How Creating Art Can Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Addiction

8/26/2020

How, exactly, can creating art help someone deal with negative emotions such as anxiety and stress? What happens in an art therapy session? Why are holistic, comprehensive approaches for managing inner turmoil more effective than treatments that only revolve around talking or taking medication?

As an artist sharing content online, I've made it a priority to not only share helpful tips and tutorials that help others progress their technical skills, but also articles and videos providing insights and habits I've set in place that have allowed me to improve my mindset and wellbeing.

Our physical and mental health permeate, quite literally, into all areas of our lives (personal, professional, interpersonal).

Plus, being an artist can not only be incredibly challenging in a variety of ways, but lonely too.

In the past, I've shared how I've struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since my teenage years and how, since making my mental/physical wellbeing a priority and started embracing more positive practices and routines, I've become way happier, as well as more focused and energized.

This, of course, has helped me be a lot more productive, which has led to much greater success with my art creation and business overall.

Alongside my art creation and everything I do revolving around my business, I'm constantly reading, researching and putting to use new information that I feel could help me improve my life, as a working artist and educator, even more.

And I'll keep sharing with you guys, in hopes that some of you may find it helpful too.

Because of the current worldwide pandemic, its negative effects on our economies and the social injustices/inequalities that are becoming more and more evident, a lot of us are struggling with negative emotions such as worry and overwhelm at a deeper level than we normally would.

This is why I'm incredibly happy to be sharing an article written for us by professional writer, Patrick Bailey, who has studied the fields of mental health and addiction for years.

Patrick's article helps clarify what happens during an art therapy session and why creative activities are such a great way to cope with negative emotions.

This information is enlightening even for those of us who don't struggle with severe mental illnesses.

Without much further ado, let's get into his article!

How Creating Art Can Reduce Conditions Such as Anxiety, Stress, and Addiction

by Patrick Bailey

Chronic stress and anxiety are leading underlying causes of substance use disorders (SUDs) or addiction. These conditions can make it more difficult for you or your loved one to quit.

In the context of addiction treatment, creating art can help you relax and be more willing to address drug or alcohol use disorder. Art therapy provides a healthy, alternative way to cope with stress, anxiety, and other conditions that often co-occur with substance abuse.

What is Creative Art Therapy?

Art therapy is a form of experiential therapy that has been used to treat substance abuse since the 1950's. There is scientific evidence that backs up the efficacy of using creative expression to confront past trauma that triggers stress or anxiety, or leads to self-destructive behaviors.

Substance abuse is often caused or exacerbated by co-occurring conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Alcohol and drug rehab centers are still using art therapy as part of a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to substance abuse treatment.

Treatment specialists initially focused on using evidence-based treatments such as medication therapy, behavioral therapy, and contingency management as recovery tools.

Today, holistic therapies such as art, poetry, music, and dance help individuals in rehab to connect with their emotions and express them in various ways.

Other forms of creative expressions are:

Crafting
Art journaling
Creating collages or mosaics
Drawing, painting, or sculpting emotions

These and other creative activities also provide a way for people to process
negative emotions and anxieties that may show up during their treatment.

How Creating Art Can Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Addiction Erika Lancaster Art Blog

The Role of Art Therapy in Substance Abuse Treatment

Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy, but talking is not always the most effective way to express the emotions that emerge in the recovery process.

Artistic creations give you a less stressful way to describe your emotions and help your therapist better understand your recovery needs. Your therapist may also encourage you to discuss them during individual talk therapy and group therapy.

The ultimate goal of using arts-based methods for rehabilitation is to improve the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of the person.

The creative processes also are a good addiction management technique that can make recovery easier by:

Providing a safe, non-addictive way of emotional release
Helping the client admit the addiction
Motivating change in behaviors
Stimulating a desire to sober up
Reducing the shame and guilt of addiction

Artistic activities help by acting as a door that opens up to a place or part of themselves from which patients are running.

There is a type of art therapy called incident drawing that lets you illustrate your feelings and experiences of feeling out of control or self-destructive via drawing.

Seeing the images on paper is a powerful way to help you connect the dots and see the role stress and anxiety play in substance abuse.

Finally recognizing that addiction is a problem makes you more willing to stay in treatment and commit to long-term sobriety.

What Happens During Art Therapy Sessions?

Art therapy is facilitated by a professional art therapist, someone who is trained in using art as a medium for healing and recovery. Therapy takes place at an inpatient or outpatient treatment center in a structured and supportive environment.

Interestingly, you don't need to have a special talent or a background in the arts to get involved. The purpose of art therapy isn’t to produce quality artwork but to help clients become healthy.

You only need to be open to the idea of speaking your truth using art-based methods when words alone cannot explain it all. The art therapist needs to be ready for all the mixed emotions that may emerge from the process.

Expect your therapist to provide a variety of art supplies such as paper, canvas, cloth, paint, crayons, and clay. Don't worry. There is no need to create anything that looks perfect; the focus will be on the creative process rather than the finished product.

Some programs allow you to create your art pieces independently or work on a group project with others. The program structure and your schedule will help determine the approach.

After you're finished, your therapist may interpret your creation or encourage you to focus on the healing the process brings. You may be asked to explain how you feel the art—painting, drawing, or crafting, for example—helps you.

Enrolling in an Art Therapy Program

Art therapy helps clients in rehab overcome addiction and live a healthy life.

It allows you to release stress, anger, and frustration, regain confidence, build self-acceptance, and improve self-esteem.

Many addiction treatment centers offer a creative arts program as a part of a comprehensive treatment program that addresses the "whole person."

Other modalities include individual therapy, group therapy, 12-Step meetings, family counseling, fitness, nutritional counseling, and recreational outings.

When looking for a treatment facility, it's important to consider one that uses an integrative approach to recovery.

