Transcripts
1. Welcome to this Class: After a long break, feeling sick or demotivated, how do you go back to your regular painting
or drawing or D? Well, if you're asking the same question while
watching this class, then you're already
partly there. Hello, I'm Bianca,
loose track, a mom, cat lover, and then aspiring watercolor artists from
beta1 guess Philippines. In 2018, I have successfully develop the habit
of painting daily, even for just a few minutes. But there are times when life
happens, priorities change, and laziness crypts in the, even the thought of
painting fills exhausting. So what do we do during
those days? In this class? I will share with you five
small and simple art projects to help you get back into
the groove of making art. It's not the how to or a
step-by-step tutorial. But these painting and drawing exercises will help you find that creative
motivation back. Since this is all
about going back, integrating an artwork, a bit of experience in your
own craft is needed. As a bonus, I will also
discuss the simple strategy I follow to successfully develop the habit of painting daily. So grab your materials
and let's get started.
2. Setup for Success: If you are coming back
from vacation, illness, or a long deserved break, the chances of giving up before
getting started is high. So here are some ways
to address that. First, start from scratch. They meant scratch paper
as there is less pressure in creating a
perfect art compared to using a newly
opened sketchbook. Second, draw or paint small. It makes it more achievable. Something a smallest this
or a postcard size will do. That's the set
realistic expectations. Treat our class projects
as warm up exercises only. We're not here to
make masterpieces. Instead of pressuring
myself to create a semi realistic
floral painting, I'll stick with loose
painting style. You can use any materials
available to you. Please prepare your
usual medium along with a medium that is particularly
new to watercolors. This is my usual and
gouache and markers are particularly new. In the next video, Let's
start with this exercise.
3. Class Project: I will demonstrate
five warm-up exercises to overcome creative fatigue. You can do one or
finished them all and post your project in
the projects gallery. After the five demos. We'll also discuss three
positive reinforcements, which I personally did
to get motivated again, and three negative
reinforcements, which I think are
more effective. These are displaying discussions with no drawing
or painting demo, but you can also share
with us what you came up while watching
those glasses. I will also focus on
grading loose florals. But if we feel like painting
or sketching portraits, landscapes, and still-life,
please feel free to do so. See you in the next
video and let's start with this
warm up exercises.
4. Blind Drawing: One of the main reasons why I find it hard to paint again, is the fear of blank
paper or canvas. I can't seem to
find the courage to start and ruin the
precious art supply. Glad I discovered blind drawing. There are only two
rules in this exercise. No looking at your drawing
while you're doing it and no lifting the pen. Here's how it can have
a reference photo. Or you can draw
from imagination. Look away from the paper
or cover your eyes, whichever works for you, and start drawing the subject
in one continuous line. The more abstract
art is, the better. Then go ahead and
have a love for your work, colorant, and enjoy. This can also be used as a
base for an abstract card, like what we did here. Blind drawing. It's an exercise
that helps you face that fear of blank paper
and gets you going. Enjoy creating yours.
5. Go Abstract: Here's an EC
abstract art project where you'll need
an old credit card, some paints and paper. If you haven't tried creating
an abstract piece yet, now's the best time to do it. These kinds of art lets you express yourself
with more freedom, explored the painting,
and interpret it in your own way. Using a brush. I'll paint thick blobs
of gouache paint and place the colors randomly
with an old credit card. Slowly scrape it. This is so liberating and exciting for we do not know
what shape it will create. Asked me drag the
paint on the paper. It takes less time, minimal effort,
and more freedom. I'm loving the materials,
do their magic. You could also try pouring with watercolors or thin down
gouache and acrylic paint, if you prefer, a more flowy
consistency of abstract art. So here's our less than
a minute abstract art. What do you see?
