Ooh, I have an art hack! You know how marker caps rarely ever accurately represent the actual colour of the ink? It can be a real pain if you have a massive collection of markers (Like say Ohuhu alcohol markers in my case), especially if you're doing gradients and blending. Here's what I did; I went to Dollar General and got blank address labels, like 100+ to a pack for a dollar. I took each marker, coloured a label and wrapped the now coloured label around the marker so I can see the accurate colour of the ink on the paper of the label every time I pick up that maker. Saves so much time as opposed to referencing a swatch sheet, using more and more ink testing on scrap paper, etc. This way, I can just line up my markers according to the labels I've made to help define my gradients and shading!

Idk if this is something I came up with or if it's common, but an art "hack" I do with my swatches, particularly with my alcohol markers is: Once I have my swatches of each marker color, I use a hole-punch to punch holes in the middle of them. Then I can hold up the swatch/es to determine the exact perfect matching color of the object i'm trying to draw/color. EDIT: THanks so much for the support and likes guys! I never thought I'd get this many likes sharing my little advice.

I unironically love that one of the hacks was "use paper clips to clip paper together"

I actually have the opposite problem. I tend to dip my brush into my drinking water

I don't know how useful this would be for others, but seems to have helped me: While doing biathlon, my coach once told me that your hand is the steadiest during the exhale. So, in stead of shooting while holding your breath or just not controlling your breath at all, you aim and shoot during a long and steady exhale. I have since applied this to taking photos, as well as just in general while doing work that requires very small, precise hand motions. So, if you get shaky hands while doing fine details, this may help.

I have one! But its from my personal experience not social media. If you have (I use acrylic) paint left on a pallete and for whatever reason can't finish a painting and don't want your paint to be wasted and dried up. Put the pallete with paint on it in a zip lock bag with a damp paper towel. I did this and was able to still use the paint a week later. Highly recommend! I usually get inspiration lat at night so I use this one a lot.

My art tips: - if you have a hard time peeling masking tape off without leaving a damaged paper, use a hair dryer over the masking tape - if you want to cover up a bigger drawing quickly, use self made powder. Just use a graphite or colored pencil and rub it against sand paper, you can also use a craft knife. - odorless paint thinner is amazing for colored pencils! But dont`t use too much, you need also enough pigment on the paper (at least 2-3 LIGHT layers) - charcoal is a fast medium, but sometimes it can be difficult, to create crisp lines. take a cup with water and a paintbrush and go over the charcoal

Idk if it was mentioned but Murphy's Oil soap can de-gunk your brushes *and* reshape them closer to their former glory. I never diluted but just slicked the bristles with my fingers and then laid them out to dry, that's it. Helps those sad bedhead brushes

Art hack: Mix white acrylic gesso with cheap apple barrel paint and it makes it like thick-body paint (which is crazy expensive). I use it to paint murals cus I use a lot of paint and don’t want to paint 50 layers. Super helpful

Faber-Castell suggested for their Albrecht Durer Artist Watercolor Pencils, and in general not to dip water color pencils in water as the lead can swell and be more breakable and possibly split the wood. I haven't seen this happen personally I love dipping my water color pencils, but I stopped because they are expensive. Perhaps for the less expensive colored pencils maybe. Or test the theory might be interesting. I love these hacks they are amazing! Happy Holidays

Rae! I was gifted a bunch of oil paints from my grandmother-in-law. She's almost 90 years old so the paints are older than I am. Can you make a video on restoring old oil paints that have dried up or hardened? I'd really like to restore the oil paints and show her the art that I can create with the supplies she has gifted me ❤️ I think it would mean a lot to her.

My hack for tracing is that you should add registration marks - a crosshair in a circle works pretty well. if you put them in the corners you can line them up/check them frequently. For transfer paper, the pins are sound, but tape is another option. Paperclips are fine but they can warp the page where you're trying to draw and can easily slip.

Lol that’s why I use an old tin can for my paint water so it’s pretty noticeable but I think that mug would be cute as a funny mug too 🤗

Just an FYI, the murphys is great as a floor cleaner in general. My mom uses it on nearly everything like cabinets, floors, etc. It smells so clean and it does the same thing to floors and surfaces that it does to your brushes.

An alternative to the gesso stopping marker bleeding onto next page hack would be a bleed page, you put another paper behind the one you’re coloring on

I was so happy to see the Murphys Oil Soap hack. It also removes acrylic from brayers you use with gel pads. Simply soak the brayer for about 5 minutes and peel the acrylic off the brayer leaving it almost new!

