5 Ways To Get Artsy Outside

By: Olivea Herrera

For people who may not be able to express their emotions or creativity in words, a great outlet to explore is art. Art comes in many mediums, such as painting, crafts, and drawing. Many people think that art is only done indoors, but there are a multitude of ways to do it outside and even incorporate nature into your art. It is best to get artsy outside when the sun is out, not only because it is practical but because the sun has a lot of health benefits. Sitting in the sun promotes vitamin D production, supports bone health, and gives us more of a sense of well-being by boosting serotonin, a chemical in our brain that affects the feeling of happiness in the long term. Doing art outside encourages freedom of expression while also improving mental and physical health.

1. Leaf Rubbings

A craft that can be fun for all ages is leaf rubbings! This craft’s end result is seeing the outline of a real leaf on a piece of paper. To get started, you need a real leaf, a piece of paper (preferably on the thinner side), and crayons or oil pastels. You take the leaf and place it with the bottom side facing up. From there, you put a piece of paper over the leaf and rub the side of the crayon or oil pastel over the leaf area. As you do this more and more, the outline of the leaf begins to appear on the paper. You remove the leaf, and the end result should leave a drawn outline of the leaf. 

This art activity is very simple, easy to understand, and a basic way to get started with art outside. By taking a leaf and rubbing its unique shape onto a piece of paper, you get to see the natural beauty of the earth and have a keepsake from it. Some things you can do with your keepsake is put it in a journal or frame it as decoration. This activity can be done inside or outside, but it may be easier to do on a smooth, solid surface. No matter which way the art is done, it is a great introductory project that can be done with younger siblings or friends when going hiking.

2. Wild Clay for Pottery

Pottery artists usually go to the art store to buy the clay they use for their projects. However, clay is naturally produced from the earth and can be found all over the world. Wild clay can be typically found along floodplains of rivers and streams or on the bottoms of ponds, lakes, or streams. An activity like this may be easier for people who live in mountainous areas. Wild clay looks like hard, angular chunks when dry and has a soft, plastic texture when wet. If wild clay isn’t available, then the next best option is going to an art store to buy some. 

For people who can find wild clay, there are many types of it, and some may not completely work for pottery. Some wild clay closely resembles store-bought clay and, when fired, comes out in a smooth texture with little to no imperfections. On the other hand, a different wild clay can be too crumbly and cracked to throw on the wheel to create. If you are interested in the different kinds of wild clay and how to look for them, there are videos that can guide you step by step. The experience of this project comes from going outside, hiking, and digging through streams to create a fun art piece. This activity is a viable choice for people to connect to the earth while showing their creative side through pottery.

3. Watercolor Paint From Rocks

Before machine-made products became the norm, our ancestors learned to make things from resources found within the world. They made weapons with obsidian and soap was made with plants. One way to reconnect to those roots and use naturally found assets from the earth to create art is by making watercolors out of rocks. While many rocks seem to be various shades of gray, numerous kinds of rocks have different pigments to them, such as green, tan, or brown. Rocks can be found anywhere in nature and are among some of the few things that everyone has access to; therefore, this project can be for anyone and everyone. 

To make this paint, you first have to pick out the rocks you want to use for your painting. Next, you take those rocks and grind them up until a powder is formed. They can be ground up in a ton of different ways, but the easiest is to smash them in a mortar and pestle. A mortar is shaped like a bowl and is usually made of stone, ceramic, or wood. A pestle is a rounded grinding club typically also made of those materials. This device is normally used to crush spices, but it can easily be used for grinding purposes in general. After the rocks are crushed down, you need to sift out any little leftover pebbles. When nothing is left but the powder, you add water, gum arabic, honey, and clove oil. The last step is to grind once more until a paste is formed. This earth-made paint can be used for any art purposes, such as a painting you can put up in your dorm room or painting figurines as presents. This can be a fun, new task for artists to accomplish while spending some time outdoors.

4. Beach In A Jar

There’s no better way for any age to spend time in the sun during the summer than getting artsy at the beach. Most of the other projects on here can either be done inside or outside, but creating a beach in a jar is something that requires time completely outdoors. This project is exactly what it says in the title; it is a beach made inside of a jar. This is one of the cheaper ways to get artsy outdoors: it only requires buying one thing, a jar, and then heading to the beach. Once at the beach, you collect shells to put in the jar as well as sand and water. That's it! It is that simple. The design is creative itself, but you can individualize your jar by putting in some more items found in the area. It can be anything from seaweed to dead coral, the choice is up to the individual. However, it is important to keep in mind that you do not want to change the landscape of the environment in any way because that can be destructive. Only take items that are already loose on the beach rather than pulling anything off.

Not everyone has the beach readily available to them depending on where they live, but this activity can be altered to the environment. For example, you can make a forest in a jar and gather dirt, leaves, and twigs to recreate that scene. By gathering materials from the earth and spending all of this time outside doing so, you can get perspective on just how lucky we are to have the world to call home. It can also contribute to a healthy mental well-being by gaining awareness on how big the earth is, making our problems in life feel small. Beach in a jar is an uncomplicated project that can extend to multitudes of people.

5. Sun Prints

One final way to use nature in your art is to create sun prints. This project takes leaves or flowers and uses the sun to cast its print on a piece of paper. To start, you need construction paper, tape, and flora (leaves or flowers). You take the flora and place them in any artistic way you desire onto a piece of construction paper. Once that is done, you tape them down and then tape the paper onto a window, leaves facing towards the sun. The time the paper is left on the window depends on the weather and how pigmented you want the prints. For a stronger print or if the weather is a bit cloudy, you may want to leave the paper on the window for a couple of days. No matter how long it is left, the end result is the shadow of the leaf or flower printed onto the paper. This activity can be done numerous times and in different ways because of the varieties of leaves, flowers, and positioning on the paper. From being outside and enjoying the weather to gathering resources, all of these ways to get artsy outside are just a few suggestions out of countless more.

When the world was in its first few centuries, the majority of people spent most of their time outside. As time has gone on, people have tended to stay inside because there is not as much need to be outside anymore. This is a factor that has and continues to contribute to some people’s poor mental health. Spending too much time indoors can worsen people’s mental health because they’re not getting enough natural dopamine and serotonin. It takes effort and intention to spend time outside now, and that can be hard to find the motivation to do so. But there are many fun ways that we can spend time outside that don't feel like a chore. Sporty people can go surfing or skateboarding, and nature lovers can go hiking or camping. As for artsy people, they can take some of these projects as examples of how to incorporate art outdoors and reap the organic benefits from it.