6. Copy Others: Another exercise I love
doing to get inspired, again, it's by copying other
artists outside my niche. Like to go around the
house and look for patterns or colors that
I can use on my own. I particularly love
the packaging. They are dainty and the colors are almost always to my liking. I'll use this Blackberry and elderberry tee box
as my reference. We don't need to
copy the patterns exactly as they
are in this game. I am only using the colors on this D packaging to paint
some loose florals. If I'm just getting
back to painting, I avoid copying art works
of fellow watercolor is, it is very easy to get frustrated if mine doesn't
look like there's. So for this exercise, I suggest you go for
a nature walk or a mini-tour in your
house and look for other kinds of art or craft that you can use as a reference
in your own art.
7. New Medium: Times to use a medium
that is new to you. It's washed for me. I don't yet have an
established style and painting with watercolors. But my friends say that
they can recognize my work when they scroll
through their social media. According to them, my
paintings are soft and light. And to my surprise, the opposite happened when I tried gouache for
the first time, as you'll see in this landscape. So for this project, I suggest that you try a
medium relatively new. You choose a topic
familiar for you. It will be gouache for me. And again, I'll paint flowers. When using a new medium. We are not trapped with analysis paralysis as
everything is unfamiliar to us, thus freeing us from rules
that we know we must follow, which sometimes
happen when we use the medium that we are
already familiar with. And that's watercolors for me. You don't need to purchase a new material for
this exercise. Just try out a medium that
you don't usually use. Could be those markers, oil pastels, acrylic,
or bolster bank. How fine and be confident with
their new medium painting.
8. Recreate an Old Artwork: Oftentimes we forget
how much we've gotten as we're so focused on comparing
ourselves to others, but we forget to compare our own works with
our recent ones. So for this exercise, I want you to look for an old sketchbook artwork
that you want to recreate. This wine is from
three years ago. Since main theme is florals, I'm going to recreate this rose. I will read you repeat
that, the pink one. So I'll give the
purple rose a try. Even before getting started. I'm already inspired to
paint for it brings back memories of how I started
my watercolor journey. I hope this art project
will inspire you to, to get things moving again.
9. Positive Reinforcements: Those are the five
warm-up exercises I do when I find myself
unmotivated or stock. But here are other
ways that might be helpful to you
as they are to me. First, call your friends. You must have a painting body or a group of
fellow sketches and painters who could cheer you up and motivate you to do
your crashed again. There was a time when
I had a very bad flu. I was ill for a whole month. I was still able to paint
despite of how I felt, but I wasn't able to produce
any decent paintings. After getting better. Still cannot find myself
to get moving again. Because something feels off. Only to find that I'm
having morning sickness. This continued for three months until I told myself
it should stop. The first thing I did is I asked my friends to hold an online
art session together. And to my surprise, I was able to paint
something this end for the first
time in awhile. Martin, that through
our conversation, I came up with the class
ideas that I am so excited to teach as
much as it helped me. They also confessed that they
were feeling lazy to paint, but immediately got motivated when I invited them
for a group session. So call a friend for help. If you don't have friends with the same passion, join a group, or look for a local community
who can be a source of inspiration or share
the same interests. Second, swatch
colors, mix colors, test out weird combinations. Are given a second chance to a pigment that
humans hated before. Or if you are using
graphite pencils than sharpen your tools or
try out other materials. So just charcoal
or colored pencil. The goal is to just get
you started. Again. Newton's first law of motion states that
a body at rest will remain oppressed unless an
outside force acts on it. So if we just switch the
brush and stroke align again, you'll get in the
mood in no time. In fact, this is the
first time I did when I was just getting back to
my regular painting routine. After a few minutes of pressing
my colors and gray thing, different swatches and palates. I feel like I can paint again. Third, join challenges. There are lots of daily, weekly, or even monthly challenges across different
social media channels. And all it takes is for you
to find one that sparks interests to help you go back to drawing or
painting again. I particularly love the prompts provided by rural
water color group. This is how I got started
with my daily painting. Your team to they released a month worth really
prompts for you to paint. Instagram, friends draw a week. Or IF draw a weak features one artist who will introduce weekly prompts for
the whole week. The challenge is
to get noticed by them and they will feature
you on their page. If you're up to face-to-face
painting challenge, then search for a
local community that holds painting session or plain air sessions and
meet new faces along the way. Well known seasonal
challenges are also fine, like October and mermaid.
