Intuitive painting is a fantastic way to relax, tap into your imagination and be creative in a judgement-free environment. This type of painting is all about trusting your instincts and doing what feels right.
If you’re new to watercolours, the Watercolour Painting Techniques lesson is a great warm up for this activity that will help you discover how to create different textures with watercolour paints.
Watch the video or read below for a step-by-step guide on how to create your own intuitive painting.
Step One: Gather Materials
You’ll need to gather the following materials before you start creating your painting.
- A small piece of paper (watercolour paper or regular paper)
- Paint (watercolour, oil, or acrylic) or markers, pastels, pencil crayons, etc.
- Paintbrushes
- Container of water
- Fine tip marker
- Music
Step Two: Prepare Workstation
Choose some music that is inspiring to you and put it on. If you’re using watercolour paints, prepare your paper by wetting a paintbrush and painting the surface of the paper with water.
You can also use any of the materials used in the Watercolour Painting Techniques lesson to enhance the texture of your painting. If you think you might want to use some of these materials, prepare them now. You can paint your entire paper or certain areas of it with salt water, rubbing alcohol, or a bleach-water mixture to create different textures.
Step Three: Paint
Choose colours that you feel drawn to and start to paint, allowing yourself to be inspired by the music. Don’t spend too much time thinking about which colours to choose or how you should paint, just put the brush to the paper and do what feels right.
Intuitive painting should be judgement free, so don’t worry about what your painting looks like or try to create anything specific. Instead, focus on following your emotions. Change colours whenever you want to and follow your instincts.
Step Four: Add Texture
You may choose to add texture to certain areas of your painting by adding salt, rice, gauze, or cling wrap. (Check out the Watercolour Painting Techniques lesson for more on how to do this.)
Let your painting dry before coming back to look at the results. If you don’t want to wait, you can use a blowdryer to help the paint dry more quickly.
Step Five: Find Images
Look at your painting and see what images want to come forward. You can turn your painting around any way you like to find different shapes and images. The same part of the painting may look like something completely different depending on which way you look at it.
Choose your favourite images and outline them with your fine tip marker. Keep it simple and don’t add too many details.
Your intuitive painting is now complete. Don’t forget to take a picture and share it on social media with #DAREtogether and tag DAREarts so we can see what you’ve created!
Looking for more creative activities? Visit our Learn From Home Centre.