Nicole Adamson Concept Artist, Storyboards, Illustrator, & Visual Strategist

10 Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now

Article / 02 March 2024

Expressive art therapy activities are a great outlet for self-expression, self discovery, and for understanding your thoughts and feelings in a productive and creative way. They can help promote psychological growth, mental well being, and even inner healing. In addition, they can help you articulate your inner thoughts and worlds easier when words may not be enough. Here are 10 easy and relaxing expressive art therapy activities to get your creativity flowing that you can start with right now!

10 Easy Expressive Art Therapy Activities

1. Draw Your Feelings

Are your emotions calm, happy, anxious, upset, or something else? Draw how you’re feeling in the moment. Your art can be abstract or something a bit more recognizable. You can use colors that best represent your emotions and if you’re stuck on what to make, you can always sketch something that represents those feelings for you. Whatever is easiest for you.

Drawing helps calm me down and feel more relaxed, so I drew different types of waves below. The top is a sun against the sea while the bottom 2 images are my interpretation of waves.

Try your best to draw that out on paper. It’s a great exercise to understand your feelings.

2. Draw What Makes You Feel Happy

On of the many expressive art therapy activities out there, is to think of a fond memory of a place, person, or thing you enjoy. You can express your personality through drawing things with joyful connotations because it helps you dive deeper into a positive space while helping you recognize what brings you personal delight and contentment.

The image above is a sketch of the trolley station at Disneyland.

For more feel-good art therapy prompts, check out these 10 Positive Art Inspiration Ideas for Drawing!

3. Use Your Favorite Colors

A great way to express yourself through art is by simply using your favorite color(s) to draw. Drawing with your favorite color really shows off your personality and an aspect that makes you unique.

Blue is my favorite color, so I combined that with one of my favorite subjects to draw a rough city-scape.

Try not to focus on making a perfect artwork but instead on the process and how it makes you feel. Make your art as rough or complete as you’d like!

Try combining your favorite color with a subject that makes you feel happy.

4. Nature Drawing

Drawing nature is not only relaxing but gives us a feeling of freedom and tranquility. Also, sketching nature and foliage is very gestural, allowing you to put more fluidity and movement into your art, helping you to further express yourself with physical movements.

What in nature appeals to you? Is it the puffy clouds you see in the sky, the cool grass against your feet, or the flowers and trees you see on your way to your next stop?

Whatever speaks to you and your emotions, draw it!

If you’d like more relaxing drawing ideas of nature or how to draw nature art, check out How to Draw Easy Pen Flower Doodles for Beginners, How to Draw a Tree Branch Freehand, or How to Make Palm Tree Drawings for Beginners.

5. Draw Your Favorite Animal

Animals are just so cute and awesome.

What’s your favorite animal? Or is there an animal that you feel best represents your personality? Like in #3, try sketching it in your favorite color. And no pressure on getting it to look right!

It can really help you get a better sense of your personality based on the types of animals you like while calming you, as animals normally bring joy.

6. Illustrated Text

Drawing text and words is a great expressive art therapy activity that’s simple, fun, and the possibilities are endless!

It helps in not only drawing out your feelings in recognizable words but puts a physicality to them that you can actually see, helping you to express your feelings and understand your thoughts.

Try drawing words in different styles, colors, or even with some small doodles. Make it your own!

7. Draw Movement

Movement in itself is beautiful. You can draw something that looks like it’s moving, while still being abstract or vague.

Drawing the idea of movement not only captures your physical hand movements on a page but brings you’re drawings to life. It helps express the way in which you make art and can even capture your emotions, allowing you to be self expressive while relaxing your mind, as this is a mindfulness exercise with no definitive stopping point.

To illustrate movement, try sticking with large strokes using your entire arm, not just your wrist. Focus on making curved and flowy lines instead of straight and scratchy ones. And try to fill up the entire page, not just one small section! This will enhance your art making it look more fluid and gestural.

For more easy and relaxing gestural drawing ideas, check out these 5 Insanely Easy & Calming Drawing Ideas of People for Beginners & Non-Artists.

8. Free Drawing

One of my favorite expressive art therapy activities is to ‘free draw’. Free drawing is when you allow your hand to guide you while creating art without actively thinking or preparing to draw anything it particular.

It’s a calming mindfulness exercise that brings you into the present while focusing on ‘going with the flow’. It doesn’t have a particular focus but has room for a lot of happy accidents.

Here are some more free drawing art therapy activities for stress management and art therapy activities for aggression.

9. Make a Self Portrait

If you have a hard time trying to think of how to express yourself in art, a great idea is to draw yourself. What better way to express and show yourself in a way that best represents you, with an artwork of you?

It can be as detailed or simple as you like and doesn’t even have to be of you-maybe things you like?

You can make your self-portrait more personalized by using your favorite materials or colors.

Check out this article of the many different types of self-portraits you can create, if you don’t know where to start.

10. Sketch Your Personality

Now, I want you to think about your personality for this next expressive art therapy activity. What type of person are you? What makes you unique? Are you funny, an extrovert, or more of an introvert?

Now, try drawing that personality on paper.

If you’re having a difficult time trying to sketch that, try looking at shapes and patterns. What pattern best represents you?

I chose a 90s pattern with bright colors because I can be spontaneous but also all over the place sometimes. My thoughts can get pretty cluttered but I love colorful things and different types of random shapes.

Try finding a pattern that you feel best shows off your personality and draw it!

More Expressive Art Therapy Activities & Drawing Ideas:

Feel free to share these expressive art therapy activities on social media or try to come up with your own! See you in the next post.

The article 10 Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now was originally published on Drawism.com first.

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Surprising Differences You Didn’t Know Between Traditional Art Expression & Expressive Art Therapy Activities

Article / 25 February 2024

What is the difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities? They sound pretty similar so they should be the same type of art creation, right? Not quite. Each of these activities have different reasons and methods to achieve their desired purpose. Let's find out what the difference between traditional art expression and art therapy activities are so you can decide which of these artistic endeavors best suits your creative needs!

Contents

The Difference Between Traditional Art Expression and Expressive Art Therapy Activities
What is Traditional Art Expression
What is Expressive Art Therapy
The Intent
- Of Traditional Art Expression
- Of Art Therapy Activities
Types of Traditional Art Expression vs. Art Therapy Activities
Why is Artistic Expression Important?

The Big Difference Between Traditional Art Expression And Expressive Art Therapy Activities

What is Traditional Art Expression?

Traditional art expression is the use of physical art processes and artistic mediums (such as paint, watercolors, drawing, collage, or even performance art, etc.) to express one's thoughts, emotions, viewpoint, or make an artistic statement resulting oftentimes in a final physical piece of art which may or may not be focused on a specific or unique art style.

What are Expressive Art Therapy Activities?

Expressive art therapy is the use of artistic mediums and the creative arts as a form of therapy to mentally heal and connect with one's own feelings that can be used as therapeutic relief, in ways such as relieving uncomfortable thoughts, mindfulness, and other calming activities. These activities are meant for personal reflection, growth, and emotional progress. They are not focused on a specific art style.

These activities include various types of art therapy prompts, sometimes guided art exercises, and tutorials with a focus on sustainable and healthy mindsets that are to directly help the individual that's doing them.

For a deeper look into art therapy activities or if you want to try some on your own check out these 10 Quick & Simple Art Therapy Activities for Beginners or you can try making an art journal with Easy Art Journal Therapy for Beginners.If you're looking to manage stress, here are some easy Art Therapy Activities for Stress Management.

The Intent of Your Art

The idea that art is an expression of the mind, is present in both of these creative activities but the intent of the art is a big difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities.

Traditional Art Expression

A main purpose of traditional art expression is to use art as self expression to help put an artist's feelings, emotions, or thoughts into a physical manifestation either for the artist's personal/ private objectives or to present it as a finished piece of artwork, for such events like gallery shows, art auctions, or art exhibits.

Artworks created as traditional art expression oftentimes have an intent of being presented to other people in a public setting where the artist isn't the only audience of the work.

There are even times when you're art doesn't have or need to have a purpose. That's 100% okay!

Do you have an idea, emotion, or thought that you'd like to express through art? This question can help you decide if traditional art expression is right for your project.

Expressive Art Therapy Activities

Expressive art therapy activities on the other hand are created mainly for the artist/creator themselves as ways to reflect and understand their emotions better.

There usually is no clear intent for art therapy artwork to be shown in public spaces as it's mostly a very personal type of expression and self-improvement. But of course, you can always sell your art therapy work if you'd like, as long as you feel comfortable sharing it!

If you'd like some examples of expressive art therapy, check out these 10 easy Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now!

Types of Traditional Art Expression & Art Therapy Activities

To help you better understand the difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities, here's a brief list of examples for each.

Artistic Expression Examples

1. Abstract Art

A common form of traditional art expression is abstract art.

Abstract art doesn't have to look like anything in particular. It can be a bunch of markings on a piece of paper like shown below. Through movement, colors, and materials, you can express yourself in many ways.

For a more detailed understanding, check out this in-depth article on abstract art by Yuri Shwedoff.

2. Comment on Society or Culture

Another form of using art as self expression is though social or political commentary. You can illustrate your viewpoint on a topic through art.

The image below is my depiction of an NFT and how I viewed NFTs as being a valuable object of fine art or a collectible for some people, so much so that some people are willing to steal the art of artists' to make that happen.

Here is an explanation of art as social commentary by Rina Factor and 49 examples of art being used to comment on society by Bored Panda.

3. Self Portrait

Portraits or self portraits are a very common form of traditional art expression.

They can express how an artist views themselves or other people while giving a little bit of insight into the artist's personality, based on the techniques and styles used.

A self portrait can be anything, not just your face. It can be an abstract drawing or even a set of objects that best represent who you are.

Here are some examples of the many different self-portrait types from famous artists.

4. Personal Art Style

Making art in a style that you like is self expression because you are depicting something that resonates with you, in an art style or form that you feel best represents who you are and your artistic skills.

Having a personal art style is another (slight) difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities because art expression is focused more on the individual's interpretation of an idea and is subjective whereas art therapy activities are more straightforward and objective.

Below is an example of a watercolor drawing depicting a cute sushi roll with some other foods I enjoy. I painted this piece because I love Japanese food and cute things. But I chose watercolors because I love that washy yet illustrative look.

5. Art Self-Expression Drawing

An art self-expression drawing is a great way to draw your thoughts and feelings about anything. It can be about how you're feeling in the moment, how you feel about a certain topic, or even a concept or idea that resonates with you.

Here are some examples of self-expression art drawing with artist interviews for a little art inspiration.

Art Therapy Activities

1. Mindfulness Drawing

A common art therapy activity is mindfulness drawing. What this does, is help the individual by bringing their mind into the present, away from racing or negative thoughts.

This technique is very effective in teaching someone mindfulness because it helps them focus on the present, the here and now, instead of past or future thoughts.

Mindfulness drawing can be anything from quick and easy drawing exercises, such as drawing circles or lines, to sketching simple shapes or patterns.

2. Doodling

Doodling is a form of art self-expression drawing that is also a fun art therapy activity. The focus of doodling is to make small and quick drawings. What's great about these doodles is that you can draw them in your notebook, planner, or art journal to add a bit of joy to your pages.

Try doodling things you enjoy. This will help boost your mood by connecting your art with positive and happy emotions.

For more fun quick doodles, check out these 15 Relaxing Doodles to Draw When You're Bored!

3. Art Therapy Prompts

There are many different types of art therapy prompts to get you started, with specific ones targeting certain emotions or feelings, like anxiety or racing thoughts. These can really help in connecting with your emotions and understanding them better.

Try these 10 Art Therapy Prompts for Racing Thoughts if you want to try some art therapy activities.

4. Coloring

If you feel like it, just color!

You don't need to draw anything in particular. Coloring by itself is great for relieving stress and as a simple and relaxing art therapy activity. It keeps you in the present and focused, while not putting any pressure on yourself to make a perfect drawing. Easy peasy!

Why is Artistic Expression Important?

Art is an expression of the mind, something that's not a difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities.

Artistic expression is important because it serves as an outlet for us to visually communicate our thoughts and emotions in a productive and clear way that can't be expressed solely through non-visual information, such as sounds, words, or conversation. Artistic expression in the form of a painting, self-expression drawing, or even sculpture can evoke specific feelings that may not be possible with other stimuli.

More Expressive Art Therapy & Traditional Art Expression Activities:

Art Therapy Activities

Traditional Art Expression & Drawing Ideas

Now that you know what the main difference between traditional art expression and expressive art therapy activities is, you can decide which one to use depending on your creative needs or just use art as self expression!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and see you in the next post.

The article Surprising Differences You Didn’t Know Between Traditional Art Expression & Expressive Art Therapy Activities was originally published on Drawism.com first.

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7 Easy Ways to Halt Depression & Anxiety When Using Social Media For Art

Article / 17 February 2024

Drawing can quickly become overwhelming for many reasons, most of which we're usually not prepared for, such as anxiety, depression, creative burnout, perfectionism, or unrealistic art expectations. These not only take a toll on your art, but most importantly, you. It can affect your life in a variety of negative ways and have negative effects on social media artists. But it doesn't have to. Here are 5 tricks for social media artists to stop depression and anxiety when online and how to keep posting art like a pro!

*Disclaimer: I'm not a medical health care professional. These tips are something that has worked for me and may not work for everyone. If you've been diagnosed with anxiety or depression or feel it's so overwhelming and/or gets in the way of your daily life, please seek a medical health care professional and /or a licensed therapist.

