In this mindful hair pattern exercise, we’ll let our brush flow like hair.
Don’t you just love the way hair flows? It also has so many details and colors. I thought it would be great to draw some hair and relax.
The flowy movement of your brushes will create a wonderful hair pattern. If you have them, try to use different sizes of brushes to make the nuances that hair has. Use a movement that you like. It doesn’t have to be this exact wave, you can also draw hair that is more straight or super curly. Just put your brush on your page and see what comes out.
There’s no right or wrong way as no hair is alike. Try to forget about the final result and just enjoy the process of drawing lines on your page.
Have fun with this mindful hair pattern exercise! Please let me know if you’ve tried this one, I would love to see it.
You can find a small video of this exercise on my Instagram @thecreativecooldown
Supplies used:
Watercolor paper 300gr (Paul Rubens), watercolor (Kuretake Gansai Tambi), paintbrushes (Da Vinci, ZenARt, CreArt), washi tape, and paper towel.
Alternative supply suggestions:
You can use your kids’ watercolor paints or use colored pencils, crayons, or markers.
If you only have regular paper, please be aware that your paper cannot hold that much water and will probably warp. Try taping it down to prevent it from warping too much.
Instructions:
Step 1
Before you start, slowly breathe in and out a few times to clear your head. Add some washi tape to the sides of your paper to create a frame around your painting.
Choose a color that you like or that makes you feel good. Make sure you have different shades of that color. Start with the lightest one. Add extra water to that color and paint your background. With the extra water, it will be more transparent, which will make it easier to slowly build up your hair pattern.
Please note, because I work with watercolor, I work from light to dark. If you have supplies that are very opaque (e.g. gouache, acrylic paint), it is also possible to work from dark to light. Choose whatever order you prefer.
Step 2
Choose the color from step one, but add less water. Dip a large brush in it and paint some thick flowy lines on your page. Grab a smaller brush and use the same paint to add some smaller flowy lines.
Step 3
Now it’s time to build up your hair pattern. Use different brush sizes to create different parts of your hair pattern. Also, make sure you use a slightly darker shade each time. Just follow the flow of your pattern. Every line doesn’t have to be perfect. Unless you use a whole bottle of hair spray every day, some of your hair will probably be moving in another direction than the rest of it (at least mine does). So these small imperfections in your drawing make it even more realistic.
Concentrate on your brush and how it feels on your page. Let it flow and just enjoy it.
Step 4
Keep adding lines until you feel that your painting is done. Slowly remove the washi tape. Keep it parallel to your paper as you pull it off.
Now this mindful hair pattern exercise is finished! Hope you had fun.
If you liked this exercise, you might like my mindful draw your breath exercise as well.