Sources:
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07421656.2016.1166832?journalCode=uart20 - Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making
- https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/evidence-based-approaches-to-drug-addiction-treatment - Evidence-Based Approaches to Drug Addiction Treatment
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4268880/#R2 - The Use of Art and Music Therapy in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

Sending out a huge thank you to Patrick for this enlightening article.

To find more of his helpful wellness articles, visit his website here.

Cheers!

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Watercolor Painting: 10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors

7/28/2020

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Watercolor Painting Tips for Beginners How to Avoid Muddy Colors

What, exactly does the term muddy color refer to when painting with watercolor? What are the common culprits for muddy colors and which actions should we take in order to avoid them?

Watercolor!

So vibrant, so fresh, so... tricky!

Muddy colors are one of the most common struggles for people starting out with this painting medium and in today's blog post (and YouTube video!), I'm covering what they are exactly, so that you know what to keep an eye out for. I'll also be providing my best tips that'll help you keep your colors fresh and vibrant.

There's no doubt that watercolor is an amazing painting medium that can be a lot more practical to use when compared to mediums like acrylics or oils, which require a larger space to set up, a well-ventilated area, much more clean up and, most often than not, a larger investment in supplies.

This said, it doesn't take much time using watercolors to realize that they are truly a challenge.

Not only are there so many variables involved when it comes to painting with watercolor that affect both the painting experience, as well as the final outcome (such as the humidity and temperature of the room we're in, the quality of our paint, each specific pigment's characteristics, the type of paper that we're using, etc.), but there's also no way to simply cover up our mistakes or swipe them off like we can when we're painting with opaque mediums.

Learn more about different types of paint, paintbrushes and watercolor paper and what you truly need as a beginner just getting started in my blog post titled Watercolor Supplies for Beginners and Things You Must Know.

Not to mention, we're working on a substrate that's inherently fragile. Even when we're working with paper that's intended for water-soluble mediums, it can only take so much scrubbing, lifting and layering. It's paper!

It's essential to stay patient, work mindfully, practice our water control and allow the paper to dry/regain its strength whenever needed throughout the process.

As loose, expressive and even quick, more experienced artists make painting with watercolor seem, as I'll be talking about in the video, creating a successful piece requires not only mastering water control, but also knowledge of color, and going in with some sort of strategy.

We need to visualize the overall effects we're going for so that we know what techniques (wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, etc.) to use where and also, when.

It's also essential to have some sort of general plan when it comes to the colors we'll be using.

Then we can allow ourselves to let go and embrace the beautiful, organic effects that only watercolors allow.

So... what are muddy colors, exactly?

The term 'muddy color' refers to a color mixture or a section of our painting has turned dull, flat, matte and, overall, lifeless.

Muddy colors lack the vibrancy (and most of the time also the translucency) that watercolor allows and don't look like they belong within the context of the piece, when one takes into consideration the rest of the colors used around that area.

Watercolor allows for a light, interesting, vibrant use of color that's unique to this medium and flat, lifeless colors are often proof that something has gone wrong.

This said, it's important to note that a muddy color is very different from a desaturated or muted-out color.

Desaturated colors are grays, browns or neutralized colors and these are often used intentionally by artists who are looking to tone down highly-saturated colors straight out of the pan or tube to make them look more realistic/natural or simply to make use of a color scheme that suits their style best.

You'll notice that lots of colors (except for browns and neutrals) are very saturated and vibrant right out of the pan or tube, and these kinds of colors don't happen very much in real life when you look at the settings or living things around you.

Other watercolor artists simply like the look of more muted out colors and create they own color mixtures, adding a second or even third color to desaturate them or create the color they need.

This doesn't make these colors mud, as long as the artist knows what he/she is mixing together, has at least somewhat of a plan, is staying in control, is playing to the medium's translucent nature and interesting use of color, and the colors fit within the context of the piece.

Take this still life watercolor of mine below as an example. I've created my own gray and brown color mixtures using Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber and there's still a vibrancy/life to them.

There's a variety in values, translucencies and even color temperature throughout these areas, and these more desaturated color mixtures harmonize and look like they've been planned. They allow the bright, vivid colors in the apples to shine.

*Learn more about Art Fundamentals and what it takes to plan for successful, harmonious and balanced compositions with my classes over on Patreon!

Watercolor Apples Still Life by Erika Lancaster

Desaturated, muted out colors and even grays and browns can, indeed, have a life and vibrancy to them, as long as we plan for them intentionally and make sure not to overwork our paintings.

What's essential, in my opinion, is making use of this medium's translucency and dynamic nature to create light looking paintings with a vibrant use of color so that, whether the colors we're using are pure/highly-saturated or toned-down, our paintings still seem to glow from within.

Matte and opaque are opposite to translucent and vibrant.

And flatness/heaviness is basically where the problem is.

Not darkness, not level of saturation.

When we're just getting started with this medium and are still lacking water control, it's incredibly easy to overwork our paintings. Add to this the fact that most beginners don't invest time in learning about the Color Wheel/Color Theory and this is a recipe for lots of frustration and disappointment.

*Class #3 of my Watercolor Mini-Course for the Total Beginner is all about the Color Wheel and color mixing. It's free for my art email insiders, too! :)

If you enjoyed this video and found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I share a brand new video every week with art tips, drawing and painting tutorials and mindset/productivity tips for artists. *Subscribe HERE*

Why do muddy colors happen?

Usually, they happen because of one (or a combination) of the following:

a) Because we lose control of our different colors on our paint mixing palette or on our paper (colors can intermix in both areas).

b) We don't know much about the Color Wheel/Color Theory and don't pre-select our colors before starting a new piece (testing out color mixtures is very important).

c) We don't clean out our paintbrush bristles well in-between colors and/or we're not changing our water throughout the painting process.

d) We're not staying patient and are getting anxious to finish, going over the same spot again and again, while our paper is still wet, in attempts to fix mistakes but damaging our paper in the process.

10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors When Painting with Watercolor

1. Learn about the Color Wheel and color temperature

The Color Wheel is an invaluable tool that helps us understand color relationships.

