Don’t you sometimes want to scream or cry but you can’t? It’s often not the right time or place to express our emotions, so the resedue of unexpressed emotion accumulates. After all, we’ve been taught since infancy to calm down, bottle up, shove it in deep, and behave nicely.
Social etiquite and manners are important, but so is learning to accept and process emotion. One unoffensive way to express and process emotions is to scribble them out. It’s easy to do, quick, and stress relieving!
You might want to do it colorfully to emphasize those strong emotions, or you might just grab the closest writing tool and scratch it out!
They’re just lines, but can you feel the emotion? An artist will often use line purposely to indentify, express and convey their subject matter, and express emotion and movement. But some artists also create art by just letting their emotion and subconscious mind flow through their paint brush or other tools without having a preconceived idea.
Regardless of wether the artist is doing realistic or abstract work they have an intention that is expressed through line as well as all the other elements of their artwork. Scribbling is sometimes used as a warm-up activity before drawing or painting.
In the case of these scribbles I’m using line to extract the emotion from myself and put it on the page so that it doesn’t become suppressed.
Creativity From Scribbling
Scribbling doesn’t just apply to upsetting emotions like anger and frustration. It’s a great way to tap into your subconscious and release creative possibilities.
These are just quick scribbles in one of my art therapy sketchbooks. I used ball point pen and colored pencils in the first one and markers in the second one. I started with no concepts about what I would put on the page, my only intention was to scribble and see what came out.
After the pen scribble in the first image, I noticed that the movement and shapes reminded me of dancing in night clubs when I was younger. I decided to put some color in it to emphasize that more. Then I gave it a title which caused more words to come. I just wrote and it became a poem. I have no poetry training, I just write what spills out.
For the second image I started with colored markers but again had no pre-conceived ideas. I chose a color and let the marker go where it wanted. When I was finished I felt it reminded me of walking at a specific park with my daughter. So again, I named it and wrote a poem about it.
Scribbling is not just for kids
Some artists also use scribbling as a warm-up practice, or to tap into the subconscious. It’s called Automatic Drawing and you can read about it on Wikipedia, or Google it.
It’s good for you, so let go and scribble to…
- Release stress
- Accept and process emotions
- Tap into your subconscious mind
- Open a creative portal
- Relax and have fun
Heart Beat of the Soul 