Oh wow! I have nail brushes that came with a nail kit I purchased almost 3 years ago... I use everything in that kit on my nails, except the brushes... I'm TOTALLY gonna use them for painting now!!! Thank you!!!

The Murphy's oil soap hack and the cornmeal are my favourites 😍

Just like plastic straws, the old upper part of a ballpoint pen will also work. Instead of throwing them away you keep it and place it over your short coloured pencil.

Probably someone already said it but well... when I use something that tends to make my brushes crusty even after cleaning (like PVA glue or non-water based paint) I clean/wash and THEN before it dries I use some cheap hair conditioner on the brissels. A small container can last a lifetime if you only use small brushes. Use a small drop and let it dry (I don't even rinse) it will keep soft and they will take longer to get brittle.

Eyedroppers are my best friend in water coloring also, I usually use small glasses (shotglasses) for my paint water and a bottle to refill it. Don't forget, Wiping off your brush before dipping also helps keep your water clean!

I have a good hack I learned a while back! To make a super fine paint brush out of any size round brush, you just have to very carefully cut the bristles off with an x acto right where they meet the metal all the way around leaving only the longest bristles remaining. Worked fantastic for a handful of dollar store brushes!

To piggy back off of the paper clips, when I use my light box for transferring sketches and I just use the same tape as I do for painting. I will either use painters tape, or washi tape. However, I haven't tried electrical tape yet, but we have plenty of it. I will just put a small piece of tape on all four corners of the original page, and also on the new page. Then I don't have to worry about the clips sliding or anything.

Hi Rae, Thanks for inspiring me to pick up my art supplies and go at it again. Can you do a video on your other channel some time explaining your art school experience? I would love to hear some stories and maybe see some of the art you did during that time. Also, I just love your personality all the way down to the silly noises you make when you scoot up your chair. My friend and I have done that for years, so when I saw you do it I really went back in time with her in my mind.

I tend to use a special designated "Gross cup" or two for paint water that are differently shaped from my normal drinking containers and are so crusted with paint as to be their own warning labels. One art hack that I like when working with white paper is to first make an underlayer of watercolor or marker, then shade and detail with pencils. It can save a lot of product and wrist pain if you are like me and get obsessive over paper texture showing through the drawing

So I tried transferring one time and I realized that if it's paper clips, it still moves for me so I just use a transparent folder for the sketch paper and new paper then with the sliding and put a flashlight underneath the small coffee table I was making it on. Seems tedious but hey, it worked.

The dirty paint water mug!!!!! Genius😆 I've also stuck my paintbrush in my coffee mug🥴

This is sort of an added attraction to nail brushes...if you get clear or glittery cheap nail polish you can add it to the tops of buttons, snow...anything that you want to make shiny and stand out.

These tips were great, but I do have one thing to add: if you soak your colored pencils in warm water, they definitely soften up, but if you leave them in too long, it can crack the wood, and destroy your pencils. Speaking from experience here. But other than that, these were amazing, and I loved the video as always!

Thanks for all the useful hacks. I don't know if you know this, but bread was used by conservators before to clean wall paintings in churches (At least over here in Sweden.). However today they have understood that the starch in the flour in the bread actually makes the paintings mold.

Murphy's Oil Soap is a petro based cleaner that's why it works :) Love the way she pronounces Oil like awl

Awesome video. I know I mentioned it before on another comment, but a neat little art hack for blending Crayola Crayons is to use a colored pencil as a blending stump over them. I use it all the time when editing printouts.

My tip - if you're tracing an imge, but it's hard to see, and you don't own a lightbox - tape the image to a window, and tape your paper over the top. The light from outside shines right through. Merry Christmas!

Thank you so much for the hack on Murphy's Oil Soap. I had put my art supplies, away for several years. I'm ready to be creative again and when I unpacked my brushes, some of them were hard from acrylic paint not being cleaned well. I soaked all my brushes in Murphys Oil Soap some of them didn't need much and couple of them needed 48 hrs but I saved all but one. Fantastic product and the bottle is large enough to last for years. ❤

Oh my gosh the bread hack brought me back to my childhood 🥺 my grandma taught me to blend my graphite drawings with bread (and my fingers too). We were really poor but we always had bread on hand. I'm 30 now and I can afford art supplies of course but this part unlocked lovely memories with my grandma, thank you Rae 💕

