textured it will become, and you can reload right from that starting point there. Here I'm taking a bamboo pen, but anything point you will work, and I'm dragging the wet ink through the paper. And those will also get you very unique marks. Here I'm just going to draw some lines totally random. Looks like a weird spider with too many legs. Let's do another one. And here I want to do kind of the same thing. But now I'm going to try and sculpt a little face or something because the marks, they remind me of eye sockets and shadow underneath the nose. So that inspired me to yeah, just go for a little figure. I'm mixing up the techniques that I've that I did before. And even though I'm drawing some kind of portrait right here. And you will see in the end, I will create a whole different portrait in another place on this piece of paper. So if you're doing this and you really hate your drawing, just know that you don't need to use it. You can just play around until you find something that you do enjoy. But for now, I'm just happy playing, and I think you will be, too. No pressure. Just having some fun. And maybe you'll feel a little awkward, you know, when you try this, but just know that it is because it's a new way of creating, and we can get a little anxious. That's fine. You can just do this exercise a couple of times, you know, maybe once a week or a month, whatever works for you. Are you ready to go to the next step? Come on, let's go. 4. Look for Inspiration: For this step, I'm taking my charcoal pencil, and I am going to look at the marks on the paper and see if it can inspire me to find some figures. Maybe you'll find flowers or, you know, whole landscapes or you just want to enhance some abstract shapes. Whatever works for your style or something that you want to explore, maybe you'll find a new interest or something. Just look at your little explorations and yeah, make little drawings on there. I wonder what you'll find. If you're a little bit insecure about drawing faces, but you really want to, I have a great class on that. It's called Small portraits Big Process, and you will learn step by step to get comfortable with faces, and I will explain everything to you in a very relaxed and quick way. And if you want to learn how to draw loosely with charcoal, I also have a fun one for you. And that one is called loosen up your charcoal drawing. Let go of perfectionism with eight creative exercises. Or you can just not overthink this and just draw, draw wonky weirdos, draw weird things, and, you know, don't care about the end result. That's pretty much the best way to draw in my book. I know it's not always easy because, you know, we do want to create something cool. But often of the times cool things are pretty weird. Cool things to me, anyway. Also, let's embrace ugly art. It really helps us to loosen up. Just be weird and wonderful and a little bit sloppy. If you ask me, messy art is the best. Messy art is expressive. And let me give you a gentle warning. It's totally possible, highly likely that you are going to be underwhelmed by a few of your little artworks. And that's totally fine. You know? A lot of artists that you see on Instagram or wherever, and you see their profiles and everything looks amazing. Just know that for every great artwork, there are a lot of them that didn't make the cut and they looked weird or boring or something else went wrong, and that is just part of the process. So allow yourself to undergo that process and that will help you to get to the cool stuff. Not every drawing is there for you to display somewhere. Sometimes they just help you evolve. In fact, most of the time, both good and bad. So please, please, please don't be disappointed if there are some stinkers in there. That is supposed to happen. Just move on and laugh at the wonkis and the ogres, whatever they are. And this is going to be my last drawing. I want to keep the bottom half just as they are. And well, kind of, you'll see. Because I want to see what will happen if I won't draw anything on there. And you know what? One of them is going to be my favorite one in the end. So stick with me and you'll see what I mean. I don't want the charcoal to move, so I'm taking a fixative spray, and I just do a couple of quick layers. Don't linger because then you'll get shiny pulls, and don't use hair spray. I mean, you can, but just know that it won't be archival. It will yellow over time. Things like that. This step is optional. I'm just opening up some of the compositions there. They were a little bit too flat and I wanted to add some contrast in a very quick and sloppy way. So, just see if your art needs that. Okay. Are you ready for the next lesson? Let's go. 5. A Protective Layer: This step is totally optional. I just wanted to show you that I'm doing this because I want to take some oil pastels for my figures. And if I put this protective layer on top, then it's way more flexible and I can remove the oil pistels pretty easily if I mess up. So what I'm doing is I'm taking my palette knife and some gelmet medium, and then I'm going to take my silicone wedge and I'm just going to scrape it downwards with very minimal pressure. Otherwise, you'll just scrape it right off. I'm going both ways. And I know it looks very milky right now, but when it's dry, it's totally clear as long as you don't have massive amounts on there. So be sensible about it if you're going to do it. And a good way to check if it's totally dry and it's dry enough to work on top of is you put your hand on your paper, and when it's still cool to the touch, then you just need to dry it a little bit more. And that's it. Now you have a protective layer. I hope you enjoy this little artip. So if you're ready to move along, then take my hand and let's go to the next lesson. 