So I am still working on doing some drawing as personal art therapy. I find it an effective pain distraction as I have to be intent on my focus on what I am doing.

I have been teaching myself because we do not have art therapy in our area. Some of the art I have produced has just been winging it and some have been from an art book I ordered. I am an amateur but I used to draw when I was young. But everyone is an amateur when they begin a hobby and there is something awesome about the slow progression of improvement. It is satisfying. I don’t think we necessarily have to be Awesome at art therapy, by the way, just express ourselves. Get that emotion out in a positive way. Be creative. Distract from the pain. Creativity comes with a lot of its own benefits.

  • “Art filled occupational voids, distracted thoughts of illness”
  • “Improved well–being by decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones”
  • “Improved medical outcomes, trends toward reduced depression”
  • “Reductions in stress and anxiety; increases in positive emotions”
  • “Reductions in distress and negative emotions”
  • “Improvements in flow and spontaneity, expression of grief, positive identity, and social networks” James Clear

As you guys might know my main passion is writing (blogging, non-fiction, poetry at times, and my fantasy fiction books under my pen name) And I do love being creative as a way to get out the emotions I am feeling in a positive way. Drawing and art is just a Different more visual way of doing that.

These I produced freehand from my own brain ball

And then I have been refining my skills from the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. 

Which is a book for beginners to just get those basic skills to look at the world a little differently. I recommend it really if you are starting out or refining old skills. Or need a refresher. It is Not a How-to book. It is teaching you to look at shape and empty space and shading and angles… all the things you need to draw anything. And it goes through certain things like hands, profiles, a chair, distance… things like that.

These are some of the things I have practiced by using the book

Hands- which I had a real hard time with but now I am quite improved at

hand3

And then the latest is side profile portraits (first sucked but then I read the lesson again and did it again and then it turned out well. I will do a few more before I am satisfied I have this lesson Down)

20200308_181200

With my dizziness being as bad as it has been lately I can’t get out and about much or Do much so I found this to be something I can sometimes do from a prone position. On the days I have the energy to do so. And I love that I create I can appreciate. It brings me some joy. And that is all that matters really when it comes down to it.

Pin it!

Survival mode is not meant to be lived in (2) (1)

See more on art therapy

New Hobby: Drawing and art therapy

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Published by Nikki

I am the Brainless Blogger; health-related chronic illness blog. And a fantasy fiction writer under the pen name Lil Hamilton.

26 thoughts on “Art therapy: drawing”

  5. Your ‘brain ball’ is working well, and I think it’s great you’re doing this yourself (though it’s a shame there’s no art therapy in your area as I’m sure a lot of people could benefit from it). I want, or perhaps feel like I should, get back into art but I can’t seem to make myself do it. Depression maybe, I don’t know, just don’t have the energy or spark for it. But distractions and expression are both so important. Loved seeing your artistic flair, Nikki!
    Caz xx

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  8. Pingback: Art therapy: drawing — Brainless Blogger | FEEDBACK Animation Film & Screenplay Festival

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.