The clear gesso on a coloring page is genius! I'll have to remember that one. I actually use some cheap clear plastic chopping mats from Dollar Tree that I cut down to the size of my coloring book. I thought about a blotter page but I know I've had the issue of ink bleeding through more that just the page bellow(I have a *lot* of cheap coloring books). With the cutting mat I can saturate the page as much as I want and don't have to worry about it bleeding through to the next page. The design on the back of the page is a lost cause though. The cutting mats also helped with two other issues I was facing, one intentional and the other a happy accident. The other issue I was trying to address was in addition to the bleed through I would often leave imprints on the page bellow when using pens/pencils. The cutting mat adds a nice firm layer between the pages that prevents any mechanical damage to the page bellow leaving the page bellow nice smooth and unmarred, meaning that I can use any medium I like on that page.(too harsh of indents makes coloring with pencils rather tricky and a pain to compensate for) Not only do I have one mat under the coloring page but I also cut a second one down to size so I could put it on top to stop any rub off on the page above or bleeding if the page wasn't completely dry and too keep any loose media off the opposite page before I set it. This is where I discovered an unintentional benefit. I was also having a problem with my page baconing after I over saturated but I discovered that leaving the page between the two mats while the coloring book was closed would press the page back to being flat. Not really a problem I was looking to solve but it is solved now. Kind of like if you were to press it by setting it under a heavy book. The mats also make it super easy to find what page you are working on!

Thank you for those hacks. Here are 2 of mine. I use a microfiber towel from the Dollar Store to clean my soft pastels. I can clean as I go without keeping potential mouse food in my studio. I also keep a eye dropper in my clean water when painting so I can transfer water quickly, with less dripping than using a brush.

When trying to draw fur I use an old EMPTY pen tip to dent the paper for highlights just use it like a regular pencil.

To get extreme detail when working with oil pastels, use colour pencils. The oil pastels work as a solvent for the colour pencils and make them extremely bright and colourful. This was the reason that I started to like oil pastels because the are so hard to get details. But this changes the game I usually do this why my polychromos.

I want to see more of your art and what you want to create! You are an amazing artist. I want to see you create, you inspire me so much.

I always love Rae’s hack videos because so many of them are for us broke artists, like tips to help us keep our brushes crisp and last longer, cheap fixes for common problems, ways to upcycle supplies, etc.

Murthy’s is my mother’s floor cleaner of choice, so it is the smell of clean to me. We also use it as the paint and sip studio to clean the brushes.

BRO the coloring book gesso hack!? As a kid I tested a bunch of things to stop the bleeding and found out putting a white pencil under the marker works perfect too!

My Drawing tip: It is not really a hack it just can make a beautiful painting.what u need is make some oobleck (mixture of cornstarch and water) and add a lot of food coloring (color of your option) than spill it on your page or canvas and wait for it to dry.when it's dried just scrape it off . Now you have beautiful painting and you can doodle on it. It is better than spilling colored water on it and you can add texture to it by adding some foam beads in to oobleck. I hope it helps.and I love your videos it inspires me soo much.

I hold two papers together by painters tape. I first press it against my skin to make it less sticky then just tape on the edges.

also btw with the vaseline hack you can layer a little bit of vaseline on the surface of where you are going to color with the colored pencil and it would work great as well!

Another tip for a kneded earaser replacement: Sticky tac works incredibly well for graphite as well!

my problem with a lot of art hacks, coughcornstarchinpaintcough, is a good art supply is formulated specifically to last the test of time, if you go round adding shit you're going to compromise the longevity of your art. so if you're planning on selling your art you want to sell a well crafted piece that could last generations. supplies matter.

Murphy's Oil Soap is just old fashioned paint made with fat/oil and lye instead of surfactants from modern detergents. It is not oily, made from oil but does not hydrate anything. I'm glad you discovered old technology!

Hey Rae! I have two art hacks that are sort of simple and mabey comman knowledge to some, but it saved me 1) Personally I don’t like blending stumps. They are never smooth enough and leave streaks. Instead of using blending stumps, use Q-tips, Klenex, and cotten balls. It smooths out EVERYTHING 2) For those who like blending stumps, u know that they get dirty real fast. You can actually clean them by shaving them down with sand paper or a nail file. Hope this helps someone!

I have juvenile arthritis and struggle sometimes with holding pens pencils brushes etc, but just so you know there are things out there to help, you get grips for most items usually on amazon. My art lecturer got me ones for charcoal even aswell. So dont let it stop you. :)

I tried your art hack of make up brushes but on polymer clay with clay softener to smooth the clay and it works like a charm. Plus beauty blender sponges, the wedged shape one's, work great for painting (watercolour) a flawless background colour.

