Watercolor for (Recovering) Perfectionists: A 7-Day Challenge

1. Watercolor for (Recovering) Perfectionists: [MUSIC] Raise your hand if you've gotten most of your life convincing people and yourself that, Oh, I'm not an artist. Listen, when I was 10 years old, I consciously decided to stop making art. One day, I looked at my version of starry night and I realized it looks nothing like Van Gogh's so why should I even try. Too many of us grow up believing that true creative joy is reserved only for the lucky few. But I have to tell you, as somebody who is now a professional artist, what if you're wrong? What if you do have that creative spark and all you need to reignite it for 10 minutes a day? Hi there, my name is Kolbie Blume and I am a self-taught watercolor artist, author, and online educator. Through my books, my social media tutorials and of course, my online courses I have taught over 27,000 people to love watercolor as much as I do. But up until a few years ago, I was an adamant all or nothing perfectionist. I constantly told myself, either I'm going to do it right, be the best or I am not doing it at all. That all changed when I discovered watercolor. Watching pigments swirl on my palette and turn my notebook into luminous washes of color almost by accident helped me slow down and think about what if it's not perfection that I want? What if actually imperfection is the most powerful? Developing a watercolor practice has helped me realize that actually the biggest barrier to my creative joy is not lack of skill, lack of experience, lack of resources in fact, it is a loud inner critic who is too afraid of failure to see the magic in the mess. That's why I created this seven-day challenge. If you paint with me for just 10 minutes, every day for one week, I'll show you how watercolor can help give you more courage and less fear as you build a sustainable creative practice. By paring simple watercolor techniques like mixing colors with vital creative mindset shifts like how to let go of that all-or-nothing mentality, you'll learn how to write a new story one where you are an artist. Because when it comes to creativity, it really doesn't matter how good you are, what matters is that you're doing it. It's the process that changes you. What do you say? Let's get started. 2. Class Project: [MUSIC] What exactly are we going to do in this challenge? What's the day to day going to look like? Let's talk about it. This challenge is go at your own pace, which means that you have access to all of the content right upfront. Each video is earmarked for one day of the challenge. In each challenge prompt we will tackle one limiting belief, one very common mental barrier that is maybe preventing you from jumping into creativity, and then we will contrast that with a creative mindset shift. We'll explore both the limiting belief and the creative mindset shift through a really easy watercolor exercise. Even very basic rudimentary watercolor artists can complete these watercolor exercises successfully. I chose each exercise intentionally to reflect the challenge and the mindset shifts that we are going to be talking about every day. See, the idea is that instead of creating one final project, we are actually helping you build a habit. We're helping you build up strength in your mindset and we're helping you see how you can use watercolor in really simple ways, so that even if you only have five or 10 minutes every week, you can still paint something. All right. That about wraps up the explanation of what the class project is, meaning what is inside this challenge. Now, before we start painting, we'll take one last stop to exploring our supplies and then we'll get started. [MUSIC] 3. Supplies: Okay, my friend. Before we get started painting, let's go over the supplies that you're going to need for this challenge. This is a little caveat, before I show you what I'm going to use, you do not have to use what I'm using. This is a challenge not meant to show you very specific techniques where you need exact supplies. This is a challenge where we are pushing against perfectionism, pushing against this idea that we have to be all or nothing. That includes being okay and seeing the magic with the supplies that you already have. I'm not going to stop you if you want to go out and buy some new supplies. I love myself a good art haul but if you want to truly dive into this challenge, you don't need the supplies I'm using. That said, if you want to know exactly what I'm using, I'm going to show you. Let's take a look at these supplies. First up, the paint that I'm using. I am using the primary colors. I'm using the CMY version of primary colors, which means I'm using cyan, magenta, and yellow. These are the brand Letter Sparrow. It's a handmade watercolor brand. I love using handmade watercolors when I can. The owner of Letter Sparrow, Kelly, created paints that she actually left as a paste and inserted into a tube, which I thought was really cool. You don't often see that with handmade watercolors but the reason I'm using handmade specifically is because, I like to use handmade when I'm having fun. You do not have to use the brand of paint that I'm using to be clear. You don't even have to use primary colors, if you don't want to. I'm using primary colors mainly because they're just easier to mix. It's a more familiar starting point when you're mixing colors and we're going to be mixing quite a lot of colors throughout this challenge. Again, I'm using cyan, magenta, yellow, and then I also have a brown in there to make some more muted shades of these colors. That is that. That's the paint that I'm using. You don't have to use any specific style of paint, you don't have to use tubed paint. You can use just a cheapo whatever kid's paint that you got from a craft store a million years ago. It doesn't really matter what you use. What matters is that you're painting, what matters is that you are actually creating something. Go out and find something that is fun for you to use or that's handy, doesn't really matter. The next thing is a sketchbook. This is Etchr brand, a watercolor sketchbook, 100 percent cotton, cold press. I really like Etchr brand watercolor sketchbooks because they're super handy and portable, and the quality of paper is really good for a sketchbook. Often when you get watercolor sketchbooks, it's more like student grade quality, which is okay. If you only have student grade quality watercolor paper, or if you don't even have watercolor paper to begin with, that's fine. But I love Etchr, because it's 100 percent cotton paper but the paper also dries a little faster than it normally would on other brands, which makes it ideal for sketching, so you don't have really wet paper along. I love Etchr watercolor notebooks. That's what I'm using, you can use whatever you have. Then finally, let's talk about brushes. The most important thing to focus on for brushes is knowing what shape I'm using. Although you don't even have to mimic that, you can use again, whatever you have but I'm using a round brush, and then in I think two of the projects, I'm using a flat brush. That these two are round Number 6, and then this is a round Number 2. The 6 is more for medium-sized work, because a lot of the projects we're doing just fit in a small little notebook. Most of the painting I'm doing is going to be with a round Number 6, either with this Princeton Glacier Series, the one with the clear handle. Mostly because the Princeton Glacier round doesn't really have a point to it. At least not nearly to the extent that this one does. I'm a little more heavy handed with this one, especially with color mixing, because I'm not so worried about ruining the bristles. Then the round Number 6 Heritage Series, which you can tell by the bright red handle and the gold ferrule, is a little more