Social Media Artist: 7 Easy Ways to Stop Depression & Anxiety When You're Online

1. Don't Rely on External Sources for Your Confidence & Validation in Both Your Art & Personal Life

My absolute #1 rule as a social media artist, is : Be confident in yourself and don't rely on social media for validation or approval! Social media is not going to give that to you, and certainly not overnight. Social media is a tool, and that's it. It's a means to help you achieve some artistic goals you may have but only if, you learn to play it's game, and play it well (which can take months if not years, to get good at.)

Having hobbies you enjoy, a social circle, and /or people that support you will help you build confidence in those areas of your life where you're not reliant on social media to give you validation or approval. Not only does this build your mental state up very positively, it also prevents anxiety and depression from seeping into those mental cracks.

Social media can make you feel more depressed, unqualified, or not as good as other artists you see online, setting you up for a 'comparison' mind set, where you feel you're always in a competition with other artists

SOLUTION: The key here is to find a balance where you have enough confidence in your content and skills but low expectations from outside sources that don't come from you. So, know that using social media for art can be extremely beneficial for your goals but it isn't 100% necessary for you in reaching them. You don't need social media as an artist.

2. Treat Being a Social Media Artist as a Job

In order to promote this blog's content, I do need to use social media like Pinterest, so my articles get seen by more people. If I don't, then my blog won't grow. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of using it but I can say it definitely helps in promoting my content and finding new readers like yourself.

Depending on your art goals, social media can be a necessary evil for some of us artists. So, it's important to set boundaries with it and know your own limitations.

Know when you're mentally prepared to log in, how long you should stay, and when to log out
Think of 'social media artist' as a job title
Set a timer for how long you want to spend on social media, and clock out when time's up
Have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish with your social media account in each session, before you log in
- This makes sure you don't overstay your welcome, especially mentally and makes your interactions short and sweet.

I use Art Station as a portfolio website for my art. But seeing everyone else's incredible work on a daily basis can be very defeating, making me compare my work to theirs. When I start getting in my own head and questioning my artistic skills, that's when I know it's time for me to take a break and log out for a few days or weeks. If you feel similar, then that's your mind telling you it's time to log out of your accounts.

3. Do Your Best to Not Bring Your Emotions Into It

A huge reason why social media artists can feel stressed, anxious, or depressed, is that we tie our emotions to it. When this happens, we become reliant on it as a source of validation, happiness, and other positive feelings. Not to mention that dopamine rush we get whenever we get likes, comments, or follows on our art.

It feels good, if not amazing to get seen for our art.

But beware, it's also a trap! Using social media as an artist can become an addiction to satisfy those mental cravings and feelings if you're not careful, pulling you further into those negative emotions. Especially when you don't get the engagement you're expecting.

SOLUTION: Leave your emotions at the door or in this case, at the login window. Understand that being a social media artist is either a hobby or profession, it's not your entire identity! Try not to get too attached or caught up with the attention you may or didn't receive on social media platforms. Engagement is a poor indicator on whether an artwork or post is good or not.

This helps separate your online activity from your personal life, exactly like how you'd leave your personal life out of your job
Approaching your social accounts as a tool and not an extension of your personality helps compartmentalize your social media life vs. your personal life and helps you see your goals clearer while not involving any personal feelings

4. Have a Back Up System or Ritual To Do When You Notice You're Feeling Down from low engagement or negative responses

There are many times where I've felt let down by social media as an artist. And when I did, I felt worse about myself. I would be mentally abusive to myself or ask myself why I'm such a failure, 'I suck', or 'I'm not good enough, no one will ever like or notice my art'.

But the truth is, those are just my fears and thoughts talking, not reality. Just one of the many negatives of social media art engagement.

To get myself out of these stressful feelings, I have a system of actions I take that help me positively cope with negative emotions from using social media.

When you have a backup system or ritual at-hand when you notice you're feeling down from social media, you are better prepared to cope with those anxious and depressing feelings and bypass the unimportant things.

It helps you cope with your feelings and emotions positively and gets you in a better mood, fast
Makes getting on social media more manageable
Will really help in preventing and blocking anxiety and depression
Helps you stick to using social media for the long-term if that's part of your art plan

SOCIAL MEDIA ARTIST DETOX SUGGESTIONS:

Here are just a few suggestions of what you can do to improve your mental state when being a social media artist feels overwhelming.

Log out for as long as you need - it can be days, months, weeks, or even years
Stay Away from Your Feed and 'Explore' Sections
Find Out What's Causing You're Disappointment, Anxiety, or Sadness
Find Other Hobbies That Make You Feel Good in Your Free Time, Instead of Scrolling Online : I like to play video games because it calms my thoughts
Have a Social Circle or Someone to Talk To to Vent Your Frustrations

5. Social Media Artists : Be Prepared to Be Disappointed

I recently posted a character design that I spent weeks learning some cool new skills on, to my social media thinking I was going to get a ton of likes. Yeah. F'-n. Right. I only got 2 likes (which I'm grateful for).

I can't tell you how many times social media has let me down. And it's not because of my work. Mainly due to algorithms and how often you post new content.

But it's this type of mentality and expectation that can really lead to depression and anxiety when you're a social media artist because it's a feeling of being let down after you had high hopes of success. And it doesn't feel good.

When we feel a high high, we're bound to feel a pretty low low.

So, we need to cope with this disappointment. This may be tough to hear, but both the good and bad outcomes are a possibility but the unfavorable outcomes are much more likely to happen, like not getting likes, followers, or even any type of engagement.

Know that your content may not be popular or shown to a lot of people, when first creating an account
It's okay to not get a lot of likes or comments on your posts - it's 100% normal and expected
It's more than okay to not be popular on social media as an artist, it doesn't always mean your art work is bad, it's just not shown to a lot of people, maybe even no one
- I'm not popular: Check out my minuscule social media followings here: Instagram Pinterest
The people you see on the front page or 'the popular' accounts are most likely in the top 1-3% of all accounts on the platform - That's an incredibly low percentage and even harder for a new account to reach!
Being on the many social platforms feels more like a competition between social media artists over who gets noticed more
- Instead, take yourself out of the competition and focus on content that you want to make

For a more in-depth look at using social media for art, its many drawbacks & benefits, check out this article Being a Social Media Artist is a Competition.

SOLUTION: Be confident with your art posts and content but have very low expectations of the engagement you may receive. When you're mentally prepared for the worst outcomes, you've lowered your expectations with social media and will less likely to be disappointed on the many platforms out there, helping you to further prevent anxiety, depression, and other stressful feelings when you're online.

6. Be Aware & Notice When You're Feeling Down

As a semi - social media artist, I can't tell you how important this next tip is.

When you are aware of and notice when social media is making you feel not good enough as an artist, when you're feeling stressed, burnt out, anxious, or lost on these platforms, these are the moments when you can stop anxiety and depression from affecting you.

Noticing when and why these exact moments of feeling down happen not only help you understand your emotions and reactions better but greatly help you in preventing them once you understand the cause.

How to Notice Negative Mental Feelings When You're a Social Media Artist

Write down a short list or notes describing how you're feeling when certain things happen on social media
- ie: How do you feel when you don't get enough likes, comments, or followers?
- How do you feel when you lose followers - how does that affect you?
- What makes you feel happy on social media -for example is it more followers or more engagement of your art?
Describe how certain results and actions make you feel
Pin point the actions and outcomes on social media that make you feel negatively about yourself
Once you know the cause of stress, anxiety, or depression, you can find solutions that will help in blocking these feelings

7. Set Blocks of Time To Be On Social Media

As simple as this sounds, setting a specific amount of time on social media as an artist is an invaluable tactic to stopping anxiety, depression, and all those other nasty feelings. When you have a set amount of time devoted to social media, not only will you accomplish your tasks faster but you'll save your time for other important things instead of draining time on scrolling through other artists' content.

Why is this a big deal? Well, the time you're not scrolling is the time when you're not comparing yourself to other artists on the platform, a huge reason why anxiety and depression can start from social media - comparing what you have with someone else. When you feel you don't have what someone else has or you want what someone else has, that's when depression, anxiety, and jealousy start, to name a few.

SOLUTION: Set a specific but short amount of time to be on social media, whether it's 5, 10, or 30 min, or whatever works for you. Focus on doing only what you need to, like posting new art or checking stats. Limit or don't use the explore and feed sections. When you eliminate how other people's content makes it's way to you, whether it's looking through your feed or at notifications of someone else's artwork, you eliminate the chance of comparing yourself to another artist, ultimately helping stop depression and anxiety from affecting you.

Art Success : 10 Brutal Truths Before You Start Drawing

Article / 02 December 2023

Drawing can be incredibly fun, therapeutic, and mentally freeing. But it can quickly become overwhelming for many reasons, most of which we’re usually not prepared for. These can include creative burnout, perfectionism, or a fear of what you’re picture may turn out to be (art expectations). But you’ll be ahead of other artists and improve your art much faster as long as you understand 10 of the most common mindsets and art tips to have before you start drawing, either as a hobby or a career.

10 Brutal Truths About Art Before You Start Drawing

1. Your First Few Drawings Are Not Going to Be Your Best

Think about your first time doing something that wasn’t easy when you first tried it. Was it learning to ride a bicycle, tie a shoe, learning how to cook, or anything else similar? I’m going to guess it wasn’t easy your first time.

It’s the same when you start drawing for the first time.

Because you may not have experience drawing before, the concept of drawing can feel vague.

Like everything, drawing normally takes lots of time and practice for you to get good at.

It relies a lot on hand-eye coordination which is very difficult to control when you first start drawing because you’re relying on 2 sensory pieces of information: 1. making things look right and 2. controlling your hand and wrist movements to create an image.
Drawing also relies on muscle-memory.

If you lower your expectations of the outcome, you’ll put less pressure on yourself and let your creativity flow naturally, resulting in most likely a more interesting artwork.

2. Drawing is a Slow Process Before You Start Seeing Big Results

As mentioned above, there are a lot of factors that go into drawing, whether it’s self taught drawing or going to an art school. And that’s not even learning things like anatomy or shading!

I don’t mean to scare or overwhelm you when you start drawing but I want you to be prepared with the correct art expectations for when these things most likely may pop up in your creative process because not only can they be major setbacks for your artistic goals but they can creep up without you realizing them.

Learning how to draw and how to draw well is not going to happen overnight. I hate to break it to you but for 90% of us, it’s the truth. It took me at least 3-4 weeks of drawing everyday (I was in an art school at the time) to notice improvement.

When you first start drawing, a majority of the time (depending on your goals) will be spent acquiring the basic skills needed to create a recognizable image.

Basically, you’ll be spending time making things look correct and learn things like precision and coordination. In my eyes, those are more important than making a cool image because those principles and art tips teach you how to understand and master the process of drawing, first.

3. There’s a Lot of Competition When Applying for Art Jobs or Standing Out as an Artist

The reality is, there is no shortage of artists nowadays.

Artists are everywhere from social media, to the internet and tv, whether they’re professional or have learned self taught drawing.

The amount of competition to be seen as an artist both on social media and when applying to jobs can be difficult to overcome and comprehend, not to mention the toxic social media art habits that can send you spiraling into a whole dimension of mental health issues that can set up unrealistic art expectations.

Some important art tips to keep in mind to combat this when you start drawing:

What type of art do you want to make?
Then ask yourself : How does your art stand out from the thousands of other artists competing to be seen ? What makes your art unique?
It’s extremely difficult to get large followings on social media platforms nowadays, as the algorithms require you to constantly post your work (sometimes every day) which can lead to you burning out, fast. Unless getting a large social media following is your huge goal, avoid it for now and just focus on getting better at your own art.
You don’t need to have an artistic goal with what you want to achieve with your art (that’s something that will come with time). But it will make it easier for your work to stand out when you have a general direction of where you want to go with it.
No matter what you want to achieve with your art, try to start drawing now, stay consistent with it (it doesn’t need to be every day), and you’ll eventually reach your goal. It doesn’t matter if it’s 3 months, 3 years, or even decades from now, as long as you keep at it, you’ll get there.

For an in-depth look at using social media for art and it’s pros and cons, check out this extremely helpful article on Why Being an Artist on Social Media is a Competition & what you can do to beat it.

This leads me to the next important point:

4. Be Prepared to Spend a Lot of Time Drawing

Whether you want to make money off your art, work for an animation studio, teach your own art classes, or show your work in galleries, you’ll need to spend a lot of time drawing – and I mean A LOT.

Why?

Depending on what you want to draw, there are so many different artistic concepts to understand when you first start drawing.

For example, if you want to draw cool portraits or characters, you ‘ll need to understand basic anatomy, shading (aka “value”), and some perspective. And that’s not even going into color which is a completely different subject on it’s own, as it involves things like lighting, color temperature, and color theory!

Each of these concepts takes serious time to understand from both an intellectual, and then a physical standpoint.

They all require you to understand the idea first, and then be able to mimic it in real time, using hand-eye coordination.

For a professional, it takes years to get good at drawing.

You may have heard one of these art tips before but to get really good at something, you must spend approximately 10,000 hours to become a pro. This isn’t true for everyone but my point is it’s going to take time for you to get good at making art, if this something you’re serious about pursuing.

