Exercises to help you get creative

“The Creator created us as creators. Most people are afraid of their creativity, because it is a profound opening of the heart and mind. We do not do creativity. It does us. It is a deep surrender that adds art, healing, beauty, and bonding to the world. Creativity is one of life’s gifts that makes us profusely happy.” – Chuck SpezzanoPsychologist

Here are some art exercises to get you in the creative flow…

Draw or paint your emotion

Use colour and paints to explore how you are feeling. Do a 5 minute word association of all the feelings/emotion words you can think of (anger, love, jealousy, fear, joy). Now choose one word to explore using art and colour. Set a time-limit of 10/15 minutes to explore this emotion through spontaneous art. Don’t think, just do what comes naturally and to mind.

Make a stress painting. Choose colours that represent your stress and jab, scribble and paint your problems away. Get as abstract and as crazy as you want.

Put together a journal. Journals don’t have to just be based around words. You can make an art journal as well, that lets you visually express your emotions

Use line art. Line is one of the simplest and most basic aspects of art, but it can also contain a lot of emotion. Use simple line art to demonstrate visually how you’re feeling.

Paint inside a heart. Using a heart as a pattern, fill in different parts of the heart with the emotions you’re feeling right now

Paint to music. Letting your creativity flow in response to music is a great way to let out feelings and just relax

Make a scribble drawing. With this activity, you’ll turn a simple scribble into something beautiful, using line, colour and your creativity.

Finger paint. Finger painting isn’t just fun for kids– adults can enjoy it as well. Get your hands messy and really have fun spreading paint around

Draw in the dark. Not being able to judge what you’re drawing or having to worry about whether or not it’s “right” can be very liberating.

Paint or draw a picture using the opposite hand, to the hand you usually write with.

Draw something HUGE. Then something very small. Getting your body involved and moving around can help release stress as you’re drawing.

Take a sketch book outside and sit in the local park or garden and draw what you see. Draw whatever takes your fancy. The autumn leaves falling from the trees and glittering in the sun, the drops of dew on the delicate rose petals or the neighbour’s cat sunbathing on the dustbins! There is beauty everywhere, even, in fact more so in the ordinary, we just get complacent and fail to see the wonder of life in front of our noses.

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