soft, has a really nice point at the end, and so I'm using this one quite a bit too. Then the round Number 2 is for more detailed work. This is also Princeton Heritage Series. Then we're using flat brushes. It doesn't really matter what size of flat brush you have, you can do a size 6, size 8, size 12, anywhere in there. This is Infinity Arts brand. Infinity Arts is another small business. I really love supporting small businesses [LAUGHTER] when I do art, because it just makes me feel more connected to the community while I'm also being connected to creativity. Highly recommend Infinity Arts as well, if you're looking to support another small business brand. Those are the brushes that I'm using. Actually, all of these are small business: Etchr, Infinity Arts, Letter Sparrow. Then I definitely use a ceramic mixing palette throughout this class. Mostly I'm using this Pitch Pine Pottery one, but this one also may make an appearance. This is a little well by Sylvan Clayworks. You do not have to use a ceramic palette. Ceramic palettes, especially if you invest in a handmade one, they're an investment but you can use a plastic palette, you can use a dinner plate, you can use whatever you have on hand, I'm just showing you what I'm using. The reason I really like ceramic palettes are because the paint mixes really well on them, and I just love making art with art. Then last but not least, I have a little artist cloth here, which you use to dry your paint brush in-between, and some water off to the side. I always have two cups of water, one to keep clean so that I can have clear water for mixing, and then another one to keep most of the dirty water in. I think that about sums it up for this class. If you want links to all of these, I do have a supplies list. So wherever you're watching this video, there should be a link somewhere that you can press to pull up a supplies list that links to where you can purchase any of these, or just check them out, if you would like but once again, just to reiterate, before we close out this supplies video, you do not have to use what I'm using in order to be successful in this course. It's not the supplies that will make you successful. The whole point of this class is to confront mental barriers that are preventing you from creating. We want you to create, no matter what that looks like, no matter what you have on hand, the point is to make something. I encourage you to find whatever you have, find whatever makes you happy and use that. Now that we have gone over some supplies, let's get started. [MUSIC] 4. Day One: Mixing in a Palette: Hello, my friends and welcome to Day 1 of our seven day challenge. Today we are going to confront I think one of the most common limiting beliefs, especially when you are attempting to take a challenge like this, which is, you don't have time for creativity. If you've ever found yourself thinking that to yourself. If you've ever found yourself and making to-do lists and continually putting, practicing creativity at the bottom of your to-do list. Today is the challenge for you. Because in order to combat that limiting belief, we are going to contrast it with a mindset shift. The mindset shift today is, even a little bit of creativity can bring me a lot of joy. In order to practice both this creative mindset shift of a little bit of creativity goes along way with combating and deconstructing the limiting belief that you don't have time for creativity. Our exercise today requires just a few supplies. You'll need a palette, you'll need some paint and water and a brush, but you don't even need paper, because we're not painting anything. We're just mixing colors. That's all. You don't have to really create any art. This is all about the experience, and it only takes a few minutes. Let's get started. The first thing that you need to do is pull out a palette. It doesn't have to be like a fancy ceramic palette like the one that I'm using. Any kind of palette, a kitchen plate, anything that you can mix paint on. Then get whatever paint you're using. Like I said before, I'm using the primary colors, magenta, yellow, and blue, cyan blue, and just start mixing. The beautiful thing about mixing on a palette, is you don't even need paper, like I mentioned in the intro. You don't even need paper to see how beautiful the colors can be, how different they look depending on how much paint you're using, and that's the whole point of this very first exercise. If the limiting belief that you are telling yourself is, I just don't have time to be creative. I don't have time to get out all of my stuff to sit down and think of a project. I don't have time to really do this justice. I want you to take a beat and remember what creativity is for. Creativity is not for you building some legacy. It's not for proving to yourself that you spend your time doing worthy activities. Creativity is for you. Creativity is for you to feel joy, and my friend, you always have time to feel joy. While you are just mixing colors on your palette, also remember that this is not a waste of paint. You might be thinking to yourself, but I'm just mixing and then rinsing off my brush, and then mixing even more, because that's what you're doing. As we are mixing with watercolor, you need to rinse off your paint every time and then, mix it a little bit more on the palatte and so you're just leaving paint on your palette or leaving it in your water to dispose off later. I'm going to tell you, you're not wasting anything. You do have time. It's not a waste of supplies, because the supplies exist for you to feel joy. The supplies exist for you to find tiny moments of wonder. One funny thing about creativity, one funny thing about growing up in a very productive focused world as a hustle culture world, is thinking that we need to create masterpieces every single time. That the only value we're going to get from creativity is if we are proving to the world that we can make something beautiful. Yes, does it feel good to get validation from the world? [LAUGHTER] Does it feel good to get praise from the world? Absolutely, it does. But what feels even better is when you realize that this moment is the only one, you're guaranteed to have, this one right here and it doesn't have to be about proving to everybody else that you belong here. It can just be about you finding joy. As you are doing these exercises, especially on Day 1, I want you to focus on the joy, focus on what color mixes really light you up, focus on asking questions. Because that's what I, hopefully this challenge will help you do also, is to move past these limiting beliefs. Move past whatever is holding you back so that you can let go of the expectations and let the curiosity come through. I want you to think of all of the things that you're wondering about, all the things you might have questions about, what you're observing. Because curiosity is really where the fun starts. Start asking yourself questions. What happens when I have a different paint to water ratio? Are the colors more vibrant or more muted depending on what colors that I mixed together. You don't even need color theory to really do this exercise. You don't, I promise. Thank you so much for joining me for Day 1. I really hope that you enjoyed this time that we spent together, and I can't wait to see you for Day 2. [MUSIC] 5. Day Two: Color Swatches: [MUSIC] Day 2. Welcome to Day 2 of our seven day challenge and today we're confronting a limiting belief that has definitely stopped me from making more times than I care to count. Today, we're attempting to deconstruct the idea that you don't have unique ideas, and implicit in that assumption is that because you don't have unique ideas, your creativity is not worth pursuing. The limiting belief is, I don't have unique ideas. The creative mindset shift is every single thing