Tip:

Start drawing. Now.
- You’ll need time to understand basic things like precision and hand-eye coordination, for starters, esp. if you’re doing self taught drawing.
- You can pick up more advanced skills like shading and color later on.
Pick one basic drawing concept and focus learning that technique(s) for a few weeks.
- It’s so easy to get overwhelmed so focus on one thing for now.
- It can be drawing simple shapes, perspective, or just drawing an object, like a nose or lips.
Try setting aside some drawing time every day, week, or 2 weeks.
- It can be as little as 5 min but it will add up and keep your brain creatively active and progressing.

Setting mindfully healthy art expectations can make a world of difference in your artistic journey.

If you want to learn how to draw the right way but have no artistic skills or experience, check out this in-depth guide on How to Start Drawing with No Art Experience, with my most important tips, what you need to focus on, art supplies, & easy drawing exercises to get you started now!

5. Get Ready to Make a Lot of Mistakes and Be Prepared for (Many) Failures

Going back to point #1, a lot of your first drawings probably won’t be your best.

And if you think they are now, they won’t be in a few months if you keep drawing, because you’ll most likely be a better artist by then!

Back at art school I remember something one of my instructors told me that I’ll never forget: “Those first few drawings are not going to be your best. You have to draw all the crap out before you draw the good stuff.” Or something like that.

Maybe it’s because it was so funny that I’d remembered it but it’s so true.

You need to fail, make mistakes and take risks, and then learn from those mistakes. Knowing how to draw well is just as important as knowing what not to do when drawing. And that in turn makes you a better and more efficient artist.

It’s 100% perfectly fine to fail. As long as you learn how to make your drawings better, you’ll keep improving and become so much better because of it.

A great way to look at this is to see failures and mistakes as 1. progress, and 2. a way to become a much better artist.

6. Not Everything Will Make Sense to You at First

It takes time and dedication to understand the most basic of basic principles when you start drawing, no matter if you’re taking an art class or going the self taught route.

Having low art expectations at first will really help you understand basic art techniques while helping you learn how and what methods and styles of learning work for you.

So take your time and enjoy the process now. Your art will eventually get better.

Also, make sure to write down any drawing or art tips that help you understand the material or help make your art better – drawing principles are a lot to memorize and easy to forget. I like to make a little journal or art notes I can reference if I ever need to remember a few techniques.

7. Getting Yourself to Start Drawing Everyday is an Achievement, Not Something that Happens Naturally

Whether you’re on social media, an art-based website, or listening to art teachers or recruiters, you’ll most likely hear “you need to draw everyday”, if you want to be successful at art.

And you’ll hear it – A LOT.

While this sentiment is true, it’s not always necessary for everyone, especially when you first learn to start drawing.

It’s not like you just start drawing everyday out of nowhere, just like that. As I’ve personally found out, it takes time, planning it into your schedule, and most importantly, getting into a mindset where you feel you’re not being forced to “draw everyday”, otherwise your mind will tell you not to do it, like in my case.

Your want to draw needs to happen naturally for you to get to the point of ‘drawing everyday’.

Not only does “drawing everyday” set up unrealistic expectations of your productivity and quality of your artwork, it can be one of those pesky toxic social media art norms that you can suddenly find yourself spiraling into, that can negatively affect your mental well being.

Instead, take your time time drawing and figure out what you like about it. If you want to pursue drawing professionally, then you will have to draw more often but maybe not every single day. See what fits into your schedule right now and make do with the time you have.

Remember: drawing everyday should come naturally because you want to do it, not because it’s forced out of you from external places (other artists, social media, recruiters).

Give yourself a pat on the back or treat yourself to a reward if you do get yourself to draw everyday because it is no easy feat, you deserve it!

8. Social Media Can Halt Your Progress as an Artist

While posting your art on social media seems like a fantastic way to get your art seen and a possible following, it’s actually more toxic to your mental health and creativity.

When you post art to social media, you’re actually competing with millions of others on the platform just to have your content seen, in addition to fighting with the platforms’ algorithms, you’re relying on external gratification and validity. When these two things don’t come from you, you can become more sad, anxious, even depressed at times, lowering your motivation, focus, and mental well being.

It’s so difficult and distracting to keep up with social media while learning to draw.

These toxic social media art pitfalls can be detrimental to your artistic progress because it sets you up for unrealistic art expectations (that can be unreachable w/your current skills).

You’re most likely looking at other artists’ work on the platform as well. This can greatly influence what type of art you produce and can even sway you from your unique style and voice.

To help solve these issues, just stay focused on your studies right now. Your hard work will show through in your art now, not necessarily your followers. Followers can come later once you’ve gotten into your own groove and process of drawing.

Here’s a quick list of the damaging mental effects social media can have on you and your artwork, Social Media for Art: 10 Dangerous & Lasting Effects on Your Mental Health.

9. Not Everyone will Like or Appreciate Your Art

And that is 100% okay!

Just start drawing.

Everyone has their own preferences of art they like as I’m sure you do too, and it’s totally fine if your art doesn’t fit their bill.

It’s just like food. I have my own culinary preferences like ramen, mac and cheese, and low sugar ice cream.

You’re making art for YOU, because you want to. You’re not making it for anyone else, so don’t ever feel bad or take it personal when someone may not outright ‘like’ your art.

If it’s an art critique, take the negative points as constructive criticism and improve those areas to become better.

For this point, some art tips to keep in mind: it’s very important to have confidence in your own artistic abilities and skills. But be self aware enough to know where you need those improvements and how you can become a better artist.

10. Be Prepared to Receive Criticism Both Good and Bad

Whether you’re in an art class, showing off your work at a gallery, or just showing your self taught drawing pics to a few friends and family, someone will ALWAYS say something about it, good, bad, or both.

It’s one of those expectations that comes with making art, whether you’ve started drawing for 10 days or 10 years.

Receiving prompted criticism in a professional setting is a stepping stone for becoming a successful artist. I can most likely guarantee that every successful artist, including today’s top artists, have had at least a few bad pieces of art in their early days and received some sort of art criticism. But what makes them stand out, is that they most likely listened to the professional’s advice to create better artwork.

Knowing when to fold and put your ego aside to become better at your craft is a trait the most successful artists have and why they are so successful.

If someone says something bad about your art on a whim, don’t take it personal, it’s definitely not you. And if it’s art tips and criticism from a mentor or teacher, definitely try to improve those areas because you’ll be a much better artist than yesterday.

Cool Super Mario Fan Art & Effortless Mario Drawing Ideas for Beginners

Article / 11 November 2023

Ready to see some cool Super Mario fan art created using both traditional and digital art that feature some memorable locations and power ups?

Keep reading to check out these awesome images along with a list of effortless Mario drawing ideas and art style tips to give your creativity and art inspiration level up!

Cool Super Mario Fan Art Inspiration
25 Creative & Easy Super Mario Drawing Ideas
How to Draw in the Super Mario Art Style
Types of Super Mario Fan Art
More Exciting Video Game Art & Drawing Tutorials

Cool Super Mario Fan Art Drawings & Inspiration

1. Question Block in the Super Mario Art Style

Who doesn't love a good ol' Item Block?

If you want to draw very simple but extremely iconic and cool Super Mario fan art, try drawing a question / item block.

These iconic cubes are not only super cute but anyone can draw them. They're yellow colored cubes with a giant white question mark that contain a range of power up upgrades to give Mario (or whoever you're playing as) special abilities like flying, throwing fireballs, or even turning into a raccoon!

The painting below is an item block with a bit of a forest background reminiscent of the Super Mario World art style.

The image below is made of gouache - a water-based paint that is thicker than watercolors but thinner than acrylics.

Personally, I love painting backgrounds and landscapes.

So, I wanted to add a bit of background with trees and soil in the classic Mario art style to add a more interesting composition and look to the item block.

The colors I had on hand to paint these types of Super Mario fan art drawings are less bright than the art you see in the games but still highly saturated because these are colors that are normally used in plein air painting - a style of painting that involves natural looking earthy tones that are less bright in order to mimic the effects of natural atmospheric light and landscapes.

2. Cool Buzzy Beetle Super Mario World Fan Art

This next cool Super Mario fan art is based off the Buzzy Beetle found in Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES - the classic 16 and 32-bit pixelated games).

Go retro games!

I wanted to paint this little guy because like the reasons mentioned above, it's one of those very simple Mario drawing ideas, especially when using an art medium that takes a bit of time to get used to, paint.

Not only is the Buzzy Beetle easy to draw due to the simplified Mario art style found in the games but it is something that you can finish quite quickly.

I love working on art that seems effortless to make because I can move on to the next idea fast without spending hours noodling on one piece.

Note: I may have added a bit of a protruding nose to the character design because I originally thought it was a hedgehog from the 16-bit pixel art design. Working from pixel art can be tough as smaller details can be hard to differentiate. So try to find a reference image that isn't pixel art, like concept art or another artist's artistic render when making your own fan art.

Working on fast drawings not only speeds you up in your art process but it's great for making content fast when time is a huge factor in, especially when it comes to social media and you need to keep up with an algorithm.

Basically, working on simple types of (Super Mario) fan art boosts your overall quantity in art output and can actually help you in beating the social media algorithms if gaining a social following is one of your goals. It's because not only do you have existing reference and IP to pull from but you're not spending time coming up with a design.

Some character designs can take up to 2 weeks depending on what a client or studio asks for or even more!

So making fan art can definitely be a time saver, especially if you're short on drawing ideas and need to come up with something quick.

3. Super Mario World Backgrounds

One of my favorite aspects about the Mario art style is the elongated rounded shapes and eyes that can be seen in some classic Mario backgrounds and environments.

There's something about the soft rounded shapes that seem very fun, cute, and inviting. It's because the backgrounds are so unique and different from other games when I first saw them. I just love their simplicity.

So, for one of my last Mario drawing ideas, I decided to paint a background from one of the earlier games - Super Mario World.

The painting below illustrates a typical background in the Mario art style.

Since most fan art focuses on characters, I wanted to create one of the more rare types of Super Mario fan art- backgrounds and environments.

I stuck with the games' visual style by sticking with simplified shapes and rounded edges throughout the entire piece.

The green forms in the back are supposed to be green mountains, hills, and foliage.

I threw in a couple of squared item blocks in front of the greenery add a more 3D look to the scene. You can't make cool Super Mario fan art if you don't have at least 1 item block or notable symbol in one of your designs.

Some other details I added were making the clouds in a similar rounded rectangular shape. I did this because when drawing in a particular visual style, it's very important to make the rest of the artwork look cohesive. All elements in an artwork need to look like it belongs in the rest of the scene.

For example, if I made the clouds look realistic, as cool as that would be, it wouldn't match with the foreground elements and item blocks because the clouds wouldn't be as simplified as the rest of the painting. If anything, the realistic clouds would look very out of place. Almost as if they were copied and pasted into the image. Very confusing and inconsistent.

So if you want to make some really cool Super Maio fan art, don't forget to pay attention to the overall style you're going for and try your best to make it look cohesive.

For awesome Mushroom drawing ideas, check out these 10 Dreamy Fantasy Mushroom Drawing Ideas or learn How to Make Stylized Mushroom Drawings Step by Step with this easy drawing tutorial.

Now that's you've seen one of the many types of Super Mario fan art out there, it's time to try making some of your own!

I've made a list below of how to draw Super Mario fan art with some effortless and easy Mario drawing ideas and styles that you can try right now.

25 Creative & Effortless Super Mario Drawing Ideas

Making cool Super Mario fan art is quite easy as the 'Mario' art style is stylized, cute, and simple compared to a more realistic approach found in other video games and films.

Of course, you can always draw realistic fan art if you'd like but it definitely involves more time and thought than simplified types of Super Mario fan art.

*If you don't know who or what some of the names mentioned below are, you can search for them here in this Super Mario fan website.

Here are some quick and easy Mario drawing ideas to help kick start your drawing productivity and creativity right now:

Draw Super Mario as a baby, aka Baby Mario
Draw Yoshi
Learn How to Draw a Yoshi Egg
Princess Peach
Prince Toad
Prince Toad's Hat
- You can draw just Prince Toad's clothes if you find drawing the character too difficult
Baby Bowser
(Regular) Bowser
Piranha Plant
Draw a Goomba
Draw Chomp - Chomp
Super Mario Powerups
- Red Spotted Mushroom ( Level Up)
- Star (Invincibility)
- Fire Flower
- Mario Feather
- Mario Leaf - Turns you into a Tanuki / Raccoon
Draw the 'Question Mark' Coin Block
Sketch the Green Pipe
Make a Koopa
- The little turtle guys with green, red, and yellow shells
Try Drawing some of the Backgrounds in earlier Mario Games, like those found in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World
Draw the Coins
Mario Drawing Ideas Dressing Up Sweets That are Wearing Clothes from the series' Characters
Combine a Mario Character Design with Another One of Your Favorite Fictional Characters
- It can be anything from fast food mascots to TV, Anime, Videogames, Books, and so much more!
- *Drawing Fan Art Mashups have been pretty popular recently, try to see what you can come up with!
Try Drawing Mario in a Cartoon Style
Make a Pencil Drawing of Your Favorite Characters or things from the series
Try Making Cool Super Mario Fan Art in Watercolors
Make something in the Mario World Using Perler Beads
Create Your Own Pixel Art Using Mario-themed Motifs and Symbols
Design a Mario-Themed Symbol or Logo

Honestly, the list goes on and on. There're so many more fun Super Mario drawing ideas to try that I can't put them all here.