Not only does it allow us to create color mixtures effectively while working, but it also enables us to plan color schemes prior to starting with the painting process that work beautifully and help us communicate the message we're looking to communicate.

Experiment with creating your own color mixtures. See what happens first-hand when you combine cool colors, warm colors and a warm plus a cool. Learn about color and work on color mixing exercises outside of a painting process via color studies and explorations.

12- Part Color Wheel in Watercolor including Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colors.

2. Pre-select the colors you'll be using for the painting on hand before getting started

Randomly picking colors throughout the painting process is a surefire way of arriving at muddy colors.

Keeping things limited to only a certain amount of necessary colors, especially in the beginning, is a great idea. This not only allows the beginner to keep colors more organized throughout the process, but will mostly likely lead to an outcome that is much more harmonious and cohesive.

In this video, I share my entire process for painting a still life with watercolor using only 4 colors and why I love working with a limited color palette.

Before getting started with a new piece, give thought to how you're going to be creating the different colors you'll be needing, how you're going to be creating shadows and darker values of different colors, etc.

Most often than not, working with a limited amount of colors is going to help you get comfortable with color mixing a lot faster!

3. Change your water throughout the painting process (or use 2 or 3 containers)

As soon as you notice your water becoming murky, change it! You can also consider using 2 or even 3 containers as you're painting.

This way, you're able to use one of them to rinse out your bristles and another to take clean water from as needed throughout the process whenever you need to pre-wet areas of your paper, add more water to paint mixtures, soften out edges, etc.

4. Make sure you're cleaning out your paintbrush bristles thoroughly in-between colors

If you just finished using one color and you're planning on going into a color that's very different from it, make extra sure that your bristles are well rinsed, especially if you're not looking to desaturate your colors.

As a rule of thumb, if I'm not going into an Analogous color (a color that is next to to the one I was just using the Color Wheel), or just finished using a brown/neutral color, or even a color that might be more opaque than the one I want to use next (watercolors can be opaque, semi-opaque, translucent and semi-translucent), I make extra sure that all of the previous color has been washed out.

Unless I actually want to desaturate or mute-out a color.

If you're using grays, browns or neutrals, or Complementary Colors (opposites in the Color Wheel) in your painting, make sure to stay mindful throughout the process, as it's very easy for colors to mix together on your paper (especially if you're using lots of wet-on-wet), in your paint-mixing palette, and even in the bristles of your paintbrush!

5. Be careful when using Complementary Colors

Complementary Colors are opposites in the Color Wheel and, when mixed together, they neutralize or mute each other out. You can use this to your advantage if this is what you want to do, but if your aim is to keep your colors super saturated, then you need to approach these color combos with some sort of strategy.

Ask yourself: Depending on the effects that I'm going for, what area should I paint first, next and last? What techniques should I be using (wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, etc.)? What areas should I stay extra mindful to allow to dry before adding more color on top or around it? Should I be placing these two colors next to each other at this point in the process?

Remember that watercolor is always going to expand and bleed into paper that is wet. So if you don't want colors to intermix, you must allow them to dry completely.

If it makes sense for the subject on hand and the style you're going for, consider darkening colors with an Analogous Color, if you want colors to remain very vivid. Remember, Analogous Colors are next to each other in the Color Wheel.

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here !

6. Avoid using ready-made blacks

Though color ingredients vary from brand to brand, most ready-made blacks such as Lamp Black, Ivory Black, Mars Black, etc., tend to be very flat and usually dull-out colors. This is one of the reasons why so many traditionally trained watercolor artists don't use them and, instead, create their own dark color mixtures that have liveliness and a color temperature to them.

It's also important to have in mind that blacks can really lead to stark, heavy looking marks or shapes that can be very distracting, and that there's actually very little pure black in nature. Even shadows have color and a temperature to them.

There are tons of ways to create your own darks when using watercolor. I share many different dark color mixtures in this video over at my YouTube channel!

If you do use a ready-made black, consider adding another color into it.

You can also use Neutral Tint, Payne's Gray or Analogous Cours to darken a certain color.

7. Hold yourself back from overworking your paintings

This is a tough one and something I'm working on as I continue on my journey with watercolor. Especially because I started painting with oils and acrylics, which usually require layering and going over the same area many times.

When it comes to working with watercolor, I've realized that the less moving around of paint we do after its been placed and even the less amount of layers we have to develop, the better and the fresher the outcome tends to be.

I've realized that visualizing the outcome we're after and approaching a new watercolor painting process with at least some sort of general plan is essential. This helps us lay down our washes and brush strokes more confidently and leave things be.

Because, if we don't know what we're after or what we're doing, we're going to be hesitating and making lots of mistakes that we'll want to go in and fix.

Mistakes and accidents always happen, but they're usually a lot smaller and can be made less noticeable more easily if we go in with a strategy and are staying mindful/patient.

If you feel you need to practice a specific technique or do isolated studies of something before getting started with a more complete piece, do it! It'll help you attack a new painting a lot more confidently and with much more success.

If you make a mistake, don't fret. Simply absorb excess water and paint with your absorbent towel or semi-dry paintbrush bristles and allow it to dry. Come back after the paper has regained its strength to see how you can make it less noticeable.

*A small amount of moving around of our paint is okay, but avoid going over the same spot again, and again, and again!*

8. Allow your layers of paint to dry completely before applying another wash on top

Like I said before, watercolor is always going to expand into paper that is wet. If the paper is very wet, the paint you place on top is going to expand more rapidly. If the paper is starting to dry, it'll expand more slowly.

But it'll always feather out at least a bit depending on the level of moisture.

There are varying degrees of wetness a paper can have when we're working with watercolor and, as we continue practicing, it'll become easier to tell when we should be dropping in our paint in order to achieve a certain level of gradating or blurring out.