you make has never existed before. It's never existed before. Meaning, this exact piece of paper that you are painting on, this exact mix of colors that you are creating on your palette, it didn't exist before you made it happen. That makes it unique. Every single thing you do is unique, and every single time you create something, you bring it into existence., it matters a lot. Through this exercise, we're going to practice what we did yesterday, which is mixing colors on a palette, and then we're actually going to paint this time. We're going to mix colors on the palette and swatch them in our sketch book but I don't mean like meticulous color chart thing, I just mean random color mixes swatched everywhere so that you can see every single mix you make is unique and beautiful in its own way. The first thing that we're going to do for our exercise is just paint out the primaries. I'm painting them in circles because these are the colors that we're going to mix and swatch. Now, the only reason that I'm painting these right now is because I just want to see what we're working with. So I'm painting magenta on that left side and then yellow in the middle, and then I'm going to put blue on the right side and brown on the bottom because those are the four colors that we'll be mixing in various amounts. Sometimes it can be a really fun way to swatch before you even start mixing is to just see what colors you have, and it can be really relaxing, really mindful activity. That is definitely a bonus of these challenges, is we're not only tackling these limiting beliefs, I'm also hopefully providing you with an arsenal of very calm, simple, easy painting activities you can pull out at any time. Then we're going to start mixing any mixes, any colors you want to mix, even with the existing ones on your palette. I'm painting little squares. You don't have to paint little squares, you can paint whatever you want. This is not like a color chart. If you've ever seen a color chart where it's very intentionally mixing colors to see the vast and very organized kinds of colors you can create by mixing them. This is not that. This is a random slew of color mixes because you're just letting loose and having fun on your palette. You can jot down and remember the specific recipes if you want, but that's not what we're here for. Right now in this moment, we're here to think about the limiting belief that we're tackling today, which is, I don't have unique ideas. I'm not a person creative enough to come up with unique ideas that are worthy of being celebrated. If this is something that you've thought, you are not alone. I have thought this so many times and I just have to tell you that first of all, that's a lie because every single thing you create is new. That square that I painted just now, it did not exist before. Are there squares that have existed similarly have billions and billions of people painted some squares similar to that swatch? Yeah, of course. It's not like you are doing something that has never ever been done before in a similar way, but in terms of the exact thing that you are making, it has never existed before because you are a unique person. You have never existed before. I don't know what your spiritual beliefs are, but the reality is that you as a human with all of your memories, and all of your experiences, and all of your skill set, and all of your perspectives for all that we know, this is the only time you have ever existed, and that matters for everything. Because in order to combat this limiting belief, first of all, we have to recognize that every single thing you create is unique because you made it, and color mixing is a really unique way to approach this concept because with color mixing, it is nigh on impossible to recreate exact color mixes. Even professional watercolor paint makers, like all the fancy brands, Winsor and Newton and Daniel Smith and Da Vinci. All of the fancy brands that use machines to grind the pigment and create the paint. If you compare tubes of the same colors, they are very slightly different. They are ever so slightly different because that's what creativity is. Even if you try to do something in exactly the same way, you would not do it in exactly the same way because this moment only exists now in this one time. As you're painting these swatches, remember, actually this is unique. I'm unique. This moment has never existed before, and by focusing on all of everything else that has existed that is similar to right now, I'm just distracting myself from the joy that I can find here in this moment, and that's why I think creativity it's a really unique practice to really pull yourself back to the present, to pull yourself back to what your life is full, which is finding joy, discovering passion, recentering with yourself so that you can remember that you belong here always regardless of how unique you are. That brings us back to even if you're making something that looks not great, like for example, I finished painting those swatches, so now I'm mixing all of the colors together to create brown. Even if it doesn't look like amazing, it was still so fun. Even if a million people have done this exact thing, it doesn't matter because they are not you, and you get to do things because you want to do them regardless of how they compare to anybody else. Comparison is just distracting you. You've heard that phrase, comparison is the thief of joy. Well, it is because it's just a distraction from how amazing and unique your creative experiences have the potential to be. Thank you for joining me for Day 2. I had such a wonderful time as always. Remember, you are completely unique and that matters. I can't wait to join you for Day 3. I'll see you soon. [MUSIC] 6. Day Three: Wet-on-Wet Shapes: [MUSIC] Hello my friends and welcome to Day 3. I am so excited about this one, because it is a challenge that has continually plagued me for most of my life. Today we are tackling the limiting belief that because you don't know what you're doing, that means creativity is out of reach, or that means you're not qualified here. So the limiting belief is, I don't know what I'm doing. The creative mindset shift is uncertainty brings wonder. It's okay that you don't know what you're doing because uncertainty is actually a good thing with creativity. You're not supposed to know what you're doing because you're bringing something new, you're giving a new experience to yourself. So throughout today's exercise, we're going to deconstruct this limiting belief. Why you believe that not knowing what you're doing should be a barrier to your creative joy. Then we're going to shift our perspective to the mindset of uncertainty actually is what leads to magic. Uncertainty is what leads to breakthroughs. There's so much that you don't know and that's amazing. So today, in order to practice this with watercolor, we're going to practice the wet on wet technique, which is notoriously the most difficult technique to control with watercolor. Yes, it is a basic technique. But depending on how much water and paint you have on paper or on your palette and your brush. It is just so difficult to maneuver. It causes a lot of frustration. So it's likely something you don't know everything about. That's what makes it perfect for today's challenge. We're going to practice the wet on wet technique with wet on wet blends and really simple shapes and deconstruct this limiting belief in the hopes of transforming your perspective. In order to tackle a very heavy limiting belief which is, I just don't know what I'm doing. We are going to focus on a technique that confuses a lot of watercolor artists, a lot of beginner watercolor artists, which is the wet on wet technique. How to go about learning about water control, and how to go about blending with the wet on wet technique. So