Explore your freedom and see what works for you. I have a few ideas you may like to try.
Transcript
This is episode 10 of the Art Fit Podcast. Hello, I’m Anna Battle, Shiny Happy Artist and your host of the Art Fit Podcast. Now, just as physical fitness is good for your body, Art Fitness is good for your mind. And you don’t need to be an Olympics level professional artist to benefit from Art Fitness. But what is the point? How do you actually do it? How do you fit it all in? Well, I’m on a mission to help you get Art Fit.
This podcast is brought to you by my Shiny Happy Art Club. I send you a brand new high quality guided Paint Along each month, in acrylic and watercolour, as part of a lovely group of art friends from around the world. So, you can become a Shiny Happy Artist and get Art Fit.
Okay. So, we’ve really set ourselves up. We’ve got some ideas of what we’re painting and drawing, and where we’re going to be when we do it, and our mindset’s all good. Now, if you’ve taken all those things on board, I’m now going to give you the gift of freedom; and that is because you are not being marked anymore. There are no marks for getting your art “right”. You have the gift of freedom. Now, whether you are still a student of student age, and you’re being marked on other things, when you are Shiny Happy Arting, when you are drawing and painting for Art Fitness, there are no marks. So, you are allowed to do crazy things, like colouring outside the lines. Can you imagine that?
Now, one of my favourite ways to draw and paint, and it’s really urban sketching. So, when I’m sketching out and about, is actually starting with the colour first. So, I might sit down in a coffee shop at the table, and look at what I’m going to draw. Now, it’s either a small subject, like the cup and saucer in front of me, or it might be a bigger subject, like corner of the room. Whatever it might be, but I actually take my glasses off, so I can’t see the edges and I will put on the paint first. So, I just loosely marked down the shapes that are formed by those colours, and just gives me an idea of where sort of things fit in the picture. It helps them figure out the proportions. And look, it’s very, very quick. And I’m certainly practicing it now, which makes it quicker. But I don’t stress about getting exactly where those shapes are because I know, I’m allowed to draw and colour outside the lines. And it is a fabulous way to feel free. So, then I go back with my coloured pencils; and I love using coloured pencils with watercolour because I don’t need to wait. I know I’m not going to wreck, if I was using a pen, I’d wreck it because the paint was wet. But with coloured pencils, you don’t have to worry so much.
So, I then go back in with coloured pencils and I start drawing the lines, but only the most important lines, because the colours are already there, so it already gives you a lot of information about the scene. And when I do put the lines on, it doesn’t actually have to line up with the colour underneath. And the more that it doesn’t line up, the more movement I actually seem to get. So, give yourself the freedom and the flexibility to paint and draw outside the lines. You don’t need to be neat, you don’t need to get top marks; you just need to enjoy it. And believe me, if you’re colouring outside the lines, you’re more likely to capture the life in your picture, your movement in your picture. And if you are a naturally neat person and who likes to draw really neatly, look, just give it a go. Give it a go. And while I’m saying, colouring inside the lines, you don’t need to rush it. I think, the tendency there is to go faster. It’s just this allowance, this permission that you can do it a different way, and experiencing that different way because you just might like it.
I’m personally on a mission to be able to use as few lines as possible, to get a theme or a subject on the page, to see if… And look, you need to give yourself, and give your brain, permission to fill in the gaps and really explore what is possible, when it comes to leaving out some bits or doing things that aren’t quite by the book. And quite how we were told to do it at school, in many years ago. I think, there are a lot more progressive art teachers these days, which allow a bit more freedom. but if you have felt constrained by having to colour within the lines before, believe me, this is me giving you permission to get stuck into it and enjoy sort of having a bit of looseness in there. And losing the lines is just guidelines, not ruler lines; and that’s a really lovely way of putting them down on the paper. These are just guides, no rules, and off you go. So, enjoy yourself today. Put some colour on some page, add some paper, and colour outside the lines, and think of me on your journey to Art Fitness.
So, you want to get Art Fit? We’ll find out when the doors to the Shiny Happy Art Club open next. There are 24 online Paint Alongs to choose from when you join, so you’ll definitely find something you love. And now, there are also $15 and $25 subscription options. So, go to www.shinyhappyart.com to pop your name on the waiting list. I look forward to painting with you in the Shiny Happy Art Club. And until then, I’ll be back in your ears with the next episode of the Art Fit Podcast.
