Painting Happiness: Creativity with Watercolors
by Terry Runyan
Blurb:
Combat stress and anxiety and release your own inner creative with this beautiful mindful watercolor book.In this simple and vibrant guide, hugely popular Instagram muse @TerryRunyan explores the art of watercolor through the lens of mindfulness, presenting activities and projects which you can paint along with as you allow your creative side to flourish.This watercolor guide is easy and accessible for beginners, as Runyan gently delves into the basics of the artform, starting with simple techniques which you can follow along with, as well as presenting some fun projects ideas for painters to explore.Alongside beautiful examples of the techniques and styles explored in the book, Runyan also encourages readers to practice mindfulness as they paint, and explores the ways in which art can be used to help improve mental health. Exploring the idea of 'perfectly imperfect watercolors', Runyan places emphasis on self-expression and allowing yourself to make mistakes.Painting Happiness also includes fun projects for readers to try at home, From technical skills and notes on materials to insight into the creative process, this book has everything you need to start flourishing in watercolor.
My Reaction:
I wanted to use up some points I had accumulated on Amazon and was interested in spending more time getting familiar with watercolor. When I came across this book, I thought the style was cute and "do-able" for a beginner like myself. To summarize the review to follow, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to people who are more interested in encouragement and enjoying the experience of painting than in highly detailed tutorials of specific techniques. The book does include exercises and introduces basic techniques, but it's more about the experience and letting go of preconceptions—accepting and even embracing imperfections instead of feeling you must strive for an unobtainable ideal. My takeaway was this: Let go of perfectionism and overthinking. Live in the moment—and just let yourself have fun painting!
I didn’t realize it until I started reading, but I’ve actually seen this artist’s work before, in fabric. She has a very specific “mid-century” illustration style that reminds me of children’s books from the 1960s, like many of the books I loved so much as a child. It’s a simple, happy, playful style that is less likely to be intimidating to a beginner. And while the book isn’t really a step-by-step guide to learning or mimicking her unique style, looking at the illustrations is fun and inspires me to try to take some of her ideas (and that retro look) and put my own spin on them.
The book is mostly about letting go of self-critiques and just enjoying the process—releasing your own innate creativity—with suggestions for exercises to help you get more out of the experience. It’s about exploring the joy of creative self-expression with less judgement and worry, approaching art as a journey rather than a destination.
To be honest, some of the language is a little more reminiscent of a self-help book than I was expecting. One phrase in particular—”you are made of well-being”—is particularly befuddling to me, and I’ve never felt I completely understood the whole “mindfulness” thing. But I do value activities that are supposedly conducive to “being present”, etc., and maybe this language makes more sense to others and helps them silence their overbearing inner critic. It’s definitely an encouraging book and one I’d recommend to anyone who struggles with self-doubt in their creative endeavors.
The first suggested activity involves simply painting for at least five minutes every day for 30 days in a row. It goes into a little more detail than that, and there is a list of prompts, if you’re in need of inspiration. I decided to give it a try, and I found it beneficial. It can take time to really let go of worrying about whether what you're making is good enough, whether you're wasting materials, etc., but if you stick with it, it does get easier over time.
I see now that the author has just published another book about painting cats, titled... Painting Cats. While cats are cute, I'm really more of a dog person—but I'm adding it to my wish list anyway! (I'd assume that many of the ideas can be applied to any animal you prefer, and I'm sure there's plenty of inspiration to be had.)
(I originally posted most of this review in this post on my craft blog, back when I first read the book.)