the first thing that we're going to do, is we're going to load up a brush. I'm using a round size six, load up our brush with a lot of water, and paint simple shapes just with water. So one important thing about the wet on wet technique is concept, is the idea of boundaries. With the wet on wet technique, we know that paint is only going to move where it's wet. So as we create intentional boundaries or intentional shapes, where we know the paint is only going to go. It can be a really excellent way to study what the paint is going to do. So I created a rectangle and a circle and a triangle, all in that vertical line. We're going to do nine of these little mini exercises. For this first rectangle, I grabbed some magenta paint and kind of just, I'm just exploring with only magenta here. I'm putting the paint along the edges to see how the paint blends out. I'm going to do the same thing with this yellow paint and then the same thing with blue paint in the triangle down there. So as we are painting this, I want you to remember what this exercise is for. Yes, we are trying to explore the wet on wet technique. We're trying to explore how the wet on wet technique works. I want you to think about questions that you might ask like, how much water is on my brush and how does that affect the blends on the paper? How much pigment is on my brush, and how does that affect things? Do the various pigments that I'm working with, do they act differently? Does the magenta pigment work differently from the blue pigment, from the yellow pigment, et cetera. Asking yourself questions like this is how you're going to learn. That brings me to yes, you don't know everything. Yes, you don't know what you're doing all the time. But guess what? That is actually exactly where you want to be as a creative person. Because every single rule, every single breakthrough that has ever existed, every single guideline that has ever existed was made up by a human at some point in human history. It was made up by a human who was experimenting and who stumbled upon patterns, who found connections and wrote them down, and passed them on so that other people could learn them. So yeah, maybe you don't know all of the very specific art rules that have ever been recorded and that have ever existed. I don't either. I don't know all of them. That's okay. Because the way you're going to really learn them and find so much joy is not by trying to learn everything, to learn as much as you can before you start painting. The joy is going to come when you step into creativity before you know everything. Because let me tell you something about wonder, that sense of wonder, that sense of all that eureka moment when you figure out something amazing. That only happens when you don't know it's coming. You can only feel that sense of wonder. If you are confident and comfortable enough to live in that place of uncertainty. So if you're going into creativity feeling uncertain, that means there's magic ahead. That means if you're willing to stay in this discomfort and get curious, then there's so much for you to learn. That is one of the most amazing things about creativity for me. It's also one of the reasons why I attribute watercolor to helping me recover from perfectionism. Because yes, the high and the validation you get from pursuing this elusive idea of perfection. It can feel great. It can feel great when people praise you for the high level of excellence that you put into the world. But actually, in my experience, the feeling of discovering something, the feeling of wonder, that rush of emotion that comes when you make some kind of breakthrough that happens because you've just stumbled upon it. That feeling feels even more powerful than the pursuit of perfection. It's something that showed me that perfectionism is not the only way to happy feelings. In fact, when you will allow creativity to come through, when you allow yourself the freedom to be uncertain and the freedom to say it's okay that I don't know everything yet. Then you are preparing yourself for that rush of excitement when you do learn something new without any of the pressure of failing to meet certain expectations. The thing that makes learning and that makes uncertainty bearable is knowing that you will be okay, if you don't hit whatever goal that you hoped to achieve, that's okay. Because what if the goals that perfectionism gives you. What if the markers that make something perfect? What if they are only one way that you can find happiness. Creativity says, no matter what path you go on, there are an infinite number of choices that will lead to join. There are an infinite number of choices that will lead to discovery, that will lead to happiness. Perfectionism says, there's only one way. There's only one way to get to happiness. There's only one way to get to success. I don't know about you, but that just feels really stifling. It doesn't feel very much fun. It makes learning not very fun when you feel like there's so much pressure to learn something very specific way and the reality is that it is a lie. You don't, you can learn something a whole lot of different ways. As I've been talking, I've been painting in these circles. I've been trying out lots of different combinations, lots of different color combinations. Sometimes I outlined one of the circles in yellow, and then dropped blue in the middle. I tried to mix different colors together all while the shapes were wet. And it is tricky to do this because it's tricky to paint and maintain any kind of control on a wet surface with watercolor. But that's actually what makes it a wonderful exercise for embracing uncertainty. So as you're painting these shapes, as you are mixing lots of different colors, I want you to remember that the goal is not to arrive at any specific result. The goal is to learn something. The goal is to sit back and let watercolor do its thing. That's one of the coolest parts I think. The coolest characteristics about watercolor is that it doesn't need you. It doesn't need you to do magic, or at least it doesn't need you to control everything. It doesn't want some kind of master. It just wants a guide. It just need you to put water on the paper and then it will explore itself. You just get to watch. So have fun exploring, have fun of watching. You can learn something along the way. You can learn something here. It's okay to have fun and learn at the same time. It's okay to learn knowing that learning doesn't have to be the goal. Just pure joy and wonder can be the goal. Progress doesn't have to be the goal. Fun can be the goal. Progress can be a by-product. You can learn a lot about what you're doing. But it's going to be so much easier to learn, if you're also having fun. So that is Day 3. I hope that you had a lot of fun. I hope that you learned a lot. