Quick Art Therapy Exercises for Beginners

 

Art therapy is a new practice that increases health and wellness; this natural medicine helps people identify their emotions, build confidence, and increase awareness. Art is a productive way to deal with trauma and emotions. Sometimes people may not feel confident about their artistic abilities, and this may lead them to avoid the benefits that art therapy can provide, but this article will give you three quick exercises that an help you break the ice with art therapy.

For the first exercise you will need a piece of paper and some crayons; this exercise is a good way to gain self awareness and perspective. Before you start this piece think about how you feel because this will be an energy drawing. Choose a color that is appropriate to how you feel, and scribble on the paper. Make any type of lines you want; they can be jagged, round, or broken. Feel your emotions and scribble; you can add more colors is you like. When you are done examine the picture and see how your feelings were portrayed in this piece. This exercise is a guide that can help you understand how you are feeling, and this understanding will allow you to move on or change your mood.

Another quick and fun art therapy project is the emotion wheel; this project will help you understand your emotions, and it will also help you recognize emotions in others. To stat this project you will need a piece of paper; you can cut it into a circle if you like, or you can draw a circle onto it with a plate or bowl. Now make several small circles around your original circle. These circles will be faces; so draw expressions on all of these faces. Remember to not make one face alike, and use details to express emotions. If you want you can write the name of the emotion under the face. This fun project can help you later identify feelings.

A self-confidence building exercise starts with your name. Simply draw your name in the middle of a piece of paper, and think about all of your positive traits. Now use images to symbolize these traits. If you are good at basketball, draw a bouncing ball; if you are a gardener, draw some flowers. Really let your imagination take over with this project. Remember to use your favorite colors when creating this name piece, and keep it hung close by to remind yourself of how wonderful you really are.

Art therapy has the ability to help many people; I hope these exercises can open you up to the idea of art therapy because it has wonderful benefits.

Dark and Stormy Night: Painting with Watercolors for Beginners

 

Watercolors a lot of fun to paint with, and there are many different styles and techniques that can be employed when using watercolors. Watercolors a lot of fun to work with for many reasons, they can be made thicker or thinner, they blend differently than most paints, and they are inexpensive. Some people like to use a dry canvas when working with water colors, and some people like to use a completely wet canvas when working with watercolors, but I have found that a combination of both is a lot more interesting and fun to work with. If you would like to learn more about wet ad dry canvas techniques this article is for you; it will teach you how to create your own personal dark and stormy night using watercolor paint and techniques.

For this project you will need watercolor paper or a canvas. I prefer watercolor paper because the texture adds to the effect of the painting. You will also need several different paintbrushes that you feel comfortable using. A cup with water, a pallet, and a rag for cleaning and drying the brush are also useful. For this project you can use tubes of watercolor paints, but you can also use the dry trays of paint that you can buy very inexpensively.

Okay now this is where the dry and wet canvas technique really comes into play. To create a dark and stormy night start by adding clean water to your paintbrush and wetting areas of the watercolor paper with it. The areas that are wet will be used for blending, and the dry areas will remain white. Keep in mind that the white areas of the paper will be areas in your picture that you want to remain white, or they will be areas that you want a different color than the sky. The white areas can make nice cloud shapes and lightning bolts. The white area could even be the moon.

Next add some water to a dark blue or purple color paint. This will be the color of your sky; you can add black or white to the color to add a darker or lighter tone to the sky in this painting. When you have added some paint to the brush lightly drop a little paint on the wet area of the canvas. You will see a burst of color as the water pulls the paint. Play with this effect to create a beautiful night sky, and when you are satisfied allow the painting to dry. Remember if you do not like the way something came out you can always use a piece of paper towel to blot some of the paint off of the picture.

After the background has dried feel free to add your details. You can paint a mountain landscape by making several hump shapes across the horizon of the painting. To make the mountains look more realistic add smaller sized humps in the back. When you color these in remember to have the mountains in the background be lighter because this will add depth.

There are many different scenes that can be added to your stormy night sky, and the wet and dry canvas technique is a lot of fun to play with. You can create many different things using this style, and you can create many different layers of color by letting these levels dry in between. So bust out your paint brushes and have fun!

How to Draw a Tree

 

Trees are beautiful and amazing parts of nature, and I feel very drawn to trees. I have found that over the course of years that I have been drawing, which is most of my life, that I tend to always come back to drawing trees. Maybe I love nature, or maybe the age and wisdom that a tree suggests is what brings me back to trees all of the time; either way trees are great subjects for any artist, and this article will teach you how to draw a tree in a few simple steps.

First you will need a pencil and paper. Any paper will do, and you can use canvas for this project if you plan on painting it afterwards. Gather your tools and find a peaceful place to relax; if you can try to sit out side so you can be inspired by your surroundings.

Start your drawing by creating a horizon line; this line will help you find the place where your tree will live. Your horizon line can span the horizontal length of the paper, or it can trail off to suggest a mountain or hillside. Next decide what season it will be because the different seasons will add a different touch to your tree.

Now start by drawing the trunk; this is accomplished easily by starting with a line a little below your horizon line. Taper this line in a little bit up from the bottom, follow through in a straight line upward, and have your line branch outward at an obtuse angle. It is okay if your line does not stay completely straight because most trees are not completely straight. Next draw a similar line on the opposite of the line to create the other side of the tree.

If you are creating a tree full of leaves you will not need to make many branches so start out by adding another line to the branches that have extended out of the top of the tree trunk. These lines should be parallel to the first lines, and they should form slender branches. When you reach where your trunk ends create a V shape by drawing a line going back upward. This line does not have to be as high as the first lines. Add another V shape in the middle to show more branches, and fill in smaller v shapes in areas that look empty.

If you are planning to make a leafless tree follow the same method as you did to create the branches on either side of the trunk with the branches on the inside. In order to finish the branches you will have to create smaller V shapes at the end to show tinier branches. It is amazing how many v shapes make up a tree.

If your tree exists in the spring time you can add leaves very simply; all you need to do is start at one side of the tree branches and make a squiggly line. Continue with this line until you have made an oval shape. This part will be the leaves. Now you can make smaller overlapping diamond shapes to add individual leaf details. Remember to round some of the edges because not all leaves will be completely pointy.

To add details to the tree trunk you can add some more lines of varying lengths to the inside of the trunk. These lines should be parallel to the trunk itself. You can also add an oval that is filled with smaller oval shapes to add character to the tree. This is a spot where an owl would live.

I hope this article has taught you the basics of tree drawing, and I hope it inspires you to draw!