Check out this in-depth Super Mario Wiki for all things Mario related and start making your own types of Super Mario fan art. With a long list of Mario drawing ideas and inspiration, you can use the website as reference and decide what type of Mario art style fits you the best since some of the video games have very different visual styles than others.

Pro Tip: Making fan art is a fantastic way to get into drawing or start making art because it's so much easier trying to copy something, especially when you're first starting out, rather than create an original character. It's a wonderful exercise and a great place to start practicing drawing. The only few downsides are (1) that I wouldn't recommend putting fan art in your professional art portfolio because whoever is hiring you most likely wants to see your creativity and originality and (2) selling fan art is technically illegal because it infringes on the rights and usage of the original copyright holder / creator, meaning you can be sued. Here is an article by Art in Context that goes in-depth about whether it's legally okay to sell fan art along with potential consequences.

How to Draw in the Mario Art Style

I've made a quick list of some pointers and tips to help you make draw in the Mario art style and what makes it so unique.

Style

When making cool Mario fan art, pay attention to the art style from the games. Since there're so many video games in the franchise, narrow your favorite game to 2-3 and choose 1 and focus on that 1 art style so you don't get too overwhelmed at first.

Simplified Shapes
Shapes have soft, rounded edges, not hard and sharp
Enemies, backgrounds, and items tend to have long rectangular eyes in some designs
Details are also simplified shapes
- Details are less fine and usually big and/or blocky within main design shape

Color

Colors are usually quite saturated & true to its solid color
- For example, a red will look more like a true red than a purplish red
Most designs are 2-3 colors, maybe 4-5 max but no more because it can get too busy

Characters

Most characters are short and stout / chubby, except for a select few (princesses, Luigi)
Have 2-4 colors max in their designs
Limbs have plump rounded shapes
Are usually in blocky proportions

Types of Super Mario Fan Art

Because the Mario franchise is so popular, there're so many different types of Super Mario fan art on the internet made by some amazing artists.

Here's a quick list you can Google of some of the many types of Mario fan art that exists:

Realistic
Comic Book Style
Chibi - "Cute" Anime style with big heads and simplified shapes
Still Life
Mayan
Japanese Animation
Japanese Wood block
3D Render
Cartoon Art Style

Check Out More Exciting Video Game Art & Drawing Tutorials

For even more imaginative pop culture inspiration, art, and freebies, check out these other amazing and easy drawing tutorials + game related articles below!

Hope you enjoyed this cool Super Mario fan art & see you in the next post!

The post Cool Super Mario Fan Art & Effortless Mario Drawing Ideas for Beginners originally appeared on Drawism.com first.

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10 Euphoric Drawing Art Therapy Prompts For Racing Thoughts

Article / 28 October 2023

Sometimes our days can become a little too overwhelming. But that’s okay. Not everything needs to be solved right now. Our thoughts can run wild when we have so may things to worry about or do but it’s important to take a few moments for some deep breaths, then slowly walk our minds through our most important feelings and tasks. What can really help in these moments is to take 5-15 minutes for ourselves and do a few art therapy exercises, as it helps pulls us out of mountains of thoughts into the present moment while sparking our creativity.

I’ve listed 10 drawing-based art therapy prompts anyone can do, that will help improve your overall focus, mood, slow down racing thoughts, and put some positive creativity into your schedule.

Now grab your favorite drawing tool, something to draw on (paper, a journal, sketchbook, or even a tablet), and let’s get creative!

10 Soothing Drawing Art Therapy Prompts for Racing Thoughts, Anxiety, & Stress Relief

1. Colorful Designs and Patterns

For our first art therapy prompts, let’s get colorful!

If you have any, take your most colorful drawing or painting materials.

It can be anything from highlighters to markers, colored pencils, pens, watercolors and anything else you have lying around that you find colorful and exciting to look at.

With your drawing supplies ready, draw random different shapes like circles, squares, swirly loops, or anything else that you find interesting to draw. Keep repeating shapes and simple designs until you’ve filled up most of the page or drawing area.

The final result doesn’t need to look like anything nor be anywhere near perfect. Just try to make it as colorful as you can, using your favorite colors.

Try to fill up as much of the page as possible, trying to leave very little white space. This forces you to take advantage of the page real estate you have and become loose and gestural with your art.

This allows for a lot of happy accidents to happen.

A great technique in art therapy is to draw over areas or objects that have already been drawn. This is a fantastic art therapy exercise because it breaks up boundaries and expectations of having your drawings be perfect and apart from each other.

Instead, redrawing over areas allows you to think in multiple layers and opens up the door for some extremely interesting final drawings that maybe you weren’t expecting to make.

Remember: try to keep it as simple as possible.

You can try using a different combination of colors as you do this.

Tip: You can use the designs as a color reference sheet. Try googling simple patterns and designs that you like, and try drawing those for this exercise.

2. Fun Food

Another fun art therapy drawing is to draw one of your favorite foods.

I love eating donuts, ramen, cheese, and sweets. I enjoy drawing foods like these because they’re so tasty but also really fun to look at. Those are my usual go-tos when I need something to boost my mood or for an instant art idea.

What’s your favorite food or a food that you find really interesting to look at?

Make a quick list of 1-5 things that you loooove to eat.

Once you got your list, pick 1-2 of those foods and draw them. They don’t need to be detailed, just something that looks kinda like it.

Color them in to make your art therapy drawing even more scrumptious. You can even use your favorite colors for a more personalized look.

*Positive personalization is one of the many techniques in art therapy that can help you associate your feelings with something less negative because it uses positive/neutral object associations with a calming and relaxing experience. So that next time you think of that object or engage in an activity, you’ll more likely associate that with a positive experience.

To take these art therapy prompts a bit further, you can try thinking of 1-3 reasons for each food item of why you like each one. With that list of reasons, do your best to draw out each reason for why you like that food item. Again, try to focus on more of the idea, not detail.

3. Draw Yourself on an Island with Your Favorite Things

This is definitely one of the more imaginative art therapy prompts.

Find a quiet place or put on your favorite music. Then, take a couple of deeps breaths.

Close your eyes for a few minutes.

Now, imagine you’re on an island by yourself.

Imagine the calm ocean water, a gentle breeze against the side of your face, and the feeling of the sun on your back. Relaxing, right?

Draw an island, it can be as big or as small as you like with as little or as many palm trees as you want but make sure there’s room on the island to draw other things.

Then, make a small list of 5-7 of your favorite things, people, food, etc.

Now, draw those objects on the island. These will be things and/or people you feel you can’t live without or that play a big part in your daily life.

Feel free to color it in if you’d like.

How do you feel afterwards?

These are fantastic art therapy exercises for gratefulness.

4. Art Therapy Drawing From Memory

Make a list of at least 3 things that you’re grateful for.

Then, draw them. Try your best to not use any references of photos. Use your memory instead and draw your objects out the best you can.

When you use your memory, you’re allowing yourself to slow down your thinking and breathing, allowing you to slow down your mind and stop racing thoughts.

Try making your drawings big and start off with only a line drawing or sketch. Don’t color or shade your drawings inside.

Instead, after you are done drawing each thing, write why you are grateful for each, inside each sketch.

This is a great art therapy exercise because not only is it a gratefulness, grounding exercise but the finished drawings can be used for art journal therapy, or you can hang the finished drawing on your wall as a reminder of things that make you happy.

If you’re looking to draw more quick and simple doodles, check out these 15 Relaxing Random Doodles to Draw When You’re Bored, to further help ground yourself.

5. Quick Watercolor Gradient Art Therapy Exercises

Take your paint brush and wet it so that when it touches the watercolors, the paints become paintable/usable but not too watery. Getting the right consistency can be tough at first so don’t stress too much about this on your first few tries.

Pick any color you’d like & try to get a good amount of paint on the brush.

Then, from one side of the paper to the other, slowly drag your paint brush in a single line across the paper.

As you drag your brush, the amount of paint being transferred should decrease the longer your line is, creating a monochromatic gradient from dark (where you started) to light.

The final result should be a simple one color gradient from heavy paint to a very light version of the color.

If you can’t get a perfect gradient, say your line still has a lot of paint on it, just keep drawing more horizontal lines without refilling your brush until the paint runs out.

6. Continuous Art Therapy Drawing

Another one of my favorite art therapy prompts is continuous drawing.

Continuous drawing is when you draw without ever lifting up your pencil from the paper!

Sounds simple enough, right?

Instead of lifting up your pencil, continuous drawing forces you to stay in the present moment while constantly moving your writing tool and going with the flow.

Just draw with one continuous line all over the page.

Try doing this for at least 5 minutes and try your best to not make anything recognizable. Go with the flow of your hand and arm movements and try gliding your hand all across the page, doing your best to reach every corner and edge.

Doing this expends any pent up physical energy and stress, allowing you to feel more relaxed after the exercise.

What’s great about these continuous drawing techniques in art therapy, is that you’re somewhat out of control. You’re just going with the flow of your hand movements and letting an image happen, not forcing one out.

7. Transferring Emotions Techniques in Art Therapy

Take a moment to sit down and think about how you’re feeling.

Are you stressed, frustrated, or maybe indifferent? Or maybe you’re feeling motivated and optimistic? Do your best to be the most honest with yourself when answering this question. There’s no wrong answers here.

Listen to your body and your thoughts. How do you feel? Are your thoughts racing or is your mind calm?

After answering these questions, try your best to draw your emotions.

They can be a simple emoji face of how you’re feeling or something a bit more abstract, like scribbles, lines, or random shapes. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just as simple and easy as you want.

For this type of art therapy drawing, it might be helpful to draw using colors that best represent the emotion you’re feeling. For example, if you’re frustrated or upset, try drawing with red or a warm color. If you’re feeling calm or relaxed, try using a type of blue.

Using these types of colors are all subjective to you, so use the ones you think fit the best for you when drawing out your emotions.

You can even try drawing things that you associate with your emotions if you don’t know how to transfer your emotions onto paper. For example, if you’re feeling happy, you can try drawing the sun with some flowers or if you’re feeling a bit down, maybe a rainy day will work instead for these art therapy exercises.

If you want to expressive yourself further with art therapy, check out these 10 Super Simple Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now!

8. Drawing Your Mood Throughout the Day

Some techniques in art therapy help you understand yourself better by drawing out your mood.

I love these art therapy prompts because not only are they very simple but they’re a great way to keep track of how you’re feeling throughout the day, especially if you’re keeping a self care journal and /or want to learn about why you feel a certain way.

First, draw 3 circles in a line on a piece of paper and space them out a bit so they’re not touching each other. They can be as big as you’d like but try not to make them too small since we’ll be drawing inside them.

Second, above each circle, write “Morning” atop your first circle, “Afternoon” atop the second, & “Evening /Night” on top of the third circle. These will be when you check in and draw your mood throughout the day.

Feel free to write the date somewhere on the page, if you’d like to keep track of your mood for a particular day.

Then, throughout those time of the day, check in and draw how you’re feeling. It can be a simple smiley face with 2 eyes and a mouth, or something a bit more detailed if you’d like.

Make sure to do your best to convey your mood.

If you’re not great at drawing expressions or faces, no worries! Draw something that represents that feeling instead, like in number 7’s art therapy exercises.

You can even write down your mood under each circle to make them easier to identify.

For an even more thorough art therapy drawing, you can write or draw a max. of 3 reasons why you’re feeling that way. This is a fantastic exercise to get your thoughts onto paper and get into some mindfulness.

9. Fast Scribbling and/or Shading

What is an art therapy activity without a bit of quick sketching and scribbling?

All you need to do is take your writing tool and just start making scribbles or randomly shading in areas on the paper / page.

You can go as fast or as slow as you’d like but try your best to cover a large area in a small amount of time.

You can even press as hard or light as you’d like. Just make sure to have an extra sheet of paper or something underneath your page so no marks will show up on your table or drawing surface.

15 minutes is usually a great place to start but try not to go over 20-30min. for these art therapy exercises since it can be a bit more physically demanding, the longer you do it at once.

What’s great about art therapy prompts with quick scribbling and mark making is that not only is this a mindfulness technique that brings you out of your thoughts into the present but it is also a fantastic way to expend any pent up energy or stress especially if you’re feeling a bit tense.

You can try thinking of this as a stress reliever or a way to transfer any negativity into a safe physical and productive outlet.

10. Gratefulness Sketching

Gratefulness sketching techniques in art therapy can really help ground you and help you focus on the simple, happier things that are going on in your life.

To start off, make a small list on your piece of paper of 1-3 things that you’re grateful for.

It can literally be anything from the food you had to eat today to the people in your life that you’re thankful for.

No thing is too small to be grateful for.

Then, draw those things from your list.

Take as much or as little time as you’d like and of course, they don’t need to be perfect.

Feel free to color in your art therapy drawing if you’d like.

This is a great exercise to get you out of your thoughts because you’re taking a moment to stop and think about the things you feel are going well in your life or that provide some sort of positive experience for you.

It’s a wonderful reminder to ground yourself and get into a more positive, maybe even optimistic mindset.

Next time you need a little pick-me-up or just a bit bored, feel free to bookmark this page, choose your favorite art therapy prompts, and start drawing!

What is an Art Therapy Activity?

An art therapy activity is an art-based exercise that is used to provide mental and physical relief from daily life or mental obstacles such as stress, anxiety, and other emotions and /or thoughts that may be overwhelming.

An art therapy activity can be anything from drawing out your emotions to painting something calmly or just letting your hands and mind go with the flow with what you’re creating and doesn’t particularly need to look like anything nor have to be complicated.