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. [MUSIC] 7. Day Four: Splatters: [MUSIC] Are you ready to make a mess? Your inner perfectionist is probably not going to like Day 4, but here it is and I hope you'll lean in with everything you have. Today, we're confronting the limiting belief that it's not perfect. I'm never going to make it perfect so why should I even try? We are tackling perfectionism head on today and in order to do that, we need to get uncomfortable. We need to try something that has very little chance of success. We're going to use splatters, watercolor splatters to try to form shapes. Basically we're going to make some wet on wet shapes, but just with clean water and then we're going to splatter paint all over and see what the exercise reveals inside of us and has the potential to reveal on the paper. Because we are intentionally making ourselves uncomfortable, we are intentionally making a big mess trying something that has very little control, very little chance of success. The creative mindset shift that we are going to work toward is understanding that messes actually lead to breakthroughs, and that there's a lot of value in being willing to stay in the mess. There's a lot of magic and growth and self-compassion in the mess if you're willing to stay there and if you can tolerate it just a little bit longer. We're going to practice that today. Here we go. This one is all about making a mess and truly embracing uncertainty. Yesterday we focused a lot on what do you do when you feel like you don't know everything, and today we're focusing on what happens when you try and it's just so messy. Why should I even try? Why should I even go about learning when it's not going to be perfect when I know I don't have the skill to complete whatever it is I'm trying to do? Where is the fun in imperfection? The exercise we're doing today is, this is a round Number 10 brush. I'm loading it up with a lot of water. The way that this works is if you use a lot of water and so I'm just making a whole bunch of shapes with water. You can't really see them very well because water is transparent. You can see the reflection on the top. I made a little squiggle all the way across the very top there. I made some stripes immediately underneath the squiggle and then I'm making some rectangles underneath those stripes. We want our shapes to stay wet and so just keep a lookout for if your shapes are getting too dry, too fast. You can tell when light is reflecting on the paper, that means it's still wet. If you bend over and look to see the light reflecting and it's not reflecting anymore that means it's dry and you need to go back and add more water. Once you have these nice, very watery shapes just outlined in clean water, I'm taking a round Number 2 brush and basically we're just going to splatter a whole bunch of colors all over the page so that we can reveal the water outlines on the paper. Now I did not really practice this before I filmed this. This is me really putting my money where my mouth is in that. I don't really know how this is going to go and my first go at this is the splatters aren't really revealing much. At this point, you have two options. You can say, okay, this is not a success, I'm going to stop. I could have done that. I could have re-filmed this, I could have kept going to learn more and then refilm the diversion that got maybe more of the results that I was wanting. But I didn't want to do that because that would feel a little bit disingenuous. This journey is about learning for me just as much as it is for you. What was I expecting? This is something that's important to think about when you are deliberately making a mess. What were you expecting? Well, I was expecting to splatter some paint and to have the shapes reveal themselves after I've splattered the paint on there. That didn't really work the way that I was going. Why? Why do I think that didn't work? This is the important thing for you to remember. Instead of getting stuck on that, it didn't work, instead of getting stuck on, I'm so disappointed just think about, okay, it didn't work, why? Why didn't it work? I suspect it's because my splatters weren't big enough. I think that if I used a larger brush, the splatters might have worked out well. I could have grabbed a larger brush and, which is what I'm doing right now, I could grab a larger brush and see if adding more water to the paint or having larger splatters makes a difference. The thing about a larger brush is that it's not as easy to control which is why I'm still experimenting with how do I get the big splatters where I want them to go and it's difficult. I just remember I chose this activity, I chose splattering on the paper on purpose because it is one of the least controllable exercises with watercolor that you can do and so re-center, come back to what's the point of today? What's the point of Day 4? It's to make a mess. It's to be so wildly uncomfortable. It's to learn to pivot when you need to. It's to be okay with changing the topic. I was planning to just do splatters, but now maybe I'm like, I think it might be fun to paint some circles or maybe grab some yellow paint and ooh, cool. The yellow paint looks cool when it lands in the painted shapes that are already there. It's just about exploring. Once you get past the whole discomfort around making a mess, that's when you can let the questions come through. That's when you can let the curiosity come through. But you're never going to get there if you never allow yourself to make a mess so practice with me. Practice making a mess, make the goal discomfort, and remember that it's okay. It takes courage to make a mess, but messes lead to breakthroughs. I'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC] 8. Day Five: Circles: [MUSIC] Welcome to Day 5 my friend, today we're deconstructing the limiting belief that you don't have the skills you need, and that means creativity and creative joy is not for you. It's this idea that you have to qualify in order to be worthy of engaging in creativity, and it's one that is very personal for me because I have believed it and still sometimes find myself believing it today. Obviously, the reality is that you don't need to have skill or experience in order to experience joy. One thing I really want you to take away from today is that skill is not the gatekeeper to creativity. It's not. In order to grow your skill, you have to learn a little bit at a time. You have to keep practicing. You have to show up. That means the way to grow your skill, the way to get to where you want to be, is through self-compassion. Is through letting go of perfectionism and understanding that things take time. It's okay that you are still learning. That's okay. We're going to deconstruct this idea, shift your perspective by painting really simple circles. I focused on this circle shape because I think a very common belief is that, professional artists can paint a perfect circle. Not true. We're going to practice circles, we're going to practice various watercolor techniques, [NOISE] and I think we're going to have a lot of fun. My friend, the prompt for today is fairly simple. We're just painting a whole bunch of circles, and because we're painting watercolor circles, we're also going to incorporate color mixing, we're going to incorporate some wet on wet blends, meaning that as we're painting the circles, we want them to be wet enough that if we paint one circle next to the other circle, and just barely touch the two of them together the colors will blend into each other. That's the goal with the first part of these circles anyway. The reason that we're painting circles for this limiting belief that is I don't have the skills that I need is two fold. The first one is I think it's a very common belief that real artists or professional artists or whatever, can draw perfect circles and that maybe true for some people, but I doubt it. I don't think it that's really true. If you're letting something like not being able to draw a perfect circle get in the way of trying something new, then this activity is to help you practice, letting go of that expectation. We're also practicing another element on the wet-on-wet technique. The wet-on-wet technique we're trying to guide with the wet-on-wet technique in a new way. I said wet-on-wet technique many times. [LAUGHTER] That's okay. By barely touching each circle to the next one, we are intentionally using what we know about watercolor, which is that paint wants to move where it's wet. Wet paint, which watercolor is wet paint, wants to move where it's wet. If we paint something else wet next to a wet circle, then the pigment should want to move into the next circle. If that doesn't happen, then instead of getting really discouraged and thinking, man why isn't it working? It's supposed to work. It's