My Creative Side
New watercolour and mixed-media art projects and inspiration for FREE.
Find out about Brina’s Creative Side or log in for anyone who wants a little more art instruction. New projects and inspiration weekly for just $55 (until the end of 2025).
Art Project - Pumpkin Stack
This art project will have 2 parts. We’re going to start with the Pumpkin Stack and then get to the Jack-O-Lantern Stack in a couple weeks…for obvious reasons.
Drawing Prompt - Get Loose Birch Tree
During a walk along the Annex Park path, I snapped a photo of this tree and immediately knew I was going to paint it…or something based on it. I take a lot of pictures with the idea of painting it later.
Art Project - Mushroom House
Most kids LOVE to draw or paint mushrooms. The shapes are simple and they can be done in any colour. They’re actually fun to paint at any age. So, when I was planning my art camp, I thought it would be cool to turn a mushroom into a home.
Art Project - Coffee (or Tea) Mug Still Life
This idea, of painting the negative space, is a technique I use often. This allows me to create more interesting shapes because I’m not very interested in perfection. This coffee cup is a great exercise in painting the negative space. It’s a fairly simple shape AND you get to create your own mug design.
Creative Warm Up - Shape Party
We all need to warm up sometimes, especially when we sit at the table with all our supplies and we don’t know how to get started. This is my favourite painting and mark making exercise to get my ideas flowing…or to just play around.
Art Project - Mountain Road
I came up with Mountain Road for my Summer Art Camp and this one was a challenge for the kids. In order to make it look 3D, you you just have to remember to continue your mountain from the outer edge of the road, not a continuation of the mountain lines.
How To Use Watercolours - An Abstract Landscape
Due to the popularity of my abstract landscape paintings on social media, I thought I would create a video of how I do it.
Art Project - Wildflower Pollinator
Wildflower Pollinator was created for my 10-12 year old art class who really wanted to paint flowers. It’s something I love to paint so I jumped on the chance. My style of teaching is to show a little and allow them to create their own art because I find kids have such amazing imaginations and I want them to explore their ideas.
Drawing Prompt - Canoe
This photograph reminds me of Loon Lake, which is a place we love to camp at in the spring. Draw this photograph using just a pencil, marker, or try getting the paints out.
Drawing Prompt - House In The Mountains On The Water
This photograph has all the elements I love to paint from - water, a house, tree, and mountains. If you find this too overwhelming, try just drawing or painting the house and a couple trees or just the mountains and sky. Only paint what you’re drawn to.
Art Project - My Moth
My Moth is my kind of moth. I love to create my own patterns and colour combinations inspired by real objects, animals, or plant life. There are no rules in art. This one is fairly simple or you could be inspired to create a more complicated piece of art - the options are endless.
Mark Making
I find just the act of mark making to be one of the most meditative and relaxing art practices. It’s the act of making marks on a page, in any way you like. Easy. Right? The way I do it, in my art practice, is I fill a page with watercolour paints and add random lines, dots, and shapes on top, using a variety of art tools.