If anything, art therapy activities are meant to slow down your thoughts and bring you into the present. Think of it as an artistic mindfulness and grounding exercise.

They can include anything from painting and sculpting art therapy exercises to art therapy drawing and art therapy prompts that can put in a more positive mindset.

Whatever type of art you like to make, there’s sure to be an art therapy activity for it!

How You Can Use These Art Therapy Prompts & Your Art Therapy Drawings As Positive Inspiration for Yourself and Others

Use Your Drawings as Your Smartphone Wallpaper
Print it out your art therapy drawing on a 4×6″ piece of cardstock or postcard paper and send it to someone important to you
Frame it as a reminder that you are amazing and are doing your best in the moment you created the drawing.
Use it as a background for an inspirational quote – Write a quote or statement that best represents how you feel after the art therapy exercise.

Other Helpful Art Therapy and Resources for Total Relaxation and Self Care:

Other Self Care Tips

Breathing Exercises to Relieve Anxiety & Slow Down Thoughts – Article by Very Well Mind
Grounding Exercises When Feeling Overwhelmed – Article by Talk Space

Which art therapy prompt are you most excited to try out? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!

The article 10 Euphoric Art Therapy Prompts for Racing Thoughts originally appeared on Drawism.com first.

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6 Essential Figure Drawing Poses for Art Reference for Dynamic Character Designs

Article / 14 October 2023

Poses for art reference are essential for building your anatomical library and creating unforgettable character designs that resonate with your viewers. In this article, we’ll take a look into the types of art reference poses for character designs that will make your characters stand out and bring them to life. Each pose featured in this article has art reference photos with my personal notes, to help you understand how and why each stance can make your character designs. After all, would you rather draw a character that’s stiff or one that’s dynamic and full of personality?

Why Are Poses for Art Reference So Important?

The right poses for art reference can really make your characters and figure drawings look dynamic, emotional, and breath-taking instead of blocky and stiff. When thinking of poses for art reference, we usually imagine images of figure models posing or art reference photos. Photos for art reference are fantastic because they’re based in reality and great for achieving realism. But some of the most memorable art is when an artist creates gesture in their work with accentuation and exaggeration.

Gesture and motion sometimes tend to get lost in our art when we always reference from reality. I personally find that artist interpretations of poses for art reference really help me grasp emotion and gesture. They help me bring life into my own drawings and give a sense motion that I sometimes can’t get from art reference photos of figures. Do you learn better from art reference photos or from how an artist interpret people and objects in their own way? I’m hoping that these poses for art reference do the same for you.

Types of Art Reference Photos for Character Designs

Choosing the right art reference photos are incredibly important. Why? Because you’re using that pic as inspiration and as a guideline. If you have a bad reference photo, you’re art will most likely be that same quality. So, having high standards in what photos for art reference you use will reflect in your art.

1. Photographs of Figure Models

These are just pictures/ photographs of (sometimes nude) figure models posing against plain backgrounds. For examples of what these look like, Line of Action has great professionally lit figure photography.

Pros of using photos for art reference:

Great lighting, dynamic poses, and good description of anatomy
Realistic and based in reality

Cons:

Easy to get lost in detail
Photo quality and lighting may be bad
Hard to accentuate features and exaggerate muscular forms and anatomy
Drawings can end up looking stiff and static (no-movement) very easily

2. Drawings and Sketches by Professional Artists

These types of art reference photos are drawings and sketches of figure models drawn by professional artists and animators, not photography of the models themselves. You might not see dramatic lighting or even a background, just the sketch of the figure model an artist drew. The image below is an example of using professional drawings and sketches as pose reference for character designs. For more great examples of this, check out Quickposes, a site with many types of drawing photos for art reference.

Pros of using drawings and sketches by professional artists as art reference photos:

Easy to focus on anatomy, form, and gesture
Won’t get caught up in fine details
Easy to understand exaggerations of forms and anatomical features
Gets your character designs and drawings to look more stylized and unique

Cons:

You could be plagiarizing another artist’s work if you draw the exact same pose and style without giving credit to the artist if you post your art online
Art reference photos may not have realistic lighting or lighting at all
Some artwork photos for art reference may have very little to no anatomical detail or the anatomy may be incorrect
Some drawings and sketches may be hard for you to understand or visually interpret, depending on the artist’s style

Depending on the style you want to draw in, one type of art reference is better than the other. Keep this in mind when creating your characters or drawing people from life. Now let’s move on to the poses for art reference!

6 Essential Figure Poses for Art Reference for Stunning Character Designs

Now, before we go further, I will say these art reference photos might be a little different than what you might be thinking. These are not photos but pages of my sketchbook where I made stick figure poses from imagination. I didn’t directly use references for these, as I mostly imagined them and pulled some aspects from memory.

Why Stick Figures?

For me, I find it easiest to understand the basics of character design poses without getting caught up in the details, by breaking the human figure down to it’s most basic shapes and forms. When I started drawing characters, I’d get so focused on clothing and making the hair and face look perfect, that the rest of the figure looked very stiff. Does this ever happen to you?

When you’re not distracted by things like anatomy and lighting, it’s much easier to understand body movement and position.

Easier to understand position of appendages and how they move.
Much easier to see the “line of action” – the main line of gesture or movement of a figure that gives an overall impression.
Starting with simple forms is less intimidating and more importantly less time-consuming!

I use circles as joints because those are the main pivot points for action and movement, as seen below with the first pose.

1. 3/4 Beauty Shot or “The Pose”

This is an essential pose for character design because it’s easy to execute while showing a hint of perspective with the left leg slightly bent. Showing just a tiny bit of perspective in your characters shows off your ability to create visual depth and make it more interesting to look at.

A beauty shot is an image of a figure or object that is between a profile view and a side view, showing slight perspective.

If you were to draw a very good profile or side view of a character, no matter how good it looks, it will never be as interesting to look at vs. a slight 3/4 view. Why? Because there’s much more information to your character in a 3/4 view than just a side view. Also, a slight 3/4 view describes so much more of a character’s form and design giving it 3-dimensions rather than a flat 2D drawing.

2. Shy or “The Slouch”

Like the art reference photos above, this next pose is a more traditional 3/4 view where you can see more of the left side of the body.

Say you want to draw a shy character and show off that emotion. How would you do it?

Well, shy people are closed off with their body and more huddled, not open. So their arms and legs are closer to their body. Not outstretched like they want to give a hug or say hi to someone.

Create a curved line of action as the main line of movement for the figure. It sets up the pose to be hunched.
Draw the arms close to the body. They don’t have to be angles but the hands should be close or touching the figure’s body. It gives a sense of being closed-off.
The legs shouldn’t have much movement and should also stay relatively close to the center of the pelvis.
You can bend the legs to further accentuate the figure’s hunch.
Keep head close to shoulders – shows mystery, trying to hide, or lack of confidence.

3. Sad

You can’t have emotional poses for character designs if you don’t show a bit of vulnerability.

When drawing sad characters or figures, again make your figure closed off and contained.

Unlike the shy art reference photos, the one above is more exaggerated.

When drawing a sad character, here are a few points to note:

Character’s head is either looking down and/or resting on something.
Overall pose is in a downward direction.
Back is not straight and upright but hunched or curved.

4. Back Pose at Low Angle

One of the next poses for art reference is drawing a character at a low angle. This means our view is low to the ground and we’re looking up at the figure.

This is a great type of art reference pose because it’s very dynamic. Even though the character itself isn’t very gestural, the perspective appears to give the figure movement, volume, and dimension.

Main points when drawing these types of art reference poses:

Draw a 3D box where you can see the bottom.
Draw your character inside the box while following the box’s sides of when they converge and when they diverge to really push the perspective.
Make sure you see the undersides of your figure or bottom edges, like the bottom edge of a head or pelvis like in the purple

5. High Angle Pose

Here are some photos for art reference showing a character pose from a high angle.

High angle poses have the same effect as low angle ones in that they’re very dynamic to look at. They’re usually used to show a character in a voyeuristic or semi-creepy angle or even to make the character look smaller or appear less important. Like something foreboding will happen. So if you’re drawing a villainous vampire, an evil ruler of the skies who commands soul-sucking dragons, or a witch who uses devouring enchantments and herbs to create hungry teenagers bent on rampaging through school cafeterias, then these are the perfect poses for character designs in similar categories.

High angle poses are also fantastic for showing characters or figures that are less important. Like dwarves, a beefed-up meat head who occasionally talks to the main charcter, or any secondary or sub-character.
Draw a box in perspective, then your figure inside, making sure it converges downward. Hint: it’ll really help sell this point of view!
When done right, you should see (or pay attention to) the top sides of your figure (colored in purple below).

The pose above is something simple to get you started. If you’re not used to drawing characters from high or low angles, a simple straight pose with the figure’s hands on their sides is a great place to start. Don’t try to make it too complicated, though, esp. if this isn’t something you’re used to drawing.

6. Foreshortening – “Flying Hero Pose”

The last of these essential poses for character designs is foreshortening.

Foreshortening is when a part of an object or figure appears closer to us than the rest of the object due to our viewpoint in perspective. Basically, the closer something is to us, the larger it looks. And the further something is, the smaller it appears. For example, if you hold your hand right up to your face, it looks large but when you extend your arm and hand in front of you, it looks smaller. It’s the same when drawing objects and figures.

There are many different types of art reference poses showing foreshortening from all sorts of angles.

Good foreshortening photos for art reference have figures posed where you can’t see their full body, only from certain angles where parts of their body are obscured or when you can only see 1 angle or side of their face.
Try taking your own art reference photos with a friend using your phone camera by placing an arm or hand in front of you.

The art reference photos above show a “flying hero” pose.

Draw a box in perspective that goes to a vanishing point.
One hand or limb is closer to us, so it looks bigger than other areas – Draw it bigger!
The line of action is shaped like a ‘swoosh’, like a trail of wind to give a weightless feel.
Pose is diagonal but can be horizontal when you want to show a character’s speed when flying or in full-flight.

Now you’re ready to create some stunning character and figure drawings using these awesome poses! With the right kinds of art reference photos, you can create unique figures and characters while standing out from the crowd.

Social Media for Art: 10 Dangerous Lasting Effects on Artist's Mental Health

Article / 08 October 2023

Social media for art is a wonderful tool to get exposure and share your art. But it can also backfire if you’re not prepared to expect certain outcomes that may not meet your expectations. It’s incredibly easy to fall into a mental trap of disappointment, outside approval of things that you don’t have control over, and even loss of self-esteem at times. Ultimately, using social media can be a dangerous hazard to your mental stability. Here is a list of 10 lasting negative effects on your mental health when using social media for art.

Grab this free 2 PG printable PDF Drawing Stress Relief Cheat Sheet for Artists below to instantly plus 9 Essential Stress Relief Tips, 12 Stress Relief Activity Ideas + more!

10 Dangerous, Lasting Mental Health Effects of Using Social Media for Art

1. Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem comes from emotions such as feeling that you’re work and efforts aren’t noticed or that you’re ‘not good enough’ (whether it has to do with your skill or having a small following on social media).

This is a sly mental hazard that can pass under your radar when using social media for art because low self-esteem is very dependent on how you use it to gain a following . . . And that’s through other accounts’ engagement with your content.

For example, if your content gets noticed more, you’re more likely to feel happy and continue using social media. But if your content performs poorly, you’re more likely to feel bad about yourself and start to doubt your skills and posted work. Be sure to look out for this, if it comes up!

Low self-esteem from using social media for art comes from having either too high of expectations from outside sources that you can’t control (like how many ‘likes’ or ‘saves’ on your content) or too low of expectations in yourself, where you start to doubt yourself and what unique creations you bring to the table.

2. A Persistence of Approval from Outside Sources

In order to be successful on social media, we need engagement and even sometimes online social approval from other accounts and people.

Basically, when we use social media for art we must rely on outside sources to make it big on sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

The problem here, is that we’re no longer relying on ourselves and thus our self-confidence, but leaving it up to the masses and what they like.

Therefore, a balance between personal satisfaction and wanting to satisfy others then becomes a struggle where the scales tip to the latter. When this happens and we start to cater and sacrifice bits of who we are to people we’ve never even met, we start to value their opinions and actions more than our own. And in turn, we may even lose ourselves and uniqueness in the process, which can be mentally damaging and challenging to get back later on.

A fix for this mental effect is to believe and have confidence in your individuality, uniqueness, and yourself. You can try learning to build yourself up through gratefulness, rewarding yourself on accomplishments (either big or small, doesn’t matter), or saying positive affirmations to yourself and manifesting positivity with optimism. Here are a few more techniques and mindsets that will help you overcome this negative feeling of having art anxiety and how to be confident with your art.

3. Disappointment in Lack of Online Engagement

Anytime we use social media for art, our account growth is primarily dependent on engagement from other accounts through sources likes ‘follows’, ‘likes’, ‘comments’, and re-shares.

For some sites, when our content performs badly, we get ‘punished’ by the site where our content reaches less people and therefore less engagement and is less seen. Just because your content isn’t getting engagement doesn’t mean it’s bad. It mostly has to do with the site’s algorithms and what’s currently trending which is not an accurate depiction of valuable content.

When you use social media for art, disappointment from a lack of engagement with your content can creep up if you’re not careful of your expectations from using social media.