working for Colby why isn't it working for me? Remember take a step back and think, okay, this is not about skill. This isn't really about skill level. This is about curiosity. Why isn't this working? What did I expect from this? Then maybe even let go of the expectation of success in the first place and think to yourself what happens if I do it this way? What if I lean into the mess? What if instead of just barely touching the circle I overlap them? What happens then? As you can see we have this blurry blend between the two circles. Where I just painted that big red circle on top of the blue circle. The goal here is to remember that skill is not a gateway to creative joy. Skill is not a gateway to you feeling that thrilling sense of wonder, and it's also remembering that the only way people have gained skill is to practice. That's the only way. In order for you to learn and in order for you to grow, you have to practice. As we've discussed in other days of this challenge, practicing is so much easier when you let it be expectation free and focus on the curiosity. I'm having fun. I let my circles dry, and now I'm painting circles on top of the dry circles. That is called glazing. When you paint something with watercolor on top of an already dried layer, watercolor is transparent and so it has this really unique quality where you can see the layers underneath. It's a lot of fun to play with especially with circles and if you have time to let your layers dry. Now I'm just exploring a little bit more, painting a little bit more, it looks like that blue circle wasn't quite as dry because I don't have that crisp line. That's one thing you can also explore. What are the characteristics of the wet on dry versus the wet-on-wet technique? Well, the wet-on-wet technique when you have wet paint touching a wet surface, typically results in blurry lines whereas when you put wet paint on a dry surface it results in crisp clear lines. If I try painting a circle on top of another one, and I get really blurry lines in-between the two, then I know both circles are wet. Those are observations that you can only make when you're open to them. You can only be open to observations when your success doesn't depend on them or at least it's easier to be open to these observations. Remember that you don't need to have all the skills you ever want right now. You're going to gain them a little bit at a time as you keep coming back to your paints coming back to your desk again and again. At the end of this I decided to do some splatters because I just love splattering on things. I think splatters make any rough and ready project even more fun. Almost makes the mess intentional, so I'm ending this little circle design with some splatters, and I hope that you had fun painting with me today. [MUSIC] That's all we have. Remember you don't need to have all the skills you can learn as you go and have fun along the way, and I will see you tomorrow. [MUSIC] 9. Day Six: Stripes: [MUSIC] My friend, it's Day 6 and we are tackling a big limiting belief today. We are confronting the idea that creativity is a waste of time, which I think is something too many people find themselves thinking. Especially when maybe creativity is not your job, when maybe you're not a professional artist, it's easy to think that if it's not bringing you money, if it's not bringing you validation, if it's not bringing you something that your whole life has told you is valuable, then it's just a waste of time. It's also easy to think that if you're not creating a masterpiece, if you're not creating something that you might want to frame or give away or sell that it's a waste of time. Too often, I find myself trying a new technique, failing miserably, and then feeling like, that was a waste of an hour. Obviously, because this is a limiting belief that we're practicing in this seven-day challenge that is not true. It is not a waste of time and so we're going to shift our perspective from that limiting belief to anything that brings me joy. Any moment or experience that brings me joy is valuable. It is worth my time. Sitting here at my desk is worth my time. We're going to practice that by painting just a really simple exercise. We're going to paint stripes all the way across the page. It's one that you can use over and over and over again. It's one that I pull out often when I know I need to be creative, but I just don't have it in me to paint a full landscape or do some masterpiece. But I want to access the power that creativity has to give me. It's simple exercises like this. Let's paint some stripes and deconstruct this limiting belief of creativity is a waste of time. All right my friends today we are using a flat brush. You don't have to, but I am because I enjoy painting stripes with a flat brush and that's exactly what we're doing. We're just painting a whole bunch of stripes right next to each other across the page. Super simple, a super simple pattern. As we're painting these stripes in various colors, of course, with various mixes of the primary colors whatever you want, I want you to barely touch the stripes next to each other, similar to how we practiced with circles yesterday. Let's compare and contrast. Let's try to see the difference. How differently the pigment responds when we are using a flat brush versus when we use a round brush for the circles. How differently the pigment responds when we're using a different shape because we're using long skinny stripes as opposed to circles. If you don't really remember from yesterday, that's okay. You can have your own curious feelings about this project on its own. How long does the paint last on my paintbrush? How long before I have to go back and fill my paint, fill my brush with more paint? Because you'll notice if you try to do all of these stripes in one go sometimes toward the very end you get a dry brush texture. That's because at some point the water and the paint leave the bristles on the brush and so we get this natural gradient effect. Painting is not perfect, it's not a perfect thing and so that imperfection leaves you so much room for exploring. That's exactly why this exercise is the one I chose for confronting the limiting belief that is, this is a waste of time because, in fact, so many of the projects that we're doing this week might seem like a waste of time. We're using a sketchbook. They're not going to be used for anything other than your own personal edification. Especially if you are a person who has learned to value productivity and results-based activities more than anything else it might seem like these are just doodles that aren't going to do anything when in reality, they are doing so much for you. Just sitting down and putting the brush to paper is doing so much for your body. Did you know that creativity is one of the best ways for your body to process emotions? I love doing stripes like this when I am having just a terrible day and I need to relax because I get to use my paints, I get to use my favorite color and I do something that's really easy, that has a quick win. I love those tiny little blends and bleeds that happen when you barely touch those stripes together. I think it looks so cool. I think the imperfection and messiness of the stripes in this design are what make them beautiful because they just blend together in this quirky, unique way. Is this the first time stripes like this have ever been painted? Now, I've seen lots of people paint designs like this. This is a very common exercise to paint. What does that mean my painting, this is a waste of time because it's not the first time anyone has ever done this. Of course not. This isn't even the first time that I have painted these stripes. It is, however, unique in that this moment has never existed before. I'm going to use this moment doing something that I love. Painting