Creative Prompts for Human Artists: Part 1

Picture a botanical garden in your mind’s eye. What kind of soil does it have? What is the weather like? Is it raining? Is the air dry? Is it humid? Is the sun very sharp?

Now, on a piece of paper, draw three trees using three different shapes. You can combine the shapes and draw with your made-up shapes. You can draw them in different sizes.

Draw seven shrubs. Two with long stems and small leaves. Two with short stems and large leaves. Two with flowers. One with a fruit.

Draw a mouse in the garden, hiding in a branch. If the mouse is big, he may hide behind the branch.

Picture an owl looking for the mouse. Look through the owl’s eyes. Where will you look first? What sound did the mouse make? Why will the mouse make the sound, he is hiding! Draw the owl’s shadow because she is also hiding.

Lay down a layer of water on the drawing. Drop some blue and some green into the water with watercolour paints.

Lay down some yellow and blue using small strokes into the greens while it’s wet.

Wait three minutes, then you may lift extra water or paint with a tissue paper.
Let it all dry in your room in its own time. Don’t use a hairdryer, you impatient baboon. Don’t scroll on your phone meanwhile. You can watch this video on YouTube called Kingdom of Plants.

Forget about your painting for next two and a half hours.

Revisit your garden. Take some paint and add one more tree, and two more shrubs. Add a bird somewhere, or add its sound. Oh we had the owl’s shadow. That’s okay, we can add another, smaller bird.

Yay! the botanical garden of your mind is alive and real.