If we want our marks or the edges of our shapes to be clean and sharp, or if we don't want the previous colors we've placed to intermix with the ones we want to place on top, it's important to be patient and allow our painting (or at least that specific area) to dry completely.

Always remember that, wet paper is fragile paper and we must allow it to regain its strength before attempting to add further detail or darken certain areas.

9. Avoid using opaque colors

Watercolor paint can be opaque, semi-opaque, transparent and semi-transparent. Each individual color's characteristics vary, even within the same paint set, and this is one of the reasons why swatching out a new paint set is important.

It's important to know that opaque colors tend to create color mixtures that get thicker and thicker, and murkier and murkier, which can lead to mud much more easily than using transparent colors.

This doesn't mean that we can't use them (I use them all the time!), but it does mean that we have to use them carefully or, in many cases, on their own.

Colors such as Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Cerulean Blue, Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre tend to have opaque qualities to them.

You can never go wrong with testing out the different color mixtures you're planning on using on a scrap piece of watercolor paper before actually using them in your painting.

10. Make sure that you're cleaning out your paint mixing palette thoroughly and keep colors organized throughout the process

This one's related to keeping your water and paintbrushes clean, and I just thought I'd add it in because it can be especially helpful for beginners.

When we're watching videos in which expert watercolor artists are using a huge watercolor palette with a bunch of different colors that seem to be intermixing and they are freely taking their colors as they're painting, it's important to realize that they:
a) Know the Color Wheel like the back of their hand
b) Have mastered water control and know what to do to fix mistakes
and
c) Most likely than not, they've pre-selected and organized the specific colors they know and love using to create their very own color palette

When we're just getting started it can seem like we should be approaching our painting process in that same way, with a large amount of colors and with a palette that *seems to be* out of control.

It can be very frustrating when a beginner sees that, tries to replicate that, continues ending up with paintings that don't seem right, and has no idea what he/she is doing wrong.

My advice?

Learn about Color Theory, keep things practical and limited, and stay as organized as possible in the beginning so that you can continue practicing mindfully and, I promise, you'll get to that point a lot sooner!

*Bonus Tip:
Higher quality watercolor paint is going to lead to better results (better color payoff/more vibrancy/easier mixing of colors/etc.) and generally offers more information about each color such as its level of translucency, granulation, etc. Cheaper watercolors tend to be chalky and opaque, which lead to muddy colors.

Watercolor Supplies

Royal and Langnickel Watercolor Zen Line Brushes $2.99 - $5.99 on Blick.com

Watercolor Pencil Tips and Botanical Painting Process

Watercolor Wet on Wet Effects How to Do Blooms, Splatters and Runs for Beginners

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How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

7/7/2020

6 Comments

*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)

What are the main things I need to know in order to achieve realistic results when drawing hair? How can I break drawing hair down into simple steps to follow?

There's no denying it.

Achieving realistic results when drawing (or painting) takes great skill and patience.

And for those of us who love drawing portraits and animals, knowing how to add hair texture in a believable way is important!

I'm very excited to share a super helpful, step-by-step tutorial with you that the extremely talented Austrian artist/illustrator Sabrina Hassler prepared for us.

Today, she'll be spilling the beans on her method for adding beautiful (and very realistic) hair to her graphite portraits!

It takes only a quick look into Sabrina's website and social media to know that she's the real-deal when it comes to realistic drawing.

She loves drawing portraits, animals and botanicals and, just like me, she has a passion for sharing her knowledge with other creatives who are looking to progress their skills.

Without any further ado, let's get into her tutorial!

How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

by Sabrina Hassler

Many artists find it difficult to draw interesting and natural hairstyles. I've been asked many times: "How do you make hair look so realistic?”

Some complain: "Drawing hair is so complex!"

But it doesn't have to be that way.

In this tutorial you will learn how to draw hair in 8 simple steps, using the example of a long wavy hair.

Curious? Here we go!

Supplies you'll need:

• Pencils (H-4B)
• Black colored pencil
• Eraser and pen style/barrel eraser
• Blending stump
• Drawing paper

Some of my favorite drawing supplies:

How to prepare:

Print out your reference photo several times.

Print out the original photo on regular printing paper once (preferably in grayscale/black and white if you draw with pencils).

Other copies should ideally be a little lighter and a little darker than the original. You can make small brightness adjustments using any photo editing software.

Why do you need lighter and darker copies?

In the lighter copy you'll be able to see dark areas in more detail and in the darker copy the highlights will stand out even more. This will help you to create a high level of contrast between lights and darks later on, which is important for realism.

How to draw hair realistically tutorial for beginners

You’ll also need an extra copy to draw in some helpful guidelines.

Link to my reference photo.

1. Draw basic outlines

To begin, carefully draw the outlines of the head, neck and hair on your drawing paper. Use a harder pencil grade (for example H or HB) and make sure not to press down too hard on your paper as you're creating your sketch.

In the beginning it’s completely normal to make mistakes and you’ll often have to fix something. That’s why your strokes shouldn’t be too dark, so they're easily erasable.

If you have trouble getting the proportions right, try breaking down your subject/reference into simple shapes (such as circles and rectangles). It also helps me to draw guidelines, for example along the central axis of the face (from forehead to nose to chin).

In this example you can draw a circle for the head (chin to top of the head) and then draw an identical circle beneath it, to get an idea where the hair
ends.

2. Analyze shapes

It's time to analyze the separate strands of hair. To do this, take your extra copies of the reference photo and try to recognize abstract shapes throughout the hair.

Draw these abstract shapes with a pen or drawing tool that you'll be able to see clearly on your photo. I used a yellow acrylic pen in the example below.

Once you have divided the hair into shapes, transfer these shapes onto your sketch, once again, without pressing too hard.

Reference photo with shapes:

Outline sketch:

3. Start shading

The next step is very basic shading.

I'd recommend using a softer pencil grade such as B or 2B, and shade the darkest areas on your sketch where least amount of light reaches the hair.

Mostly the areas around the neck and on the parting are very dark. Start there.