with watercolor, exploring my tools, exploring my colors. No, painting and creativity is not a waste of time. Even if at the end of the day you hated what you painted. How you feel about what you painted is not as important as intentionally checking in with yourself while you are painting it. Creativity is about the process. It's about how your body feels while you're doing it. So many people make art that is not very pretty, but that's not the point. The point of art isn't always to make beautiful things. Yes, maybe that can be one of the goals. But especially as you're building a personal creative practice, the point of doing really simple stripes like this, especially it's just to get to painting. It's just to get to your desk and to do something fun and relaxing. You can learn so much along the way. This is an excellent activity to learn about color mixing, to learn about how different pigments respond to each other, to open up questions, especially as you do this activity over and over and over again. The easier it becomes, the more wrought the actual painting becomes, the more observant you find you are because you will be able to exert your energy to asking even deeper questions about what's in front of you. As you paint your stripes or as you do anything mindless but beautiful and simple like this remember that this is absolutely not a waste of time because your time is valuable and anything that brings you joy is valuable. Thank you for painting with me and I will see you tomorrow. [MUSIC] 10. Day Seven: Minimal Bookshelf: [MUSIC] It's the last day of the challenge, my friend, day 7. Today, I am wanting us to confront probably one of the most tender and sensitive limiting beliefs that exist in everyone. This idea that you are not a real artist. If you don't sell your art, if you don't have very much skill, if you don't have a whole lot of knowledge or experience and somehow that means, you are not a real artist, that you are not creative. This just hits at the core of this whole challenge. This idea that you need to qualify in order to be in this space, in order to belong to your creativity. The reality is that you do not. You are already worthy. You are already an artist even before you picked up your paintbrush. We're going to talk about that today. The limiting belief is, I'm not a real artist. The mindset shift is, I am a real artist because I make art. It's as simple as that. As we practice this, we're actually going to paint something that could be considered a final project. It's a design that you could potentially use as a real design to gift or to frame or whatever or painting a bookshelf. For painting a minimal bookshelf, meaning we're only using a few shapes, we're only using a few colors, we're using the techniques that we've used, basically. Very subtle blends and bleeds using really simple shapes. I'm showing you how you can use rudimentary skills in order to paint something beautiful that's meaningful, and that a lot of people will praise you for. The praise is unnecessary, but it does feel good sometimes. Today, remember you are a real artist. Even beginner skills can give you enough, can give you what you need to paint art that feels like real art. Let's get to it. It's our final project and today we are going to paint something that you could theoretically take out of your sketchbook and turn it into some giftable, shareable, frameable piece of art if you wanted to. I wanted to end our amazing week of painting and creativity and developing a creative practice with something that is an actual design that feels like a final project as opposed to lots of process art. I think process art is important but today we're going to take a lot of these simple shapes and simple techniques like the wet on wet technique, like these rectangle shapes, I painted two with a flat brush, I painted that rectangle shape with my round number 6 brush over going to create a minimal bookshelf. Just by painting a bunch of rectangles all next to each other, just barely touching like we've already practiced in some of the other days but creating the illusion that we're looking at a bunch of books spines across the shelf. Today, we are confronting the limiting belief that I think is so common, especially with hobby artists, beginner artists, people who didn't go to art school like me. It's so easy to fall into this trap of believing that because you don't have all of these qualifications that you think are necessary, you are not a real artist. It's so easy to think that because you don't have the fancy supplies or because you don't have all the experience, or because you just barely started painting for the first time in 20 years or 30 years, or 50 years, that you're not a real artist. I just have to tell you, that is absolutely not true. As we're painting these books, one thing to note is we're using simple shapes, and we are intentionally varying the color, varying the shape, and varying the angle where the books are. This is something that you can keep in mind, especially if minimal painting like this is something you find you might enjoy. Is you can create the feeling of an object that exists in real life with just a few simple details and whitespace and directions, like contrast and directions that's something you can do to add realistic imperfection. When you see books lined across the shelf, they're not all the same size, they're not all the same shape, at least not on my bookshelf they're not. Being mindful of that and leaning into your imperfection, that is actually going to make them look more realistic. It's one of those funny things that your brain tells you, you have to get the details exactly right, you have to paint things exactly as they are in order for people to believe that this is a bookshelf but you don't have to do that. You don't have to get the proportions right. You don't have to paint all the details. You just have to put the paint down onto paper and figure it out. The more you lean into the imperfection, and the more you let go of the expectation or the belief that you don't have the skill, you're not a real artist, who do you think you are? All of those thoughts are just distractions. Pick one or two things that you're going to focus on. For me, the two details I decided to focus on in particular were, changing the size of each book so that they're not all the same height, they're not all the same width, and to change the direction. Some of the books are leaning against each other, some of them are stacked up against each other. I am very intentionally making those variations. Because I know that actually variation and imperfection are more realistic than perfect lines. They just are, and I think they're more beautiful too. You don't have to paint the books if you'd rather paint something else with the shapes, I highly encourage that the whole point of this project is to remember that you don't have to use all the details. You don't have to spend months and months on a painting in order for it to be a real painting. This is real art. What you're painting right here, what you've done this whole week, all of its real art, even if it's not art, you particularly want to save, or art you even if it's a project you don't really want to try again, that doesn't mean that what you are doing isn't art, because it is. That's because creativity is a process. Creativity really is just a vehicle. I think that it's easy to believe creativity is some innate quality, some innate characteristic that some people have and some people don't but the reality is that everybody has access to creativity. In fact, I would argue everybody uses creativity just in different ways. That's because creativity is just connecting things. Creativity is looking at two things like rectangles that you've already painted and books on a shelf and saying to