In this case, it’s vital that you set healthy boundaries and expectations when deciding to post on social media to help prevent feelings of incompetence, disappointment, and low self-esteem. Boundaries can include how much time you spend on a platform, how much effort you want to put into a post, or how much you’re willing to engage with other accounts. Expectations can be how you use social media for art, in what specific ways you’d want to use it, and thinking ahead to how it will affect you if your social account doesn’t gain popularity.

Using the above tips will help you prevent these negative effects of social media on your mental health including the one that’s next – a real blow to how you perceive yourself in all aspects of your life.

4. Less Confidence in Yourself

Disappointment in how well or fast our accounts grow when we use social media for art can take a huge toll on our confidence.

Since social accounts rely heavily on what other people think, there is often a lack of trust in ourselves that becomes more prominent when we feel we’re not seen.

This lends itself to low self-esteem and self confidence, often in the form of doubt and feeling like we’re not good enough or that our content really sucks. Which in most cases, is not true!

Basically, our perceptions of ourselves become warped and often untrue. Over time, this constant way of negative thinking and having less confidence ends up spilling into our personal lives if not also professional.

Less confidence prevents us from reaching our goals and experiencing new things. It stunts our ability to change and grow from our experiences, keeping us mentally stagnant and even afraid of other possibilities. You don’t want to be stuck in an endless negative loop, do you? Hint: it’s not doing anyone any favors here.

When you use social media for art, try making a list of negative emotional triggers when using each platform. Like what makes you feel disappointed or sad. This’ll help you identify what is draining your self-confidence. From there, you can write down ways that’ll prevent you from falling into these negative mental traps while keeping you focused and consistent with your social media accounts. But only if it’s something you’re into!

For a more in-depth look and further solutions, check out this helpful article on how to stop and prevent anxiety and depression as a social media artist.

5. Using Social Media for Art Produces High Anxiety and Stress

A lot of us including myself have used social media for art but have gone about it the wrong way.

A common thing I keep hearing, is to ‘post every day’ if you want to be successful on social media.

Now, this may be possible for some but for a lot of artists including myself, I find this incredibly difficult and even impossible to do.

As a concept artist, it’s not easy to create something new every single day, especially when there’s painstaking detail and thinking involved in each design. I felt a constant pressure to always post a new artwork to Instagram. What posting every day did to me, was make me worry about all the days I didn’t post versus focusing on the day at hand. I failed miserably at posting. Not only did posting on social media for art exposure limit my perception of what I could do, I also felt very trapped with a constant cloud of anxiety and stress looming over me because I wasn’t able to post a new work every day. It was an unrealistic standard for me that I couldn’t reach. It built up so much stress and anxiety that I ultimately left the platform in 2019 to de-stress and collect myself. And I’ve been feeling fantastic ever since!

If you ever feel you need a break from social media, absolutely take it! Don’t wait. Your mental and physical health are always worth more than a couple pictures or online personas. You deserve it and owe it to yourself 🙂

Whenever you’re using social media for art take your time to understand and know your limits of what you personally can or can’t do on a platform. Do some research on how to grow a following in the easiest and most achievable way for you. This will help you be consistent with your content but helps you avoid stress and anxiety from building up into your personal life. You can also grab my free art therapy activity printables for relieving anxiety and stress when you just want a mental breather on-demand.

6. Burnout

Ever feel you work so much on something only to be mentally or physically exhausted and even unmotivated at times?

Well, that’s burnout.

Using social media for art can be wonderful in getting exposure but only if you’re consistent and have quality content. These two points are necessary in becoming successful on social platforms.

But guess what? They’re also the top two things that have a winning chance of unapologetically depleting your time, energy, and motivation to the point where it’s dangerous for your well-being.

If not taken care of, burnout has the potential to ruin our lives over time in ways we’d never expect. It’s because it attacks both our physicality and mentality. A frightening combination. But I don’t want to scare you.

With a few simple techniques and a bit of organization, burnout when using social media for art can be easily prevented.

7. Low Happiness

We’ve discussed earlier that when we use social media for art we can lose our self confidence and self-esteem. When that happens, guess what else we lose in the process?

If you guessed happiness, you’re right.

When confidence in ourselves gets foggy we also stray away from the positive. When we put more energy and time into the negative it only makes those emotions stronger and no longer prioritizes our feel-good moments and qualities. A shift towards a bleak outcome tends to take over and engulf us at times.

A quick fix to remedy low happiness is to distance yourself from those negative feelings. Notice your negative thoughts and ask yourself why you’re feeling that emotion. You don’t need a solution, just a simple reason and some mental distancing. If this doesn’t make sense to you, you can also try these easy art inspiration drawing ideas to instantly put you in a better mood!

8. Procrastination – Fear of Failure When Using Social Media for Art

When we think of procrastination, we think of putting things off. While this is true, the main reason behind procrastination is not laziness but fear of failure.

To learn more about procrastination, here’s an accurate and informative video by The School of Life about how procrastination is a result of avoiding uncomfortable situations with tips on how to overcome it.

Fear of failure can arise from using social media for art when we’re afraid of making content that may be terrible or unpopular. While this may be true, it’s not certain.

While we do experience a fear of failing, it doesn’t mean that emotion is true. We don’t know the outcome for sure because we haven’t experienced it yet.

But when we do have that fear, we tend to avoid situations that make us uncomfortable, thus putting off our work and tasks for another time.

A result of procrastination when using social media for art is when we consistently post high quality content but are afraid the next one’ll suck. (I feel this way every time I post!) So, we end up delaying our post or not even posting at all! I’m definitely guilty of the latter. Or maybe there’s a fear of less engagement or a possible unfollowing from your next post. Have you ever felt this way when using social media for art?

When procrastination ends up becoming a constant habit, it can be quite difficult to remedy. It can end up pouring into our daily tasks and even into our work causing us to put off important duties or resulting in unfinished (work) projects.

An easy solution to get you started, is to think about all the rewards you’ll get from completing a task. How much good will it do for you vs. not completing a task? When you shift your mindset from fear, to comfort and positivity, you’re more likely to start a task and even finish it because you have a clear and positive outcome. Try thinking this way the next time there’s a duty you’re trying to avoid.

9. It’s Easy to Lose Track of Your Uniqueness & Style

An important thing to consider when using social media for art is your voice. What do you bring that makes you unique, different, and is a reflection of your personal style? These are all key points in having social media success.

But the trap here is it’s insanely easy to fall into someone else’s voice while losing your own. Social media requires us to spend time on their platform to be successful, allowing constant outside influences to be a part of that growth. What this can do, is water down our own uniqueness and style. Even influencing our art and voice outside of social media, something that makes us unique as individuals.

Keeping your personality in your art and work process is what makes people and companies enjoy you, your creativity, and want to hire you! Don’t forget that 😉

To avoid losing your creative voice when using social media for art, have a clear + specific plan of what you want to show online. Make notes of your goals and how to achieve them w/ your creative voice. Set boundaries for how much you want to stray away from that voice. For example, to boost my account growth, I’ll make a couple trending videos. But not where that’s a majority of my content.

10. You Start Comparing Yourself to Other Artists

For me, this was the biggest issue I overcame from using social media for art.

When you start comparing yourself to other artists online, doubt and fear of not being good enough may creep into your mind. These and other thoughts then have an enormous effect on your confidence, ability to complete tasks, and self-esteem, numbing your focus, determination, and happiness. A mental battle then ensues where you’re competing and trying to keep up with other artists. Thoughts like “I wish I was better”, “They have it so good”, “I want to do ___ instead of ___”, or “I’ll never be good enough” are all self-defeating and negatively affect other aspects of your life. Relationships, work, and your hobbies are all extremely vulnerable to this. So if you start comparing yourself to other artists, make a note of how it happened and try giving yourself positive affirmations instead.

A great fix is to take some time off from social media. It can be days, weeks, months, or even years. Whatever works for you. It’s a social media detox. If you must use social media for art, promotion, etc., then I’d highly suggest posting your own content without browsing the ‘explore’ sections or your feed. This allows you to focus on your content w/out being influenced or comparing yourself to others. You can even follow accounts where you like their content but don’t feel intimidated by them. This has helped me stay focused and consistent with my content.

That was the last one!

Other Helpful Resources & Artist Tips

Check out some of these helpful resources for more awesome artist tips, tutorials, and more:

Using social media for art is a wonderful tool to have more eyes on your work, just make sure you find a good balance between that and your personal life.

Which negative mental effect resonates with you the most or how has using social media effected you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! See you in the next post.

The article Social Media for Art: 10 Dangerous Lasting Effects on Mental Health originally appeared on Drawism.com first.

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Stunning Cinematic 'The Matrix' Fan Art Location Photoshoot

Article / 04 October 2023

A digitized world filled with green hues, where everything is made of lies and code, is a false reality developed by machines called ‘the Matrix’. With the rise of AI, even the world of The Matrix may not seem so far off nowadays. It can be a scary thought. But for now, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves and instead take the ‘red pill’ for the next few minutes. Dive into this awesome Matrix fan art photoshoot, filled with pictures of ‘what ifs’ & possibilities if these things existed in the Matrix.

Why Matrix Fan Art?

One of the main reasons I decided to create my own “Matrix” fan art is because I’m an enormous fan of the original film. From the cinematography and the video game-esque feel, to the compelling and dystopic story, I was enamored with this visual masterpiece. And let’s not forget the stunning martial arts choreography (I love geeking out on classic martial arts films)!

It was the first “Matrix” film that played a huge role in inspiring me to become a concept artist and work in entertainment.

Whenever I showed my sci fi art at conventions, the question I got asked the most was “What was your inspiration for creating this piece?”.

I would always answer “The Matrix.”

My fascination with science fiction and psychological motifs started with this film and has been a huge part of my art and inspiration ever since.

I decided to create cinematic photographs of my own adventures and basically Matrix-fy them with that signature eerie green look.

To learn more about the Matrix film, here’s an IMDB article. And for info on the 4th Matrix film, Matrix Resurrections, you can visit www.whatisthematrix.com.

Here are 12 cinematic “Matrix” photos taken with my smartphone, capturing different scenarios and scenes, some we can definitely relate to, plus other things that we didn’t see really get to see in the movies.

Cinematic Matrix Fan Art Photoshoot

*All artwork posted is photographed using my smartphone and digitally edited by me. All images posted are at a lower quality to fit my blog format and for viewing purposes only.

*There are spoilers in the post so if you haven’t seen the first 2 Matrix films, I’d highly recommend watching them!

1. Behind the Door

Let’s start this off with a simple picture below, a sneak peek into a bathroom & shower, if it was Matrix-fied.

I wanted this to be a tight shot because in the Matrix films, there’s always a feeling of being trapped, confined, and even enslaved, so I wanted to give off that feeling right away. I wanted to capture the simple yet intricate details of the door’s handle in dark light with a stark contrast of bright lighting and lack of immense detail in the bath tub to give a sense of space and contrast.

And the little dark fuzz in the bathtub is my cat! Seems like he wanted to play in the tub for a bit.

And no, he’s not a black cat, no glitch in the Matrix here!

Tighter shots are a fantastic way to give off an impactful first impression while leaving your audience intrigued and setting the stage for what’s to come, keeping them constantly engaged.

When storytelling is involved, it’s best to start off with tight images or scenes so you don’t reveal too much too soon. If I told you the ending of the Matrix, that would spoil the movie and suddenly you might not be as interested. Same concept when it comes to showcasing an art project or anything that involves multiple images or scenes.

Fantastic storytelling doesn’t just rely on the story but the audience and how they perceive and understand it as well.

In many of these Matrix fan art photos, I referenced screenshots from the first two films to help me nail down the look and feel of each photograph. I really wanted to capture that greenish digital-feeling aesthetic.

2. Bridge Battle

In this next Matrix fan art pic, is an aged bridge.

I took this picture in the car while my dad was driving, so you can see a bit of the inside ceiling in the top left corner.

The architecture and details of the bridge are stunning and I love the peeling paint because it adds a bit of story and a feeling of age and use.

I took this photo because it reminded me of (one of my favorite scenes) the freeway scene in The Matrix: Reloaded, including the van/truck in the image.

Matrix fans, you know what I’m talking about!

Paying attention to the small details such as crack in walls or a broken object really helps tell a story and give your art unmatched character and personality as opposed to an image without those things.

Let’s widen the scene a bit with the next photo, below.

3. Digital Skyline

Here’s a hillside photo taken in the afternoon, overlooking a bustling cityscape.

I wanted to capture a more detailed scene than the previous pics to give off a greater feeling of environment and space. Basically giving our eyes space to ‘breathe’ a bit and to give you a better sense of a setting.

Like the films, I added that greenish-blue tint again to the photo. But since it’s in the afternoon, the yellowish light from the sun is less saturated and closer to a green-gray or white, like in the films.

Sadly, this Matrix fan art photo was not taken in Australia but in another very famous and well-known city.

Can you tell which city this is, above?

4. The Office Building

You can’t have Matrix fan art without some tall, menacing corporate buildings.

This picture reminded me of where Neo’s 9–5 job in the Matrix was, right before he got ‘bugged’ by the agents. It was a very iconic and intense scene, so I definitely wanted to edit an image of something (that seemed to me) devoid of happiness, color, and confined.

(I understand this is a hotel but it gives off a creepy corporate vibe.)

5. Mountains on the ‘Highway’

You know, we never really got to see any nature or pastoral scenes within the Matrix, in the films.

Only ever dense cities and buildings, which I’m guessing would make sense, given that the Matrix is built by machines and everything is supposed to feel and look artificial or man made but definitely not natural.