Take a look at your lighter copy of the reference photo and detect the areas where the image is darkest.

4. Sculpting

Next, give your hair more volume and three-dimensional form by adding individual hair strands inside of those basic shapes you created.

By dividing the strands into shapes (step 2), this process is much easier for you and you can work your way over the head one strand at a time.

Make sure that your strokes flow in the same direction as the hair naturally grows. Constantly observe your reference photo for clues.

Try to leave the bright spots (highlights) free of graphite and concentrate on the dark tones and midtones.

*Tips and techniques to give hair a 3D look

In the sketch below, you can see how you can shade in a single lock of hair.

Always draw your lines from the ends of that strand, going in (see arrow direction) so that your strokes end gradually in the widest area in the center. In other words, those pencil strokes are going towards the direction of the highlight in that strand of hair.

The hair usually shines most in the middle of the strand because this part protrudes outwards most and thus captures the most light.

Therefore, it's helpful to work from the ends towards the middle section, and not fill in the area in the middle with as much graphite, as this will be the lightest part.

Your focus should be more on the overall shape of the strand, and not on the individual hairs.

The more lines you draw, the darker everything will look. This creates more contrast with the lighter (empty) areas in the middle and this will make your stand look three-dimensional and shiny.

One lock of hair:

5. Smooth things out

The next step is a suggestion and not a requirement. It mostly depends on the overall look or result you'd like to achieve.

I think it makes a big difference to smooth out the transitions between values (lights, midtones and darks), and to soften out individual lines. I like using a paper bending stump for this part of the process, but you can also use a cotton swab.

Carefully (and gently) trace over your previous pencil strokes and let the flow of the hair guide you.

Try your best to not go over areas of lighter values/highlights. It often happens that I accidentally smear something or bring graphite into areas that I wanted to leave very light.

But don't worry, if this happens! We will correct this in the next step.

6. Pull out highlights

Next, take your pen-style/barrel eraser (or a pointed-shaped kneaded eraser) and erase the highlights (i.e. the shiny spots that reflect the light the most).

Most of the time I accidentally smudge these shiny spots with my blending stump in the previous step, so I have to pull them back out by erasing the graphite.

Observe your darker copy. There, you'll be able to notice lighter areas even more distinctly.

A pen-style eraser is perfect for this because it provides a lot of precision and you can even erase individual hairs.

7. Add contrast

By this point, your drawing will probably already look pretty good, but you shouldn’t stop there!

Using a black colored pencil, darken the darkest areas of your drawing again, using the same strokes/direction/overall motion that you were previously using with your pencil.

Colored pencils provide a more opaque/less shiny finish than regular pencils and will help add more depth and contrast, making your drawing look even more realistic.

8. Final details

The last step will really make your drawing stand out. If you want your drawing to look natural, you should also invest some time adding the final details.

By that I mean details such as smaller hairs that don’t follow the general flow of the hair, such as flyaways, stray hairs, and all the small imperfections that make hair look "real". These can be added around the head or even over the face.

You can draw a few flyaways on the outside of the head with a hard pencil grade. Flyaways are usually very thin and hardly recognizable from a distance. The pen-style eraser is suitable for drawing individual hairs over the main hair areas. Use it to erase small lines over larger, dark areas to add in a flyaway hair.

Take a close look at your reference photo and decide for yourself which details you would like to draw in and which make the hairstyle unique.

You can also add some details from your imagination, if you want to achieve a messy look for instance.

Finished drawing:

*Final tip: Adding details

In the image above, you can see examples of “imperfections” such as flyaways and stray hairs in greater detail. Some single hairs also cast their own shadow on the hair underneath.

Avoid dark ends in hairs by releasing the pressure on the pencil at the end of your stroke. Try to get your hairs darker at the roots and remember to create a line weight variation within your lines (from thick to thin/dark to light), instead of having one continuous line weight from one end to the other.

Never forget to draw your lines in a dynamic motion so they don’t end up being wobbly. If you move your hand in a fast and confident way, you will achieve a great look!

I hope that these tips will help you to draw complex and believable hairstyles and that from now on drawing hair will be much more enjoyable for you.

Drawing hair is a great way to practice our shading skills and advance out ability to draw different textures. Not to mention, we're also able to progress out observational skills via analyzing complex references.

Once you understand the basic principle, you can let your imagination go wild and draw interesting hairstyles or fur.

I would be happy to hear from your experiences - you can contact me here.

Sabrina Hassler is an Austrian artist and illustrator specializing in portraits, animals and botanicals.

Follow her on social media:
Instagram
Pinterest

And visit her website here.

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

Was this an amazing tutorial or what?

I certainly learned a lot of things that I'll be putting into practice when drawing hair realistically, and I hope you did too.

For more helpful tips and tutorials from Sabrina, check out her blog.

Sending out a huge thank you to Sabrina for this incredibly helpful tutorial!

Cheers!

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Trying Out Viviva Watercolor Sheets

6/23/2020

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Do you enjoy taking your watercolors with you while traveling or to different local settings to create unique, artistic renditions of your experiences? Love exploring new art supplies and sharing them with your creative friends? Do you like bold, bright, expressive color?

It's been a month since I first received my Viviva Colorsheets and I'm excited to report that, after having created a little series of paintings with them (some of which I'm including in this post), I'm ready to share my thoughts!

In this blog post, I'll not only be including my swatching video for the 16 colors offered in Viviva's watercolor sheets, but I'll also share some information about this amazing brand, the products they currently offer and my observations after having explored them for a bit.

This way, you can decide whether to order yourself a set a.s.a.p., or stick to regular watercolor tubes or pans.

Viviva's watercolor sheets take the form of a booklet and each sheet contains 2 (6 x 4.5 cms.) highly saturated "plaques" of pigment. To use them, one has to simply touch the color with a slightly wet paintbrush and the color will be immediately activated.