6. Add Color and Go Nuts!: Time to have some fun with color. You can do this in any way, in any order that you want. You can use whatever art supplies you have on hand and like to work and experiment with. But I'm starting out with some acritic ink. I've watered it down, and as you can see, it's really nice to still show those textures underneath that we did in the first step. If you use acrylic paint, it's more opaque and you can use water with it if you want to. If you don't have the acrylic inks, then use it that way. You can add a lot of water or even better some medium because that way you know it won't ever come off, because if you water it down too much with the cheaper paints anyway, then it can break up a little bit. It can get a little bit unstable. But, for playing, it's fine. Just know that there's something you can do to prevent that. Right now I'm showing you how you can work really small using your thick oil pastels. You take a tip and you blend the colors that way. Mixing warm and cool colors is always a nice way to keep it very interesting. You know, if I would use all pinks or all yellows or all blues, you know, whatever, it can get a little flat and boring. So be bold and take some risks. Without taking risks, we can get a little stuck in a rut, you know. So just jump in both feet and try out all the new things. Right now, I'm taking my water soluble new color crayon and I will show you what to do if you don't like something. You can just take a brush with some water and erase it. That is why those neocolor crayons are a gem. You can just experiment and feel free to do what you want. Since this is an acrylic layer on top, you can just draw and erase, draw and erase. On pure paper, that is a different story, but on top of acrylic paint or medium, you can draw your heart out, regret it, and take it away and start over. But since I'm very comfortable with both faces and my art supplies, I switch back to the oil pastels because they're very rich and creamy and I don't use them enough. So this is the perfect opportunity to just play. I'm so excited to see what you will do with this exercise. So I hope you will upload your class project to the classroom so that we can all see all the different approaches. That's always so inspirational. So let's fill up that classroom with all your experiments. It's going to be so fun and you're going to learn a lot just by looking at each other's work. And, you know, aside from that, I'm really curious, and I want to cheer you on. Okay, let's move on to the bottom ones. For these, I'm going to paint in the negative space to create some figures. See, I just look at what's there on the page and the rest I just make up. I see a little hint of a forehead, and I go from that. And here I'm just doing this little part, and I can kind of see something that's half there. You'll notice in a minute. Here I'm just making up the whole thing. There. It can be that simple to just find a figure. I'm looking at this one, and I'm thinking it will look better if it has a bit more color in the background, and I think I was right. Don't be afraid to still adjust your experiments. And if it turns out that you are wrong, then just do another layer on top. I'm painting a little face. And some patterns here, and that's enough for me. I think he has emotion, and it looks fun, but this one inspires me a lot. So I'm extending that head that I saw. I'm taking some paints gray, and I'm just going to focus on the form. So some parts of the face, I will darken and that way, a little face emerges, and I'm going back and forth a couple of times. So know that if you've done something that you're not happy with, you can just go back darker or lighter and yeah, slowly, you'll get there. Just hang in there. There. The more often you paint faces, the easier it will become. Everything is hard until it gets easy. There. I think I rather like this girl. I'm taking some of my acrylic ink, and I'm just mixing it in there while the paint is still wet. I know it looks horrible right now, but I'm taking my unbleached titanium, and I'm going back in for more highlights. And now she has a bit of color in her face, and I think that looks better. I'm going to keep it rather loose and sloppy. And yes, that's expressive, like we talked about before. Right now, I'm just going to paint in the negative space around the figures that I want to be there. I think that is really nice storytelling. So interaction between the figure in the foreground and the ones in the back. Maybe they're really there, maybe they are just on her mind or maybe it's a symbol for her fears or something. It's just something mysterious and fun. And here I'm just going to do some lines here and there, make awkward little hand. Again, I'm mixing some cool and warm colors, and this will just be my fabulous wonky weirdo there. Another simple hand. See, you don't need to do complex and realistic hands. These are just fine. It's all about body language and playfulness. You know, rest is not important. These are little experiments after all. So just have fun, let go of all expectations, and just keep moving. And keep looking at your paintings. You know, if you're doing something like with these neoclors Look at your other works and see which one can use a bit more TLC. So I'm going to up to contrast here and there, and that brings more form to the face, more drama. I'm doing little scribbles and patterns like this, and that will teach you to add to your paintings in a fun and surprising way. Are you ready for the big reveal? Then let's go to the next video. 7. Your Turn!: A moment to look at all six of your little artworks. Maybe you love one of them, maybe you love three. Maybe none of them are quite what you expected. And that's completely okay. What I do hope is that you discovered that you don't have to know what you are making before you start. Sometimes you just need to make a few marks, pay attention, and see where they take you. And congratulations. You gave yourself permission to just sit down and create and see where the process will take you. You played, you experimented. You made choices without knowing exactly where they would lead. And somewhere along the way, you may have discovered something, you know, you couldn't have planned and you absolutely love. So, don't worry about whether every piece is good. Maybe the real success is that you turn six possibilities into fun projects with lots of experimentation instead of staring at one blank page. I hope you'll keep that feeling with you the next time a blank page feels intimidating to you. And remember, you don't have to make good art. You just have to give good things a chance to happen. Thank you so much for going on this adventure with me. I hope that you enjoyed all this inspiration. If you enjoyed the class, please leave me a review, yada, yada. But most of all, I hope to see your art in the classroom because, you know, I'm nosy and I love to see you thrive and have fun, and I can't wait to take you on another adventure. Happy creating.