This is a little peek at ‘what if’ the Matrix did have some sort of special area that has a particularly natural, pastoral vibe.

6. Lines of People

So this next Matrix fan art screenshot was taken summer of 2020 — a depressing and scary time where we had our outdoor ‘freedom’, so-to-speak, confined to specific instances, depending on where you lived. I stayed home about 90% of the time and only went out to drive for a breath of fresh air.

It’s a great image because yeah, the pandemic almost didn’t feel real because of how insane and crazy it got, with the stay-at-home orders and mask mandates where I live.

The density of people in outdoor places wearing masks but not super packed as everyone needed to stay distant from each other was quite a surreal feeling at first.

This image was taken in the parking garage of an Ikea.

7. Don’t Forget the Giant Digital Screen!

How would a clothing store look like in the matrix? That’s the question I tried to answer in the photo below.

This next image is one of my absolute favorites because of the lighting and dark green colors, like those of Trinity’s chase at the beginning of the first film, and the indoor scenes later on, like when Morpheus needs to be rescued.

This Matrix fan art photo was taken inside a pop-up clothing store a few years ago.

I loved the indoor lighting and the projector screen really helps give off that digital feeling of being inside a computer or program.

I wanted to give as much focus to the screen as I could because it really stood out to me from the rest of the area.

The original unedited photo looks pretty blown-out with diffused lighting. I wanted these normal and randomly taken photos to have a cinematic touch.

8. Inspired by The ‘Oracle’s’ Apartment

If there was a yellow apartment that existed in the matrix during dusk, the below photo is what I imagined it would look like.

For this Matrix fan art image I was inspired by the Oracle’s apartment building. What if it was yellow and stood out from its surrounding area?

In fact, we never actually see the outside of her apartment, only inside.

The apartment was my main focus in the photos as it’s the most vibrant part of the piece and contrasts very well against a blue-green sky.

Some of the fine details really give character to the image and environment, such as the ‘Cleaners’ sign — ‘who uses that?’ and ‘why is it there?’ are some of the questions I ask myself when I take these photos.

When taking photos or creating a piece for a project, story builds the foundation for a successful and relatable piece of art.

Try to capture the things you like the most in your art and projects as they will really show your passion and inspiration in the end result.

9. Matrix Sunglasses

One of the most iconic images in the first film was Morpheus’ sun glasses when he makes Neo decide which pill to take.

It was such a stunning image that I tried to make my own but definitely not as story driven.

Sunglasses in the Matrix act as a means of disguise to shield one’s eyes, intentions, and even self, from the deception and lies of the machine’s programs.

Or at least, to hide who they are.

If you’ve noticed, almost every time the main characters are in the Matrix, they have their sunglasses on. The few times you see them off when they are in the digital world, usually shows a scene of vulnerability and real emotion, like when Neo goes to see the Oracle, when he kisses the Merovingian’s wife, or when Morpheus fights one of the agents on the highway when he’s protecting the Key Maker.

So, I tried to capture the absurdness of the digital world through the sunglasses’ reflection with our ‘main character’ as a human and not a program.

Although, if you look close enough, you might find some interesting things going on in the reflection.

10. A ‘Matrix’ Burger Joint

Okay, question — What would a popular modern burger joint look like at night, if it was in the matrix?

That’s what this next Matrix fan art photo depicts.

Unfortunately in the films we didn’t see too much of the city in the Matrix, probably because everything looks how it does in reality, minus the green tint.

But here’s a modern take on that idea.

I love the orange construction barrier — it makes me think, “what’s going on here — what happened, what’s being constructed on?”. These little elements add more story and mystery to the piece.

The structure of the building feels sleek and somewhat futuristic, adding to the tech-y Matrix mood.

11. The Donut

Since we’re on the topic of food, the next image features a tasty treat!

We didn’t see any Matrix-ized food, so I created a picture of one.

I love tasty treats and if you’re like me, you’ll want to eat things that look good! So, I did my best to create a delicious donut if it existed in the Matrix. This was a Krispy Kreme key-lime pie donut.

Extra green on the icing with a crisp white dollop of frosting!

Is it real? Or just an illusion?

12. Parking Lot Battle

After watching the movies I definitely see a number of clean parking structures and buildings that give off a sense of being underground, like the underground world of hacking (basically what Neo and Morpheus’s team are doing). I guess the underground vibe really fit in well.

This is a mall parking structure. The lighting and architecture stood out to me against the night sky and I loved the reflective material against the garage door.

The ticket dispenser also reminds me of another scene — like Trinity could just blast into the building with her motorcycle.

Can you guess which Matrix scene this reminds you of? (Hint: it’s in the second film and part of the image’s title.)

13. Reminiscent of the Mansion of the Merovingian

No Matrix fan art is complete without a fight scene setting.

In this pic below, I was inspired by the indoor fight scene in Matrix Reloaded where the Merovingian unleashes his goons on Neo.

Definitely one of the most memorable and exciting scenes in that film!

I loved the classic architecture and sculptural setting in that scene which is why I captured this building with its classical elements.

On another note, the ceiling on the inside arch almost look like type keys in a keyboard, further adding to the films’ digital motifs.

That was the last image.

I hope you enjoyed taking this little ‘tour’ and seeing other possibilities that could exist in the Matrix.

Check Out More Exciting Pop Culture Art & Drawing Tutorials

For even more imaginative pop culture inspiration, art, and freebies, check out these other amazing related articles below!

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Sadly our Matrix fan art photoshoot ends here.

Which image stood out to you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The article Stunning Cinematic Matrix Fan Art Location Photoshoot was originally published on Drawism.com first.

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How to Art Critique the Right Way & Give a Valuable & Meaningful Art Critique

Article / 17 September 2023

Learn how to art critique the right way. Now more than ever, there’s so much online accessibility to art with many artists taking part in social media and online communities. Unfortunately, not everyone online has other peoples’ best interests at heart. This article covers the main differences between a constructive art critique vs. harmful art bashing, how to give a proper art critique, and how to react to art bashing. It’s important to know that while posting art online or showing it off can be fun and great to build your community, there are some individuals that don’t pay attention to the feelings of others when it comes to art.

Sadly, some artists have experienced hostile “criticism” that is neither constructive nor supportive of the artists and/or their work. Hostile criticism can be emotionally damaging at times. This is not a critique but rather a type of online harassment. Like putting someone down.

On the other hand, many online art communities are supportive of other artists and are willing to give advice to those who ask for it.

What is an Art Critique?

An art critique is a type of constructive criticism or feedback that is made with the intention to help someone improve their art.

The purpose of an art critique is to help inform the artist, both pointing out the strong and weak points of an artwork, not just the bad points. This is an especially important note because their (art critiques’) purpose is beneficial to the person receiving the information.

Think of it as helpful and valuable advice for your art.

An art critique usually focuses on all aspects of an artwork including technical skills, ideas and thought processes, and even the creation process of the work which encompasses concepts and materials.

It is mostly given by professionals or people in that particular field.

Examples of people giving art critiques are professors, mentors, teachers, artists, and/or people working in the industry. They can even be your peers and classmates. So, they’re usually people with professional working experience and most likely some amount of success.

An art critique helps you understand the process of creating art. It helps guide you in a positive direction while helping prevent certain bad artistic habits. That’s the only way to get better: learning from your mistakes.

A sample critique would be if an art instructor told you that you spend too much time on an artwork or challenging the way you think about new ideas. It helps improve your work exponentially and quickly, while helping preparing you for real- world challenges. It’s definitely a good situation to be in if you take art seriously and want to succeed in this field. Because most likely, there’re going to be a LOT of mistakes made but it’s a part of learning, so you’re good.

What is NOT an Art Critique

There are many ways people can talk about art but it’s important to distinguish an art critique from common one-off statements if you either want to give a legitimate meaningful critique, or want to avoid being offended by a useless comment that doesn’t help you.

Here are examples of what is not considered an art critique or how, given certain parameters and situations. Some of these can be helpful to you or other artists but it always depends on the situation and context so use your best judgement when either giving these comments or receiving them.

Opinions
- There are many opinions when it comes to discussing art but remember they are just that: opinions.
- Opinions on an artwork may not be considered art critiques to some because they don’t usually have the main intention of helping the artists improve their work idea-wise nor technically.
- They usually start with an ‘I’ statement, like “I like this piece” or “I think this artwork looks like . . .”.
- Most opinions are short comments but some can be quite long.
- Basically, they’re just someone’s individual point of view. An expression of how the viewer feels about a piece which may or may not take into consideration the artist’s feelings or efforts.
- Take into consideration that opinions come from people who may not be in or fully familiar with the art community.
- Remember: These statements might not be honest or true, so take them at face value, first, then use your best judgement if you find them helpful or not.
One-Sentence Statements
- Simple statements or comments that talk about 1 point or aspect of a piece without going into any sort of detail.
- These don’t take much artistic intellect.
Compliments
- Mostly harmless, short statements.
- These definitely make artists feel good but they’re not constructive when they don’t go in-depth about why an artwork is great.
- Basically, they’re just nice opinions but non-constructive, like “I love this!”, “Great job”, or “I wish I could buy this”.
- Yeah, people may like the way your work is already but sometimes too many compliments without constructive feedback can stop your growth as an artist or even set a high standard for your work that you feel you might not be able to meet later on.
- Relying too much on compliments as an artist can be detrimental to your work, while giving them thoughtfully can be beneficial in connecting with one (an artist). It really depends on the situation and how you want them to work (or not in your favor). So use your best judgement when receiving or giving compliments on someone’s art.

In the next section, I explain why art critiques are valuable to both the person who is receiving one and the individual who’s giving it.

Why Art Critiques are Worth Your Time

From an Artist’s Point of View

Art critiques don’t have the intention of being malicious or mean. They come from a place of respect and understanding, with a desire for another person’s success.

Although some critiques can sound nit-picky or like the critic is pin-pointing just you, they’re not.

Everyone has a different view and perspective when viewing art.

So, it’s very important to know that critiques are not personal in any way and not directed at who you are. And that’s okay if your work receives varying opinions. Not everyone will have the same thought for an artwork. That’s what makes art so unique.

Everyone views art in their own way and isn’t bound to any one interpretation.

Lastly, having many art critiques for your artwork can be a wonderful thing. With multiple art critiques, you have different types of eyes and opinions on your work. This is great because it allows you to see a different side or new idea of your work, that you may not have thought of. This helps your creative process by challenging you to think outside of your normal ideas and techniques to create a more informed and knowledgeable artist,you.

From a Critic’s Standpoint

Giving meaningful and thoughtful art critiques improves your ‘artist’s eye’, which helps you recognize what needs to be improved in not only someone else’s work but in your own as well.

When giving an honest and helpful art critique, you’re also more aware of mistakes and areas that need improvement. You’re helping another artist out by giving them valuable advice. It’s a win-win situation!

The best, most successful artists, take critiques as a chance to grow and become better at their craft, not as an insult.

How to Spot an Art Critique

1. Usually in a productive work environment with at least 1 professional artist. Some examples include a classroom, seminar, portfolio review, study session, workplace, panel or convention, group meeting, or on a team project.

2. Art critiques discuss changes and fixes to an artwork. Basically, how to make it better than it already is or how to improve weak areas.

3. When a critic or person critiquing, points out what’s not working but immediately follows that up with an improvement on how to fix the work. For example: “this looks rough and doesn’t look like you spent much time on it. Instead, try spending a bit more time on your idea and practice your techniques for the next assignments. It’ll make your project look professional and clean while painting you as a hireable artist.”

When You Should Give an Art Critique

1. When an artist specifically asks for an art critique or review.

2. In a classroom setting where feedback is asked for by the instructor.

3. When reviewing an art portfolio.

4. During judging for a competition or similar event.

5. Any other event that specifically prompts an art critique.

When NOT to Give an Art Critique

Art critiques when given unannounced, can actually be quite rude and disrespectful to an artist. This is because not everyone is in the mood at all times to receive these critiques. It can be draining for someone to constantly have their art reviewed when unprompted, especially in settings that don’t call for it. Not to mention, it can make the reviewer look like a total jerk.

So, the setting is incredibly important if you’re giving a good art critique.

Here are some situations and settings where it’s NOT okay to critique someone’s art.

On Opening Night at an Art Gallery or Show
- Art galleries and art shows are all about showcasing the artists’ talents.
- This is a night for entertainment, celebration, achievement, praise for their hard work, and an overall fun night, not another art review.
- Here, viewers have the opportunity to connect and talk with the artists, not tell them how they should paint or draw. Positive comments and potential clients are a main focus for artists on these nights. Most artists want to be appreciated for their hard work and sacrifices. So, you can give it to them if you feel comfortable doing so.
- Instead, keep your criticism to yourself. These events aren’t about anyone else except the artists and those who helped put on the show.
When an Artist is Selling their Work In Person
- This follows the same ideas as mentioned above.
- When an artist sells their work (either online or in-person) they’re presenting their work AS-IS!
- This isn’t the time to be telling them how to improve their art.
- Usually when an artist has their work for sale, they feel their work is at a professional quality to do so. It’s beyond disrespectful and rude to critique them when they are selling. Instead, praise them for what you do like, if you want to.
When the Artist Has NOT Asked for it and Is Merely Showing or Presenting Their Work
- Again, same exact principles as 1 & 2.
- NEVER give an art critique in an un-prompted setting. It can come off as rude and disrespectful.
- Many people don’t want advice when it isn’t asked for. Same for artists and their work.
- When this does happen, a lot of artists will smile and agree with the critique so to not be rude (I definitely do this). But most likely, they won’t think about that critique again nor take it to heart and just continue with their day.
- Many artists are self-aware of their own skills and talent. And chances are, they have a pretty darn good idea of where their skills are at, myself included.
Any Relaxing or Fun Event that Isn’t Art-Centered
- It can be anything from a wedding, convention, family get-together, or a vacation.
- These events and settings are joyous and most people want to enjoy them without thinking about work. The same applies to artists (although not all of us). But if an artist asks for a critique, better to give the advice AFTER the event as they’ll be more prepared to respond and value your critique.
- Quick Story: I went to my sister’s wedding and just wanted to enjoy the day. I did, for the most part. But at dinner, I just wanted to eat and relax. These types of events are extremely draining for me. Basically, my relative kept asking me questions about my blog and art. I understand his comments were extremely helpful. But honestly, I just wasn’t in the mood nor felt I had the energy to continue. I felt I had to appease him by keeping the conversation going and I was out of it by the end of the night. I remember some of what he said (more like 20%) but couldn’t recall the rest because my mind wasn’t in the head space for that.