Thank you, Rae , for showing arthacks and all of you for commenting. I've learned so many nice tricks=3Happy Holidays=3

I love that the mug has the design on both sides! Makes me glad that you're a fellow leftie, as I'm not sure if a left-handed person would come up with this. I mean, there's so many mugs with a design only on one side - almost always not on the one that would be preferable for left-handed folks...

When I am painting or drawing in a book, I take a piece of cardboard, and I stick it underneath the paper. Preferably something that extends past the paper, and I use that to keep it from getting on the next page. It also gives a slightly better stable surface while you’re out and about. A pencil board would also work just as well. Another option for swatches that I do, is, I bought this thing called the Col-o-ring. It's 100 sheets of 100lbs/160 gsm acid free 2“ x 4“ paper, on an O-ring clasp. It’s meant for fountain, pen ink, but it’s very small and compact and I use it for both my watercolor, paint pens, and my markers.

love the corn starch hack especially, will definitely be using that; Hope you have a lovely Christmas and fabulous new year!

I make a lot of embroideries by hand and I've learned instead of tracing what you want to the fabric itself which can be tricky use parchment paper to trace what want want then sew the outline of the image through the parchment paper and then once you get your outline done you just gently rip away the access parchment paper and there you have your outline then you can just fill it in with whatever colors you want 😉

Rae I just learned the best art hack!!! If u are doing a drawing with soft pastels, chalk or any material that never really sticks to the paper. Spray it with hairspray when your and once it dries it won't smear. This is great for when your doing the creat this book.

Lmao at 9:30 look close. "Perfectly clean, Perfectly clear" lol then she only shows the bottom.

For blending pencils: a dry paintbrush with short hairs. Every pencil leaves behind a tiny bit of loose lead, even though it's sometimes invisible. Going over it with a paintbrush rubs in those tiny pieces and mixes them. It also works with cheap pencils when you want a More smooth coverage. The short hairs are for more control, I just used a CHEAP (don't kill your expensive brushes kids) paint brush of which I had two and cut the hairs of one. To clean it you can just rub it on a piece of paper or, if it's really dirty, clean it like a normal paintbrush and let it dry.

With the marker/gesso tip you will want to paint on the back of the paper only as gesso can be really rough for the marker nibs and potentially ruin them

Loved this!! Best quote - “Use the small pieces to re-wet your water” 😂😂😂😂

i watch her videos for almost an hour everyday...that's dangerous

Yeeeessss!!!! I've been using nail brushes for small/fine details for years now! And the metal rounded end thingy for dots and whatnot, patterns take half the time with that.

I use my ipad as a light box. I activated the guided access shortcut and allows me to trace things without the image moving around and if needed turn off the room lights so the contrast is better.

Thank you Rae for making videos, both me and my daughter really enjoy them❤️

For the transferring problem I like to use blue tack or gentle tape to stick the images down. I also find that blue tack works just like a needed rubber. Hope this helps 🥰

Hi, Rey, I have what you might consider an up cycle or recycle hack and you won't be drinking your paint water. I have found that if you can find small pottery cups or bowls that are not glazed inside placed inside of an old hard plastic meat container that held ground beef or sandwich meats and both filled with warm water makes a great way to paint. Because the inflamed inside of the pottery piece is usually textured enough to gently scrub your brushes and if you Oracle an the brush in the plastic meat container then the other water is clean. Works wonderfully for me and its very affordable for any income level. Thanks for all your videos, LOVE , LOVE, LOVE, THEM. You freaking rock and are one hell of an amazing artist!!!

Art Hacks!! Yes!!! Adding Baby Powder too Acrylic Paint too thicken up the paint (talc based do check back of bottle for Talc based baby power) Using Yellow Ochre/Raw Sienna and White Painttoo make flawless Beige Skin Colour tones

Hi rae! Your videos inspire me so much and make me want to do art so much more. Thank you so much for what you do! ❤

ive been waiting for ur video rae, and there it is! thanks for making my day better!

ive been watching you for five years and haven't seen one of your videos in about a year and i just gotta say... your makeup looks so good. you look so good. you've always had really nice makeup but damn... your eyebrows? *chefs kiss*

One thing that came to mind for the paperclip tracing hack is drafting dots. They are small circular masking tape like stickers architects would use for tracing on vellum for different design ideas. They come off easily and don't damage sheets delicate like vellum.