yourself, those look like each other. I wonder if I could do that. Creativity is looking at something you have never done before and problem-solving your way into a way to make it work. That can be with art or it can be with literally anything else. That's why I believe everybody uses creativity all the time. Creativity is a vehicle, a process for you to discover, wonder, for you to discover growth, for you to discover joy. It's a way for you to create new connections in your brain. In a way that excites you, or at the very least just gives you new knowledge and information. As we conclude our week together, I want you to remember that you are an artist because you make art and you were an artist long before you ever picked up a paintbrush. Even if you've spent years imagining painting or you spent years imagining creating something before ever actually doing it, you were still an artist. You are still using your imagination to create something that wasn't there before. Does it feel probably so much more satisfying to actually put it onto paper? I'm sure but that artistic quality never left you. You are always an artist [MUSIC] and you always will be an artist. I hope you continue making art and believing that. Thank you so much for painting with me. In the next video, I'm going to talk about some principles you can take with you to incorporate creativity every day. I'll see you then. 11. Strategies for Everyday Creativity: [MUSIC] Well, my friend, you've done it. We're done. You did the seven-day challenge and I am so proud of you. How do you feel? I would take a few minutes, especially towards the end of this challenge, to really sit with where your perspective was at the beginning, where your perspective may be changed or shifted toward the middle, and where you land now. Maybe you're not super confident. Maybe you still have some of those fears. The reality is, it takes a little bit longer than one week to break down decades of a terrified inner critic telling you all of the ways that you're going to fail. It takes a little bit longer than that to deconstruct all of these negative mental barriers that you've built over the years, and that's okay. I'm going to tell you the key to building a real sustainable, everyday creative practice. If you want to do something consistently, if you want to incorporate creativity into your life consistently because you really believe that adds value and joy, you need to have self-compassion and practice that self-compassion muscle. Now, self-compassion looks like when you're painting, reminding yourself this doesn't have to be perfect. It's okay that it's a mess. But self-compassion is also reminding yourself, it's okay that I'm feeling disappointed right now. It's okay that I'm frustrated. It's okay that I still fall into these negativity spirals sometimes. It's okay if maybe my anxiety and my inner critic win out at the end of the day, maybe I don't pick up my art supplies for a few days. It's all okay. Self-compassion is basically just giving yourself permission to be a human. To say, I understand that I am trying my best and trying my best looks different every day, and the worst way for me to actually make progress is to shame myself for anything. It's okay if it took you more than a week to take this challenge, it's okay if you still feel like the fear is holding you up. Just start a little bit at a time. That's why all of the videos in this challenge, were less than 10 minutes. It's because it doesn't have to be all or nothing. That includes your progress, your progress with your mindset as well as your watercolor skill. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, even a little self-compassion, will go a long way. The other really important key to building your everyday watercolor practice is flexibility. Consistency requires flexibility because you are human. If you want to build consistent habits, it requires you to be flexible with yourself. As you continue going about your day, going about your year, trying to take the principles that we've learned with you, remember that at the end of the day you and how you feel about yourself, that's more important. Yes, creativity belongs at the top of your list, and hopefully over the last seven days you've seen why. Yes, creativity can bring you so much joy. No, you don't have to be perfect because creativity is about the process. Creativity is how engaging in the act of making something that didn't exist before changes your perspective as a human. It's all about you and your experience and the life that you are choosing to build for yourself. All of those things are true. But creativity is not the end goal here. The end goal is not for you to be a creative person. The end goal is for you to be a joyful person, for you to be a curious person. Creativity is just the vehicle. It's just one way that you can access so much joy and fulfillment in this life. If you find yourself feeling bad or feeling ashamed about the fact that you haven't picked up your paints in a while, please don't. It's okay. I go weeks without painting sometimes, and not just because I'm busy, sometimes I go weeks without painting because I'm getting stuck too. You're going to get stuck again. But now you have some real valuable tools to help you get unstuck when you need them. I hope that this little pep talk has helped you, and I want you to remember, it's okay. It's all okay. What is an actionable thing that you can do next after this challenge? Well, one thing you can do is to maybe see where you can schedule in 10 minutes of creativity every day to make a plan to intentionally do something that makes it easier for you to get to your desk. Then remind yourself that it's okay if you don't make it, you can always try again. I have one last thing to share with you, and then we'll close out this challenge. [MUSIC] 12. Wrapping Up: [MUSIC] Thank you so much for joining me, my friend. Thank you so much for joining me in this class, painting with me for the last week and stretching your skill, stretching your comfort level so that you can find more joy and confidence in your creative practice. I am always so honored to paint with you and to share in this journey with you because as has hopefully been made abundantly clear, I'm on this journey too. I'm not trying to speak to you from a pedestal saying like I've done it all and now you can get to where I am too. I have a lot of experience with this, but it's a journey. I'm still on it and it makes it so much more fun when I can have travel companions. Honestly, that's a big part of the reason why I made this challenge. I really hope that you enjoyed yourself. If you loved this challenge as much as I loved making it, I would love to hear about it. Please feel free to post your projects in the project gallery any of the days that you have practiced or even any project that you have completed maybe as a result of the challenge; that's okay too. We want to cheer you on. Me and all of the other students in this class, we want to be here for you to support and provide you that community. You can also share on Instagram. My handle is @thiswritingdesk. If you post about the challenge and tag me, I would love to give you some supportive comments and to share your work. Please feel free to do so, so that we can catch up and be friends on Instagram. Finally, if you really loved this class, it would mean a lot to me if you left a review. If you went onto the Skillshare platform and left me a review so that other students who might worry if this class is for them, can have a real insight into what's in store. That really helps classes get seen by other students and it gives me a good idea of how I can keep improving and making my classes even better in the future. That's all I have for now. It has been such a pleasure and I will see you next time. [MUSIC]