10. Negative Reinforcements: We've talked about
positive reinforcement in the previous video, but we all know that they
won't work for everyone. So here are some
negative reinforcements that might be what you needed. First. Set deadlines. Deadlines make clear what we're expected to deliver and when. That's why contests are effective to get
you started again, to make it more motivating, I said a personal deadline, which is two days
earlier than the date. And the spice things up, I suggest setting your
deadline the day before, anything that makes you excited. E.g. if we decided to go
to the movies on Saturday, I will take this opportunity to motivate myself and
tell my husband will only go to the movies if I finish my painting
on Thursday. It worked every time. Do you think this will
be effective for you to? Second, set a punishment? Punishments are more likely to influence behavior than rewards. Saying, I'll have a chocolate once I've finished this drawing, doesn't really give
me a Porsche compared to I cannot have
chocolates for a month. If I don't finish this
drawing this weekend. To test this, I and my friends
launch the art project. The rules are simple. You state your punishment
and commit that you will post an art
project once a week. And where amazed
with the results. Even people we do not know personally are invested
in this project. Without us reminding
them of the deadline. They kept up with a challenge and their art works
successfully. This has been ongoing
for three months now and the participants
are still active. Some examples of the
punishments are, I'll give 1,000 passes to my hubby every time
I missed painting. I won't eat any
sweets for a month. If I fail, I will run an extra hour if I
don't paint this week. You set the punishment. But it should be motivating
enough you to pick up the brush or pencil and start
creating artworks again. Find yourself a
competition or arrival. Competition in general makes us better for it builds
strong personalities, determination, and humbles us. Fighting yourself. A
competition will push you to create higher
quality of art work. A friend of mine
was once and V's of his older brother who
was gifted in art. He treated his
brother as arrival, which Bush team
to start drawing. His brother didn't know this. My friend use this as
a motivation to get better redrawing even without the fundamental knowledge
or proper tools available. After a year. You can see how
much he improved. Now, his even drawing
from imagination. This might sound negative, but having a healthy
competition really works. I also have some what I view
as a rival in watercolors. And every time I see
her new paintings, I am motivated to create one to he or she doesn't
need to know.
11. Bonus: How to Paint/Draw Daily: I have been painting
daily since 2018. How was I able to do that? I follow the 1 min rule. This rule is simple. First, set a schedule for me. It was after dinner when
all the chores are done. Then do your thing
for a one-minute. It could be painting, drawing, reading a book, but of
course, exercises different. Lastly, do it
daily, religiously. The catch is 1 min, is so small a
fraction in my 24 h. Possible not to do it. Tried to fight the
urge of doing it for more than 5 min a day when
you're just getting started. Because as you
develop this habit, that 1 min becomes
3510 or even 30 min. Building a habit is a
marathon, not a sprint. In case I'm sick traveling or there's
too much on my plate. This rule is really helpful. Using a calendar or an
alarm to remind you. Placing your materials
where it's easily seen and setting or reward or punishment can also help
you build this habit. Take around two to three
months for this to be a hard wired habit that you will need these
reminders anymore. Best of luck.
12. Before You Go: Congrats on finishing
this class. How do you feel about creating
an artwork right now? Now that you know how
blind drawing can be used to face the
fear of blank paper. How abstract art gives
you more freedom. How trying a new medium,
convex analysis paralysis. How using works of artists
from other niche can inspire and how recreating an old artwork and remind
you of your own progress. Use this as stepping
stones to get your gears moving again and work on your
next grade, the project. Among these exercises, which one do you think
works best for you? If you have other
questions or suggestions, feel free to use the discussions that our view of this class
is highly appreciate it too. Rich fellow artists like us who struggle and going back to
our regular are the theme. And please do not forget
to post your project, upload your favorite,
or share them all, and that's appreciate
each other's work. I will leave a feedback
soon as I can. Follow me on Skillshare, exploring my other classes. And together, let's make
this world a little bit more colorful
with our artwork.
Bianca Luztre, Watercolor, Productivity, Color Mixing