Have a great holiday season too. Those hacks were so good! Thanks

my favorite way to clean my brushes is to use olive oil mixed with dawn dish soup. swirl the brush around til clean and rinse and put away to dry. the dawn will help clean the brushes while the oil oil keeps the brush hairs hydrated. this will not work with oil paints however.

My go-to for the bleed issue with paper was cardstock for a long time. Then I found these comic book boards and they performed wonderfully. (They go in the plastic sleeves with the comics to protect them) They also help a lot in protecting the papers under the sheet I am on from inprints, since I tend to be a bit heavy handed.

Oh!! I have one, too! When I use a lot of saturated watercolor, I use two things of water. One is the very dirty water and the other is the less dirty water. When I want to dip, I dip into the very dirty water, wipe off, then into the less dirty water to get the paintbrush clean and ready for watercolor. So there's less crosscontamination, and also less time spent changing water.

Hey Rae!! Just saw your notif and hopped right on to the video.. U r amazing! And we love you 💖😊

I can say every time you post a video it changes me give me a new prospective in life and makes me think that there is soo much it life and lastly I would like to say that the art hacks are really good I am definitely using every single one of them in a every day bases now best of all they are cheap and that is good cus I am still a kid I am inspired by you and want to became a artist when I grow up...

OMG! The colored pencil and Vaseline hack!!! I'm a broke crafter so I end up with alot of crappy supplies that I always have to tweak a little to make better. . . . Never even thought of this tho . . . . YAY! Works like a DREAM! Thanks SO MUCH!

Thank you, definitely some great ideas! And I have an art hack! When you have acrylic or watercolour paint markers; (particularly tje Molotow or Grog ones ,where the ink and nibs are replaceable(and sometimes they happen to get crusty & dried out before you want to replace them.But instead of buying new nibs everytime, you wash them with Hot water & Palmolive dish soap, pat Slightly dry with paper towel and put right back in your pen for reuse!

I don't know about trying that gesso hack with the markers unless it's only primed on the back of the page. In my experience, clear gesso is rough and could potentially damage the nibs on your markers, and you would want to avoid that. Especially if you have more expensive markers like Copic. I just use a bleed sheet in between my pages. Now, it would be great if there was a clear primer that wasn't so rough that could help with double-sided coloring book pages that I can't use my markers in.

This my favourite series that rae posts,thank you❤️ sooo much

I glue little bells on my paint water cups. Happy to announce that it works

These are GREAT ideas! I'm gonna have to get some of that gesso.

Girls and boyyyss lets make rae happy, on new year, lets share with friends this so rae can get 2million subs for the new year, what u guys think? Wish you all the best ❤❤❤❤💕💕

I love the hacks and good luck with your channel!!!

I have an art hack! If your brush is misshapen, instead of spending $15 on a brush shaper, you can re shape it using a soap bar! Wet it slightly, rub the brush on it, re shape it, let it dry and BOOM! Brand new brush!!

I'm really grateful for that Murphy's oil soap hack. My mop brush is a pain to clean. Thanks!

Happy Christmas to you and your family xxx

Great cup! There is one thing I noticed about the cup though… I think the cup might look a little bit better if you did the yellow/green all around the cup instead of there being white where the handle is. I know you probably won’t see this but oh well!

Okay the clear Gesso one is my fave - to make clean lines on walls.

My grandmother was an artist who's main medium was chalk pastels and she kept little jars and trays of cornmeal for her work. I always assumed that was standard practice with chalk pastels cuz she has always done that as long as I can remember.

Rae never dissapoints, can't wait to see what this video has to offer

need the caution mug so bad holy moly 😭

Those make up brushes were a great find. I’m a Warhammer painter and getting small brushes from the shop is extortion. Thanks Rae.

For easy paint cleanup, but a cheap sheet of glass from Home Depot (or use one from a picture frame). Spray paint one side grey. Then use the clean side for your pallet. When it dries use a razor to scrape it off. Comes right off 💁🏻‍♀️

7:29 *Vaseline* 5:22 *DiY Brush cleaner* 3:18 *Murphy's oil soap* 4:40 *Pencil extender*

Who hasn't drank their paint water? 😆 I did one worse. I grabbed my water bottle in the dark and it was isopropyl alcohol! I have the big jumbo one from Walmart. I didn't swallow it but having it in my mouth was bad enough.

I have been using a thin piece of cardboard between my pages in my sketch book for the last couple of years. It prevents press throughs and bleed throughs. It is starting to look pretty cool. I am thinking about framing it and starting with another one.