The best thing about art is that it offers a variety of ways to express your emotions. Through its variety of mediums, art can provide a creative outlet accessible to almost anyone. It also provides a great way to get your feelings out and give you a cathartic sense of relief. Whether you prefer to get out all of your energy and emotion in a spontaneous burst or if you’re more of the meticulous and meditative type, art provides a means of expression for you. Here are five great ways to express yourself through art.
Painting
While painting isn’t for everyone, it can be a great way to express your feelings and emotions, and it can appeal to both the high energy and particular types. If you plan on trying your hand at painting, don’t expect to become the next Rembrandt overnight. Focus on the physical movements, the composition, and get lost in the painting process rather than trying to make the perfect image. Pick a style you think might work best for your personality and what helps to calm you. If you’re sporadic and high-energy, taking an abstract approach by flinging paint onto the canvas in drips and splotches might be a great route for you to take. If you’re looking for something a bit more zen, pointillism can be a great way to lose yourself in the process of making art, simply adding dots of color that meld together when viewed at a distance.
Sketching
Sketching is an excellent outlet for creativity on the fly since it requires the least amount of prep work. All you need is a blank sheet of paper and something to draw with. There are various styles and techniques for sketching, focusing on either online work, shading, or light and shadow. Again, focus more on the process than on the result.
Charcoal
Charcoal is an excellent medium for a more hands-on approach, especially when blending and smudging the charcoal on paper. Be warned, though, it can be very messy, and your hands will probably be black by the end of it, but the results are undoubtedly worth it. Charcoal is one of the best mediums to work with if you like monochrome art with a heavy focus on light and shadow. If you don’t mind the mess, it’s certainly worth trying out at least once.
Clay
Clay is excellent if you enjoy working with your hands and if you’re someone who vents their frustrations through fidgeting or playing with objects in your hands. Clay is essentially the fidget spinner of the therapeutic art world since it fills many of the same roles. Molding the clay in your hands is just fun to do, even if you’re not working it into anything specific. You can invest in sculptor’s tools and clay chisels to help carve intricate designs or simply improvise using your hands and things like mesh wire to apply texture.
Mixed Media
Mixed media is probably the least obvious of the group, but it also provides the most creative potential. Mixed media is the epitome of ‘anything is art’ since your tools can be pretty much anything. Take your junk mail and use it to make papercraft statues, create a collage image out of all the loose buttons and random nick-nacks you find around the house, create a hanging ivy garden out of all those old delivery boxes from your online shopping sprees. With mixed media, the world is your oyster when it comes to creativity.