Been wanting to write about this for a while. But never got the motivation to sit and pen it down. I recently got certified in Art Therapy. As in I am certified to conduct art therapy sessions. That got me thinking on how I unknowingly used art therapy on myself when the world stopped functioning and all of us were stuck inside our houses.
Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy involving the encouragement of free self-expression through painting, drawing, or modelling, used as a remedial or diagnostic activity.
The lockdown was hard on everyone. It was harder on people dealing with mental health issues. Everyone was doing their best to keep their sanity intact. So what about the ones who struggle to do the same on normal days? It was a tad bit difficult on me. I had just faced a loss the year prior and was scrambling to figure out what next in life. Stepping out of the house was my biggest joy at that point. I hadn’t made a place my ‘home’ at that juncture in life. So it was not a fun thing for me. I tried going up to the terrace. Tried to keep communication with friends active. But it wasn’t cutting it. That was when I came across the 100 Days of Sketching Challenge. It sounded fun. But I wasn’t going into it like how I used to do Inktober and fail miserably.
So I made a list. List of what all I can and want to draw. Stuck to the theme of drawing anime and cartoon characters. Even crowd sourced names of characters. I realised I gained more joy from drawing for others. Then I stuck to the list. Chose a name and drew it out to my best ability. What worked best was sticking to a timeline too. I sat down to draw everyday on the same time around evening. It gave me a routine. I was looking forward to my evenings where I sat down with my sketchbook and supplies. Slowly I started drawing complex things.
The attention I got on the internet was fun. It was not for some of my personal pictures or anything. It was for art. The validation gave me a much needed ego boost. And as I kept practicing I think I got a bit better at doing this. It felt much more humbling when people liked even the badly drawn ones. It felt good when someone thanks me for drawing a particular character they had requested. I didn’t know any of these people and they made me feel good. Art connected us all.
I did not finish the Challenge. I gave up after day 75. Because the lockdown got over and things were slowly going back to normal. After a point I lost interest in drawing anime and cartoon characters too. I started feeling the burn out. I realised I had pressured myself into doing complicated art work on a daily basis and I expected myself to finish it in a day. That wasn’t fair. So I settled on pattern drawing. They were therapeutic. But you kind of needed to sit in a comfortable position to do it. Had to rest your elbow properly to draw the lines neatly. I lacked that space. So even that was getting overwhelming. I do not regret not finishing the challenge.
I am glad I tried it and showed myself how much talent I had. I am happy to have filled one whole sketchbook and buying another one. I always eyed sketchbooks at the store and wouldn’t buy one because I had an empty one lying simply at home. Now I got nice sketchbooks and tried different mediums also. I have a pretty artsy Instagram grid that I flaunt to people sometimes. And even now I pick up my sketchbook and look back all the drawings I did. It calms me and makes me feel proud of myself. We all need that right? Something to be proud of?
I picked up doing art again now. Not as regularly I did back then. But I am trying to do just 10 min of art at least everyday. No pressure in finishing anything in a day. I just make videos of me drawing patterns now. Which is satisfying to watch as well.