Dear *|FNAME|*,

A lot of artists get caught up in technique – focusing on getting the lighting just right, or the dimensions or the depths. All of those things definitely make a painting more captivating, however they are nothing without a strong mood.

One of the things I focus on with my art mentoring students is creating emotion in their painting.

We must paint from our hearts and share this important part of ourselves. When you’re painting in your head, you’re painting from your logical mind – and that part of your mind is good at problem solving. It may come in handy when you’re finishing a painting, and you need to figure out just the right touch to bring it all together … But when you’re in the middle of the creating, all that should be happening is painting from your heart.

This is how we connect with our viewers. This is how we share a piece of ourselves, our vulnerability and let others know they are not alone. This is how we move our viewers. This is how we add beauty to the world.

Even the best of us want to feel understood and less alone. Even the best of us with many happy moments have sad ones too. Your art, when you paint from your heart, shares something that you feel or love – maybe it’s a blooming crabapple tree, or the way the water moves down the stream. When you paint from emotion, somebody can stand in front of your painting and feel your energy. In this moment, you are sharing part of you and what matters to you. This is your gift and your purpose for being here.

So remember when you’re creating: don’t get lost in your head, stay in your heart for much of the process.

Here are a few tips for how to paint from emotion:

Tips for Painting with Emotion

1. Connect with how you’re feeling before you step into your art space. Ask yourself, how are you feeling right now? Do you even know? It’s so easy to exist only in our thinking brains. Connect with how you feel before you enter your art space. Touch base with your emotion and what you want to convey in your painting that day. You can also play music that has this vibe.
2. Remember the language of color. The way you choose your colors will express what mood you are in. Are you feeling passionate and want to paint with brilliant reds, oranges and purples? Are you feeling calm, cool and summery and want to paint with cool greens and blues? Are you feeling reflective and want to convey that with muted greys and just a couple pops of color? Color is the most powerful language that will convey strong emotions that attract people to your painting.
3. Your line work expresses emotion. Just like it does when you write your to-do list for the day: Are your lines rushed and hurried? Are they long and relaxed? Are they short and jittery? Are they curvy and playful? Your line work says so much about what mood you’re in, and expresses this strongly in your art.
4. Your brushstrokes convey feeling too. Similar to your line work, are your brush strokes long and relaxed so that the water you’re painting is calm? Or are they thick and chunky and have texture, which may convey boldness? Or are they thin and long and delicate, which may convey care and attention?

All of these modes convey emotion in your painting, but the strongest one is being aware of the energy you come into your painting space with. This will be conveyed in everything you create in this moment.

Don’t Miss Your Chance to Create

I want to remind you of something important: don’t miss out on your art. Don’t miss out on this huge part of yourself. We have this one precious lifetime to express who we are and share our humanity with others. Your art is your voice in a world that desperately needs authentic expression.

Imagine a world without art. A world based just on numbers, tasks, and negotiation. This is you when you’re not expressing yourself. It’s going through your day getting everything done, and never giving yourself a moment to breath or appreciate the goodness that surrounds your every day.  I say this from personal experience – every day I work to retrain myself to feel my senses. This is the gift of living.

When you create from your heart, you’re not just making a painting—you’re leaving a piece of your soul in this world. That matters. Someone will stand before your work one day and feel less alone because you had the courage to express what was real and true for you.

There’s so much more to painting with emotion, but I hope these few tips set you on the right track today.

Scroll down and leave a comment – I’d love to hear if this inspired you or helped you in some way.

With love, Kellie