This is an idea pioneered by Peerless Watercolors in 1885 and Viviva has succeeded at creating their own modernized, all-around visually appealing version that they're constantly working on improving and providing different iterations of for their audience.

Viviva Colorsheets was founded in 2015 by med student Aditya Vadgaonkar, who loved watercolor, but found it hard to make time to paint ever since starting with his university studies. Even when he did have a bit of free time, the set-up process, taking care of required supplies and clean up involved, made things very impractical for him.

He longed to continue with his art practice and knew that there probably were lots of people around the world who loved art and felt that eagerness to sit down to create, yet found it too challenging to make time for it in their busy schedules.

While working on a med school assignment involving a diagnostic technique that required picking up color from a paper substrate, the idea of creating watercolor sheets that contained color in dried form occurred to him.

He thought this would be a great way to make watercolor painting more practical for busy people and for those enjoy sketching/painting outside of the studio, as these sheets would be easy to carry around and required minimal preparation/clean up.

Passionate about making his idea come to life, Aditya then worked with an expert on colorants and, after 2 years and lots of different iterations, they arrived at a product that was ready to be offered to the world.

They came up with a method to create watercolor sheets using a minimal amount of binder (when compared to regular watercolor pan sets), which gives them their vividness and great color payoff.

Watercolor flower by Erika Lancaster- Viviva Colorsheets on Hahnemühle watercolor paper.

In May 2017, Viviva launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in order to begin producing their colorsheets in small volumes and start selling worldwide. It was a huge success.

Viviva has been working on their product design nonstop, and now offer a wide range of vibrant colors that are not only super bright and easily activated, but portable, durable and eco-friendly.

They've added more colors, tabs on the bottom of each sheet so that colors can be easily found, protective water-repellent paper in between each sheet, a small foldable paper palette, and they've even added beautiful and customizable wood covers as an option for your colorsheets (an amazing addition if you want to give these colorsheets away as a gift).

They've also been working hard on getting their innovative product into art-enthusiasts' hands worldwide, as they continue spreading their mission to share the joy of being able to paint anytime and without the mess.

Today, Viviva is selling their colorsheets to artists and art-lovers all over the world via their website, as well as through art stores in the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Singapore, Honk Kong, Australia and more.

Viviva currently offers four different sets:

Single set: One set of colorsheets with 16 different colors
Sketcher's set: One set of colorsheets with 16 different colors + a refillable watercolor brush
Gift set: One set of colorsheets with its wood/customizable cover and a refillable watercolor brush
Deluxe set: Two sets of colorsheets, each with its wood/customizable cover and a refillable watercolor brush

Find out more about their products by visiting their website.

Viviva Watercolor Swatches

The very first thing I did after receiving my colorsheets, was work on swatches for their 16 colors. As you'll see in the video, I also made sure to test out some techniques that I frequently use in my watercolor painting.

As I explain in my blog post/YouTube video titled How to Swatch Watercolor and Why It's Important, making time to test out colors before using them in an actual painting will not only give us a feel for the usability of the new set on hand, but will also help us avoid surprises when we're laying down our colors and creating our different color mixtures.

Many colors in regular watercolor sets often look very different while in the pan/tube when compared to how they look when they're placed on paper and Viviva's colorsheets are no different (specific colors like Violet, Peacock Blue and Viridian are especially surprising!).

Swatching colors out also allows us to have a better understanding of the color range offered.

The 16 colors included in Viviva's Colorsheets are:
Crimson
Deep Pink
Vermillion
Dusk Orange
Chrome Yellow
Gold Ochre
Burnt Umber
Burnt Sienna
Light Green
Sap Green
Viridian
Peacock Blue
Persian Blue
Violet
Magenta
Slate Black

You'll notice that, in this video included above, I also share my initial thoughts on how these paints compare to regular watercolor pans and tubes.

In many ways, these paints act more like dyes than regular watercolors and it's important to take this into account when you start painting with them.

This said, I've come across pieces created by different artists using these colorsheets that look like they were painted with regular watercolors.

Because of this, I refused to change the way I work and just simplified my method. I came up with something that works similarly to my usual techniques and that I like the look of.

As with many art supplies, there's a learning curve involved, for sure. Especially if you already have a specific way of working as well as a style you're trying to achieve.

As you'll see in the pieces I share here, I've have managed to use these colorsheets to successfully create beautiful wet-on-wet effects, muted out color mixtures and even a variety of values using layering to provide a bit more realism.

Dry Color Swatches and Tests

Viviva watercolor sheets swatches

Pros and Cons of Viviva's Colorsheets

Pros

Incredibly vibrant colors
Great variety of colors
Long-lasting (if you're careful when using them and use only a small amount of water) / A little goes a long way!
Very easily activated
Easy to carry around/lightweight
It's very difficult to create mud with these paints, as they are highly transparent
Non-toxic
Customizable wood cover makes a beautiful, personal gift for any art-enthusiast
Even though it's recommended to allow the colors to dry after using them before closing the booklet, sheets don't stick together because of the protective, water-repellent separator
The product is made with recycled material and using sustainable practices that don't sacrifice its quality

Cons

Stains hands and could stain other objects if not allowed to dry completely *You may want to carry them in a zip-lock bag
If you lack water control, it's easy to make a mess and waste too much product
They act more like inks in many ways and it's best to go in not expecting them to work exactly like regular pan or tube watercolors
There's no way to rearrange your colors
They are not lightfast (will fade over time)
They have little to no mixing area *You may have to use a separate mixing palette if you like creating your own color mixtures or muted out colors

Watercolor bird by Erika Lancaster- Viviva Colorsheets on Hahnemühle watercolor paper.

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here !

Watercolor landscape by Erika Lancaster- Viviva Colorsheets on Hahnemühle watercolor paper

Final Thoughts

Trying out these colorsheets has been a great experience and the product didn't disappoint. I'd recommend it to artists who are looking for convenience/portability and love creating quick paintings or sketches using watercolor, especially those who love bright color and do minimal color mixing.