Keep reading to find out how to give a valuable art critique and what it looks like. And if you don’t know how to art critique or give a proper critique, I’ve made a quick guide to help you understand the art critique process below!

How to Art Critique the Right Way: Give a Valuable & Meaningful Art Critique

1. Start by asking what the artist specifically wants to be critiqued for and why they want to be critiqued.

This will prevent you from making any unwanted comments or accidentally offending the artist and coming off as rude, mean, or insensitive.

2. Give your thoughtful opinions based on the answers from the previous step.

If the artist wants their work to be at a professional level, point out exactly what is or isn’t working.
If there’s an area where the artist is lacking, immediately follow it up with what they can do to improve that particular area of work.
Remember: don’t over-critique someone’s work or the artist might feel that they’re being made an example of or feel badly, especially if it’s online or they’ve never met you before.
If you’ve never met or engaged with the person you’re critiquing, keep the areas of improvement to max. 2 things. Neither of you have met prior, so there’s no guarantee the artist will take the critique as valuable feedback.

3. Point out their strong points.

Not only will this make other artists feel better but they’re more likely to take your critique in a positive manner and fix what wasn’t working.
It’s always great to be cordial with one another, especially in the art community as fellow artists are usually more than happy to extend a helping hand for those who are polite.
Not only that, when good compliments are given, people are more likely to remember and interact with those nice folks.

4. Try to give thoughtful ideas that the artist might not have thought of.

For example, you could say, “This tree painting looks nice but why not put the tree in a pool of water to show that It’s growing from the sea, since you said it needs saltwater to survive.”
These types of comments really help motivate others to continue with their art and projects in the best possible way.
Not only does it spark a new idea but it can really improve an artwork and push it to the next level.
You can think of these comments as leading another artist to a gateway for more inspiration and creativity.
Not only that but you’re critically thinking about an artwork as well and approaching it from a new standpoint, something that you can use for your own work. It’s a win-win situation!

5. End the critique with a positive comment.

Here are a few things you could say, “you’re doing a great job so far”, “you’re work has been improving, keep it up”, “I can’t wait to see more of your work”, or “you’re on the right track”.
This is important because it makes the artist feel really good & that their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.
These comments blatantly acknowledge the artist’s time, the skills they’ve learned with the sacrifices they made, and their improvement.
It gives artists a big feeling of accomplishment and sense of achievement.
Positive comments on artwork leave artists with a positive feeling, motivation, and willingness to keep making art and it’ll make you feel good, too, knowing you made someone’s day a little bit better.
Not only that, they’ll most likely remember for saying kind works about their art. As an artist, it really means a lot when someone acknowledges my efforts and work.

For an even more in-depth look at how to give a meaningful but not mean art critique and how to distinguish good critiques from bad ones, here are some helpful links below:

University of Wisconsin Green Bay Formal Outline – “Art Criticism and Formal Analysis Outline” ** A specific outline showing how the art critique process works, how to give one, who gives them.
Your Dictionary Article – “List of Descriptive Words to Critique Art” **A very helpful resource when figuring out how to write art critiques or describing art.

Art Bashing

Art Bashing is when someone makes a negative comment or controversial opinion about someone else’s artwork, that is neither constructive nor positive towards the artist. These comments are usually said without thinking about the artist’s feelings & are extremely opinionated. These types of comments reflect the commenters’ feelings with no consideration to the artist while being mentally hurtful to the artist.

Most often these comments come from people who might not know how to art critique or have little to no interest in giving one.

It is important to know when you or another artist is art bashed, so you can remove yourself from a hostile situation and replace it with a more positive environment❗

It’s never okay to harass someone, period. It doesn’t matter if the bashing happens online or in person, or even if it’s not about a person specifically but about an action they took, harassing someone is never okay‼

Why?

Because art bashing (and any type of verbal harassment for that matter) creates a hostile atmosphere that produces instantaneous negative feelings in someone.

Everyone has feelings.

And those feelings can include sadness, depression, loneliness, anger, anxiety, regret, low confidence, insecurities, and fear. Not everyone deals with those feelings the same way.

Please remember that everyone is different on the inside. Not everyone has thick skin to harsh words. Some people are more sensitive to comments than others and that’s 100% okay. It’s not their fault nor is it up to you or someone else to fix that.

When art bashing happens, it creates an instantaneous divide and sense of uneasiness between the person who gave the comment and the person that received it. Sometimes, the effects of art bullying can be long- lasting. In severe instances, traumatic.

If you don’t have something nice to say, keep it to yourself .

It’s 100% okay if there’s something you don’t like about another person’s art. Maybe you don’t like their art style, their coloring, or their process. That’s 100% fine. No one is forcing you to like their art. But at the same time no one is telling you or anyone else to say mean things to another artist.

Instead, say something nice of the artwork that you do like.

We all must be mindful of our words and create a better tomorrow with positivity 😃

Types of Art Bashing

There are a few different forms of art bashing. They’re great examples of how to art critique the wrong way and what you or the critic should not be doing.

It can happen in these ways:

Someone posts mean, unthoughtful comments on social media about the artist, their work, or both.
Saying their work isn’t good enough or putting that person down.
Drawing over or editing someone’s work in a malicious way that’s intended to make the artist feel negative.
Telling your followers or community to go after someone or their art.
Making fun of an artist’s work. An example, would be comparing someone’s drawing to a heinous person, act, or event that is riddled with negativity.

How to Spot Art Bashing

A surefire way to check if someone art bashes is when someone says or posts a short unthoughtful negative comment and doesn’t follow that comment with something positive or constructive.

Here are some examples of art bashing and mean comments on artists’ work, great references for how to art critique the wrong way :

When someone does this, they’re letting their words and comments sit so it can sink into the minds of their targets. This is a manipulative mental tactic used to make someone feel inferior, defenseless, and doubtful of their own abilities.

But the one thing you MUST REMEMBER, is that what these jokers say isn’t true. Their comments are meant to get a negative reaction from you. Basically, they want to annoy and bring you down. That’s the main point of harassment.

Harmful comments can be very dangerous tools that can shift someone’s sense of stability, protection, and confidence into a pile of rubble.

Yeah, you won’t get physically hurt from it now, but any type of harassment can have an enormous effect on someone’s mental well-being and way of life. It can even become so bad where your body maybe in stress mode and start to damage itself! So it’s crucial to know when and how to keep away from people and things that’ll risk your mental health.

It’s not always easy to get away from it but below are a few tips to help you stay away from and recover from art bashing, specifically online.

How to Protect Yourself & Recover from Art Bashing

Take Time to Yourself
- You need this more than anyone right now and deserve it.
- With a calm mind, you can take steps to address the situation when you’re ready.
- You’re also more likely to do something you won’t regret later on.
If it’s Social Media, Feel Free to Block or Report Them
- If someone said something mean and hurtful that really hurt your feelings, take some time to process the situation. How do those negative comments make you feel? What do you need right now in the moment?
- You need to surround yourself with positive and supportive peers. And an art basher is neither of those. So block or report them if you feel comfortable doing so.
Make Your Mental Health a Major Priority
- When you surround yourself with the people and things you love, you tend to be mentally unbreakable. This is because you know what you value in life and aren’t willingly to give attention to things that take away from it. This is because surrounding yourself in toxicity is just not worth your time.
- When we’re in a mental state of being happy with ourselves, accomplishments or not, we’re more likely to let negative things pass by us and move on rather than waste our time engaging in the negativity.
Get Off Social Media
- We sometimes don’t want to admit it (myself included, for sure) but it can be extremely stressful not to mention mentally draining at times. Especially with some platforms requiring you to post content and interact with users on a daily basis.
- A well-deserved break is definitely needed. Try treating yourself to a self-care weekend retreat by doing things that make you feel amazing or pampered.
- If you feel you need to get rid of social media completely, absolutely do so. I’ve stopped going on Instagram because I was so stressed about what others thought about my work or felt like I didn’t have enough artistic talent. Since then, I’ve been extremely productive and one of the results is this blog!
Talk to Someone That You 100% Know You Can Trust, About Your Situation
- It can be something recent or something that happened a long time ago.
- Verbally talking to someone else about the incident helps you in 2 immense ways.
  1. This helps you relieve stress from the situation by getting it out of your system. It’s a weight lifted from your shoulders that you don’t have to continue keeping to yourself nor is it a situation that you must face by yourself.
  2. Your confidant can give you suggestions. Basically, you’ll be much better equipped and prepared the next time around when art bashing (or just harassment) does happen. Not only that but you’ll feel more confident in a negative situation that you’ll be able to get out of more easily.

To learn more about dealing with art bashing and negative comments on your art, you can check this article out below:

Donna Herron – “How to Deal With Negative Comments About Your Art or Crafts on Social Media”

Other Helpful Art + Artist Tips & Resources!

What art critique tips or stories do you have? Share your experiences below!

See you in the next post and keep creating!

The article Art Critique Vs. Art Bashing: How To Art Critique Right as originally published on Drawism.com.

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10 Easy Expressive Art Therapy Activities

1. Draw Your Feelings

2. Draw What Makes You Feel Happy

3. Use Your Favorite Colors

4. Nature Drawing

5. Draw Your Favorite Animal

6. Illustrated Text

7. Draw Movement

8. Free Drawing

9. Make a Self Portrait

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The Big Difference Between Traditional Art Expression And Expressive Art Therapy Activities

What is Traditional Art Expression?

What are Expressive Art Therapy Activities?

The Intent of Your Art

Traditional Art Expression

Expressive Art Therapy Activities

Types of Traditional Art Expression & Art Therapy Activities

Artistic Expression Examples

1. Abstract Art

2. Comment on Society or Culture

3. Self Portrait

4. Personal Art Style

5. Art Self-Expression Drawing

Art Therapy Activities

1. Mindfulness Drawing

2. Doodling

3. Art Therapy Prompts

4. Coloring

Why is Artistic Expression Important?

More Expressive Art Therapy & Traditional Art Expression Activities:

Art Therapy Activities

Traditional Art Expression & Drawing Ideas

Social Media Artist: 7 Easy Ways to Stop Depression & Anxiety When You're Online

1. Don't Rely on External Sources for Your Confidence & Validation in Both Your Art & Personal Life

2. Treat Being a Social Media Artist as a Job

3. Do Your Best to Not Bring Your Emotions Into It

4. Have a Back Up System or Ritual To Do When You Notice You're Feeling Down from low engagement or negative responses

SOCIAL MEDIA ARTIST DETOX SUGGESTIONS:

5. Social Media Artists : Be Prepared to Be Disappointed

6. Be Aware & Notice When You're Feeling Down

How to Notice Negative Mental Feelings When You're a Social Media Artist

7. Set Blocks of Time To Be On Social Media

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1. Your First Few Drawings Are Not Going to Be Your Best

2. Drawing is a Slow Process Before You Start Seeing Big Results

3. There’s a Lot of Competition When Applying for Art Jobs or Standing Out as an Artist

4. Be Prepared to Spend a Lot of Time Drawing

5. Get Ready to Make a Lot of Mistakes and Be Prepared for (Many) Failures

6. Not Everything Will Make Sense to You at First

7. Getting Yourself to Start Drawing Everyday is an Achievement, Not Something that Happens Naturally

8. Social Media Can Halt Your Progress as an Artist

9. Not Everyone will Like or Appreciate Your Art

10. Be Prepared to Receive Criticism Both Good and Bad

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Cool Super Mario Fan Art Drawings & Inspiration

1. Question Block in the Super Mario Art Style

2. Cool Buzzy Beetle Super Mario World Fan Art

3. Super Mario World Backgrounds

25 Creative & Effortless Super Mario Drawing Ideas

How to Draw in the Mario Art Style

Style

Color

Characters

Types of Super Mario Fan Art

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10 Soothing Drawing Art Therapy Prompts for Racing Thoughts, Anxiety, & Stress Relief

1. Colorful Designs and Patterns

2. Fun Food

3. Draw Yourself on an Island with Your Favorite Things

4. Art Therapy Drawing From Memory

5. Quick Watercolor Gradient Art Therapy Exercises

6. Continuous Art Therapy Drawing

7. Transferring Emotions Techniques in Art Therapy

8. Drawing Your Mood Throughout the Day

9. Fast Scribbling and/or Shading

10. Gratefulness Sketching

What is an Art Therapy Activity?