Drawing is a key tool in my self-care and mental health toolbox and is a powerful way to process our emotions because it allows us to literally see our feelings on the page. This class shows you step-by-step how to recognize, feel, and process your Anger, Fear, Sadness, and Hopelessness with my own simple drawing methods.

CLASS OVERVIEW

Hey, ho! Any other grumps out there? Scaredy-cats? Cry babies? Yep, I'm raising my hand to all three. Because, through years of depression, therapy, reading, and studying, I’ve finally accepted the idea that the only way to deal with our emotions is to allow ourselves to feel them. And as an artist, I’ve found that drawing is the most powerful way for me to feel and experience my emotions. Some people recommend therapy, exercise, or meditation, and that’s all well and good.

But the amazing thing about drawing is that it allows me to literally SEE my emotions. After drawing, I can see this abstract, ambiguous feeling in a concrete, tangible way. Seeing the emotion right there in front of my eyes allows me to move from a state of unconscious feeling into a conscious state of understanding. Once we can understand our emotions, we can then begin to really unpack them and choose how we want to respond to them.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In this class, I’m going to take you through four emotions, Anger, Fear, and Sadness, Hopelessness, and show you my own personal drawing method that I use to experience and process that emotion.

I’ve distilled each method down into concrete steps and even given them their own fancy names: Angry Animal Robots, Scaredy-Cat Rugs, Me and My Blobbies, and Wonky Spirals.

For each emotion I’ll walk you 4 sections:

How We Feel It - with some brief research on the emotion and my own experiences with it
How to Draw It - with insights I’ve learned about drawing while in the midst of that emotion
The Drawing Method - with a step by step video walkthrough showing a recent real-life example
The Aftermath - What happens during and after the drawing and why it works

WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE THIS CLASS

Emotions are confusing and if we’re not aware of them, they can easily take over and start steering the ship. We often try to ignore or repress our emotions but it never really works—the emotions are still there. The only way to really deal with them is to allow ourselves to feel and process them. Then we can truly feel our emotion, see it, experience it, process it, and move on to reacting in a healthy and helpful way. This class aims to show you how to do that through the process of drawing.

WHO THIS CLASS IS FOR

Beginners, advanced artists, and professionals, this class is for anyone who is looking for a way to process their emotions through making art. Drawing allows me to take something difficult and painful and make meaning and art from it, and I hope that through this series, maybe drawing can help you do that too.

MATERIALS/RESOURCES

Most of my project examples in this class were drawn digitally with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. However, these are simple drawing methods that can be applied to any drawing medium you prefer. A sketchbook or paper, and a pen, pencil, or marker will work just as well!

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WANT MORE?

Check out my other Skillshare classes here!

You can also see more about me and my work on my website: might-could.com.

And you can sign up for my email list for weekly essays on creativity and artmaking!

Thanks so much! <3

Amanda Sternklar

Fiber artist trying to learn to draw

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