Viviva's colorsheets are the smallest, most lightweight, portable set that I've ever used, which make them perfect for art on-the-go. Any artist who enjoys creating quick sketches outdoors, in different settings or while traveling, should definitely give these a go!

Though it definitely took me a bit to get used to them in order to produce the results I was after, I think the challenge has expanded my horizons and has made me a better artist.

Thank you for reading!

*Follow Viviva Colors on social media to see inspiring artwork created with their colorsheets, as well as the latest news from them:

Viviva Colors on Instagram
Viviva Colors on Facebook

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Realistic Watercolor Food Painting Tutorial

6/9/2020

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Watercolor How to Paint Doughnuts Realistically

*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)

Interested in watercolor food illustration, but don't know where do start? How can higher levels of realism be developed using watercolor? Why is layering so important and how does it work when using this tricky painting medium?

In today's blog post/YouTube video, I'm taking you through my full watercolor painting process for a stack of doughnuts. Throughout the video included in this post, I share everything about my technique, no holds barred, as well as provide tons of tips on water control and much more.

I absolutely love painting food!

Food illustration is one of the first kinds of work I started doing when my journey with watercolor began a few years ago, and this is still my go-to subject when I feel blocked or frustrated creatively.

For the painting process I'll be sharing in this post, I used a photo that I took in my own home studio. Here's the photo and the final painting.

*To get immediate access to a vault of my original art reference photos that gets added to every month and that you can use with no attribution, join us on Patreon!

Check out my blog post titled How to Take Your Own Art Reference Photos Quickly and Easily to find essential tips on taking pictures to work from for future pieces. Forming your own art reference photo library is so powerful!

Or, if you're short on time and are looking to find great art reference photos online that you can use without getting into trouble, check out this blog post.

Below the video, I'll be providing the key takeaways for you.

Key Takeaways from Today's Watercolor Tutorial

1. Use a high-quality reference photo

When we're looking to develop higher levels of realism, getting information from references is essential. Whether we're using photographs or something we actually have in front of us that we can reach out and touch, we need information on what things actually look like in real life.

When you're looking for a great art reference photo to work from, there are a few things to have in mind. These include: image resolution, lighting, cropping, etc.

You want to work from a photo that'll make the process easier for you and not harder!

In my blog post titled 6 Tips for Realistic Drawing, I provide the key things to have in mind when looking for a great art reference photo for realism in drawing/painting.

If we work purely from our imagination, chances are we're going to be guessing on important details such as different values (highlights, midtones, darks) found throughout the three-dimensional structure of the subject, shadow placement, and small nuances that can really make or break the realism in our painting.

Training ourselves to observe the things around us is essential, especially as representational artists.

When we're going for realism, it's important to remember that we have to draw or paint the subject the way it actually looks like in real life and not what we think it looks like. These are two very different things.

And unless we've been studying a specific subject for a long time, in all sorts of different perspectives and lighting situations, most likely than not, having a reference is going to be necessary.

2. Pinpoint highlights and keep them protected throughout the painting process

Before getting started with my painting process, I always make time to pinpoint highlights, midtones and darks in my reference photo or the subject I have in front of me.

By doing this, you can map them out in your preliminary outline sketch (lightly!) and keep them protected throughout the painting process.

Remember that, when working with watercolor, the whiteness of your paper is going to stand for your highlights. If we cover them up, we're getting rid of that lightest value and there's no way to go back to the whiteness the paper once had.

Not to mention, when we're going for higher levels of realism, we need to develop a wide range of values starting from highlights, lightest lights, a wide range of midtones, and darkest darks.

With watercolor, we're using the medium's translucency, in combination with the lightness of the paper underneath it, to develop these different values.

If we're afraid of going in with darker/more saturated color and leave our painting very light all throughout, OR if we go in super dark and saturated right away and leave out lighter values, our painting will probably look very flat and/or heavy.

This is cool, if we're going for a more illustrative style, but not optimal if we want to create a sensation of three-dimensional form or depth in our painting.

Step-by-Step watercolor and drawing tutorials for beginners

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here !

3. Use layering

When using watercolor, I like working from lights to darks, as this provides me greater control and helps me stay away from accidents that are hard to correct.

Also, I love using wet-on-wet for my beginning layers in order to create soft gradations and edges, and later move on to wet-on-dry techniques for my darker values and other details. In other words, I tend to use less and less water as the painting process moves forward.

Layering is awesome, but there are a few things to have in mind.

When painting with watercolor, it's important to remember that we're working on paper. Even though this paper is intended for water-soluble mediums, wet paper is fragile paper, and we need to stay mindful of when it's time to take a step back and allow it to regain its strength.

Especially when we're just getting started and haven't gotten our water control down, it's very easy to overwork/damage our paper.

It's okay to move the paint around a bit or even do some lifting with an absorbent towel while it's still wet if you do so gently, but going over the same spot again and again with your paintbrush is usually not the best.

Move the paint around minimally (if needed) and to allow that layer of paint to dry before going back in to darken certain areas or add further detail.

Also, it's important to have some sort of plan for your layers. Visualize and ask yourself how many layers you're going to need to create your painting and what techniques you're going to use for each layer to get the results you're after.

Ask yourself: Am I looking for the paint to blur out and create softer edges? Am I going for sharp, defined edges or marks?

If you want edges to be blurred out, go in while the paper is still wet (the level of wetness will determine how much your paint blurs out). If you want defined edges, make sure you've allowed your painting to dry completely.

Finally, remember to be patient! Achieving higher levels of realism is almost always going to take quite a bit longer than more expressive, loose pieces do.

But it'll totally be worth it!

4. Stay away from stark looking shapes or marks, as well as obvious outlines

Not sure if you've heard this before but, in realism there are no outlines.

The way we're able to tell one plane from the next or one element from another element, is because there is a difference in values amongst them, not because there is an outline in between them.

And oftentimes, this difference in values is very subtle!

This can be a difficult thing to grasp when we're just getting started, especially because a lot of us get started with art by copying our favorite cartoon characters (which often have black or dark outlines all throughout) and/or because we get started coloring pages with our crayons that contain images composed of line drawings.

The more you practice drawing and painting, and continue developing your observational skills, the easier it gets to pinpoint subtle differences in values.

In this same vein, we want to stay away from marks that are way too stark looking as they also detract from the realism of the piece. Marks that are too obvious, or heavy/flat shapes are distracting and, if we need to incorporate marks, it's important to have line weight variation in mind, as well as gradations in values around them.

Also, it's important to keep things irregular, imperfect and organic, especially if we're drawing or painting something that isn't machine made. This leads to more natural results.

I like visualizing the different values throughout my subjects as abstract shapes that fit together as a type of puzzle.

5. Add your shadow to place your subject in space

Shadows are so, incredibly important in realism! They establish the subject in space and situate it on the surface it's on. Without it/them, it'll look as if the subject is floating.

This is okay, in situations in which we're looking to create a completely background-free illustration, such as the type of work that we'll be editing digitally to place on products or to send to a client for some sort of editorial purpose. Like the ones I'm working on in my blog post/YouTube video titled How to Remove Backgrounds from Scanned Art (Photoshop for Beginners).

I love creating my largest area of cast shadow using wet-on-wet and then placing my area of occlusion shadow (darker area closest to the subject), on top of the first layer of lighter paint while it's still wet. This way the second, darker color dissipates and gradates into the lighter color.

Usually, there are different values even throughout areas of shadow. Sometimes there's a sharp edge between them, and other times they gradate softly into each other. It depends on the light situation present.

And remember, shadows should always be consistent throughout a piece. Otherwise, something is going to look off at the end and this will detract from the realism in the drawing or painting.

Before getting started with a new piece, locate the light source. Where is the light hitting the subject from? Is it in the top left? Top right? Right in front of the subject? Somewhere below it?

Wherever it is, keep in in mind throughout the painting process and make sure all the shadows you add in make sense.

*BONUS TIP: Careful when painting white subjects with watercolor!

Painting white objects or animals can be tricky with this medium! We need to leave enough paper shining through to make the object (or part of the object) appear white, yet add enough color/values to give it a three-dimensional look.

If we don't develop enough values in these areas, the object will likely appear flat and will not be consistent with the other elements in your painting that you have developed a three-dimensional look in.

It's similar to how we never want to leave the whites of the eyes (the Sclera), or the teeth completely white when painting a portrait. White or off-white objects are never completely white in realism.

There are shadows falling over them that have to do with their structure and the elements around them, as well as colors in the environment they are in that affect the way we see them.

The material the subject is made of (bone, glass, ceramic, silk, etc.) also has a huge effect on its reflective qualities and how sharp those highlights are, as well as if we're able to see reflected colors on its surface.

On the other hand, if we go overboard with adding way too much paint and aren't careful to leave enough white paper unpainted, it won't look white anymore!

It's a very subtle balance, for sure.

I would recommend taking a step back from your work every few minutes, observing your piece from further back and comparing it to your reference. Ask yourself if more paint or detail is really necessary to create that illusion of three-dimensional form.

If it's not really necessary, leave it as is!

Watercolor supplies used in video:

Royal & Langnickel Zen Watercolor Brushes $2.99 - $5.99

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How Creating Art Can Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Addiction

How Creating Art Can Reduce Conditions Such as Anxiety, Stress, and Addiction

Watercolor Painting: 10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors

Why do muddy colors happen?

10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors When Painting with Watercolor

Watercolor Supplies

How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

Trying Out Viviva Watercolor Sheets

Viviva Watercolor Swatches

Dry Color Swatches and Tests

Pros and Cons of Viviva's Colorsheets

Pros

Cons

Final Thoughts

Realistic Watercolor Food Painting Tutorial

Key Takeaways from Today's Watercolor Tutorial

1. Use a high-quality reference photo

2. Pinpoint highlights and keep them protected throughout the painting process

3. Use layering

4. Stay away from stark looking shapes or marks, as well as obvious outlines

5. Add your shadow to place your subject in space

*BONUS TIP: Careful when painting white subjects with watercolor!

Watercolor supplies used in video:

Popular Posts

Categories

How Creating Art Can Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Addiction

​ ​ How Creating Art Can Reduce Conditions Such as Anxiety, Stress, and Addiction

Watercolor Painting: 10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors

Why do muddy colors happen?

10 Tips to Avoid Muddy Colors When Painting with Watercolor

Watercolor Supplies

How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

​How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

Trying Out Viviva Watercolor Sheets

Viviva Watercolor Swatches

​Dry Color Swatches and Tests

Pros and Cons of Viviva's Colorsheets

Pros

Cons

Final Thoughts

Realistic Watercolor Food Painting Tutorial

Key Takeaways from Today's Watercolor Tutorial ​ ​

1. Use a high-quality reference photo ​

2. Pinpoint highlights and keep them protected throughout the painting process ​

3. Use layering ​

4. Stay away from stark looking shapes or marks, as well as obvious outlines ​

5. Add your shadow to place your subject in space ​

*BONUS TIP: Careful when painting white subjects with watercolor! ​

Watercolor supplies used in video: ​

Popular Posts

Categories

How Creating Art Can Reduce Conditions Such as Anxiety, Stress, and Addiction

How to Draw Realistic Hair in 8 Steps

Dry Color Swatches and Tests

Key Takeaways from Today's Watercolor Tutorial

1. Use a high-quality reference photo

2. Pinpoint highlights and keep them protected throughout the painting process

3. Use layering

4. Stay away from stark looking shapes or marks, as well as obvious outlines

5. Add your shadow to place your subject in space

*BONUS TIP: Careful when painting white subjects with watercolor!

Watercolor supplies used in video: